September 15, 2025 • 37 mins
Mix voice is one of the most misunderstood and mis-taught concepts in singing. It’s not a mystical vocal mode you unlock by singing louder or higher. It’s a coordination—a blend of vocal fold closure, vocal fold thickness, and airflow balance that lets you transition seamlessly between registers.
We tackled what mix voice actually is, how to develop it without strain, and why it feels so elusive for most singers. You’ll hear how to stop chasing volume, reduce unnecessary weight, and invite more head voice into your middle. Because once you stop muscling and start coordinating, everything starts to click.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
so lightening my chest voice
I was working on increasing breath flow
and decreasing closure in my vocal folds
cause when I would go up like ah ah
this would happen yeah
right and I would just like start pushing through
and it sounds very tight right because it
(00:20):
but like physically in the vocal folds
they're closing too firmly right
yeah so I was like
alright cool
if I wanna like lighten my chest voice
like up high in my range um
I have to like
increase breath flow slash decrease vocal fold closure
so it was like more like a
ah
right now I'm getting more like into that mix
(00:42):
kind of land up
you're keeping your larynx pretty low too
yeah uh yes
cause yeah my
my larynx which has kind of get stuck up too high
and your larynx does go up in contemporary singing
when you're going up in pitch
yes we just don't want it to get stuck
yes we don't want to get stuck anywhere yeah
(01:08):
Hey Vox Star 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
(01:29):
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
Alrighty are you ready
let's get started mix voice
you might understand it on paper
but it's a whole other thing
to actually do it in your singing
I am not a natural mixer not even a little bit
(01:51):
and I have to work so hard on it
but I have two lovely
ladies here with me in the studio today
Coach Juliana and Coach Emily
hey welcome
welcome and the three of us are very
very different singers
and so we all experience mix in a different way
Emily you're a very like natural mixer
(02:13):
I've been mixing since I could talk
because that's how I talk
I'm talking here right now on this part of my range
I my default isn't here
yeah that's where my default is right
like I'm just like ugh hahaha
and my default also isn't here
you know it's that in between
and then I always say
I taught myself how to sing by singing all the parts
in wicked yeah
and I mean
(02:33):
you do enough chest voice and enough head voice
and then enough Nessa Rose and you're mixing
um so yeah
so mixing is my default and I've had to work to
oh yeah I can
I can be in true head voice up there
and I can be in true chest down there
that's actually a newer one for me
rounding out the bottom of my mix
but yeah I've been a I've been a mixer
(02:54):
yeah this whole time
what about you Juliana
I feel like I was more of a natural mixer
but I wasn't really aware of what I was doing
until I had training
and understood what each register actually felt like
yeah and then learning how to control it yeah
yeah
(03:15):
100% I was just a very bottom heavy singer
you guys are both more top heavy I am much
much much more bottom heavy
so for me it was incredibly hard to get into a mix
I would just pull chest up as high as I humanly could
and then crack and then try again
and it wasn't really until I was
(03:36):
I mean I was always working on my head voice
but I just couldn't like really mix the two together
so let's talk about like what is mixed on paper
so that you know
if you're listening and you're like
what are they talking about
what are they talking about
we got you okay
so I like to use this color analogy
think of your chest voice as the color blue ah
this is your chest voice right
(03:56):
and then you have your head voice
it's much higher it's much lighter
it's brighter that's the color yellow okay
now your mix
is a blend of the head voice and the chest voice
so it's a mix of yellow and blue
and when you mix yellow and blue together
what do you get you get the color green
if you paid attention and elementary school
you know the answer to that anyway
(04:17):
so you get the color green
it's not a third separate thing
it's not red or gold or purple or whatever
it's green it's a blend of the two
it's a mix it's the mix of the two
exactly the name yeah
that's exactly where the name comes from right
so it is much harder to feel the difference there
in a mix compared to like chest voice and head voice
(04:40):
yeah right
like that's so much easier to feel the difference
between the two but if it's like well
am I in head voice or am I in a mix
or am I in chest voice or am I in a mix
it's a little harder to feel sometimes uh
but mix voice is not just like one shade of green
it is all shades of green between blue and yellow
so if you use a lot of blue
(05:02):
if you use a lot of chest voice
and just a drop of head voice
you get a very dark green right
that would be probably more like a mix belt
or just a chest like a chest dominant mix
exactly and then you have a lot of yellow
and just a little bit of blue
a lot of head voice
and just a little bit of chest voice
that's gonna get you a more head dominant mix
(05:23):
and they're all gonna sound different
and they have to 50 50 and everything in between right
so different shades of green
that's all mix and basically
what the mix helps us do is eliminate that
crack in the middle of the voice right
so if I'm just going ah
just to head directly
I have this big crack this gap in my voice right
(05:44):
but if I'm going ah
and I kind of like mix through it
now I was eliminating the crack and it was more smooth
exactly yeah it's like smoothing down pavement yeah
fixing all the crack no potholes
that was never a thing in Indiana that's fine okay
(06:04):
I was like when people asked me before
I thought about the colors cause that's brilliant
I'll be like this is your chest
this is your head and mix it right in between
and it's up to you to move that little levers like yeah
I like that too so it's like
it's constantly moving based on where you are
on your range based on the song
how much air flow we need
(06:24):
like the tone you're trying to get so many variables
so it's just kind of adapting survival yeah
absolutely now
and to bounce off that
I've worked with a couple people who have um
lifted up in the in YouTube videos on mix and they're
and they've been like I need to work on mix
please don't tell
me to blend my head voice and chest voice
(06:47):
and please don't tell me to lighten my chest voice
or weigh down my head voice
because those are just words to me
like how do you actually do that
yes and I was like okay fair
yeah fair
because guess what
