The female singing voice tends to live in the head voice, especially true of many classically-trained singers that mainly work in theater and on Broadway.
There are some classical singers that have a fuller, richer dramatic natural head voice, but if a female singer wants to become more commercial and sing contemporary music such as power ballads, she needs to move beyond the head voice by developing the chest voice and the mix.
From Head to Chest to Mix
To help a classical female singer make the move Dave Brooks (Brett Manning Associate) begins by helping first develop her chest voice.
“There’s a tendency to resist the chest voice at first,” Dave said. “I’ll hear things like nobody speaks that way. But I quickly point out as they work through exercises that the chest voice is a lot like you’re yelling to some across the room to come here or listen to you. You need a good solid chest voice to be able to move into the mix.”
Once a singer gets comfortable with the chest voice there is a tendency to revert to the head voice when approaching the natural breaks.
“They fight that transition from chest voice to head voice. This happens because the head voice is familiar territory while the chest voice is not,” Dave said.
The chest voice is not required to compress. Compression comes through the transition or break.
“Once a singer can feel and hear the power that comes with compression the stage is set for a good solid mix,” Dave added.
Sing Stronger and Longer
Once singers gain a strong technical foundation, they can resonate more and also sing for a longer period of time. Developing technical proficiency in the chest and mix impacts other areas such as phrasing and choices a singer might make.
Dave has noticed how a female singer that lives in that classically trained head voice handles lyrics and phrasing.
“There’s a tendency to be very precise, very exacting. They will very proper and tightly structured even as songwriters,” Dave said.
Become More Marketable
He has noticed that once singers get comfortable with the chest voice and mix their songwriting style changes as well, and they tend to want to explore a variety of genres. Vowel placement makes a big difference in the mix voice. The narrower the vowel the higher you can go.
“You will still have stylistic choices to make when singing a song. Even with a good solid technical foundation, you will give some of your technique away to style,” Dave said. “But by developing your mix you will have many more options as singer, will become much more marketable, and move you from a niche market to a more commercial one.”
A prime example of a classically trained female singer that successfully made the move into contemporary music with a strong chest and mix is 80’s rock star, Pat Benatar.
Summing It Up
Finding the mix is important for singers of all styles. It gives you more playing place as an artist. By using Brett Manning’s Mastering Mix program (soon to be released) or the Top 7 Secrets of the Super-High Mix, the mix can be built into a very solid and full sound. The mix can be used to sound like an extension of the chest voice or like a downward extension of the head voice. Best of all it allows you to move through your voice without the appearance of breaks or shifts of tone quality.
The mix allows you to stay at a relaxed posture using a comfortable balance of cord closure and air flow. What eliminates any sound or sign of a transition break is the split in resonance, with some resonance from the chest voice coming out of the mouth while some resonance moving into the head as it works its way up behind the soft palate. Want to know more about mix? Check out some of our amazing Singing Success Online lessons for free here.
From a classical head voice to developing the mix voice
I am very happy to have someone out there who understands the mix , head and chest voice. When I took 12 years of classical voice they told me to never sing in the chest voice or it would hurt my voice. At this time I had loud chest voice with no resonance or mix with the head and chest voice, and a soft head voice with a huge break between chest and head. So I ended up rertraining my voice to only sing in the head voice, singing at a gr. 8&9 level in classical voice. which completely eliminated any chance of conecting my head and chest into a mix voice. I hated my voice and was limited to only singing in higher keys. As a singer songwriter I wanted to record an album, but I realized I wasn't sounding the way I wanted to, so I put recording on hold. Then I found a 89 year old teacher who taught the complete opposite of classical voice who started the lesson by singing in the chest voice ( I thought he was crazy but decided to give it a try since nothing else was working, he opened my mind up to a new way of viewing the voice and after a year of lessons I decided to recorded a half album. Though I sounded better and stronger I was still singing in mostly higher keys. Then one of my students mentioned singing success and I checked it out. Immediately I started trying some of the exercises on the demo videos and testing them on myself and my voice students. I started hearing more results in connecting the chest and head voice. My soprano students started to be able to sing lower with a mix voice and my altos started singing higher in their mix. As for me I was able to sing one of the songs that I wrote in a lower key and soud more pop, I went from the key of G to lowering it to D. I am still on my journey of developing my voice, but for the first time in my life, I actually like my voice.
