Question: There's this thing that is really bothering me and so far I can't make it work. I've taken like 10 singing lessons so far and the teacher keeps telling me that when I sing notes that start to go "high" and maybe frighten me I do not push out enough air and the sound and notes stay on the back of my mouth, without getting out with the power they should. And this is not good for the throat because it feels that I kind of hold back the sound to reach the high notes.

To be clear, I'm not talking about impossibly high notes, but it seems that when I know I have to go out of a "safe range" I hold back the air. I reach the note, but not with the tone/volume/power that I had for the others.

It's hard to explain, but I do feel the sensation of what she means: is like the sound stays in the back of the throat instead of fully going out. The problem is, I can't find a way to fix this.

My teacher is trying to tell me in different ways how to overcome this, like "do not think you have to reach a high note, don't think about the pentagram, think of the notes as one after another on a line", or, from a more "physical" point of view, she told me once to "open your mouth in vertical, open up the throat", but I really can't prevent this, it's like an automatic thing that I do because I've always sung like that by myself, never knowing the right way to do it.

Does anyone have some advice that I can try, that worked for you maybe? Both mental or physical. I'm looking for something that I can use when I practice at home, when I don't have anyone to tell me if I'm doing it wrong or not.

Answer: 
Observe a professional singer. Preferably a big, over-the-top, expansive opera singer. Here's three of them!

Now, don't worry about the musical aspect of what they're doing. Just copy their style. Parody it. Show off. ACT being a singer.

You might be surprised what comes out!
My voice teacher has advised me in many great ways with keeping the voice "in the front" or "in the mask" or "out" as you say. **One important fact is that you are going to need facial muscles for keeping your voice in the front.** I am not an expert on the Latin names for the muscles but the smile is one way to begin. Actually you need the muscles a bit above the smile: I like to think they are those muscles near the cheekbones - they have to be kept active and "upwards" when you sing, otherwise your singing falls flat.

CVT (complete vocal technique) teachers like to talk about the twang. I do not know much about CVT but I like the idea to bring your voice more in the front with the twang technique. I myself like to think it like *a witch cackling loudly and in a very ugly voice, maybe even uglier through your nose + mouth.* That way you will get your voice more in the mask and more metallic. You may also notice that this activates the same "cheekbone" muscles I talked about earlier! 

Another piece of advice is that **your singing should sound ugly to yourself through your inner ear**. This is because you hear your singing very differently compared to other people, because your singing resonates through the bones in your head. The uglier it sounds to you, the more you have found the resonators (bones and space) "in your head". If your singing sounds nice and beautiful to yourself through the inner ear, it most likely sounds dull and not metallic to others (try recording your voice too!).