I'm talking in a chest dominant mix right now
and then I can just keep going up and then
you know like
and that's just how my voice works
(07:07):
I have
I view mix as very stretchy
yeah I think about stretching upwards
or stretching downwards and it's like
like slime yeah
you know yeah
like that's how I view it
and like of course
these are all imagery based
but I think that's a very
sometimes when you get a little too technical with mix
sometimes it helps like
I'll get into that
(07:28):
and when we talk about how to train mix
but um yeah
I think imagery can really
really help with mix but yeah
so how do you yeah
lighten your chest voice
and how do you add meat to your head voice
yeah like how do you
so I had to work on lightening my chest voice
so maybe I can I can speak on that
so lightening my chest voice
(07:49):
I was working on increasing breath flow
and decreasing closure in my vocal folds
cause when I would go up like ah
ugh this would happen
yeah right
and I would just like start
pushing through and it sounds very tight right
because it is
but like physically in the vocal folds
(08:10):
they're closing too firmly right
yeah so I was like
alright cool
if I wanna like lighten my chest voice
like up high in my range um
I have to like
increase breath flow slash decrease vocal fold closure
so it was like more like a ah
ah
right now I'm getting more like into that mix
kind of land up
(08:30):
you're keeping your larynx pretty low too
yeah uh
yes cause yeah
my my larynx
which has kind of get stuck up too high
and your larynx does go up in contemporary singing
when you're going up in pitch
yeah yes
we just don't want it to get stuck
yes we don't want it to get stuck anywhere yeah
flexibility is like your yeah
and also the higher the larynx
(08:51):
the more squeezy yeah
the more closure you're getting in your vocal folds
right so breathy
lowering larynx like
all of those things
I do to decrease vocal fold closure
but and that makes your
that for me at least it was lightening my chest voice
and allowing me to bring more CT in right
more head dominance like not head dominance
(09:13):
but more head voice into into the mix
so practicing like a breathy chest voice
essentially is what I
is what I did to help me with that
getting those antagonist muscles to work
at the same time yeah
work together
that's like totally what I what I train students in
right um
another thing to add on top of that
(09:34):
training your head voice to go down
and your chest voice to go up
not just in range but also in a 5 4
3 2 1 1
2 3
4 5
there's an exercise that I was
given in grad school to work with someone on
and it's literally just a fifth and a fifth
and you just go down until you are bored down in head
(10:02):
ah
and I say we're gonna do this for a while hmm
we're and you just stay on the same pitches as well
and you put your target note
somewhere in the middle of that
and you're just training the back and forth
and back and forth that coordination yeah
because think about it in terms of
and the antagonistic pair
that we are always talking about
when we're talking about the vocal folds is the
the bicep tricep situation right
(10:25):
we need uh when our tricep engages right
and we're bringing our arm in
we don't just have it here or here
we have this full range of motion
same with the bicep when we bring it back down
we're not just boom yeah
like we're here I know I'm yeah
it goes all the way up and down
so we're not just working on this part and this part
we need to do this part in the middle
(10:46):
we need to train them both to come
meet in the middle here yeah
that's why I love doing sirens
oh yeah
sirens I think are a great way for vocal exploration
yeah yeah absolutely
how do you guys do your sirens
I usually start with uh
s o v t
like electro and then I start with a closer vowel
(11:07):
then I open it up so that it's a
not shocking yeah
like a oh
from the beginning yeah
yeah yeah
yeah that's why you softly go into it
do you go over a scale like a no
I usually do like a little octave
and then I go lower and then I go higher
and then I do a full circle
hmm hmm
like I I like to pace myself
yeah that's good
yeah yeah
(11:27):
be gentle yeah
yeah it depends on the student I'm working with
like sometimes we need to remove
remove the music part out
oh yeah
yeah and just be like
let's just not don't think of it as singing
think of it as just like moving through your voice
yeah yeah
cause if we told any kid
go to the middle of your voice to go here
what about here could I be here and like
oh great
you're mixing perfectly that's freaking awesome
(11:48):
yeah yeah
yeah good for you
yeah yeah
right like
but the second we're like
go into your mix voice and sustain
yeah it's yeah
so I'll do something similar
I'll either put it on an octave or just put it on like
go from the bottom all the way to the top
now I want you to live in the bottom
for as long as you can and then
(12:09):
and then use a I sometimes I'll say
use a little extra puff of air
so you don't have a crack there
when you get into head voice so uh
ah if this yeah
if you like really listen
you can't hear the ha of it yeah yeah
but there's that it gets a little airy yeah
mm hmm a little airy to smooth through
(12:30):
so my first solution is always
let's smooth through the crack
even if we're not living in that a big mix range
let's just figure out how to tell the body like hey
we're doing something else here yeah
we're doing something else here
and then I'll say alright
then when you hit that moment
where you feel like it has to flip
just sustain sustain
just hold it out hold it out for as long as you can
(12:50):
and also that's where that support comes around yeah
engaging your the correction muscles and relaxing
and there's just so much that goes into it
but yeah yeah
which is why the little kid part is that
which is why then they eventually just go OK
just take it off the octave yeah
take it off the octave and go whoo yeah yeah yeah
yeah I like kind of meowing OK
(13:12):
that's a great way OK
now we get into Tambour OK
OK OK
OK OK OK OK OK
so you know how like so many voice teachers out there
like on the internet like us huh
uh they're like oh
do like a yeah or nay nay nay nay or whatever I'm like
big just closes off my throat
(13:34):
and it just does not work for me
and then it's like this is the best mix voice exercise
and I'm like it doesn't work for me
there's something wrong with me no
it's just not right for me
for example like right now you're saying nah
and that's a lot of mmm
I say Ma meow it's kind of like that does yeah
over meow it's like ah
(13:56):
I have to work really hard to get that sound
and you also mentioned um
that your larynx likes to get stuck
exactly so I have to work on lowering it
so now we take this high larynx exercise
which if you're if you're stuck singing like this
