How To Mix Chest And Head Voice - PART 3 of my HOW TO SING THROUGH THE VOCAL BREAK series

Welcome to PART 3 of my HOW TO SING PAST YOUR BREAK series.  In this video we'll talk about how to mix chest and head voice and how you should go about doing this.

Here are the links to the previous videos in this series:

• PART 1 - The difference between head voice, falsetto, mixed voice and chest voice.
• PART 2 - Why your CHEST voice is the secret to learning how to sing past your vocal break.

In Part 2 I mentioned how there IS a time and place for bridging from your chest voice into your falsetto smoothly.  I say falsetto because most people when they talk about crossing from chest to head voice are REALLY talking about a non-breathy falsetto.  I talk more about this in part 1.  Check it out.

Anyway, the main thing I want to say is this:

You don't build mixed voice and high ranged full voice by just crossing from chest voice to falsetto and "smoothing the break".  I mentioned there is a place for this, but it's a supplement.  It's not a finished sound. 

I might do it for therapeutic purposes but in 8/10 people I never need to teach it.  If the voice is well rested and the chest voice trained properly, it will automatically bridge into head at the right time and in the right way.

Mixing chest and head voice the RIGHT way is different than going straight into falsetto.  It has to be done HIGH enough.  Most people are trying to bridge their chest to head at around F4 including some females!  WAY TOO LOW. 

It just won't work that low.  You might be able to pull it off in vocal exercise scales but in singing it won't work.

I recommend males developing their chest to at least a G#4-A4 before leading it mix into head.  Ladies, C5-E5 and sometimes even higher if possible.  When you do it up this high, your falsetto works differently.  It can "mix" with your chest up there, and you'll feel like you're stretching your chest THROUGH that connection.  To me this is what "mixed voice" really is.

So the big key to learning how to eliminate your vocal break and mix chest and head voice really lies with the proper development of your chest voice.  If your chest voice is off then  you won't be able to properly bridge into head in a way that you can use in songs.

Discovering this was such a milestone for me because I remember being stuck for 2 years singing super lightly, letting my voice go to falsetto at E4 because I was told it would "grow later".  It never did!

Hope you enjoyed this lesson.  Let me know what you'd like to see in episode 4.  We'll keep going with this.  What are your questions about the vocal break?

Cheers,

Phil Moufarrege