The Mix Voice…
What is the mix voice?
The mix voice or as it in sometimes referred to as, The blend or the zone, is every singers best friend. Sometimes the biggest breakthrough in vocal lessons can be discovering your mix. In my opinion it is one of the most important components to becoming a GREAT singer. Not everybody finds this easy, and most mentors and singing teachers around the world focus quite heavily on guiding each of their artists to the ‘Mix discovery’. Once you discover your mix voice, it could be the most valuable breakthrough in your singing career.
The mix voice is essentially the ‘in between voice’ that connects your two vocal registers. It is about blending the CHEST VOICE with the HEAD VOICE to create a middle register, THE MIX. It will allow you to access high notes with little throat tension or strain and with very minimal effort. What happens is, as you get higher the chest voice diminishes while head voice is increasing.
Quite often when you hear a great singer hit notes that are high and sound rich, full, effortless and genuinely quite impressive they are using their mix voice. The idea is for it to feel as if you are singing in the head while still resonating in the chest. Below is a video of Brett Manning discussing the mix voice
There are many benefits to developing your mix voice. It will help you Increase your vocal power and strength within your voice. It will increase your vocal range, help you sing without strain or tension and allows a smooth transition between registers.
Voice resonance plays a very important role in helping find the mix, The sound should be buzzing around your face ‘Twang‘ or ‘Forward Resonance’. Being aware of the vibrations that are occurring can really help, but we will talk about resonance in greater detail another day.
It is important to focus on how much pressure you are putting on the vocal cords and understanding the difference between pulling the chest voice too high up, ‘Belting’ and blending the two registers with no strain on the cords. Be aware of the voice quality, is it strained? Is it airy? or does it sound connected? This can be an great indicator for correct application AKA if you are doing it right or not.
Remember, raising your volume or singing louder does not necessarily mean you are in your mix, more often than not this would be ‘Belting’ which hits a lot harder on the vocal cords.
Keep practicing, because once you discover your mix voice singing will never be the same again
Happy singing !!!!