you probably want that you want to get the larynx up
so now we singing like this
cause even if I'm more head dominant
(14:17):
I would consider this a head dominant mix
and we can talk about whatever the f that means later
but you know um
so yeah so it's not
you gotta find how many times have I said this
you gotta find your ticket in
you gotta find your key to unlock the door
if for me brightness was my ticket in
but that is not the solution for you
(14:38):
like I'm not everyone yeah
I'm the head dominant adding brightness
to my Tambour takes me out of head voice
but adding brightness to your chest
dominant tambour is like going
ah
yeah now I'm just like ah
like I'm still squeezing my way up
and now I've created less space yeah yeah
(15:00):
so but if I'm going ah
instead of ah going ah
that smooths it out for me
because of the direction that my voice yeah
naturally likes to just kind of fall in right
yeah so as with everything
it's gonna be different for everybody
yeah hahaha oh
that makes singing so hard and frustrating sometimes
(15:22):
right which is why I always say alright
you're doing it anyway when you talk yes
not everyone actually
lately
I've been talking to a couple international students
in particular and I've been like
try saying hey hey
like you're calling across the street and they're like
I say hey yeah
like I don't do that that's not in my vocal vernacular
(15:45):
and it was so interesting
we were doing another episode
I don't even remember which one
who knows but we were doing something and you were like
oh yeah
can you do that that hey hey
it was something like that
and I was trying to match you and I'm like
you're trying to match my pitch too that that exactly
I was trying to match the pitch and I'm like
I can't I can't get I mean
I can but not in that same mixy place
(16:06):
I would have to make it less chesty
otherwise it's like getting stuck
so it's like different voices are gonna sound different
and some things come more easily to others yes
than to others anyways you can absolutely yeah
I also think it's like a good example of
know what your default is yeah
(16:28):
like I always I will always if you say hey
just like sing something for me just Mark it
I'll probably go yeah yeah um
you know whatever I had to so work so hard to get that
yeah yeah
like yeah
I'm coming down I'm losing all the power
and this is just where I'm talking
cause this is where I've been talking for the podcast
yeah until late in the evening when I'm like down here
(16:49):
yeah or early in the morning when I'm here
you know like yeah
so know where your default is
and then adjust from there also you might
it is unfortunately
sometimes people say I'm super chesty right
(17:10):
uh huh because you have so much power
because you have so much power
but you're trying to build
like this and you're like
I'm yeah
I'm squeezing so I must be yanking at my chest but no
you're not you're not you're not so identify
I think you have a great thing about like find your
your persona your vocal persona
(17:30):
oh and your prima voce
that's a yes like I love that one
I love yeah
prima voce the
the sweet spot of your voice yeah
I think you were talking about the quiz
yeah the quiz
the like songbird the powerhouse chest voice
the powerhouse and the expressionist
I'll link to that
so if you wanna take our little vocal persona quiz
oh the
the quiz right
to kind of find where your voice is sitting
(17:51):
but also know that like sometimes you need to
if you are you're really strong here
and then you get here and it feels like this
and then it goes ah yeah
we gotta work on your head voice
but if you're if you're here singing always right here
and then you try to squeeze
that's actually
we had a student who is now melting her face off um
(18:14):
or we have a student who's belting her face off
who who who
who who Billy Billy
yes Billy
and we realize we cause she's been like
I'm yanking at my chest voice
I'm yanking at my chest voice
and I was like girl
with the amount of twang that you're
you're using you're not in chest voice hmm
so instead of adding more head
because she also had a light head voice
(18:35):
yeah but that's all she was using right
they're just
we just needed to readjust some coordination yeah
so we spent a lot of time
I said we're gonna bulk up your chest
voice in an ascending pattern
so we would just do um we do it on GA GA GA
ah I noticed at the top I'm not going GA
(18:55):
going GA
keeping it full chest and bringing that up
not to the point of of pushing
but just training those muscles
starting as low as we can
or starting around as low as we can
going down going up um
training those chest
waist muscles to go up and actually
(19:16):
you know working through the obstacle at hand
instead of what the obstacle could be yeah
yeah yeah
no I love that you brought up the quiz
cause I just recently did a trial with someone and um
she's doing the program
she's gonna be working with both of you yeah
so uh
Joe to see if you're watching hello
oh hey
you just got scheduled
you just got put on my schedule last night
exactly I just put her on a schedule
(19:37):
so she's just starting out and she's like
I took your quiz and it kept giving me songbird
and I just don't agree and
and then I was like alright
well totally fair
you know it's not
it's not perfect it's not hearing you
it's not hearing you
you're answering questions based on what you think yeah
your perception right
exactly and then
(19:58):
and then we were singing and then I was like
oh no yeah
you are a songbird
you definitely are the quiz was absolutely correct
but she just didn't understand that
like she she thought that songbird was just like
you're just singing like this all the time
and I'm like did you know Ariana Grande is a songbird
and she can sound powerful as heck right
(20:21):
and she's like yeah
oh but she's just not a Demi Lovato yeah
which is a powerhouse right
and so when you're when you're doing like the big like
oh like that
uh huh Ariana Grande is not that
but she can be powerful right
yeah so it's not just are you powerful or not
it's just more like
anyway yeah
yeah it's not
it's just where
(20:41):
where is the strongest part of your voice
yeah and then how do we balance out the other half
yes yeah
and I think a lot of the time
and I am so well
I was guilty of this
because I was so happy in my mix and like
oh everything's perfect and fine and dandy
I neglected both extremes
and then I would start losing power in my mix was like
oh I'm not training the entire yeah
(21:02):
yes of my range
so I feel like that's really important
to have a good balance absolutely
in your training and your practice
to not lose flexibility and agility
and every single part of your range
I mean balance is the magic word
yeah right
like mix and a like
all shades of green kind of mix
can happen when there is balance
(21:24):
