Singers have a tendency to over push, too sing to loud, when the voice cracks or warbles you want to try harder… In fact what you should do is lighten up. What?!? Yep, lighten up!
(And just an aside, singers please don’t stop if your voice does happen to crack… you’re just training yourself to stop (and probably tense up) when a mistake happens! And you know what that means; what you practice, shows up on stage….)
An exercise that can help you learn to sing with your full range (and still sound like one singer) is to slide on the word “he” from the bottom to the top of your range. Like a siren. If you can do this without the voice cracking, try it on these vowels as well. He, ha, hay, ho, hoo, hi, heh, huh.
If you find that the voice is cracking a bit, it is likely because the muscles don’t have the strength or memory to do what you’re asking them to do. Lighten up and don't push too hard. don't try to sing louder, or stronger, it may seem counter intuitive, but your voice will thank you.
Remember, the vocal cords are muscle tissue and just like any other muscle tissue in the body need to be trained in the proper way and develop the proper muscle memory in order to work “naturally’ and with ease. Repetition will develop muscle memory… but BE CAREFUL… if you practice incorrectly you cement bad habits and develop improper muscle memory. You wouldn't go into a gym on the first day and start bench pressing a bizillion lbs... no, you'd start with a lighter weight that you could control and make sure the muscles were working in the proper way.... ah ha! ... starting to see the similarities?
The saying shouldn’t be “practice make perfect” … it should be “Perfect practice makes perfect” and don’t think it permanent… just like a piano needs to be tuned or a car needs a tune up… muscles can revert back to their old patters of muscle memory… you have to be diligent about developing and maintaining proper use of those muscles…. Your lessons are like your vocal gym… if you train the muscles in the proper way, they will assist you, not hinder you, out in the real world…
Have fun and keep practicing.
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