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Hi everybody!
My name is Justin Stoney and I'm the founder of
New York Vocal Coaching here in New York City.
Welcome to episode 40 of Voice Lessons To The World.
The show where we want to help you guys as singers
by answering your questions from all over.
And I'll give you a chance to ask questions later
but our question for this week comes from
Adrianah T. in Haslett, Michigan.
And Adrianah writes, "Dear Justin what is the mix voice and how do I do it?"
Now Adrianah that's the question I think we've all been waiting for.
I get so many questions from singers about what is the mix,
how do I mix, is this singer doing a mix,
everybody wants to know how to do the mix voice.
And you should, it's totally awesome.
And we're going to figure it out together today.
The first thing that we need to know though is
what is a vocal register?
Because the mix is a kind of vocal register.
So we have to know what that even means.
A vocal register.
When I'm talking to you like this
I'm talking to you in a vocal register called chest voice.
But if I talk to you like this I'm talking to you in another vocal register
which is called falsetto.
So I want you guys to try some of these
vocal registers with me.
First in your chest voice, guys and girls just say
hello my name is Justin.
Of course use your own name though.
Here we go!
That was great.
Now in your falsetto, or women, head voice,
say, hello my name is Justin.
That's great!
Good, so you see that difference between
a chest voice register and a head voice or falsetto register.
Now there's some other registers that people sometimes talk about.
There's the whistle voice, that's way, way up there.
We might talk about that another time.
There's the fry, the vocal fry.
Which is this sound right here.
We should actually try that one together.
Just say, hello my name is Justin.
Try that out.
That's good, great job!
So those are all vocal registers.
And now the mix is a kind of vocal register.
It's actually more than one thing
which is why people get confused about it.
It's not just one mix, but it's some blend between
the chest register and the falsetto or head voice register
that you guys already felt.
So what I'm going to do for you right now
is do in my speaking voice a really smooth transition
from my highest falsetto down through
a bunch of mixes and then into my chest voice.
So you guys really can get in your ear what a mix sounds like
just in my speaking voice.
So here I go...
If I go way up here in my falsetto
if I'm talking to you way up here in my falsetto
and then I come down a little bit and start
to add a little bit of mix to my voice
I get something like that but then if
I bring it down a little bit further I get a little bit
more vocal cords and I get a little bit of a thicker mix right here
and then if I bring it down more and add
a little bit more mix I get a sound like this and
then if I bring it down a little further I get a sound like this
and then if I bring it down a little further
and add vocal cords I get a sound like this
and I'm back in my chest voice.
Alright.
So that's a nice smooth transition from falsetto down to chest.
Now that's just for fun.
You guys don't have to do that at home
but if you want to mess with that, that would be pretty cool.
Right, a smooth transition just in your own speaking voice
from chest to falsetto or back and forth.
That's a really awesome thing
if you have that kind of coordination.
That's what we want to get.
So now how does this apply to a song?
So many artists have this great mix sound
where they're going up to high notes
but it doesn't seem very difficult for them.
They don't seem to be pushing or straining very much.
They're probably using a mix.
So I'm going to show you a couple things
in a song called "Talking To The Moon" by Bruno Mars.
And see if you can hear some of these things
as they're applied to a song
So let me try it a little bit...
♪
♪ I know you're somewhere out there ♪
♪ Somewhere far away ♪
♪ I want you back ♪
Now that's using a little bit of a mix.
But now what if I did what most singers
would do when I go up to that higher note,
which is flip to falsetto.
That's one thing that might happen.
This is when it might happen...
♪ I know you're somewhere out there ♪
Right?
So instead of...
♪ I know you're somewhere out there ♪
I get...
♪ I know you're somewhere out there ♪
And I flip to falsetto.
Now that's not bad to do.
But that's not what the artist is doing and that's not a mix.
Now the other tendency that people have
is instead of finding that mix they push a chest voice,
too much mouthy-ness, too much air,
too much spread up into that note.
And then you get...
♪ I know you're somewhere out there ♪
And I'm shouting.
So...
♪ I know you're somewhere out there ♪
That's more of a mix.
♪ I know you're somewhere out there ♪
That's pushing my chest voice up too high.
So singers will fall on either side of those.
They're going too light into head voice or falsetto
where they're going too heavy, too thick, into chest voice
and they're not finding that middle ground.
So then how do we find that middle ground?
We need to know what the mix is.
How am I getting a smooth transition between those?
What's the x-factor?
What's the missing ingredient to making that mix work?
Here's the thing that nobody will tell you and is really the truth.
The mix is two things.
It's a vocal cord event and it's a resonance event.
But the vocal cord event is the biggest thing that
people always miss in the world of voice.
We need to have compression control.
Not just compression, but compression control.
Let's see if we can discover what that is together.
So again using your own name let's just have you say,
hello my name is Justin.
That's nice!
Now, say it like this.
Hello my name is Justin.
Great.
That was a breathy or decompressed voice.
Now try this one...
Hello my name is Justin.