like you can't get a chest dominant mix like a dark
a dark green kind of mix when you ain't got no blue
yeah how is that gonna happen right
yeah and same thing the other way around as well
like you need to have a solid head and a solid chest
yeah if you wanna mix through Dream On
you can't only have chest voice
(21:44):
cause one
you're just gonna be in a floaty head because at that
in that range
you this you cannot yank your chest up that high
at some point your body's like
that's that's just literally not gonna happen again
it sounds like it but it's not what's happening yeah
yeah 100% 100% yeah so a couple practical things
(22:06):
I think that would be good
so if you are a bottom heavy singer
work on lightening your chest voice
and strengthening the top right
I I had to I had to do both right
like strengthening my
my head voice and stretching it too
because I like I would have the power
but I couldn't stretch high enough
(22:26):
so I would constantly go flat right
like under the note
so that worked really really well for me just like ah
and also
like going really high and stretching up there
so lightening my chest voice
and strengthening my head voice
and stretching it as high as I
can to like feel the stretch in my vocal folds
(22:46):
yeah you guys are
did more like bulking up the bottom
bulking up the bottom that was a big thing
cause same here with the staying and mix especially
cause I did so much musical theater speech like
and I call it like talk like singing are very different
so speech
like musical theater is like get out and stay out
it's funny how you waltz in here
assuming I'd come back right
(23:08):
it sounds like I'm talking
but yeah it sounds like I'm presenting something to you
yeah like I'm reading a story or narrating a book
you know it's a different kind of
instead of like
I got bad news baby and you're the first to know right
that's yeah
say talk like we're we're going to early blues
mm hmm and looking at um
our roots in that as well
yeah yeah
(23:28):
I don't know how I I've lost my point hahaha
I think it's good to know the difference and like
oh yeah yeah yeah yeah
yeah round sorry
can you no
please don't rounding out your voice
I had started learning how to sing blues and I went
I got bad news babe and you're the first to know
yeah and my teacher was like beautiful
can you sing in your chest voice
(23:49):
and I said that is I got bad news baby
yeah and she was like alright
we got work to do and so we literally would just train
I just on a third oh
oh isolating chest voice
true chest voice by itself
and then
I did an exercise that I recommend to a lot of people
(24:09):
who are in my predicament um
which is she called it just stomp around in chest
so this is not aesthetically based
so I literally would like move my feet and just go
I got bad news baby
and you're the first to know it's not to be beautiful
yeah it's to work out a muscle exactly
it's to work out a muscle
(24:30):
it's to do the squats
so then you can walk around in the dress
and yeah yes
I agree and I think
not being scared of low songs was something
that I needed to learn
cause I would always be like
oh and honestly
I'm not
I don't regret it because it helped me be resourceful
so if I had a low note that scared me
(24:51):
I would learn how to flip or do something different
so I was like oh OK
I
I taught myself how to do a lot of things that later on
I knew were techniques but yeah
I didn't and now I'm like okay
if there's a lower note or a lower song
there are ways to adapt without needing to change it
per se like
I don't know like we've
(25:12):
I've been working on Halo with so many yeah
and I like it's one of my favorite songs now
but like that didn't even make a sound yeah
for me it's really hard and it is very low
it's even low for an Alto yeah
it is low
it is so low and then I would immediately be like
just like let's flip it let's change it but then okay
like what is actually possible
(25:32):
and not being scared to train that area
because for me it be like
if I I
because I didn't touch it enough
if I stay too long on that side of my voice
I would just get so tired and like drained and dry
and like I will lose my high register
and same thing on the opposite
if I would stay in my head voice and belt and yeah
(25:53):
I would not have low notes so yeah
that goes 100% that goes into an uh
an exercise physiology technique called overload
that I do with students
but I don't send them home with
I don't say do this for practice
and that is where you bring a muscle
you can do this with any muscle right
you bring a muscle right up to the point of fatigue
not through fatigue not to fatigue
(26:14):
right up to the point of fatigue
and then you do a cool down
and sometimes you can bounce back
and do that a couple times
and sometimes you can work the stomp around in chest
one time and then eventually I
my voice is like cracking down here for some reason
yeah you know
and then I kind of have to just like talk like this
and then I kind of lose the access down there
and then I'm like alright
those are some signs that
you're getting a little fatigued
(26:34):
so we say alright
we're gonna hit the brakes on that
we're gonna cool down
we're gonna do something in head voice
yeah yeah yeah
so that's a really great point to bring up of like
as you're training these opposite muscles
and I think it can be more present in chest voice
but it does it does happen in head voice yeah
um
the to understand like if you're
if you are like so dead set on pushing yourself
(26:55):
don't put yourself
through technique in the name of singing
haha like
oh my God don't hurt yourself in the name of anything
like no please don't come on
especially on your own
like if it's a lesson we can guide you
but yeah yeah
I'm listening for it yeah
we've all been there we've all like
we've all done a road trip where like I just
you just sing the whole time
and then at the end you call someone on the phone
oh me too
(27:16):
you call my mom on the phone
and then I talk over the sound of the road
the whole time and then I like get to my destination
I'm like hey
how are you yeah
I'm like oh
totally f yeah I definitely have done that
I think yeah
I and I think that's also like part of you know
it's fun yeah
and it's okay like just don't do it all the time yeah
(27:36):
yeah exactly
like stay in balance anything in moderation
mm hmm yeah
yeah for sure
can we ask you Emily
to maybe do some a couple like demos
I would love to of like something that's a little
I would love to I love singing a little chestier
a little headier yeah
a little darker green a little lighter green
a little bit more mix it like a 50 50 kind of green
just so we can kind of hear what does this sound like
(27:58):
and it's sounding different in every voice okay
like every voice is gonna sound a little different
and that's okay I mean
