Singing through nose?

Question:

Singing through nose?

How can I stop singing through my nose? I can sing every vowel out my mouth, but EE comes out my nose.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Most nasal Es come from having your tongue too high. It will make or almost make contact with the soft palate and the sound will be directed into the sinuses instead out of the mouth (so to speak without being overly technical).

Your first question is whether or not you actually sing through your nose or if it just sounds like you do. To find out, sing a long straight tone that is comfortably in the middle of your range. While singing it, pinch your nose closed. Does the sound change? Try this on long straight tones as you go higher and as you go lower. Do you notice a change on all of the notes? If you hear a change on any of the notes (or find that you can't even sing) then yes, you are singing through your nose. To fix this you have two options: 1) find a voice teacher than can listen to you sing, determine what you're doing, and help you change what you're doing; or 2) learn to sing while you pinch your nose so that you kick the bad habit. Check all vowels, not just E.

A good singer will not hear any change when they pinch their nose. However, singing through your nose isn't such a bad thing. I make some of my students do it in order to kick other bad habits - so trust me - as long as it is not a physiological problem - you can change it. Because it's happening on an E - try bringing your tongue down, as if you had a doctor pressing your tongue down with a tongue depressor. Try the nose pinch as a test to see if it helps.

There are two theories of how to sing an E - some people press the tongue up and out, while others press it down. I don't care how my students do it as long as it sounds good and it doesn't distort the sound.

If you don't hear a change when you pinch your nose, then a few other things may be going on. 1) you might just have a nasal sound to your voice; 2) you might have a sinus issue like infection or polyps; 3) you might be "placing" the voice too high in the mask; 4) you might have really big sinuses and your voice resonates strongly giving you a nasal sound.