The Three Notes Every Singer Struggles With

Today I want to talk about the three notes that every singer struggles with.

A few caveats:

Individual singers will typically only struggle with ONE of these at a time – Because if they are struggling with the first of these, they won’t be doing subsequent ones any justice at all.
These notes are the lynchpin root causes of vocal problems – Once I state the notes, singers reading this will say “ah well, I am personally fine with that one, it’s the note one above/below that I find hard“. That may well be their interpretation of what they think they are noticing, but these are merely symptoms of the underlying issue. The root causes of people’s perceived vocal limitations are these specific notes.

The Notes

The notes are: E4 – A4 – E5.

These are grouped for men and woman as:

For men: E4 and A4
For women: A4 and E5

What are these notes?

The way the voice works, is that to sing low notes the vocal folds contract and thicken. To sing high notes they stretch and thin. The sound emitted by the vocal folds is shaped by the vocal tract, which is the length of your throat above your larynx (Adam’s apple).

These two components acoustically interact with each other to generate a phenomenon we call ‘vocal bridges’ or passagi/passagio. To sing with any meaningful range, we need to be able to cross these bridges – at least the first bridge, and ideally the second also.

The Bridges

For men the first bridge is E4-F#4; the second is A4-B4.

For women the first bridge is A4-B4; the second is E5-F#5.

You’ll note that the male second bridge maps exactly onto the female first bridge.

The bridge exists over several notes, rather than just one note. It’s a transition zone from one register of the voice to the next. Hence, the three key notes are E4, A4 and E5.

However, the challenge I’m focusing on today is the difficulty in ENTERING each bridge cleanly. Landing the E4 to enter the first bridge for men/the A4 for women, is CRITICAL.

So many tend to either struggle to land that note at all, or they are technically hitting the note, but they are hitting it so hard they’ve not actually ENTERED the bridge. When excess force or imprecision exists in the vowels, they are just slamming their voice hard enough to force the vocal folds to hit the right pitch… but this does not mean they’ve made the acoustic transition INTO the bridge properly.

If the singer is not entering the first bridge cleanly, they cannot exit it cleanly to hit higher notes with ease and power. Think of it like clipping the first hurdle in a hurdle race. If you can’t even clear the first one cleanly, you’re not going anywhere well.

What about the second bridge?

The first bridge only provides the transition from chest to the first register within head voice. The second bridge is the next transition zone above that. Many more skilled singers (e.g. Bono of U2), actually have reasonably good first bridges, but they struggle at their second. This is why so often singers will lower songs when performing to put top notes on an Ab4, to avoid the A4 – that’s the second bridge revealing itself.

The same is true for women dealing with their first and second bridges. Often younger women have more facility at their first bridge than younger men, so they ‘vault over it’ and enjoy the range between the first and second bridge. But over time the deepening and thickening of their voice causes them to struggle with a clean entry/exit to the first bridge, so they can feel like they’ve lost a load of range in later life – often by their mid 30s.

Proper vocal training resolves this

These are only the reasons why people struggle with these notes, and correspondingly find higher notes than those hard to consistently sing.

Proper vocal training is all about co-ordinating the vocal folds and vocal tract, to co-ordinate the voice to smoothly cross those bridges, such that they become invisible to the singer and the listenable. This is all entirely solveable, to unlock ever increasing range, with greater ease and wonderful tone. it just takes time and concerted effort. Which is why most singers never reach it. It seems far ‘easier’ just to keep jamming your voice and forcing your way to that note that is 50/50 whether it comes out.

But now you’re at least equipped with knowing WHY you find specific notes difficult in your voice. It may feel like you get stuck at a note above or below the ones I’ve mentioned, but I can assure you that the mechanical and acoustic reason you find any part of your voice tricky, is because of these bridging notes.

If this echoes with your experience in your voice, and you feel you’re clipping any of these notes, you can book in via the work with me button below.

November 2, 2025November 14, 2025

Five Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting Singing Lessons

There are things I wish I knew before I started singing lessons. If you have ever started down a path of learning in a given discipline, I’m sure there’s things you look back on and think “I wish I had known THAT back at the beginning”. Those moments that make you slap your forehead and wonder — why did no one tell me this at the start? How much time would have been saved? Where could I be now if I had known that?

That’s the intent of today’s article. Or at least, I’ll share the five things that stand out to me as worthy of note to my personal journey.

1) Never Force It — Why Power Isn’t Progress

We’ve all been there. Wanting to hit a given note, maybe we are struggling to make the note or maybe we are AT the note but it needs a bit more oomph. So we lay down the hammer and hit it harder. Even in my own voice, I remember for years trying for notes and just giving it a few percent more power to make it sound bigger. But this is a dead end in the medium- and long-term.