I can try and demonstrate too
because I have a very different voice than you
so we would be like polar opposites yeah
but I just probably can't go as high as you
but that's okay hahaha
um I changed my song hahaha
I'm gonna do driver's license oh OK
(28:20):
I know we weren't perfect
but I okay
I think it could be fun if I just give you like
my balance mix and then you just like
tell me a little more of this
a little less of this this shade of green
this thing and we can just see like what that does yeah
let's try it to experiment okay
so this is how I would approach the song
if I'm singing the whole thing in mix artistically
(28:41):
I'd probably like
weigh down the bottom and lighten up the top
so I'm just gonna keep it balanced
beautiful
cries tears in uh jealousy I guess
(29:06):
how how is that like your 50 50 mix is like booty oh
cause it it it sounds very powerful right
uh well OK
let's see what that sounds like a little chest here OK
and
1 great can we try and make that a little less bright
(29:29):
see what happens and I
so that's like a little more Lady Gaga now
yeah right longer yeah yeah
just a little huh right
uh uh what did you change
uh I thought uh uh uh uh uh
(29:51):
that that so vowel changing yeah
it was a vowel change
but it triggered like a little dropping of the lyrics
yeah yeah okay
cool what if we did the opposite now
what if you did this kind of like an Ariana Grande
and I
(30:12):
cool what if you did that like the uh
you know like that kind of Ariana Grande
oh yeah OK
and I
one great that top note can we make that just a little
(30:33):
yeah
you want it you want to go on it more head
no way
yeah yeah yeah
right there yeah
ooh OK
how how are these all feeling to you
like do they all feel OK for you to do yeah
yeah they all feel well
I mean I've been
I've been training these muscles
I've been working these these guys out
(30:55):
this is also the range of like
every college song I ever say right um
this is your sweet spot this is my sweet spot
this is primo bullshit yeah if you had me sing like
which I did sing with you
right but that's I'm like alright
chest chest
chest chest yes
um there and
and then higher is a different sort of like comfort
(31:18):
but when we're talking about mix yeah
this is my sweet spot sweet range
and it's the opposite for me
the hardest part for me to sing
so let me try like I cannot
I don't have the kind of
control that you do over this range
but let me try the same thing
so that you can hear how it's from a different
how it's different in in somebody else's voice yeah
(31:38):
okay oh
I know whoa okay
let's try I know
that was that was better
like all the way up I'm like
how do I get all the way up
and so I'm actively really thinking
don't pull up too much chest
(32:00):
did that translate yes
I think so especially that second time yeah
I also like how you you mentioned this too about how
like when you couldn't hit the low notes
you started being creative
I mentioned this on another episode that's in it
that's clipped too that's like
a lot of iconic voices have creative
solutions for their breaks yes
like you you grab that dip song and made it work wait
(32:21):
you didn't go wait you went wait
and use the narrowing to shoot you through
if I don't do that I go spready and shouty
hmm way
way it's like oh well
there's a little bit of grit coming through too
but it gets like I can't if I stay too open up there
my default is and we're pushing
(32:42):
and my default for my whole mix is to be as narrow
as your way
as your e mm hmm interesting
hey
oh but not here
but I'm not like here hey
it's the back of my
it's the back of my mouth that I feel like is wave
uh wave
no OK
(33:02):
that's pretty good yeah
there you go look at that nice OK
so thinking back here yeah
like I'm I'm if you're just listening and not watching
I'm pointing like underneath my earlobe haha
like back here okay
see this is so interesting
because I've worked with so many different people
and like
having you coaches all coach me through a song too
(33:24):
it's like I'm getting so many different
inputs from so many different people yeah
and I'm like
okay what yes
that's awesome but that's so and everything
like all the little things that people give me
everything has its place
and everything works in a certain song
in a certain way and it's like oh
but that like that was really cool
like it not like just focusing narrowing in the mouth
(33:46):
yeah it's not in the front doing it more back
usually not the front of the mouth no
unless your jaws engaging
it's already too late
I'm not talking about the front of the mouth yeah
unless you're trying to bow to the classical front yeah
with the closed front
that's gonna darken your tone so much
it's like no yeah
yeah yeah
but okay that was very successful
thank you that was a cute one
(34:07):
that was awesome I'm very happy about that
but again like my mix and your mix and you like
you can do all different kinds of mixes
but even all the different kinds that you're creating
are not compared to what I'm doing
is so it sounds so different
my heaviest mix
and your lightest mix are still not aligned yeah
and that
but that's why when if we go sing a duet together
(34:29):
it's gonna be so interesting to listen to I mean
it is cool to hear like the lilting
like voices that are perfect blends yeah
but it's also so exciting to hear two voices
blend that are not the same yeah
like that yeah
that that coming together is just so
interesting for the ear and it's also
I feel like this is a great example of like
(34:51):
yes I will give you a I'll model in a lesson
I don't expect anyone to sound like me
and I don't expect to sound like anyone else yeah
because if I tried to mix the way you mix
I'd be like really working my chest voice
mm hmm and that I'm trying so hard not to hahaha yeah
so yeah
exactly so it's like
you know you work on different things
(35:12):
depending on what your default is
and where you want to go mm hmm
you can have the same goal to like
we have the same goal but like we gotta
we gotta work our way there in different ways
mm hmm mm hmm
I love that we're all built differently
yes we are
we are and I know the grass is always greener yeah
oh yeah oh yeah oh
(35:33):
but guess what it's not hahaha
it's really not
and I think that it becomes really apparent
when you focus on your own voice
yeah and stop comparing and then you're like
oh actually
like I have a lot of really cool things
that I bring to the table
and it's different and it makes me stand out
and I think that's that's really beautiful yeah
yeah yay
(35:54):
that's something I talk about in artistry
sometimes phrased differently
which is okay which totally forgot to mention
but um
how is the artist approaching the verse if you
if you really are struggling to like see how
how emotion comes
out of your voice and an external expression
