- Mixed voice.
It's kind of a strange terminology.
I mean aren't all sounds a mix in one way or another?
Today in easy to understand language,
I'm going to unravel the mystery that is mixed voice
and give you a couple of suggested songs
that will help you to access and practice a mixed sound.
Stick around.
I promise it will be a lot of fun.
- [Woman] Sound check.
(upbeat instrumental music)
Check one, check two.
(upbeat instrumental music)
- Hi there, everyone.
My name is Dr. Dan.
I'm so glad you took a moment to click on my video.
Today we're going to take a look at mixed voice.
Now you may have come across this term online a few times,
and like many others, you may have become confused
by the term's use and application.
It might be this same sense of confusion
that caused Voice Essential subscriber Arunava
to leave this question on one of my videos.
Hi Dr. Dan.
This was a great video.
Can you please do a video on the mix register?
I hear people talk about it all the time,
but no one ever demonstrates its use while singing.
If you can make a video on it or if you can just give me
an example of a song where it is used by a singer
and is clear enough to point out.
Can do, so hear we go.
Okay, firstly, let's make sure we're all on the same page
when it comes to defining what mix is.
Mix, or mixed voice, is quite simply the term
given to a mechanistic balance within the larynx.
It's literally a mix somewhere between your chest voice
and your head voice.
Now on the surface of it, that's all very easy,
but the confusion for many is found
in the very term itself, mix,
because essentially every sound that your voice makes
is a mix to one degree or another,
and it's for this reason that in my studio
I often use the term balanced to describe
the register tonality that is neither head nor chest,
but both, but I have to admit that I'm not 100% happy
with that term either because ultimately I want
every sound that we make to have a good sense of balance.
Now if you can recommend a better term
to replace mix or balance, I'm all ears.
Leave a comment below.
All suggestions will be eagerly read and responded to.
- [Woman] Sound check.
(upbeat instrumental music)
- Now in order to keep today's video a deal shorter
than a postgraduate lecture in voice mechanics,
allow me to direct you to a full explanation
on voice registration that will detail
how your voice works and how it moves through
its four registers.
The video Head and Chest Voice Explained
describes not only the four registers,
but also the movements that take place
between the registers.
Now these three points are called transitions,
and the transitions or mechanical gear shifts,
the points at which the two primary registers,
the thyroarytenoid, the TA muscle,
and the cricothyroid, the CT muscle,
naturally coordinate their mechanical balance.
Now simply put, the TA and CT muscles
work with each other and equally against each other,
kind of like a tug of war.
It's a similar relationship to your bicep
and triceps muscles.
When I want to raise my arm,
my bicep activates and contracts
at the same that my triceps release their activation,
slowly working with but against the bicep
to coordinate even and steady raising of my forearm.
Now many of our muscles work in this tug of war kind of way.
It's called an antagonistic and agonistic pairing.
The TA and CT muscles work together in the same way.
Typically when singers talk about chest voice sounds,
they are referring to a TA dominant mechanism.
The TA muscles are winning the tug of war.
A TA dominant note sounds like this.
(sings)
Big and full bodied.
The opposite is also true.
Generally when we talk about head voice,
we're referring to a CT dominant sound,
and a CT dominant note sounds like this.
(sings)
But when the TA and CT muscles are equally activated
by the voice, we then have a blending or a mix
of both registrational qualities,
which might sound something like this.
(sings)
- [Woman] Sound check.
(upbeat instrumental music)
- Now because there aren't any universally accepted
and codified values around what constitutes
a mix sound, I think it's helpful
to first establish a clear understanding
of your own distinct four registers.
By developing each register and strengthening
the muscle coordination for each part of your voice,
you'll be better placed to start working
on the coordination that is required
to move through the transitional points,
and this is where it gets a little tricky
because while the primary transition point,
what some pedagogues refer to as the big break,
or prime passaggio, is biologically fixed
at around E to F4, the singer, by virtue
of their muscular balancing, can activate
the transition later or earlier,
and that is higher or lower,
so for example, some female pop rock vocals
will want to maintain a TA dominant sound
up towards C and D5.