Awesome.
Now that's more of a compressed voice.
As we're going up we don't want to
change much of anything else
but often just our compression.
Sometimes a little bit more, sometimes a little bit less.
Sometimes right in between.
We need to have gradations of compression
and that's what will make the registration with the mix more smooth.
Now the other thing is it's a resonance event.
It's not just vocal cords it's also resonance
Like I showed you with the example,
if I'm pushing out my mouth I'm going to encourage more chest voice.
Too much chest, right?
I'm going to be spreading the sound I'm going to be using more air.
So I want to keep the air the same
as I move up through that mix.
I'm not going to change the air, I'm not going to change the volume,
I'm just going to keep it the same.
Then I'm going to make the air stay in the head like it was falsetto,
but let the vocal cords be in a state of compression.
So I'm doing a head airflow and a chest compression.
I hope that makes sense to you guys.
That's the x-factor on how to make the mix work.
But now together we're going to try it,
I've got an exercise here for you.
Now what it's going to be is the following.
We're gonna do on B-U- B, bub, this pattern.
♪ BUB - BUB - BUB - BUB ♪
Okay so usually what I'll say is guys down here
and ladies up here.
But the mix is the thing that makes the ladies
sound real, real strong in their head voice
and the guys sound real, real high and light.
It blends the two together actually.
So today I'm not going to separate.
Today guys and girls are going to be on the exact same pitch.
But to do this I'm going to tell ladies
when to come in.
We're going to start down with the guys and I'm
going to tell the ladies when to come in with this exercise.
Here's your goal, we're going up in pitch
but you're not going to push breath and spread out.
And you're not going to flip to falsetto or head voice.
You're going to keep it in a light, compressed, easy mix.
If you have to flip, it's totally fine.
It takes time to build this, but we're trying to not go to falsetto.
That's the goal right now.
Okay so here we go!
This starts with guys only.
Here's guys...
♪
♪ BUB - BUB - BUB - BUB ♪
Awesome.
♪
Yep!
♪
Great.
♪ BUB - BUB - BUB - BUB ♪
Good.
♪
♪ BUB - BUB - BUB - BUB ♪
Now ladies, join in right here with us.
♪ BUB - BUB - BUB - BUB ♪
Great!
♪
Good for you.
♪
♪ BUB - BUB - BUB - BUB ♪
Great.
♪
Good for you!
♪ BUB - BUB - BUB - BUB ♪
Awesome.
Now some guys are going to have to flip here.
It's totally fine, do what you gotta do.
Keep working...
♪ BUB - BUB - BUB - BUB ♪
♪
That's it.
♪ BUB - BUB - BUB - BUB ♪
Awesome.
♪
♪ BUB - BUB - BUB - BUB ♪
Ladies, that was great.
One more time up there.
♪ BUB - BUB - BUB - BUB ♪
Awesome.
♪
Good for you.
♪
♪ BUB - BUB - BUB - BUB ♪
♪
Now anybody has gone to falsetto or head voice
you can always come back into your mix
anytime when we're coming down.
Here we go...
♪ BUB - BUB - BUB - BUB ♪
♪
♪ BUB - BUB - BUB - BUB ♪
Nice.
♪
Good.
Ladies might have to drop out.
♪ BUB - BUB - BUB - BUB ♪
Good.
♪
Two more for the guys.
♪ BUB - BUB - BUB - BUB ♪
♪
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Fantastic.
So now that was a lot of info on the mix.
But we need it, it's such an important vocal concept.
One of the very, very most.
So, Adrianah and all, I hope that gives you
some insight as to what this mix voice is
and it can help take your singing to the next level.
If you guys have questions that you'd like
to see us answer on the show,
you can send an email to Questions@VoiceLessonsToTheWorld.com.
And you guys know that our continuing mission here at
New York Vocal Coaching and Voice Lessons To The World
is just to give you the best possible vocal information.
We know that not everybody can afford great voice lessons.
We know that the best vocal information is not really available
to everybody all around the world.
So we're trying to help you guys by giving you
a lot of this great information.
We hope it helps.
Which is why I'm so excited to tell you guys about a brand new app [♪]
that we're going to be releasing for iPad and iPhone [♪]
and hopefully more. [♪]
This app is going to have a lot of free videos [♪]
a lot of free articles, tons of great tips [♪]
for you guys as singers so that you can just keep growing [♪]
and keep building towards your dreams of being [♪]
the best possible singer that you can be. [♪]
So look for that app, check that out. [♪]
And again, don't ever lose the joy don't lose the passion. [♪]
Don't let people tell you that you can't sing [♪]
you know it's not true. [♪]
Get with a great voice teacher in your area. [♪]
If you guys are in the New York City area [♪]
or if you want to do Skype, you can visit us at [♪]
www.NewYorkVocalCoaching.com. [♪]
And if you like these videos you can visit [♪]
www.VoiceLessonsToTheWorld.com. [♪]
I'm Justin Stoney. [♪]
We'll see you next time. [♪]
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