like how are they approaching it
let's take that and put that in your voice
(36:15):
so not try to mimic their warm vowel
but if they're bringing a lot of warmth to it
what's warm in your voice
yeah use that
use that approach and start there
that's how you can start figuring out your signature
sound yeah
love that is so cool thank you
I mean
there's a million things that we could say about mixing
yeah but do we feel like we covered the important parts
(36:36):
I think so I think so yeah
I love it oh
well I
I got a little coaching session here too
so I'm happy I'm very happy
that was so awesome yes
well if you wanna work with us here at Box Safe Studios
book a session we'd love to do an intro with you
figure out what's going on
what do we need to work on
are you bottom heavy are you top heavy
how can we get you to that mix
(36:56):
and pretty much do anything else that you wanna do
with your voice we're happy to help
you can book a session with me through the link below
and then we'll see you know
who we wanna work with here for more sessions
if you're like yep
I'm all in I wanna keep going uh
but either way let's start with an intro session
and then take it step at a
one step at a time already
but I'm excited to sing with you in a session
otherwise I'll catch you in the next episode
(37:18):
alright bye
so lightening my chest voice
I was working on increasing breath flow
and decreasing closure in my vocal folds
cause when I would go up like ah ah
this would happen yeah
right and I would just like start pushing through
and it sounds very tight right because it
(00:20):
but like physically in the vocal folds
they're closing too firmly right
yeah so I was like
alright cool
if I wanna like lighten my chest voice
like up high in my range um
I have to like
increase breath flow slash decrease vocal fold closure
so it was like more like a
ah
right now I'm getting more like into that mix
(00:42):
kind of land up
you're keeping your larynx pretty low too
yeah uh yes
cause yeah my
my larynx which has kind of get stuck up too high
and your larynx does go up in contemporary singing
when you're going up in pitch
yes we just don't want it to get stuck
yes we don't want to get stuck anywhere yeah
(01:08):
Hey Vox Star 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
(01:29):
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
Alrighty are you ready
let's get started mix voice
you might understand it on paper
but it's a whole other thing
to actually do it in your singing
I am not a natural mixer not even a little bit
(01:51):
and I have to work so hard on it
but I have two lovely
ladies here with me in the studio today
Coach Juliana and Coach Emily
hey welcome
welcome and the three of us are very
very different singers
and so we all experience mix in a different way
Emily you're a very like natural mixer
(02:13):
I've been mixing since I could talk
because that's how I talk
I'm talking here right now on this part of my range
I my default isn't here
yeah that's where my default is right
like I'm just like ugh hahaha
and my default also isn't here
you know it's that in between
and then I always say
I taught myself how to sing by singing all the parts
in wicked yeah
and I mean
(02:33):
you do enough chest voice and enough head voice
and then enough Nessa Rose and you're mixing
um so yeah
so mixing is my default and I've had to work to
oh yeah I can
I can be in true head voice up there
and I can be in true chest down there
that's actually a newer one for me
rounding out the bottom of my mix
but yeah I've been a I've been a mixer
(02:54):
yeah this whole time
what about you Juliana
I feel like I was more of a natural mixer
but I wasn't really aware of what I was doing
until I had training
and understood what each register actually felt like
yeah and then learning how to control it yeah
yeah
(03:15):
100% I was just a very bottom heavy singer
you guys are both more top heavy I am much
much much more bottom heavy
so for me it was incredibly hard to get into a mix
I would just pull chest up as high as I humanly could
and then crack and then try again
and it wasn't really until I was
(03:36):
I mean I was always working on my head voice
but I just couldn't like really mix the two together
so let's talk about like what is mixed on paper
so that you know
if you're listening and you're like
what are they talking about
what are they talking about
we got you okay
so I like to use this color analogy
think of your chest voice as the color blue ah
this is your chest voice right
(03:56):
and then you have your head voice
it's much higher it's much lighter
it's brighter that's the color yellow okay
now your mix
is a blend of the head voice and the chest voice
so it's a mix of yellow and blue
and when you mix yellow and blue together
what do you get you get the color green
if you paid attention and elementary school
you know the answer to that anyway
(04:17):
so you get the color green
it's not a third separate thing
it's not red or gold or purple or whatever
it's green it's a blend of the two
it's a mix it's the mix of the two
exactly the name yeah
that's exactly where the name comes from right
so it is much harder to feel the difference there
in a mix compared to like chest voice and head voice
(04:40):
yeah right
like that's so much easier to feel the difference
between the two but if it's like well
am I in head voice or am I in a mix
or am I in chest voice or am I in a mix
it's a little harder to feel sometimes uh
but mix voice is not just like one shade of green
it is all shades of green between blue and yellow
so if you use a lot of blue
(05:02):
if you use a lot of chest voice
and just a drop of head voice
you get a very dark green right
that would be probably more like a mix belt
or just a chest like a chest dominant mix
exactly and then you have a lot of yellow
and just a little bit of blue
a lot of head voice
and just a little bit of chest voice
that's gonna get you a more head dominant mix
(05:23):
and they're all gonna sound different
and they have to 50 50 and everything in between right
so different shades of green
that's all mix and basically
what the mix helps us do is eliminate that
crack in the middle of the voice right
so if I'm just going ah
just to head directly
I have this big crack this gap in my voice right
(05:44):
but if I'm going ah
and I kind of like mix through it
now I was eliminating the crack and it was more smooth
exactly yeah it's like smoothing down pavement yeah
fixing all the crack no potholes
that was never a thing in Indiana that's fine okay
(06:04):
I was like when people asked me before
I thought about the colors cause that's brilliant
I'll be like this is your chest
this is your head and mix it right in between
and it's up to you to move that little levers like yeah
I like that too so it's like
it's constantly moving based on where you are
