If you've been trying to learn how to sing in your own, you've probably come across the term Mixed Voice or a tutorial that claims to help you sing in mixed voice; but all the "mamama" exercises in the world just haven't been helping you 'fix your mix' so to speak. This tutorial is going to help you sing in mixed voice easy with three proven but simple techniques that help you bridge chest and head voice into one long connected range with ease.

First up, what the hell IS mixed voice anyway?

Well, it depends on how you're looking at the voice - obviously someone who is more anatomical in their approach is going to look at how the TA and CT muscle work together to bridge chest and head voice, ultimately helping you contract and stretch the vocal folds in two opposing motions to create your mixed register. Someone else might be talking more in a philosophical sense, or about using funny sounds that help you bridge and they might not talk about it in the same way - you can even think of your registers as tonal register centres instead of physical registers too; so it's important you get that clear instruction and explanation from the person you're trying to learn from. 

In my school of thought, I like to bridge both concepts of resonance and anatomy by bringing together the tone of your voice along with the physical aspects of your voice such as how the CT muscle dominates the mid to upper range in your voice. So in a simple sense, you can think of chest voice as your 'low voice' and your head voice like 'falsetto' in that it's a disconnected, separated range for the time being when you sing a really high note without yelling. Think Johnny Cash for chest voice, and think the Bee Gees for head voice!

Now, these registers aren't exclusive - they actually have an extensive crossover period when you learn to physically bridge that connection between the TA muscles (contraction) and CT muscles (stretch), which ultimately results in a blend of both forms of resonance within your vowel.

Vowel.

Let me repeat that again for you - VOWEL VOWEL VOWEL VOWEL VOWEL.

When it comes to singing, "vowel" is really an instruction for your voice - like a set of tuning forks or piano keys tuned to a specific chord. 

For example, a simple "AY" vowel like the word "Yeah" is 500hz behind the tongue, and rings with a much higher frequency in the mouth at about 1.5k - this vowel is 'tuned' to these frequencies within a specific range of the voice; and you can try all the 'mamama' and memememe' exercises in the world to drag it higher, but it quite literally sits squarely in your lower register just like your fingers on a piano - move your fingers and the tone, note and chord changes, right? You can't just take that C chord and "push" it higher, you literally have to move your registration and chord voicing on the piano - and singing is exactly the same.

Now here's the kicker, while our 'clarity' frequency at the front of the mouth stays in a similar range to pronounce the same sound as we ascend - the 'structure' of our vowel that sits behind the tongue alters as we ascend in range, creating a different voicing and 'pitch' within that same vowel or word.

If you try to sing the same vowel at a higher pitch, your voice simply breaks - or you shout and yell trying to compensate for the frequencies of the vowel.

So, one of the biggest keys to singing in Mixed Voice is actually learning to sing your vowels correctly and 'modify' them as you ascend in range and your structural frequencies change to meet the pitch of your fundamental (clear as mud? Don't worry, I'll clear this all up for you here).

And this is the reason why all those mixed voice exercises simply haven't been working for you - you've been singing one vowel and trying to 'mix' it higher, when in fact mixed voice occurs within an alteration of the structural frequency of your vowel, somewhere between head voice and chest voice and connected all the way through.

Let me show you the most effective way to find your mixed voice right now: