June 2, 2025 • 27 mins
Frustrated about that crack in the middle of your voice? That happens when you’re abruptly switching from one register to the next. Understanding your registers - chest voice, head voice and mix voice - and what happens when you crack is going to be key to smooth out your break and make it seem like you have one seamless voice.
Let’s talk about these three registers and what you can do to balance them out, not just to create seamless transitions but to learn how to sing any note in any way.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
if you want to sing,
(00:01):
like a note more powerfully,
but it's up in your range
and you're like,
I just can't get the power
all the way up there.
I need to work on more chest voice
because like you just learned,
your chest voice
is the source of power, right?
Like, okay, if I want to add more power,
I need to work on my chest voice.
Well, actually, a lot of the times.
Again, not always,
but a lot of the time
it's not actually a lack of power
(00:21):
that keeps you from singing up there.
It's actually a lack of flexibility
to help you bring the power up
into these notes with you.
And I'm just dominant
mixed voice in a mixed belt
(00:42):
Hey, VoxStar and welcome to
From Singer To Artist.
I'm Lara
Chapman, award winning
singer and songwriter
turned viral vocal coach
and the host of this show.
At VoxTape Studios
we help singers from all over the world
level up their voices
by teaching them
the three fundamental skills
all singers need
technique, awareness and artistry.
Whether you're looking to go pro
(01:03):
or just develop your voice for fun.
My team and I are here to help.
Check the link in the description
to book your first session, or grab
some of our other resources.
All righty. Are you ready?
Let's get started.
else that you're going to be doing
(01:24):
is going to be built
on top of your vocal registers,
all their riffs and their runs
and everything,
and they'll be Grange
and the belting and all of that stuff
builds on top of your vocal register.
So that's what I want to talk about.
Today.
We're going to go through
the different vocal registers,
how to identify them,
what they feel like in your voice,
how you can access them as well.
Okay.
(01:45):
So we're going to start at the bottom
of the range of the register range.
And by the way,
there are different opinions out there.
There's different mythologies out there.
What I'm using here is
what I've been doing my entire life
and what most singers
and vocal teachers out there use as well.
But there, like I said,
(02:06):
there are different mythologies
and different terms
for kind of like the same thing
that we are describing here. Okay.
So at the bottom
we have your chest voice.
Your chest voice is literally
your speaking voice.
At least in 99.9% of cases,
your chest voice is your speaking voice.
So hello, how are you?
My name is Laura Howe.
I'm happy to be here.
I'm happy too
excited and happy and excited.
I'm excited to talk to you about,
(02:27):
your registers.
Right like that right here.
That is my chest voice.
That's my speaking voice.
And because it is your speaking voice,
it is, most likely or more likely
that your chest voice
is the most developed
register in your singing.
It just kind of like.
Depends on the singer. Always.
(02:49):
Everything always depends on the person.
But in most cases,
your chest voice is a little bit
more developed than the other registers.
By the way,
the name Chest voice comes
from where you feel the resonance.
So I'm just speaking down here,
or I'm
singing like
twinkle, Twinkle little star.
How I wonder what you are.
I can feel
(03:09):
the vibrations down here in my chest.
It's.
That doesn't mean I'm
singing from my chest.
Because your vocal folds
are in your throat
and not anywhere else,
so you're always singing
from your throat.
But it's where.
Where I feel
the vibrations
happening down here in my chest.
That's where the name came from.
This is what some people
(03:30):
also refer to as their natural voice.
Like some people say,
they have a natural voice
in a fake voice.
And, that's basically what that means.
Your chest voice is your natural voice.
And the other register
will be your takeaways.
And we're going to talk about that
in just a second.
But you just voice is your natural voice.
Your speaking voice.
And that's
why it's easier for most people.
(03:50):
Now if you're like,
I can't really do chest voice.
I don't know how to do it.
I don't know how to access it,
at least not in songs.
What you can do
is imitate that Santa Clause.
So if you feel like
you're lacking that power,
imitate some Santa Claus
and then try singing the phrase again.
So let's say
twinkle, twinkle little star,
because I just use that example, right?
So usually that would be sung
more like twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.
(04:14):
How I wonder what you are,
but let's pretend
I want to add a little bit
more power into that.
I would go, oh twinkle, twinkle
little star, how I wonder what you are.
Obviously very different kind of sound.
That's my just voice.
An extreme
version of my chest voice, sure,
(04:36):
but that would be my chest voice.
So imitating
some Santa Clause can really help
you get into that.
Another thing that you can try
is speech based singing.
So that would be basically
speaking the lyrics
because again,
your chest voice is your speaking voice.
So we're trying to get it
as speech like as possible
to make it more chesty.
So twinkle, twinkle little star,
(04:57):
how I wonder what you are.
Okay.
Twinkle twinkle little star.
How I wonder what you are.
Twinkle, twinkle little star.
How I wonder what you are.
I'm literally like first
just speaking it.
And I'm
trying to get closer and closer
and closer to the actual melody
until I'm singing it.
But I'm still in my chest.
(05:17):
Was it not
twinkle twinkle
Little star, how I wonder what you are,
which is not your chest voice,
Where do you hear
chest voice most often in songs?
Well, that's
usually in the verses,
because the verses
are usually a little bit lower
then the choruses
or the bridge in a song.
(05:38):
So usually the song starts out
a little bit lower
and therefore more in your chest voice,
but obviously that's not a guarantee.
Like that's not always the case.
It's also possible
that the chorus is in a chest
voice as well.
You can't really be like verses always,
and just the voice
chorus is always in something else.
You can't really go off of that.
You have to
listen to the singer and be like, okay,
(06:01):
does this sound
like they're speaking voice?
Does this sound powerful?
So here's the thing.