on your range based on the song
how much air flow we need
(06:24):
like the tone you're trying to get so many variables
so it's just kind of adapting survival yeah
absolutely now
and to bounce off that
I've worked with a couple people who have um
lifted up in the in YouTube videos on mix and they're
and they've been like I need to work on mix
please don't tell
me to blend my head voice and chest voice
(06:47):
and please don't tell me to lighten my chest voice
or weigh down my head voice
because those are just words to me
like how do you actually do that
yes and I was like okay fair
yeah fair
because guess what
I'm talking in a chest dominant mix right now
and then I can just keep going up and then
you know like
and that's just how my voice works
(07:07):
I have
I view mix as very stretchy
yeah I think about stretching upwards
or stretching downwards and it's like
like slime yeah
you know yeah
like that's how I view it
and like of course
these are all imagery based
but I think that's a very
sometimes when you get a little too technical with mix
sometimes it helps like
I'll get into that
(07:28):
and when we talk about how to train mix
but um yeah
I think imagery can really
really help with mix but yeah
so how do you yeah
lighten your chest voice
and how do you add meat to your head voice
yeah like how do you
so I had to work on lightening my chest voice
so maybe I can I can speak on that
so lightening my chest voice
(07:49):
I was working on increasing breath flow
and decreasing closure in my vocal folds
cause when I would go up like ah
ugh this would happen
yeah right
and I would just like start
pushing through and it sounds very tight right
because it is
but like physically in the vocal folds
(08:10):
they're closing too firmly right
yeah so I was like
alright cool
if I wanna like lighten my chest voice
like up high in my range um
I have to like
increase breath flow slash decrease vocal fold closure
so it was like more like a ah
ah
right now I'm getting more like into that mix
kind of land up
(08:30):
you're keeping your larynx pretty low too
yeah uh
yes cause yeah
my my larynx
which has kind of get stuck up too high
and your larynx does go up in contemporary singing
when you're going up in pitch
yeah yes
we just don't want it to get stuck
yes we don't want it to get stuck anywhere yeah
flexibility is like your yeah
and also the higher the larynx
(08:51):
the more squeezy yeah
the more closure you're getting in your vocal folds
right so breathy
lowering larynx like
all of those things
I do to decrease vocal fold closure
but and that makes your
that for me at least it was lightening my chest voice
and allowing me to bring more CT in right
more head dominance like not head dominance
(09:13):
but more head voice into into the mix
so practicing like a breathy chest voice
essentially is what I
is what I did to help me with that
getting those antagonist muscles to work
at the same time yeah
work together
that's like totally what I what I train students in
right um
another thing to add on top of that
(09:34):
training your head voice to go down
and your chest voice to go up
not just in range but also in a 5 4
3 2 1 1
2 3
4 5
there's an exercise that I was
given in grad school to work with someone on
and it's literally just a fifth and a fifth
and you just go down until you are bored down in head
(10:02):
ah
and I say we're gonna do this for a while hmm
we're and you just stay on the same pitches as well
and you put your target note
somewhere in the middle of that
and you're just training the back and forth
and back and forth that coordination yeah
because think about it in terms of
and the antagonistic pair
that we are always talking about
when we're talking about the vocal folds is the
the bicep tricep situation right
(10:25):
we need uh when our tricep engages right
and we're bringing our arm in
we don't just have it here or here
we have this full range of motion
same with the bicep when we bring it back down
we're not just boom yeah
like we're here I know I'm yeah
it goes all the way up and down
so we're not just working on this part and this part
we need to do this part in the middle
(10:46):
we need to train them both to come
meet in the middle here yeah
that's why I love doing sirens
oh yeah
sirens I think are a great way for vocal exploration
yeah yeah absolutely
how do you guys do your sirens
I usually start with uh
s o v t
like electro and then I start with a closer vowel
(11:07):
then I open it up so that it's a
not shocking yeah
like a oh
from the beginning yeah
yeah yeah
yeah that's why you softly go into it
do you go over a scale like a no
I usually do like a little octave
and then I go lower and then I go higher
and then I do a full circle
hmm hmm
like I I like to pace myself
yeah that's good
yeah yeah
(11:27):
be gentle yeah
yeah it depends on the student I'm working with
like sometimes we need to remove
remove the music part out
oh yeah
yeah and just be like
let's just not don't think of it as singing
think of it as just like moving through your voice
yeah yeah
cause if we told any kid
go to the middle of your voice to go here
what about here could I be here and like
oh great
you're mixing perfectly that's freaking awesome
(11:48):
yeah yeah
yeah good for you
yeah yeah
right like
but the second we're like
go into your mix voice and sustain
yeah it's yeah
so I'll do something similar
I'll either put it on an octave or just put it on like
go from the bottom all the way to the top
now I want you to live in the bottom
for as long as you can and then
(12:09):
and then use a I sometimes I'll say
use a little extra puff of air
so you don't have a crack there
when you get into head voice so uh
ah if this yeah
if you like really listen
you can't hear the ha of it yeah yeah
but there's that it gets a little airy yeah
mm hmm a little airy to smooth through
(12:30):
so my first solution is always
let's smooth through the crack
even if we're not living in that a big mix range
let's just figure out how to tell the body like hey
we're doing something else here yeah
we're doing something else here
and then I'll say alright
then when you hit that moment
where you feel like it has to flip
just sustain sustain
just hold it out hold it out for as long as you can
(12:50):
and also that's where that support comes around yeah
engaging your the correction muscles and relaxing
and there's just so much that goes into it
but yeah yeah
which is why the little kid part is that
which is why then they eventually just go OK
just take it off the octave yeah
take it off the octave and go whoo yeah yeah yeah
yeah I like kind of meowing OK
(13:12):
that's a great way OK
now we get into Tambour OK
OK OK
OK OK OK OK OK
so you know how like so many voice teachers out there
like on the internet like us huh
uh they're like oh
do like a yeah or nay nay nay nay or whatever I'm like
