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Mastering Mix

Unlock your commercial voice! You'll learn how to effectively mix your head and chest voice - (a must for any professional singer).

Is your singing voice strained, shaky, or just unreliable?

Master your voice with our best-selling, systematic vocal training programs. VIP Members get unlimited streaming access to all programs. Start today!
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“I developed the Singing Success Program after 30+ years of coaching. I’ve put my whole life into researching vocal techniques, studying anatomy, and (through trial and error) building a method that is sustainable and that gets results.

The Essential Program To Build A Commerical Sound And A Marketable Voice.

Why do some singers “blow up” and others don’t? Is it talent, money, work ethic, or the right connections? Sure, all those can be important. But, if you want to go from being a “coffee shop singer” to a chart-topping artist with a platinum album and a sold-out tour… you need a commercial sound.

The best way to achieve a radio-friendly voice and a commercial sound is with a mix voice. The mix voice is a combination of the head & chest resonances that allows you to hit high notes with ease and sing with a unique and marketable style. Simply put, if you don’t have a good mix voice — you’ll never have a successful career.

Here’s the Program

  • Morning Warmup & Evening Cool-Down
  • Systematic scales to strengthen your vocal cords
  • Unique exercises to find your mix voice
  • Beginning & Advanced Applications of the mix
  • Game-changing explanations that help you finally connect your resonances

This program specializes in developing a marketable voice, resulting in a generous spectrum of timbres relative to a singer’s baseline. From an edgy and brassy quality to a flute-like and velvety sound, singers find themselves able to produce tones they never dreamed possible.

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How to Sing in Mixed Voice

Is Singing Lightly Sabotaging Your High Notes?

by Benny Meza

Mixed voice is one of the most sought-after abilities by singers. This skill enables singers to sing with a chest-voice-like tone in their upper range without having to belt or yell for it. Given the apparent effortlessness of mix, most singers miss the counter-intuitive secret of developing this voice coordination: vocal strength training.

What is Mixed Voice?

Plainly stated, mixed voice is a vocal register that sounds like chest voice and occurs above your vocal bridge (aka passagio). For most singers, it is an elusive coordination because most cannot find or produce it without vocal training.

To understand mixed voice better, consider this: We all know what it feels like to get an embarrassing voice break, or flip, when talking. That sound is produced when your voice switches suddenly from 100% chest voice to 100% head voice.

To sing a higher note with a mixed voice, you have to use chest and head voice, think 50% chest and 50% head, which results in a powerful sound that is able to keep going higher and higher in pitch. Interestingly, mixed voice is a dynamic register, meaning that it can be produced with a variety of chest and head ratios like 75% chest and 25% percent head voice, and vice versa.

Chest Voice

Chest voice, or your chest register, is the voice you use when speaking or singing lower notes. The vocal cords are thicker and vibrate slower (think of how strings on a bass guitar are much thicker than those on an electric guitar), which gives them a rich, full sound.

Head Voice

Head voice, or your head register, is the voice you use when imitating Mickey Mouse or jamming along to Staying Alive by the BeeGees. The vocal cords produce head voice by stretching and thinning, which makes them vibrate faster, thus resulting in higher notes.

Mixed Voice

Mixed voice, also called middle voice or mix voice, is often described as the way to find a smooth transition from chest to head voice, but it’s much more than that. It is a vocal register that is often used to sing entire sections of songs, like the chorus of “Mirrors” by Justin Timberlake or the chorus of “I Have Nothing” by Whitney Houston.

Developing proficiency in mixed voice singing, like the two singers referenced above, will enable you to fully express yourself in your higher range. Without it, you’re left with a whispy falsetto or head voice, which can still sound, but is limited in its expressiveness.

Vocal Breaks

A vocal break usually occurs when a singer is using 100% chest voice at or above their vocal transition. The vocal cords are not designed to sing notes in that vocal range with a pure chest coordination, and so eventually (or immediately), they give out and “break” into head voice.

Surprisingly, you can also break from head voice down to chest voice, and the sound of it can be equally embarrassing. If your head voice isn’t fully developed and you try to sing loudly in it, your vocal cords could suddenly thicken and pull you down to the bottom of your range. Definitely not what should happen when singing “Sugar” by Maroon 5.

Why is Mixed Voice Important to Master?

Mixed voice, or your mixed register, is the key to singing powerful high notes without strain. Mixing your chest and head registers is not only a safeguard against unwanted vocal breaks but also extremely important for vocal health and longevity (aka vocal hygiene).

Additionally, the alternative to mixing when singing strong high notes is yelling or shouting, which sounds very unmusical even in aggressive genres of music like hard rock or metal. Mixed voice sounds better because it keeps your vowels more speech-like, as opposed to the distorted( also called “splatty”) pronunciation that occurs in shouting.

How to Sing in Mixed Voice

The commonly overlooked portion of mixed voice development is vocal strength training. You see, many singers know not to strain their voices when going higher, so they try to find their mixed voice by using a weak, thin voice. And that just won’t work.

To develop a great mixed voice, you’ll need to develop the ability to sing with strength and ease.

Why Mixed Voice Requires Strength

In mixed voice, the vocal cords are resisting airflow with greater intensity than they do when producing head voice. This added pressure on the vocal cords can fatigue the voice quickly if the proper strength has not been developed.

Additionally, a lack of strength in mix voice often results in a raised larynx, which produces strain and makes the voice sound choked.

Building Vocal Strength

Vocal strength-building is very similar to strength-building at the gym. If you’ve never done a bicep curl, then you don’t begin with 60-pound dumbbells.

You need to start with a lighter weight and learn the proper form. However, once you master the proper form, then you need to add more weight to make real progress. No one curling one-pound weights will get very strong. It is the same with singing.

Eliminate Strain, Then Build Strength

Vocal strength-building done incorrectly often causes voice disorders. The part that many singers get wrong is that they try to sing powerfully before eliminating strain. That’s why we talk about letting go of strain and developing ease so frequently at Singing Success.

However, too many singers get stuck in the “eliminating strain” phase, even after they’ve developed good technique. This is where another problem arises. Once you have the proper form, you need to add vocal weight!

You won’t be able to sing in a mix with ease and control if you don’t develop strength beyond what is required. In other words, developing a very powerful mix will help sing effortlessly in a lighter mix.

Use Vocal Edge Exercises

Vocal edge exercises are the most direct way to strengthen the muscles required for a good mixed voice. Mastering these exercises will make a remarkable difference in the ease and control you have over your mixed voice.

Our Mastering Mix program has a lesson dedicated to teaching you vocal edge exercises systematically. I highly encourage you to get your hands on it!

Word of Warning

Many singers lack the discernment to judge whether they are adding vocal weight properly or if they’re straining, so my best recommendation is that singers take some lessons to ensure they’re doing it properly. If you do it on your own, just make sure you don’t strain when adding vocal weight through edge exercises.