Your chest voice is the source of power,
okay?
If you are lacking power,
you're probably going
to want to work on your chest voice
because that's
where your power comes from.
It's thicker.
Your vocal folds
literally are shorter and thicker.
(06:22):
So your vocal folds,
they're shaped like a V,
and they stretch long when you sing hi.
And in order to get that stretch,
they have to get thinner.
But if I'm singing lower,
they're thicker, meaning
I can get, more,
more surface, touching essentially,
which gives you
more,
more power, more volume, more, more.
(06:44):
I don't want to say resonance
because that's not
not really what that is, but it just
it just gives you that more,
kind of sound.
Right?
So that's why your
chest voice is the source of power. Okay.
And just for future reference,
your chest voice is the color blue.
I mean, it's not, actually.
But I have a little analogy
(07:04):
that I like using that,
every time I tell it to someone,
they're like, oh, my God,
that makes so much sense.
So this is one part of the analogy.
Your chest voice is the color blue.
another register.
We're going to skip
the one in the middle.
They're going to go to the top one.
That's your head voice.
Your head voice is up here. Right.
So if I'm speaking up here
and I sound maybe like a little bit
(07:25):
like Mickey Mouse,
I'm really bad at impressions,
but that up here,
that is your head voice, right?
That sounds completely different.
Some people would refer to this
as, like, their fake voice. Right.
Because it feels like it's
not really a part of them.
It's like, oh my God,
I can make these weird sounds, but,
it doesn't feel quite natural, right?
Feels like a fake in quotes voice.
So that's your head?
(07:46):
Voice. It's usually higher.
It's usually lighter.
I might be a little bit brighter,
depending on the singer. Right.
So that's your that's your head voice.
It's not usually how we speak. Right.
Because of that, it's usually the more
or the less developed register in our,
in our voice. Right.
So in most cases
we need to work on head
(08:06):
voice a little bit
more than we need to work on chest voice.
But it really just, it depends.
It depends on the singer.
It always depends on the singer.
Is it just general advice?
But that's your that's your head voice.
Right.
So if we go back to the twinkle, twinkle,
that's usually how we would sing
that song, right?
Twinkle, twinkle little star.
(08:27):
How I wonder what you are.
Hello.
All right, that's your head voice.
Twinkle, twinkle.
Compared to twinkle, twinkle.
Very, very different.
So that's your head voice.
And we sing lullabies in head voice
when we speak.
if you're trying
(08:47):
to, like, get into a head
voice, you're like,
I just can't access a head voice.
Well,
you can pretend like you're
speaking to a child or a pet, like,
oh my God, look at you.
Are you just so cute?
That's your head voice up here, right?
You can also pretend,
like you're an owl. Woo
hoo hoo hoo!
(09:08):
That can also help you,
get into that head voice.
If you can't access it just yet.
I especially see this with male singers.
They're really solid
down in their chest voice,
and they cannot access their head
voice at all.
And so, you know, doing that
owl can really help, like,
the owl impression
can really help
getting into into the head voice.
(09:30):
Now,
should you be working on your head voice
even if you don't ever want to sing?
Hi. The answer is yes.
Because your head voice
is the source of flexibility.
So your chest voice is
the source of power, right?
Your head
voice is the source of flexibility.
(09:50):
And so if you want to riff,
if you want to, expand your range,
even in a powerful belt like voice,
you still have to work on flexibility
because you need the flexibility
to get the power up into these notes.
If you want to do vibrato,
if you want to do like
if you want to improve your pitch,
if you want to do crazy
like pitch jumps, things like that,
(10:11):
that all comes from vocal agility.
So even if you don't want to sing up here
and pretend like you're my Mariah Carey,
then you should still be working
on your head voice.
And that's a mistake
that I made early on in my career.
I stopped completely
working on my head voice
because I was like, chest voice.
That is my thing, baby.
And I'm going to keep singing down here
(10:31):
because I love it.
Completely stopped
working on my head voice.
Worst mistake
or one of the worst mistakes.
I made a lot of mistakes in my journey
and my singing journey,
but always work on both.
Always work on both.
Because it's going to make sense
in just a minute.
By the way, head voice comes, from,
you know, you feeling the resonance,
(10:52):
the vibrations up in your head.
I'm not very much of a touchy
feely kind of person,
so I don't really feel
the vibrations again,
the sound always comes from your throat.
Whether you're singing up here
or singing down here,
it all comes from your throat
because that's
where your vocal folds are.
It's just chest voice,
because vibrations heard.
Voice because it's up here.
Okay.
Vibrations technically are up there.
(11:13):
Okay.
Your head voice
for reference is the color yellow.
So again, so is this color blue?
Yellow is your head voice.
Now if I am going from chest voice
directly to head voice
and I slide between the two, it's
going to sound like this.
(11:37):
Right here, that
crack smack
dab in the middle of my range.
If you've been experiencing this,
then you're already like, okay,
I can already access my chest voice
and I can already access my head voice,
which is awesome. I love that for you.
Now we need to explore
that third register in the middle,
the mix voice or mixed voice?
(11:57):
Same thing.
Just a slight difference,
but in the name.
But, that is when you're a blending,
you're mixing the chest voice
and the head voice together.
It's not a third separate thing.
It's not like red
or, gold or whatever
other color that you can think of.
It's the color green, right?
(12:20):
Because when you mix blue and yellow,
if you paid attention
in a, in elementary school,
you know that if you mix blue and yellow,
you get the color green, right?
That is your mix voice.
It's not a third separate thing.
It is a blend of the chest voice
and the head voice,
which is what makes mix voice
a little bit more complicated
and a little bit more difficult
to do for most people
because they don't really feel
(12:42):
that big of a difference.
