When you’re struggling with a high note, a note outside of your speaking voice range, chances are, it’s a note that requires you to be mixing.
But what exactly does that mean? Mix voice is the ability to blend the thickness of the bottom of your voice with the thinness of the top. It’s a blend of the upper and lower qualities or sensations of sound. Rather than hitting a wall every time you ascend in pitch, when you learn how to mix, you’re able to have smooth transition over your break.
Sounds too good to be true? Well maybe so, but the only obstacle I’d say is if you aren’t consistent in building your mix, then you’ll keep encountering challenges in your songs.
Here are some of the challenges that usually come up:
When we focus on building the mix, we have better muscle memory so that when those higher notes show up on a song, we are able to blend not break.
What makes mixing so challenging is that we aren’t quite sure how much balance there should be between the bottom and the top. Anatomically speaking, the bottom of your voice, your speaking range is when your TA (Thyroid Arytenoid) is active. This allows you to speak clearly and connected. When you get to your passaggio, you need to allow the CT (cricothyroid muscle) to activate which makes the vocal folds stretch and thin so that you can sing higher pitches. This might require you to be a bit lighter at first and then slowly build that strength.
Hands down, the best way to build this blend is to start by singing scales. Not just any scale, but specific targeted scales. Think of scales as reps when working out. You need to do reps in order to get stronger! Once you’ve put in some time with those scales, things are going to be so much easier in your songs.
If you're looking for a jump start into training click here to download my free morning voice workout sequence.
If you are finally ready to take a huge leap into developing a strong solid mix voice, expanding your vocal range and sing with more confidence, consider enrolling in my course Mix Evolution.
