One of the things I’m asked a lot is how mix voice works, and what mix voice exercises people can do to improve their voice. It’s hard to describe, it’s far easier to demonstrate… but while demonstration makes people go ‘ahh, that’s how it sounds’, it doesn’t go quite far enough to explaining what they are trying to achieve in their own voice on a level other than ‘well, it’s a blend of the two’.
In today’s blog post, I wanted to talk a bit more about the nature of the blend and the balance of that mix, and talk about some mix voice exercises that can help with this.
And I’m going to do that by referring to what I’ve been discussing as quality or ‘texture’ of the two respective registers of the voice.
Head Voice
This is regularly step 1 in introducing people to mix, generally because many don’t quite grasp what their head voice is or sounds like. In isolation, it’s a light, bright, vibrant sound, but not necessarily much to write home about (specifically in isolation). Particularly for chestier singers, this is a key introduction to ‘meet your head voice, this is how it sounds’.
We then progress them from working almost exclusively in chest voice to introducing a little bit more of that ‘texture’ of head voice into their voice. This extends range and adds a wonderful sheen (at the very least) to the top of chest voice as that light bright sound when mixed in with the quality of chest voice gives that wonderful balance.
Chest Voice
An under-discussed topic is the quality or texture of chest voice. Sure, for light-chested singers, we spend time establishing chest voice, but rarely are we actively LISTENING to the quality that chest voice brings. To my ears, chest voice in isolation is very raw, almost reminiscent (to my ears and brain) of velcro coming apart, at least when done to an extreme.
But one of the issues I’ve seen with many mix-voice specific techniques is the over-emphasis of moving towards head voice, and an absence of discussion on the fact that chest voice must also be present. This chest voice texture ALSO needs to be blended into head voice. So often we talk about bringing that head voice quality to the range we refer to as chest voice, but rarely do we talk about bringing the quality of chest voice up into the range we refer to as head voice.
And this is CRITICAL for creating a convincing and effortless mix.
The Blend of The Two
Once you start identifying those two textures of chest voice and head voice, and thinking about whether the two are present in appropriate amounts, it allows the following to occur in singers who are already mixing, but could be strengthening and balancing their mix better:
Singers who sing with an overly weighty mix suddenly start to recognise they are not ushering in sufficient head voice quality into their voice, and adjust this accordingly with mix voice exercises.
Singers who sing with an overly light mix suddenly start to recognise they are not maintaining sufficient quality of chest voice in their voice, and can begin to adjust this accordingly.
It should be stated that this is not a quick-fix. It’s not a *trick* or a silver-bullet mix voice exercise that can suddenly fix someone’s voice, it’s more of a mental concept that can allow singers to recognise the importance of allowing the texture of BOTH registers of their voice to be present in all areas of their range. I’ve found it tremendously effective in my own voice, as well as in my students’ voices. Remember, your mix needs BOTH chest voice and head voice present in appropriate amounts to constitute a strong sound.