They're like,
well, am I in chest voice
now, or am I
in a mixed voice or am I in head voice,
or is it more of a mix?
At the end of the day,
they're just labels, okay?
And yes, labels can be very helpful,
but we don't want to obsess over labels
so much
so that they just leave us confused.
(13:03):
At the end of the day,
what's important
is that you're getting the sound
that you're looking for
and and this one's important
and that it feels good.
The sound that you're creating,
that that feels good
is just equally as important
as it's actually sounding the way
you want it to sound.
Okay,
but what you want to call that,
I don't really care.
So here's the thing with your mix voice.
Depending on how much blue,
(13:24):
how much just words
and how much yellow,
how much head
voice your using,
you're going to get a different shade
of green,
more blue
and just a drop of yellow
is a very dark green,
a lot of yellow
and just a little bit of blue
is going to be a very light green.
5050 is going to be in the middle
sort of kind of green. Right.
(13:45):
It's the same thing for your mixed voice.
We can be just dominant.
We can be head dominant.
We can be 5050.
It's a spectrum of mixed voice.
It's not one specific thing.
It can be many different things.
Again, depending on how much head voice
and how much chest voice
you're using in your sound.
So again,
going back to Twinkle twinkle, right.
(14:05):
So if I'm saying you can just voice
twinkle, Twinkle Little Star,
how I wonder what you are.
That would be chest voice
I'm singing head voice
it's twinkle, twinkle little star.
How I wonder what you are.
That would be like a head voice
right then.
(14:26):
If I'm doing it
some somewhere
like in the middle kind of mix,
it could be something like this.
Twinkle, twinkle little star.
How I wonder what you are.
So it's not as powerful as a chest voice
and a pure chest voice,
and it's stronger
than just a pure head voice.
It's somewhere in the middle,
(14:47):
and then it can be a more
just dominant mix,
or it can be a more head dominant mix.
Again, like I said, it's
a lot of different things.
Which is why it's difficult sometimes to
to pinpoint exactly what kind of sounds,
what kind of register
you're using right now.
And again, it's just labels.
Don't don't obsess over it.
Just focus on the sound
that you're getting
(15:07):
and the feel of that sound.
It feels good
and it sounds the way you want it to.
Awesome.
Don't worry about what
label you want to give it.
Okay, so that's your mix voice now,
in order to get to
any kind of sound that you want to get,
meaning
you have to develop a mixed voice, right?
Like you have to develop
these different shades of green.
(15:29):
It's all about balance, right?
And all of us,
we have natural strengths
and natural challenges.
Some of us are a little bit
more bottom heavy.
Some of us are a little bit
more top heavy.
More bottom heavy than top
heavy by a lot.
So it just really kind of depends on
the person.
And so let's say
(15:50):
you're like 80% of the way there
with your chest voice
and like 20% of the way
there with your head voice.
That means you would want to work
only 20% on your chest voice and 80%
on your head voice
so that we can
start bringing them closer.
Like on that same level, rather than,
you know, the chest voice
being like
(16:10):
super great and your head voice being
it needs a lot more work.
We want to kind of like
level it out so that,
we can bring balance into our singing.
So if you want to develop
a really solid, awesome mix
where you can sing any shade of green,
then you have to work on balance.
So if you're bottom heavy, work
more in your head voice.
If you're top heavy, work
(16:32):
more in your chest voice.
I'm not saying you should
completely ignore
the thing that comes more naturally,
more easily to you. Please don't do that.
We always again, it's balance, right?
We always want to work on both,
but we just want to try and get them
as close as possible.
And again, going back to the colors,
if you have a lot of blue
and just a little bit
of yellow to work with,
you're always going to be darker green
(16:55):
and it's going to be difficult
to get to that 5050
and lighter kind of green and vice versa
as well. Right?
So it's all about balance in singing.
And unfortunately most of the time
not most of the time,
but often
what I see in singers
is that they're not doing that,
that they're working on
what they think is going to help them,
(17:16):
but it's not actually
what's going to help them.
So, for example,
if you want to sing,
like a note more powerfully,
but it's up in your range
and you're like,
I just can't get the power
all the way up there.
I need to work on more chest voice
because like you just learned,
your chest voice
is the source of power, right?
Like, okay, if I want to add more power,
I need to work on my chest voice.
Well, actually, a lot of the times.
(17:37):
Again, not always,
but a lot of the time
it's not actually a lack of power
that keeps you from singing up there.
It's actually a lack of flexibility
to help you bring the power up
into these notes with you.
And I'm just dominant
mixed voice in a mixed belt is.
But also
a lot of people refer to this as right.
So it's like, okay, identify
(17:59):
which one
you need to work on
and then work on that
as much as possible.
those are your three main registers
your chest voice, your head voice on top
and your mixed voice in the middle,
a blend of the chest voice
and the head voice,
which is why
other at all mythologies out there
only have like M1
and M2 and no, like third thing.
(18:22):
But if we use, like
just said, sideways
mixed voice, we have three registers.
Some people also say that you have,
vocal fry at the bottom.
Vocal fry is this,
right that, that creaking sound.
And so some people,
consider that a vocal register as well.
(18:44):
I don't really care
if you want to call it
a vocal register or not.
Whatever tickles
your fancy is fine with me.
And then whistle on the top.
Some people say that,
you know, like Mariah Carey
kind of whistle. I'm a terrible whistler.
I'm not even going to
make a fool of myself and try,
but Mariah Carey, Ariana Grande,
you know what I'm talking about
that stuff up there.
Some people refer to that
as a register as well.
(19:05):
Again, if that tickles
your fancy, love that for you.
Whatever is fine with me.
Now, I do want to talk about tone,
because some people think that falsetto
or belting that those are also
a vocal register. And
(19:25):
again, at the end of
the day, it's just labels.
