Ep.61: How to Sing Mixed Voice: Tension is our Enemy!
When you’re learning to sing with a mix of Chest and Head Voice, it can be very challenging.
We bring years of singing with bad habits. Usually those habits include too much outer
muscle tension surrounding the larynx.
Inside this video I’m going to help you understand what is feels and sounds like to
sing mix with and without a tension and how to eliminate it.
Hi, I’m Chuck Gilmore with Power To Sing.
Recently I was reading some notes I made about my singing when I was first learning to sing
with mix. I’m so glad I wrote down some things I was struggling with along with some
questions.
Dated 4-12-97 (almost exactly 19 years ago from the date of this video): “While singing
[in our show at church], I could tell I was approaching my passaggio and would flip and
disconnect--and wondered why I couldn’t get there connected.”
Later we had a discussion in a group singing class with our teacher and I wrote: “We
read that if [we] hit too hard in the lower register I wouldn’t be able to negotiate
passaggio connected. I sense I was singing too loud and pulling chest.”
It’s all so new at first. You’re not sure what’s right or wrong. You’re not sure
what you’re feeling and if that’s the right feeling or the wrong feeling. It can
be confusing and frustrating.
I’m going to show you what mix sounds and feels like to me. Then I’ll show you what
the same phrase sounds like when there’s tension. Maybe this will help you.
My excerpt is from “Chess”, the song Anthem.
So, I want to show you what it’s like to have the same song...the same area of the
song with some tension in it. I don’t like doing it because it kind of hurts me. [Demo
1]
You can hear there’s tension. And that tension causes the larynx to rise and that caused
my vocal cords to crack. [Demo 2]
Voice feels relaxed and natural. There’s no stress or tension. The vocal cords are
connected. The larynx felt like it was resting where it does when I speak. The vibrato was
present and easy. It felt like I was in control. I could feel
the resonance move between my chest and head.
[Demo’s compared]
Virtually 100% of the time, when we have trouble singing with a mix it’s because external
muscle tension outside the larynx is pulling the larynx upward.
This prevents the free vibration of the vocal cords. It also alters our resonance spaces.
We react by trying to help the vocal cords which adds more squeezing and tension. The
result is the pitch is flat or sharp, the tone is not the best because resonance spaces
are changed and often words become unrecognizable. The voice is out of balance.
The remedy is to eliminate external muscle tension.
Here’s two simple exercises to eliminate tension. It’s called the Tongue Trill and
we do it with closed lips or “Goo” [Demo]
Now a lot of us can’t do the tongue trill. You can try it on bubble lips. It’s a little
bit harder to transition. But the one all of us can do is “Goo” [Demo]
That’s a great exercise to eliminate the tension. It isolates the vocal cords themselves
and prevents the...it’s harder for the external muscles to get involved. If they do it sounds
like this. [Demo]
If I keep the larynx down, it goes a little bit “hootie”. I’ll do it for you one
more time. [Demo]
Here’s a variation. [Demo] You can see if you start with that feeling of no external
muscle involvement and a feeling of “release” then you can start to build into that by “pressing
down” gradually. You start getting the power in it without the tension.
Once you can do these without tension, then practice pressing into the feeling of no tension...sometimes
referred to as the feeling of “release”. Do this with the least amount of air pressure
as possible. You’re training your vocal cords and air flow to work together in balance.
Gradually you can increase the air flow. If you feel yourself starting to lose the feeling
of release and start gripping and grabbing, you are introducing tension. Reduce the loudness.
It takes time to retrain your neuromuscular system to coordinate your vocal cords and
air flow so you can do it without external muscle tension.
This may help you find and maintain a mix voice faster than anything else you can do.
Mix is a vocal type. It means you’re singing from chest to head voice without any interruption
in tone quality with an easy and natural tone and the larynx staying stable and resting.
Do you know your vocal type? I’m not referring to whether you’re soprano, alto, tenor or
bass. Your vocal type is what you tend to do when you sing.
Visit PowerToSing.com and take the vocal test which I call the PowerTest. Take the quiz
and determine your vocal type. Then go to the Knowledge Center and watch the videos
about your vocal type.
Download the free exercises for your vocal type and start working on them. They’re
designed to help you eliminate outer muscle tension so you can develop and then strengthen
your mix voice.
I’m Chuck Gilmore with Power To Sing. You can sing higher, with beauty, confidence and
power.
I’ll see you inside the next video.
Subtitles by the Amara.org community