Toneup Towndown

While you are freestyling, slowly increase the tone or pitch of your voice until it’s as high as you can go, then slowly lower it until you can’t go any lower. Repeat. Take your time going from high to low and back again. When you’re comfortable going slow, try randomly jumping around to different tones while you freestyle.This is about pitch, not volume. Think of the low left and high right keys on a piano.

Pay attention to tones that are particularly easy or hard, which ones feel more natural. You might not know if you are a baritone, a tenor or a soprano, but some tones will sound better with your voice, and some will cut through the mix. Note how the different tones make you feel — a different tone can bring out a different personality.

Some people get stuck in a monotone voice. The object isn’t to sound like a police siren with your tone always going up and down, but rather to have control over it. Use tone to make your voice sound interesting and more natural, and to add expression to your delivery. Some higher or lower tones work better for different tracks, depending on the instrumentation.