So, you know,
I don't want to be like, that is wrong,
even though technically it is wrong.
But, it's whatever,
like whatever works for you
if you're like, belting is a register.
Cool.
If that works for you, awesome.
Who am I to tell you?
Don't do that. Right.
But technically it's not.
(19:45):
So a belt is a kind of tone,
right?
It's not necessarily a register
because a belt can be.
It's just just voice.
But not all belt is.
It's kind of like a rectangle
and square kind of situation, right?
Like not all
(20:07):
like hold on.
Not all rectangles are squares.
But all squares are rectangles.
That's how it goes. Hold on.
My brain was just like,
is that how it goes?
Yeah, I think that's how it goes.
So, that is kind of
like the a similar situation here
with like, belting, right.
Like belt is a part of your chest voice.
It's that upper register.
Like if I'm singing like
(20:27):
and by Whitney Houston.
Right.
Like if I'm singing that up there,
that would be a belt
which is very chest dominant.
Some people also say
that a belt can be also a very strong
mixed voice.
Some people say it's a mixed belt,
others say
it's still just a belt,
but it's it's more of like a chest.
(20:50):
I'm in a mix. Right?
So again,
this is where the lines get very blurred.
But again,
like a belt technically is not,
a register.
It's the kind of tone that we create,
which is also why
your head voice
doesn't necessarily need to be weak.
Right.
Like,
a lot of people
think that the head voice
is a very weak thing,
(21:10):
but I can sing like a yeah,
that's my head voice.
It's a pure head voice.
It's not even a mix.
It's just a yeah,
it's head voice
with a lot of twang on it.
I'm changing the tone of my head voice
to make it sound more powerful,
but that's just the twang
that I'm adding on top of that
(21:30):
more narrow kind of, vocal tract.
So to get that kind of
brightness in there.
But that's still just head voice
and now falsetto,
that's one of those things.
Or it's like one is falsetto.
A some people say that,
a male's head voice is falsetto.
Some people refer to
falsetto as head voice,
like they're interchangeable.
(21:52):
Others say
that falsetto is a breathy head voice.
Some say that
falsetto is higher than your head voice.
So, you know, falsetto is used in
a lot of different ways out there.
But what I'm referring to here,
when I'm using falsetto
is I'm talking about a breathy
(22:12):
kind of head voice, like a,
when did it end?
Enjoyment.
Sad again.
Billie Eilish.
Right. So,
that's a breathy head voice.
That'll be falsetto, right?
It's like kind of tone quality.
(22:33):
It's not a register.
Yeah, I think sounds cool.
So again,
ballads and falsetto and twang,
those are not registers.
Those are tone qualities.
Just voice makes voice and head voice.
And if you look at the extension of it,
the vocal fry and the whistle voice,
(22:54):
those are your registers with again,
chest voice, McFly's head voice
being the most important ones.
So what do you do with this information?
What is the important part about this?
Why are we talking about this?
You need to know this kind of stuff
and then identify in your voice
where are you?
Like what comes more natural to you?
What's easier for you to do?
(23:14):
And then work on the other thing
as much as possible,
like spend the majority of your time
there again,
because at the end of the day,
it's all about balance, right?
If you want to sing any notes in any way,
in blue, any shade of green or yellow,
it's about balance.
So identify what's easier.
What's more of a challenge?
(23:35):
Work more on what's challenging
and still work on what's easy.
Again, we want to have both
so that the two can start
coming together.
And we'll,
we'll create another episode on,
you know, just mixed voice
and, you know, like how to mix,
effortlessly, smoothly, seamlessly.
(23:57):
No cracks and all that stuff.
We'll, we'll create just an episode
on that specific topic on its own.
Two but again,
to snow
in order to get there, in order
to get to all shades of green,
it's about balance.
And it starts
with just switch and head voice.
You cannot get
to a perfectly balanced sound
if you don't have head voice,
or if you don't have chest voice,
or it's not as well developed
(24:18):
as the other one, you need both.
Now, of course,
I have an exercise for you
so that you can practice
these register changes.
This exercise is, inspired by Rocketman
by Elton John.
And it's mostly going to, explore
your chest voice in your head voice
so that you can really feel
the difference between the two,
because, again, that's where it starts.
(24:40):
Like, that's
how you're going to get to a mixed voice.
You need to develop these two first.
You really feel the difference
and start getting comfortable in there.
And there's a little bit of mix
in there too.
But without further
ado, let's
just do the exercise
so that we can actually explore
these different vocal registers.
You do?
It's gonna be a long, long time.
(25:04):
Oh, no, I,
I command this.
Oh. Ooh.
It's gonna be a long, long time.
Oh, no.
I,
the Rocket man.
(25:24):
You know, you
it's gonna be a long, long time.
Oh, no, I will rock,
and then you.
It's gonna be a long, long time
(25:46):
until I see,
a rocket man.
You know?
Oh, you.
It's gonna be a long, long time, but,
the rocket lab.
How do you like your voice?
(26:10):
Music, I the like, I don't care.
I mean, because
I feel like with that,
I've gone through.
It's gonna be a long, long time.
Oh, yeah.
(26:31):
For, like, a month.
All righty. Great.
I hope this was helpful
with, you know, feeling
the difference
between your chest voice in your head
voice and like, okay,
I see where we're going with this.
Keep exploring that
and then start marrying the two together.
In your mixed voice, in the beautiful,
all different kind of shades of green.
(26:53):
Let's do it.
But again,
like I said,
we're going to focus on just mixed voice
in another episode here.
Very soon too, so stay tuned for that.
Anyways,
thank you so much for singing with me.
I hope this was helpful.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate
to shoot me
a message on Instagram at Vox.