Why? Sure, it may feel satisfying physically to hit notes harder, and in more skilled singers further application of air pressure and power to get a fuller and more powerful note is critical… but far too many beginners and intermediate singers apply far too much power, far too early in their development.

This compromises the quality in the moment, like someone forcing out a rep at the gym with bad form and too much weight. They might make it in the moment, but it damages the body, reinforces bad habits and neurological stress, that we then need to unpick in training. This needless tensing of the instrument at the earlier stages of development can add years of extra time to correct training.

2) It’s All About Finesse — Learning to Do Less, Better

This is a natural follow on from point 1. If we recognise that an appropriate level of force is critical at every level, then the natural position to adopt is one of finesse. Not simply to “NOT force”, but to move to a more refined and finessed approach to moving through the voice – in exercise and in song.

Many reading this may nod in agreement, but I really do mean finesse. As in, it feels more like gentle, light movement through the vote, not big heavy, lumbering steps through the voice. This is especially true the higher we want to sing in our voices.

The difficulty is, it doesn’t FEEL sexy to do this. It FEELS like something is going wrong, especially for the male singer. It can feel like it’s all a little light, or not solid enough. Yet this is 100% necessary to both build technique, but also to build neurological ease into using the voice. We want the body to get a sense that singing is meant to be smooth, fluid, easy, mechanically light to do… and this is very hard to accept for many singers.

3) How It Sounds vs. How It Feels Inside Are Often Divergent

This is also a natural follow on from point 2. Once we accept we cannot force things, we are to move from THAT end of the spectrum to the other end – the end of finesse.

In doing so we then have to face that how it feels and sounds inside our head, vs how it sounds out front, can be wildly divergent. When we start to reject excess force, embrace finesse – however it feels – we will have to face that feeling of “are you SURE this is right?”.

The finessed approach doesn’t feel quite as rewarding physically as hitting the note harder, and may often feel very counter-intuitive. There are times in lessons I’ll actively tell people to pull back the intensity at critical entries to bridges, and there is look of confusion on the part of the singer. Surely to make this sound and feel right, I’ve got to hit it at least a LITTLE harder?

Sure, sometimes, but only after relative mastery has been acquired. In the first instance, to accept that goal of finesse, we have to accept that how it feels and how it sounds out front are often divergent.

Which leads us onto point 4!

4) Record Yourself and Listen Back — The Mirror for Singers

So we’ve established that hitting the voice harder isn’t right, and finesse therefore must be our goal. That then leads to accepting that how it feels versus how it sounds can be very different, how can we verify and slowly reconcile the two?

The answer: record yourself and listen back CONSTANTLY. Using your phone, your computer, dictaphones, etc, to record yourself singing individual lines all the way through to complete songs. Then listen back. Then go again.

Professional dancers rehearse in front of wall to wall mirrors so that they can reconcile how they THINK a move feels/looks, with what it ACTUALLY looks like. Recording ourselves and listening back is the vocal equivalent of this. This is the only way to slowly acclimate ourselves with how we think something sounds, with how it actually sounds.

And doing it once isn’t enough. Dancers will do it every day, repeatedly. We must do the same. Over time our internal sense of calibration will slowly shift to mirror what is actually happening out front. This then makes it easier to self monitor without always having to record and listen back.

And yes, this is a deeply painful experience. To have to listen to yourself, warts and all, and hear how you actually sound over and over. But it is essential – the longer a singer puts off doing this, the slower their vocal development.

5) It Takes Time — The Long Game of Vocal Development

The final point to make is that building a voice takes time. Hitting the voice harder isn’t a path to success – there are no shortcuts.

Instead, finesse is a very slow refined angle to approach along. Every day we must try to create a more and more precise movement in our voices, across helpful exercises, and then deploying that along challenging songs.

Recording ourselves on helpful songs is also time-consuming, and the many reps this takes also takes time.

Overall, we can make MASSIVE strides in giving someone initial access to a new level of vocal function within just one session. But making sure that someone trains in a way that instils and ingrains that behaviour in a finessed way, that feels and sounds congruent and natural to them… that takes time even when done correctly. If we stray off the path and try to hit things harder, avoid critical listening, this can massively increase the time it takes to improve a voice to the level they want to sing at.

Take heart: the progress is worth the patience. Every singer who learns to do less, listen better, and stay the course discovers a voice that not only works — it lasts.

August 30, 2025September 13, 2025

The Psychology of Booking Your First Singing Lesson

Most singers don’t hesitate to buy a mic, a new guitar, or even a software plugin. But when it comes to booking your first singing lesson, the pause is different. It’s not just about the money — it’s psychological. You’re not just buying a service, you’re making yourself vulnerable in front of another human being.

Here are three common factors that cause people to hesitate before booking their first singing lesson. I’ll also cover how best to frame these in your mind to help you take the plunge.

