One of the biggest challenges suffering singers face is how to build their Mix voice.
Inside this video I’ll explain how to build your mix voice with Strategic Songs.
Hi, I’m Chuck Gilmore with Power To Sing.
Singers all over the world are learning to sing with a mix of chest and head voice.
A gigantic challenge they face is building their mix so that it’s strong and powerful.
Why is this so challenging?
I think it’s because we don’t use songs to help build and strengthen our mix.
I don’t think we consider that using songs strategically can develop our mix.
How do you use songs as part of your strategy to build your Mix singing voice?
The answer comes from Pillar #2, in the Second Nature Singing System.
Pillar #2 is Strategic Songs.
What’s a Strategic Song, and how does it build your mix?
A Strategic Song is a song where much of the melody and chorus is in your first vocal bridge.
The song often has licks or climax notes in the second bridge, or head voice.
What makes this a Strategic Song?
Whenever the pitches are in or above your first bridge, it requires you to sing in a
mix of chest and head voice.
When the climax or big finish notes are pitched in the second bridge and/or in head voice,
you’re able to sing them because you’ve been in mix throughout the song.
In contrast, a song where you sing a melody at the top of your chest voice, will never
help you develop your mix.
Instead, you’re likely to start pulling the chest voice too high.
Which also raises the larynx.
And the occasional high note is almost impossible to sing easily because you’ve been singing
in chest voice throughout the whole song.
Then you end up straining or pulling the chest voice while trying to sing the high notes.
Instead of building your mix voice, you’re reinforcing your bad habits of reaching or
flipping into falsetto.
What if the song you want to sing is too low.
What if it’s just one big, pulled-up chest song?
The solution is easy.
Raise the key.
If you’re performing in a musical, see if the music director will raise the key for
you.
It’s especially easy to do if you use recorded tracks for your production instead of an orchestra.
If you accompany yourself with a guitar or keyboard, changing the key is easy.
Use a kapoe on the guitar.
For piano, most online sheet music companies give multiple key signature choices and you
can choose higher keys.
Some pianists can easily transpose to any key signature you need.
There are also computer and mobile phone apps that will enable you to raise the key of Youtube
Videos.
I use a chrome browser extension called Pitch Shifter for Youtube videos.
I’ll put a link in the description below this video.
For example, the song, I’ll Buy You a Star, from the musical A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
is in a key where much of the song is in my first bridge with climax notes at the top
of my second bridge.
This enables me to sing in mix most of the song and makes the head voice notes at the
end easier to sing.
Why?
Because the head voice coordination is the same as mix.
It’s just a higher pitch and usually easier because it’s further away from the first
bridge.
For example, of the first 40 notes of the song, 30 are in or close to my bridge.
My first bridge is A3, Bb, B and C4.
So I’ll choose to mix on about 30 of the first 40 notes.
[Demo]
Now those, that last couple of lines especially are in my mix.
If they weren't, if I didn't sing them in mix, they would just have been in chest.
I don't think I even want to show you that
because I want to show you what happens at the end of the song
And because I have been singing in mix in so much of the song
When I have to sing the high note at the end it's already there so he says
[Demo]
So those are in the top area of my second bridge
I took the G, instead of going down to an E
[Demo]
I took the upper
Now the reason why it's so much easier to do it that way is because
I've been in mix most of the song
And so when the high notes come, when the climax notes come in head voice
It's just the same coordination as the mix
So I've been building, solidifying, feeling that mix the whole song
And so it's just the same
When I go into those high climax notes
It's more of the same throughout the song
with that ending that has theF4 which is at the top of my second bridge.
Plus that G that I took, I was able to do that because I have been singing the mix
In mix the whole song. So my voice is already conditioned to sing the
F4 at the end.
By choosing a song with so much of the melody in my first bridge, I can sing mix
throughout the song.
This builds and strengthens my mix voice.
And the bonus is I’m ready to sing the head voice notes.
All without straining or pulling chest.
If you haven’t yet learned to sing with a mix, you need to start doing vocal exercises
that help you learn to mix.
Start this process by getting your vocal type.
Click here or in the description below this video and take a simple vocal test to discover
your vocal type.
Maybe you already mix, or perhaps you’re straining or flipping into falsetto.
Take the test and find out.
Once you know your vocal type you can start doing designer exercises made specifically
for YOUR VOCAL TYPE to help you get or improve your mix.
Strategic Songs, Pillar #2 in the Second Nature Singing System, is a powerful way to build
your mix voice.
I’m Chuck Gimore with Power To Sing.
For you, singing can become second nature.