Low notes in female voices are less resonant and so less easy to hear within all the other notes being sung by the voice groups in a choir.
It serves only to stress both sopranos and altos to ask one group to sing quieter and the other louder in order to just be heard. What is far more useful, and produces a much better sound, is to focus on how the lower notes are sung. The aim is to create the best resonance you can and to project your sound forwards in order to make the low notes clearer and more easily heard.
First off think of the support mentioned earlier, which must be preceded by a correct (SPLAT).
Keep your soft palate raised and jaw relaxed as this creates maximum space in which to allow the sound to resonate. How do you raise your soft palate? Yawn and focus on what happens in the roof of your mouth – as your soft palate moves up during the yawn focus on what you can do to raise the soft palate without actually yawning. Sometimes just thinking of a yawn will raise it.
Keep the shape of your vowels tall and narrow as opposed to wide. Keep your lips away from your teeth to allow the escaping air to resonate on the enamel of your teeth and to facilitate the narrow shape mentioned earlier.
Keep your consonants light and crisp and move off of them quickly, the aim is to sing the vowel as vowels carry the pitch not the consonants. Project the sound forward to the person sitting on the back row of the audience.
Relax the jaw by wiggling it from side to side as you sing and you can also turn your head to help release your throat muscles.
The lower the notes the more focus on the text is required. Don’t forget your pelvic floor support and aim for a lighter voice for the low notes.
Never ever push your sound in order to make the lower notes louder as this will only have the effect of making them breathy – which means less resonant.
Exercise
Practice controlling your soft palate – this is another exercise that will give a little face lift over time