1) Fear of Exposure

Ultimately, you ARE going to have to open your mouth and sing in front of someone that you barely know.

Continue reading “The Psychology of Booking Your First Singing Lesson”

August 26, 2025October 22, 2025

Singing Lessons for Professionals: Taking Your Voice Beyond Good to Exceptional

You’ve already mastered the basics. You can sing in tune, maybe even perform on stage or in the studio. But you know there’s another level above “good” — the kind of voice that captures attention and performs consistently under pressure. That’s where professional-level singing lessons come in.

I’m Mark — a Certified Vocal Coach and one of the UK’s leading singing teachers. I work with singers across Nottingham, the UK, and worldwide online.

My speciality is helping serious singers transform their voices with clarity, stamina, and power — so they can move from good to exceptional.

Who Takes Professional Singing Lessons With Me?

Gigging and recording singers who want to raise their standard.
Semi-professional or ambitious amateurs ready to invest in long-term growth.
Performers preparing for auditions, tours, or demanding studio work.
Amateurs who harbour a desire to have the best voice they possibly can.

What unites them? They’re serious about improvement and ready to commit to regular, structured coaching.

Why most singers plateau and never reach their potential

Honestly, most singers today are performing far below the standard they’re capable of. In many cases, they don’t sound their best — and often, they don’t even sound that great.

Continue reading “Singing Lessons for Professionals: Taking Your Voice Beyond Good to Exceptional”

August 20, 2025November 22, 2025

The Hidden Costs of Cheap Singing Lessons

When it comes to singing lessons, price is often the first thing people look at. A quick Google search will show you plenty of cheap singing lessons — some offering lessons at £20 or £30 an hour, while others charge much more. At first glance, the cheaper lessons seem like the obvious choice. But as with most things in life, you get what you pay for. You can read more about how much singing lessons cost here.

In fact, cheap singing lessons often carry hidden costs that make them far more expensive in the long run — not just in money, but in wasted time, missed opportunities, and lasting damage to your voice. Below, I’ll outline three of the biggest hidden costs I see in singers who come to me after months or years with “budget” lessons.

1. Wasted Time and Slow Progress

Most singers who come to me after trying lower-cost lessons have one thing in common: they’ve been stuck in place for years. Their voices sound the same, their problems never improve, and they’ve wasted hundreds of hours repeating the same mistakes.

Poor diagnosis: Many cheaper teachers don’t have the technical expertise to identify the real cause of a vocal issue. They’ll give surface-level tips that don’t address the underlying problem.
Endless repetition: Instead of breakthrough progress, you get “busywork” — scales and exercises that make you feel like you’re working, but don’t move the needle.
Lost years: By the time many singers find me, they’ve spent two, three, even five years in this cycle — years they could have been building confidence, range, and performance power.

If you’d like to see how we break singers out of this cycle, have a look at Kirsty’s success story — she transformed her voice after years of plateauing elsewhere.

2. Vocal Damage and Bad Habits

This is the cost nobody talks about — but it’s one I see all too often. The wrong kind of singing lessons can actually make your voice worse over time.

Strain and fatigue: Without correct technique, singers often push, shout, or over-sing. The result? A voice that tires quickly or even becomes hoarse.
Embedded bad habits: Once poor habits are built into your muscle memory, it takes far longer to undo them than it would have to learn correctly from the start.
Risk of lasting damage: Some singers develop nodules, tension, or chronic issues that could have been avoided entirely with proper guidance.

I go into more detail about this in Why someone’s voice can weaken. It’s a clear example of why cutting corners early can have long-term consequences.

3. Missed Opportunities and Confidence

The final hidden cost isn’t always visible — but it’s devastating for singers who are serious about their craft.

Auditions and gigs lost: If your voice isn’t reliable, you miss opportunities you might otherwise win.
Confidence eroded: Singers who spend years in ineffective lessons often begin to doubt themselves — wondering if they’ll ever improve.
Starting over: Many come to me frustrated, saying they feel like they’re “back to square one.” But they’re not — they’re starting from a weaker position than if they’d invested wisely from the outset.

For a real-world example, see our Vocal Misconceptions guide — it highlights how common misunderstandings can stall a singer’s entire journey.

The True Cost of Cheap Singing Lessons

When you add it all up, the bargain lesson isn’t so much of a bargain. Wasted years, vocal strain, lost confidence — these are costs far greater than the £20 you save on the day.

High-quality coaching isn’t about the hourly fee. It’s about getting clear, fast, lasting results that save you time, protect your voice, and open up opportunities. That’s why singers travel to work with me from across the UK and beyond — because they realise the real cost isn’t the fee, it’s the years wasted without progress.

If you’re ready to break out of the cycle of cheap singing lessons and start building a voice that works, you can book your initial consultation here.