If studios
happy to help out wherever I can.
(27:14):
There, and don't
forget to check out our resources
in the description,
of this episode as well.
Alrighty, thanks for tuning in.
I'll see you in the next one.
if you want to sing,
(00:01):
like a note more powerfully,
but it's up in your range
and you're like,
I just can't get the power
all the way up there.
I need to work on more chest voice
because like you just learned,
your chest voice
is the source of power, right?
Like, okay, if I want to add more power,
I need to work on my chest voice.
Well, actually, a lot of the times.
Again, not always,
but a lot of the time
it's not actually a lack of power
(00:21):
that keeps you from singing up there.
It's actually a lack of flexibility
to help you bring the power up
into these notes with you.
And I'm just dominant
mixed voice in a mixed belt
(00:42):
Hey, VoxStar and welcome to
From Singer To Artist.
I'm Lara
Chapman, award winning
singer and songwriter
turned viral vocal coach
and the host of this show.
At VoxTape Studios
we help singers from all over the world
level up their voices
by teaching them
the three fundamental skills
all singers need
technique, awareness and artistry.
Whether you're looking to go pro
(01:03):
or just develop your voice for fun.
My team and I are here to help.
Check the link in the description
to book your first session, or grab
some of our other resources.
All righty. Are you ready?
Let's get started.
else that you're going to be doing
(01:24):
is going to be built
on top of your vocal registers,
all their riffs and their runs
and everything,
and they'll be Grange
and the belting and all of that stuff
builds on top of your vocal register.
So that's what I want to talk about.
Today.
We're going to go through
the different vocal registers,
how to identify them,
what they feel like in your voice,
how you can access them as well.
Okay.
(01:45):
So we're going to start at the bottom
of the range of the register range.
And by the way,
there are different opinions out there.
There's different mythologies out there.
What I'm using here is
what I've been doing my entire life
and what most singers
and vocal teachers out there use as well.
But there, like I said,
(02:06):
there are different mythologies
and different terms
for kind of like the same thing
that we are describing here. Okay.
So at the bottom
we have your chest voice.
Your chest voice is literally
your speaking voice.
At least in 99.9% of cases,
your chest voice is your speaking voice.
So hello, how are you?
My name is Laura Howe.
I'm happy to be here.
I'm happy too
excited and happy and excited.
I'm excited to talk to you about,
(02:27):
your registers.
Right like that right here.
That is my chest voice.
That's my speaking voice.
And because it is your speaking voice,
it is, most likely or more likely
that your chest voice
is the most developed
register in your singing.
It just kind of like.
Depends on the singer. Always.
(02:49):
Everything always depends on the person.
But in most cases,
your chest voice is a little bit
more developed than the other registers.
By the way,
the name Chest voice comes
from where you feel the resonance.
So I'm just speaking down here,
or I'm
singing like
twinkle, Twinkle little star.
How I wonder what you are.
I can feel
(03:09):
the vibrations down here in my chest.
It's.
That doesn't mean I'm
singing from my chest.
Because your vocal folds
are in your throat
and not anywhere else,
so you're always singing
from your throat.
But it's where.
Where I feel
the vibrations
happening down here in my chest.
That's where the name came from.
This is what some people
(03:30):
also refer to as their natural voice.
Like some people say,
they have a natural voice
in a fake voice.
And, that's basically what that means.
Your chest voice is your natural voice.
And the other register
will be your takeaways.
And we're going to talk about that
in just a second.
But you just voice is your natural voice.
Your speaking voice.
And that's
why it's easier for most people.
(03:50):
Now if you're like,
I can't really do chest voice.
I don't know how to do it.
I don't know how to access it,
at least not in songs.
What you can do
is imitate that Santa Clause.
So if you feel like
you're lacking that power,
imitate some Santa Claus
and then try singing the phrase again.
So let's say
twinkle, twinkle little star,
because I just use that example, right?
So usually that would be sung
more like twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.
(04:14):
How I wonder what you are,
but let's pretend
I want to add a little bit
more power into that.
I would go, oh twinkle, twinkle
little star, how I wonder what you are.
Obviously very different kind of sound.
That's my just voice.
An extreme
version of my chest voice, sure,
(04:36):
but that would be my chest voice.
So imitating
some Santa Clause can really help
you get into that.
Another thing that you can try
is speech based singing.
So that would be basically
speaking the lyrics
because again,
your chest voice is your speaking voice.
So we're trying to get it
as speech like as possible
to make it more chesty.
So twinkle, twinkle little star,
(04:57):
how I wonder what you are.
Okay.
Twinkle twinkle little star.
How I wonder what you are.
Twinkle, twinkle little star.
How I wonder what you are.
I'm literally like first
just speaking it.
And I'm
trying to get closer and closer
and closer to the actual melody
until I'm singing it.
But I'm still in my chest.
(05:17):
Was it not
twinkle twinkle
Little star, how I wonder what you are,
which is not your chest voice,
Where do you hear
chest voice most often in songs?
Well, that's
usually in the verses,
because the verses
are usually a little bit lower
then the choruses
or the bridge in a song.
(05:38):
So usually the song starts out
a little bit lower
and therefore more in your chest voice,
but obviously that's not a guarantee.
Like that's not always the case.
It's also possible
that the chorus is in a chest
voice as well.
You can't really be like verses always,
and just the voice
chorus is always in something else.
You can't really go off of that.
You have to
listen to the singer and be like, okay,
(06:01):
does this sound
like they're speaking voice?
Does this sound powerful?
So here's the thing.
Your chest voice is the source of power,
okay?
If you are lacking power,
you're probably going
to want to work on your chest voice
because that's
where your power comes from.
It's thicker.
Your vocal folds
literally are shorter and thicker.