This in turn means the transition must be withheld
for almost an octave, and some modern music theater pieces
will require the female singer to belt
with a TA dominant sound up to and including F5,
a full octave above the voice's natural transitionary point.
Now in a similar fashion, some classical singers
will activate the transition much lower in their range,
ensuring that a CT dominant sound
is heard throughout the chosen piece.
To the untrained ear, it can can sound like
there's no transitional point because the singer
has chosen willingly or otherwise
to govern their sound with,
in the case of the classical example,
a CT dominant mechanism.
But of course in this video we want to learn
to sing in a mixed voice.
We want a relative balance between the TA and CT timbres.
Well I've got a couple of songs that I think
you'll really enjoy working on to that end.
But before I reveal these magical tunes,
allow me to request a thumbs up
if you're enjoying today's video.
- [Woman] Sound check.
(upbeat instrumental music)
- I've provided some helpful exercises
for workshopping your transitions
in a previous video, How to Smooth Vocal Breaks in Singing.
I'll leave a link in the description section below
so that you can practice the movement
between your TA and CT dominance.
Now let's add to those transition exercises
with a couple of songs that I think you'll find handy
when applying your mixed voice sounds.
I've got one for the ladies and one for the men.
Ladies first, of course.
The song that I've chosen is the Nora Jones piece
Don't Know Why.
Now have a listen to the first verse
when sung with a mixed voice.
♫ I waited till I saw the sun
♫ Don't know why I didn't come
♫ I left you by the house of fun
♫ Don't know why I didn't come
♫ I don't know why I didn't come
- I'm sure you can hear the middle of the road tonality
that is a mixed voice.
Now let me highlight it further.
I'll start in a mixed voice then I'll convert
to a TA dominant sound, followed by a CT dominant sound,
and then I'll return to a mixed voicing.
Have a listen.
♫ I waited till I saw the sun
♫ Don't know why I didn't come
♫ I left you by the house of fun
♫ Don't know why I didn't come
♫ I don't know why I didn't come
Now let's listen to a mixed sound
when sung over the song I've chosen for the guys,
Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol.
♫ We'll do it all
♫ Everything
♫ On our own
♫ We don't need
♫ Anything
♫ Or anyone
And now let's move from a mixed to TA to CT
and back to mixed.
♫ We'll do it all
♫ Everything
♫ On our own
♫ We don't need
♫ Anything
♫ Or anyone
♫ If I lay here
♫ If I just lay here
Now when I'm singing through those two songs,
I'm deciding what timbre, what color I want
to apply to the lyric and melody,
and when I want a TA dominant sound,
I choose to use a darker, slightly louder sound,
in which turn activates the thicker vocal fold,
a thyroarytenoid dominant sound,
and when I want to achieve a CT dominant sound,
I intentionally lighten the color of the sound
and back the volume off.
The result, a cricothyroid dominant sound
that is produced with a thinner vocal fold.
And again, when I want to sing with a mixed voice,
I simply aim for a middle of the road balance
somewhere in between the TA and CT values I just outlined.
Now let me highlight that all three tonalities
were achieved on the same song in the same key.
TA and CT dominance, as well as mixed voice,
are not note dependent.
They are singer dependent.
That is as long as the singer has developed
the skills necessary to govern and direct the voice,
they can make and create sounds
according to what their artistic endeavors require.
I wanted to simplify the whole subject of mixed voice,
so I hope today's video hasn't unwittingly muddied
the waters further for you.
Leave me any questions in the comment section below
if you require further explanation,
and as always, I'll do my best to provide
extra clarification if necessary.
And if this is the first time you've watched
one of my videos, or if it's your second or third
and you haven't already subscribed to the channel,
allow me to encourage you to join
our ever growing community of singers
from across the globe who, just like you,
want to raise their voice in song.
Simply hit the subscribe button
on the Voice Essentials channel
and I'll bring you new videos each week
designed to develop your voice and improve your sound.
I'll see you in the next Voice Essentials video.
I'm Dr. Dan, sing well.