Sandra
Accessing Chest voice
I am glad this article was written, but I need some tips on actually accessing the chest voice. I'm training myself for several musicals and such, and I need a few pointers before I can actually move on. I am an amateur singer.
Girls and Chest Voice
I think Myrna has a point. In my case I was written off as a singer at school because I do not have a naturally high voice. As a result I had no help or tuition at all. I learned to use a chest voice because it was easier to produce a sound that I thought was OK. Later on, I got involved in amateur theatre and started singing and I did push to get the higher notes, often ending up with a sore throat.
Now after a couple of years of lessons I can sing in my head voice, but it took a long time for me to be convinced that I could do it and I still struggle with the higher parts of my range.
Sylvia
"Out of Your Head Voice"
In my own experience and also with many high school students, I think many more girls sing in their chest voice and have not developed the head voice well. Many try to take chest voice higher than they should (without instruction) and strain....that is when the vocal nodes can develop. Most of the voice teachers who get these students have to work to get them to sing in head voice and not use chest all the time. Some of these comments are taking one extreme or the other and I think the best teaching involves a middle-of-the-road approach. The goal should be that there is no obvious vocal break throughout a singer's range and that we can control our voices to get different qualities according to what works best with the individual song (or phrase) being sung.
Youth, when to teach the chest voice technique?
Is there a specific method for teaching younger kids, preparing them for chest tones later in their youth? I have 2 twin girls that sing a strong head voice, but the chest tones are not there yet. They are 14. I have worried about forcing their sweet sounds and would like advise.Thanks, Katie
Chest/Head Voice for very-low bass
I sing very-low bass and found that, after puberty, singing in the head, especially falsetto, became harder the lower I got. I do enjoy singing very low...especially Southern Gospel, but sometimes wish I could sing higher. However, I don't want to lose any of my low notes.
Chest voice
Lke Kelly I naturally sing fairly low and have a strong chest voice and I, too, struggle in the higher ranges. I recently went for a trial lesson with a classically-trained teacher, who told me that I had to use my head voice all the time or I would get nodes!
Needless to say, I didn't sign up for lessons with her........
Sylvia
MIx
i sing old school and lots of Patsy Cline. Because i have a strong chest projection the crowd loves it when i sing songs like Walking After Midnight and Leavin on Your Mind.When i shift over to a Dusty Springfield song like You Don't Have to Say You Love Me, i get stuck and always want to shift over into the head to reach those last 3 "believe me's" at the end of the song and it just doesn't sound right. i've been struggling with it for weeks now. i love the song and it's become my newest challenge. i am looking forward to the CD being released!
YES!!! : )
Yes, yes, yes! Great article and exactly how I sing, and what I teach as a private instructor.
However, I think this article focuses on the classically trained singer. I don't find it all that hard to teach the mix when they have that "head voice" foundation.
Learning head voice is crucial, and is in Brett's CD's!!! : )
It takes all 3, Head, Chest, Mix! So fun....
RE:
I agree with Kelly somewhat. I think I have a tendancy to get stuck in a bratty/edgy legit headvoice more so than mix.... I like when Hayley from Paramore sings in the song We Are Broken "Give us life again" because I think she is going into her mix, but it sounds like it's her chest voice reaching those notes.
God bless.
Tina
RE: Out of Our Head Voice and into the Mix article
I feel just the opposite of this article. I have no problem singing in my chest voice, but I struggle with the head voice-mainly becuase I don't like what I hear! I am an alto-ranged singer who really does want to develop the higher range. I have found that while I am actually singing (on my church's worship team) I can sing higher than I could while I am practicing. It's like the fear of that higher note is gone...
What are your suggestions for becoming more comfortable singing in the head voice?
Thanks,
Kelly
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