(06:22):
So your vocal folds,
they're shaped like a V,
and they stretch long when you sing hi.
And in order to get that stretch,
they have to get thinner.
But if I'm singing lower,
they're thicker, meaning
I can get, more,
more surface, touching essentially,
which gives you
more,
more power, more volume, more, more.
(06:44):
I don't want to say resonance
because that's not
not really what that is, but it just
it just gives you that more,
kind of sound.
Right?
So that's why your
chest voice is the source of power. Okay.
And just for future reference,
your chest voice is the color blue.
I mean, it's not, actually.
But I have a little analogy
(07:04):
that I like using that,
every time I tell it to someone,
they're like, oh, my God,
that makes so much sense.
So this is one part of the analogy.
Your chest voice is the color blue.
another register.
We're going to skip
the one in the middle.
They're going to go to the top one.
That's your head voice.
Your head voice is up here. Right.
So if I'm speaking up here
and I sound maybe like a little bit
(07:25):
like Mickey Mouse,
I'm really bad at impressions,
but that up here,
that is your head voice, right?
That sounds completely different.
Some people would refer to this
as, like, their fake voice. Right.
Because it feels like it's
not really a part of them.
It's like, oh my God,
I can make these weird sounds, but,
it doesn't feel quite natural, right?
Feels like a fake in quotes voice.
So that's your head?
(07:46):
Voice. It's usually higher.
It's usually lighter.
I might be a little bit brighter,
depending on the singer. Right.
So that's your that's your head voice.
It's not usually how we speak. Right.
Because of that, it's usually the more
or the less developed register in our,
in our voice. Right.
So in most cases
we need to work on head
(08:06):
voice a little bit
more than we need to work on chest voice.
But it really just, it depends.
It depends on the singer.
It always depends on the singer.
Is it just general advice?
But that's your that's your head voice.
Right.
So if we go back to the twinkle, twinkle,
that's usually how we would sing
that song, right?
Twinkle, twinkle little star.
(08:27):
How I wonder what you are.
Hello.
All right, that's your head voice.
Twinkle, twinkle.
Compared to twinkle, twinkle.
Very, very different.
So that's your head voice.
And we sing lullabies in head voice
when we speak.
if you're trying
(08:47):
to, like, get into a head
voice, you're like,
I just can't access a head voice.
Well,
you can pretend like you're
speaking to a child or a pet, like,
oh my God, look at you.
Are you just so cute?
That's your head voice up here, right?
You can also pretend,
like you're an owl. Woo
hoo hoo hoo!
(09:08):
That can also help you,
get into that head voice.
If you can't access it just yet.
I especially see this with male singers.
They're really solid
down in their chest voice,
and they cannot access their head
voice at all.
And so, you know, doing that
owl can really help, like,
the owl impression
can really help
getting into into the head voice.
(09:30):
Now,
should you be working on your head voice
even if you don't ever want to sing?
Hi. The answer is yes.
Because your head voice
is the source of flexibility.
So your chest voice is
the source of power, right?
Your head
voice is the source of flexibility.
(09:50):
And so if you want to riff,
if you want to, expand your range,
even in a powerful belt like voice,
you still have to work on flexibility
because you need the flexibility
to get the power up into these notes.
If you want to do vibrato,
if you want to do like
if you want to improve your pitch,
if you want to do crazy
like pitch jumps, things like that,
(10:11):
that all comes from vocal agility.
So even if you don't want to sing up here
and pretend like you're my Mariah Carey,
then you should still be working
on your head voice.
And that's a mistake
that I made early on in my career.
I stopped completely
working on my head voice
because I was like, chest voice.
That is my thing, baby.
And I'm going to keep singing down here
(10:31):
because I love it.
Completely stopped
working on my head voice.
Worst mistake
or one of the worst mistakes.
I made a lot of mistakes in my journey
and my singing journey,
but always work on both.
Always work on both.
Because it's going to make sense
in just a minute.
By the way, head voice comes, from,
you know, you feeling the resonance,
(10:52):
the vibrations up in your head.
I'm not very much of a touchy
feely kind of person,
so I don't really feel
the vibrations again,
the sound always comes from your throat.
Whether you're singing up here
or singing down here,
it all comes from your throat
because that's
where your vocal folds are.
It's just chest voice,
because vibrations heard.
Voice because it's up here.
Okay.
Vibrations technically are up there.
(11:13):
Okay.
Your head voice
for reference is the color yellow.
So again, so is this color blue?
Yellow is your head voice.
Now if I am going from chest voice
directly to head voice
and I slide between the two, it's
going to sound like this.
(11:37):
Right here, that
crack smack
dab in the middle of my range.
If you've been experiencing this,
then you're already like, okay,
I can already access my chest voice
and I can already access my head voice,
which is awesome. I love that for you.
Now we need to explore
that third register in the middle,
the mix voice or mixed voice?
(11:57):
Same thing.
Just a slight difference,
but in the name.
But, that is when you're a blending,
you're mixing the chest voice
and the head voice together.
It's not a third separate thing.
It's not like red
or, gold or whatever
other color that you can think of.
It's the color green, right?
(12:20):
Because when you mix blue and yellow,
if you paid attention
in a, in elementary school,
you know that if you mix blue and yellow,
you get the color green, right?
That is your mix voice.
It's not a third separate thing.
It is a blend of the chest voice
and the head voice,
which is what makes mix voice
a little bit more complicated
and a little bit more difficult
to do for most people
because they don't really feel
(12:42):
that big of a difference.
They're like,
well, am I in chest voice
now, or am I
in a mixed voice or am I in head voice,
or is it more of a mix?
At the end of the day,
they're just labels, okay?
And yes, labels can be very helpful,
but we don't want to obsess over labels
so much
so that they just leave us confused.