July 20, 2025August 1, 2025

10 Common Singing Myths — Debunked by a Professional Vocal Coach

10 Singing Myths Debunked by Science and Experience

There’s no shortage of opinions when it comes to singing. But many of the so-called “rules” passed around in voice lessons, online forums, and even music degrees simply don’t hold up to what we now know about the voice. If you’ve ever felt confused, frustrated, or stuck, there’s a good chance one of these myths is to blame.

Let’s debunk the 10 most common vocal myths that could be holding you back — and get you back on track toward a stronger, freer voice.

“You have to sing from your diaphragm.”

This one tops the list. It’s vague, misused, and usually misunderstood. Yes, breath support is essential — but singing is about vocal coordination, not just pushing air. Singing louder doesn’t mean singing better.
“You’re either born with it, or you’re not.”

This myth stops more singers than it should. The truth? Learning to sing is a skill like any other — one that improves with smart, consistent training.
“Falsetto is the same as head voice.”

Nope. Falsetto and head voice use different vocal fold behaviors. Understanding the difference is key to developing range and power. Here’s a quick explainer as to what falsetto is, and how it differs from head voice (plus why I don’t like falsetto)

Continue reading “10 Common Singing Myths — Debunked by a Professional Vocal Coach”

July 20, 2025October 8, 2025

Why Your Singing Voice Isn’t Improving (And What to Do About It)

Key Points (TL;DR):

If your singing voice isn’t improving, it’s almost always a functional issue — not lack of talent or effort.
Most singers never sort out their chest voice properly, which throws everything else off.
You can’t rely on your own ears. What you think you sound like isn’t what others hear.
Pre-made programs lack context. Exercises aren’t magic — how you use them matters more than which ones you use.
If you’re serious about fixing it, book a session.

When I Was the One Stuck

I started getting lessons in my early 20s. I’m now in my 40s. I wanted to sound better in bands and at church, but I kept hitting walls with my voice. People said I sounded good, but I knew my range was limited, and I’d often crack at the top. Unlike some singers who could force their way through higher notes, my voice didn’t respond well to pushing — it just gave out.

I bought a distance learning course from a big-name vocal coach. It gave me more range, but it made other things worse. The exercises were solid — they’re the same ones I now teach — but I had no idea how to use them. My voice got weirder, not better. I extended my range, but it sounded disconnected and lacked power.

Eventually, I found a coach who taught Speech Level Singing. That’s when things started to shift. But it wasn’t just the method — it was having someone who understood my voice and could apply the right tools at the right time. That’s what actually changed things.

Why You Might Be Stuck

1. Your Chest Voice Isn’t Right

Everything in your voice builds on chest voice. If it’s too heavy or too light, the rest of your range won’t work properly. It’s not just about strength — it’s about the right kind of tone for your voice. Get this wrong and nothing above it will behave.

2. You Can’t Hear Yourself Clearly

What you hear inside your head is not what comes out. Some singers try to “fix” how they sound to themselves, and in doing so, end up distorting their actual tone. You need outside ears. Like a dancer needs mirrors, singers need feedback — not just guesswork.

Courses vs Coaching

There are loads of decent courses out there. The problem is, they’re designed for the average user, not for you. What matters isn’t the exercise — it’s when and how it’s used. You can’t brute force a fix. You need to be assessed, and then guided.

I wrote about this in more detail here: What Most Singing Teachers Get Wrong About Teaching Voice

Real Results From Real People

“Mark is the only singing teacher I’ve ever worked with to actually deliver results… I felt the results almost immediately… I’ve rediscovered the creative process, and I can’t put a price on that.”
— Martin Jackson, pro singer & performer

“I noticed dramatic improvement in tone, vocal delivery and control. I’m now hitting high notes with ease… the techniques break down vocal barriers and allow use of the full voice.”
— Kristian P, rock singer

“Mark has saved me from giving up on my voice… I can now hit high notes without any strain. These lessons are definitely worth it.”
— Rachel B, lead performer

Want to Actually Fix It?

If you’re still stuck after months or years of trying, it’s not that you’re broken — you’re just guessing without guidance. That’s completely fixable.

July 12, 2025September 11, 2025

Why is singing so hard?

Why Is Singing So Hard?

Understanding the unique challenges of singing, the reasons for so many asking “why is singing so hard” — and how to overcome these challenges.

1. Singing Requires Incredibly Precise Muscle Control

Most people don’t realise singing involves coordinating dozens of fine muscle groups in real time — without any tactile or visual feedback. Contrary to what you might hear online or hear from young bombastic performers, great singing is not about gritting your teeth and blasting your way to the top notes. That’s what causes voices to give out, and shortened careers.

Great singing requires very fine motor control that takes years to cultivate and develop. Here are a few articles that go into this in more detail so you can understand why.

Continue reading “Why is singing so hard?”