(13:03):
At the end of the day,
what's important
is that you're getting the sound
that you're looking for
and and this one's important
and that it feels good.
The sound that you're creating,
that that feels good
is just equally as important
as it's actually sounding the way
you want it to sound.
Okay,
but what you want to call that,
I don't really care.
So here's the thing with your mix voice.
Depending on how much blue,
(13:24):
how much just words
and how much yellow,
how much head
voice your using,
you're going to get a different shade
of green,
more blue
and just a drop of yellow
is a very dark green,
a lot of yellow
and just a little bit of blue
is going to be a very light green.
5050 is going to be in the middle
sort of kind of green. Right.
(13:45):
It's the same thing for your mixed voice.
We can be just dominant.
We can be head dominant.
We can be 5050.
It's a spectrum of mixed voice.
It's not one specific thing.
It can be many different things.
Again, depending on how much head voice
and how much chest voice
you're using in your sound.
So again,
going back to Twinkle twinkle, right.
(14:05):
So if I'm saying you can just voice
twinkle, Twinkle Little Star,
how I wonder what you are.
That would be chest voice
I'm singing head voice
it's twinkle, twinkle little star.
How I wonder what you are.
That would be like a head voice
right then.
(14:26):
If I'm doing it
some somewhere
like in the middle kind of mix,
it could be something like this.
Twinkle, twinkle little star.
How I wonder what you are.
So it's not as powerful as a chest voice
and a pure chest voice,
and it's stronger
than just a pure head voice.
It's somewhere in the middle,
(14:47):
and then it can be a more
just dominant mix,
or it can be a more head dominant mix.
Again, like I said, it's
a lot of different things.
Which is why it's difficult sometimes to
to pinpoint exactly what kind of sounds,
what kind of register
you're using right now.
And again, it's just labels.
Don't don't obsess over it.
Just focus on the sound
that you're getting
(15:07):
and the feel of that sound.
It feels good
and it sounds the way you want it to.
Awesome.
Don't worry about what
label you want to give it.
Okay, so that's your mix voice now,
in order to get to
any kind of sound that you want to get,
meaning
you have to develop a mixed voice, right?
Like you have to develop
these different shades of green.
(15:29):
It's all about balance, right?
And all of us,
we have natural strengths
and natural challenges.
Some of us are a little bit
more bottom heavy.
Some of us are a little bit
more top heavy.
More bottom heavy than top
heavy by a lot.
So it just really kind of depends on
the person.
And so let's say
(15:50):
you're like 80% of the way there
with your chest voice
and like 20% of the way
there with your head voice.
That means you would want to work
only 20% on your chest voice and 80%
on your head voice
so that we can
start bringing them closer.
Like on that same level, rather than,
you know, the chest voice
being like
(16:10):
super great and your head voice being
it needs a lot more work.
We want to kind of like
level it out so that,
we can bring balance into our singing.
So if you want to develop
a really solid, awesome mix
where you can sing any shade of green,
then you have to work on balance.
So if you're bottom heavy, work
more in your head voice.
If you're top heavy, work
(16:32):
more in your chest voice.
I'm not saying you should
completely ignore
the thing that comes more naturally,
more easily to you. Please don't do that.
We always again, it's balance, right?
We always want to work on both,
but we just want to try and get them
as close as possible.
And again, going back to the colors,
if you have a lot of blue
and just a little bit
of yellow to work with,
you're always going to be darker green
(16:55):
and it's going to be difficult
to get to that 5050
and lighter kind of green and vice versa
as well. Right?
So it's all about balance in singing.
And unfortunately most of the time
not most of the time,
but often
what I see in singers
is that they're not doing that,
that they're working on
what they think is going to help them,
(17:16):
but it's not actually
what's going to help them.
So, for example,
if you want to sing,
like a note more powerfully,
but it's up in your range
and you're like,
I just can't get the power
all the way up there.
I need to work on more chest voice
because like you just learned,
your chest voice
is the source of power, right?
Like, okay, if I want to add more power,
I need to work on my chest voice.
Well, actually, a lot of the times.
(17:37):
Again, not always,
but a lot of the time
it's not actually a lack of power
that keeps you from singing up there.
It's actually a lack of flexibility
to help you bring the power up
into these notes with you.
And I'm just dominant
mixed voice in a mixed belt is.
But also
a lot of people refer to this as right.
So it's like, okay, identify
(17:59):
which one
you need to work on
and then work on that
as much as possible.
those are your three main registers
your chest voice, your head voice on top
and your mixed voice in the middle,
a blend of the chest voice
and the head voice,
which is why
other at all mythologies out there
only have like M1
and M2 and no, like third thing.
(18:22):
But if we use, like
just said, sideways
mixed voice, we have three registers.
Some people also say that you have,
vocal fry at the bottom.
Vocal fry is this,
right that, that creaking sound.
And so some people,
consider that a vocal register as well.
(18:44):
I don't really care
if you want to call it
a vocal register or not.
Whatever tickles
your fancy is fine with me.
And then whistle on the top.
Some people say that,
you know, like Mariah Carey
kind of whistle. I'm a terrible whistler.
I'm not even going to
make a fool of myself and try,
but Mariah Carey, Ariana Grande,
you know what I'm talking about
that stuff up there.
Some people refer to that
as a register as well.
(19:05):
Again, if that tickles
your fancy, love that for you.
Whatever is fine with me.
Now, I do want to talk about tone,
because some people think that falsetto
or belting that those are also
a vocal register. And
(19:25):
again, at the end of
the day, it's just labels.
So, you know,
I don't want to be like, that is wrong,
even though technically it is wrong.
But, it's whatever,
like whatever works for you
if you're like, belting is a register.
Cool.
If that works for you, awesome.
Who am I to tell you?
Don't do that. Right.
But technically it's not.
(19:45):
So a belt is a kind of tone,
right?
It's not necessarily a register
because a belt can be.
It's just just voice.
But not all belt is.
It's kind of like a rectangle
and square kind of situation, right?
Like not all
(20:07):
like hold on.
Not all rectangles are squares.
But all squares are rectangles.
That's how it goes. Hold on.
My brain was just like,
is that how it goes?
Yeah, I think that's how it goes.
So, that is kind of
like the a similar situation here
with like, belting, right.
Like belt is a part of your chest voice.
It's that upper register.
Like if I'm singing like
(20:27):
and by Whitney Houston.
Right.
Like if I'm singing that up there,
that would be a belt
which is very chest dominant.
Some people also say
that a belt can be also a very strong
mixed voice.
Some people say it's a mixed belt,
others say
it's still just a belt,
but it's it's more of like a chest.
(20:50):
I'm in a mix. Right?
So again,
this is where the lines get very blurred.
But again,
like a belt technically is not,
a register.
It's the kind of tone that we create,
which is also why
your head voice
doesn't necessarily need to be weak.
Right.
Like,
a lot of people
think that the head voice
is a very weak thing,
(21:10):
but I can sing like a yeah,
that's my head voice.
It's a pure head voice.
It's not even a mix.
It's just a yeah,
it's head voice
with a lot of twang on it.
I'm changing the tone of my head voice
to make it sound more powerful,
but that's just the twang
that I'm adding on top of that
(21:30):
more narrow kind of, vocal tract.
So to get that kind of
brightness in there.
But that's still just head voice
and now falsetto,
that's one of those things.
Or it's like one is falsetto.
A some people say that,
a male's head voice is falsetto.
Some people refer to
falsetto as head voice,
like they're interchangeable.
(21:52):
Others say
that falsetto is a breathy head voice.
Some say that
falsetto is higher than your head voice.
So, you know, falsetto is used in
a lot of different ways out there.
But what I'm referring to here,
when I'm using falsetto
is I'm talking about a breathy
(22:12):
kind of head voice, like a,
when did it end?
Enjoyment.
Sad again.
Billie Eilish.
Right. So,
that's a breathy head voice.
That'll be falsetto, right?
It's like kind of tone quality.
(22:33):
It's not a register.
Yeah, I think sounds cool.
So again,
ballads and falsetto and twang,
those are not registers.
Those are tone qualities.
Just voice makes voice and head voice.
And if you look at the extension of it,
the vocal fry and the whistle voice,
(22:54):
those are your registers with again,
chest voice, McFly's head voice
being the most important ones.
So what do you do with this information?
What is the important part about this?
Why are we talking about this?
You need to know this kind of stuff
and then identify in your voice
where are you?
Like what comes more natural to you?
What's easier for you to do?
(23:14):
And then work on the other thing
as much as possible,
like spend the majority of your time
there again,
because at the end of the day,
it's all about balance, right?
If you want to sing any notes in any way,
in blue, any shade of green or yellow,
it's about balance.
So identify what's easier.
What's more of a challenge?
(23:35):
Work more on what's challenging
and still work on what's easy.
Again, we want to have both
so that the two can start
coming together.
And we'll,
we'll create another episode on,
you know, just mixed voice
and, you know, like how to mix,
effortlessly, smoothly, seamlessly.
(23:57):
No cracks and all that stuff.
We'll, we'll create just an episode
on that specific topic on its own.
Two but again,
to snow
in order to get there, in order
to get to all shades of green,
it's about balance.
And it starts
with just switch and head voice.
You cannot get
to a perfectly balanced sound
if you don't have head voice,
or if you don't have chest voice,
or it's not as well developed
(24:18):
as the other one, you need both.
Now, of course,
I have an exercise for you
so that you can practice
these register changes.
This exercise is, inspired by Rocketman
by Elton John.
And it's mostly going to, explore
your chest voice in your head voice
so that you can really feel
the difference between the two,
because, again, that's where it starts.
(24:40):
Like, that's
how you're going to get to a mixed voice.
You need to develop these two first.
You really feel the difference
and start getting comfortable in there.
And there's a little bit of mix
in there too.
But without further
ado, let's
just do the exercise
so that we can actually explore
these different vocal registers.
You do?
It's gonna be a long, long time.
(25:04):
Oh, no, I,
I command this.
Oh. Ooh.
It's gonna be a long, long time.
Oh, no.
I,
the Rocket man.
(25:24):
You know, you
it's gonna be a long, long time.
Oh, no, I will rock,
and then you.
It's gonna be a long, long time
(25:46):
until I see,
a rocket man.
You know?
Oh, you.
It's gonna be a long, long time, but,
the rocket lab.
How do you like your voice?
(26:10):
Music, I the like, I don't care.
I mean, because
I feel like with that,
I've gone through.
It's gonna be a long, long time.
Oh, yeah.
(26:31):
For, like, a month.
All righty. Great.
I hope this was helpful
with, you know, feeling
the difference
between your chest voice in your head
voice and like, okay,
I see where we're going with this.
Keep exploring that
and then start marrying the two together.
In your mixed voice, in the beautiful,
all different kind of shades of green.
(26:53):
Let's do it.
But again,
like I said,
we're going to focus on just mixed voice
in another episode here.
Very soon too, so stay tuned for that.
Anyways,
thank you so much for singing with me.
I hope this was helpful.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate
to shoot me
a message on Instagram at Vox.
If studios
happy to help out wherever I can.
(27:14):
There, and don't
forget to check out our resources
in the description,
of this episode as well.
Alrighty, thanks for tuning in.
I'll see you in the next one.
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