big just closes off my throat
(13:34):
and it just does not work for me
and then it's like this is the best mix voice exercise
and I'm like it doesn't work for me
there's something wrong with me no
it's just not right for me
for example like right now you're saying nah
and that's a lot of mmm
I say Ma meow it's kind of like that does yeah
over meow it's like ah
(13:56):
I have to work really hard to get that sound
and you also mentioned um
that your larynx likes to get stuck
exactly so I have to work on lowering it
so now we take this high larynx exercise
which if you're if you're stuck singing like this
you probably want that you want to get the larynx up
so now we singing like this
cause even if I'm more head dominant
(14:17):
I would consider this a head dominant mix
and we can talk about whatever the f that means later
but you know um
so yeah so it's not
you gotta find how many times have I said this
you gotta find your ticket in
you gotta find your key to unlock the door
if for me brightness was my ticket in
but that is not the solution for you
(14:38):
like I'm not everyone yeah
I'm the head dominant adding brightness
to my Tambour takes me out of head voice
but adding brightness to your chest
dominant tambour is like going
ah
yeah now I'm just like ah
like I'm still squeezing my way up
and now I've created less space yeah yeah
(15:00):
so but if I'm going ah
instead of ah going ah
that smooths it out for me
because of the direction that my voice yeah
naturally likes to just kind of fall in right
yeah so as with everything
it's gonna be different for everybody
yeah hahaha oh
that makes singing so hard and frustrating sometimes
(15:22):
right which is why I always say alright
you're doing it anyway when you talk yes
not everyone actually
lately
I've been talking to a couple international students
in particular and I've been like
try saying hey hey
like you're calling across the street and they're like
I say hey yeah
like I don't do that that's not in my vocal vernacular
(15:45):
and it was so interesting
we were doing another episode
I don't even remember which one
who knows but we were doing something and you were like
oh yeah
can you do that that hey hey
it was something like that
and I was trying to match you and I'm like
you're trying to match my pitch too that that exactly
I was trying to match the pitch and I'm like
I can't I can't get I mean
I can but not in that same mixy place
(16:06):
I would have to make it less chesty
otherwise it's like getting stuck
so it's like different voices are gonna sound different
and some things come more easily to others yes
than to others anyways you can absolutely yeah
I also think it's like a good example of
know what your default is yeah
(16:28):
like I always I will always if you say hey
just like sing something for me just Mark it
I'll probably go yeah yeah um
you know whatever I had to so work so hard to get that
yeah yeah
like yeah
I'm coming down I'm losing all the power
and this is just where I'm talking
cause this is where I've been talking for the podcast
yeah until late in the evening when I'm like down here
(16:49):
yeah or early in the morning when I'm here
you know like yeah
so know where your default is
and then adjust from there also you might
it is unfortunately
sometimes people say I'm super chesty right
(17:10):
uh huh because you have so much power
because you have so much power
but you're trying to build
like this and you're like
I'm yeah
I'm squeezing so I must be yanking at my chest but no
you're not you're not you're not so identify
I think you have a great thing about like find your
your persona your vocal persona
(17:30):
oh and your prima voce
that's a yes like I love that one
I love yeah
prima voce the
the sweet spot of your voice yeah
I think you were talking about the quiz
yeah the quiz
the like songbird the powerhouse chest voice
the powerhouse and the expressionist
I'll link to that
so if you wanna take our little vocal persona quiz
oh the
the quiz right
to kind of find where your voice is sitting
(17:51):
but also know that like sometimes you need to
if you are you're really strong here
and then you get here and it feels like this
and then it goes ah yeah
we gotta work on your head voice
but if you're if you're here singing always right here
and then you try to squeeze
that's actually
we had a student who is now melting her face off um
(18:14):
or we have a student who's belting her face off
who who who
who who Billy Billy
yes Billy
and we realize we cause she's been like
I'm yanking at my chest voice
I'm yanking at my chest voice
and I was like girl
with the amount of twang that you're
you're using you're not in chest voice hmm
so instead of adding more head
because she also had a light head voice
(18:35):
yeah but that's all she was using right
they're just
we just needed to readjust some coordination yeah
so we spent a lot of time
I said we're gonna bulk up your chest
voice in an ascending pattern
so we would just do um we do it on GA GA GA
ah I noticed at the top I'm not going GA
(18:55):
going GA
keeping it full chest and bringing that up
not to the point of of pushing
but just training those muscles
starting as low as we can
or starting around as low as we can
going down going up um
training those chest
waist muscles to go up and actually
(19:16):
you know working through the obstacle at hand
instead of what the obstacle could be yeah
yeah yeah
no I love that you brought up the quiz
cause I just recently did a trial with someone and um
she's doing the program
she's gonna be working with both of you yeah
so uh
Joe to see if you're watching hello
oh hey
you just got scheduled
you just got put on my schedule last night
exactly I just put her on a schedule
(19:37):
so she's just starting out and she's like
I took your quiz and it kept giving me songbird
and I just don't agree and
and then I was like alright
well totally fair
you know it's not
it's not perfect it's not hearing you
it's not hearing you
you're answering questions based on what you think yeah
your perception right
exactly and then
(19:58):
and then we were singing and then I was like
oh no yeah
you are a songbird
you definitely are the quiz was absolutely correct
but she just didn't understand that
like she she thought that songbird was just like
you're just singing like this all the time
and I'm like did you know Ariana Grande is a songbird
and she can sound powerful as heck right
(20:21):
and she's like yeah
oh but she's just not a Demi Lovato yeah
which is a powerhouse right
and so when you're when you're doing like the big like
oh like that
uh huh Ariana Grande is not that
but she can be powerful right
yeah so it's not just are you powerful or not
it's just more like
anyway yeah
yeah it's not
it's just where
(20:41):
where is the strongest part of your voice
yeah and then how do we balance out the other half
yes yeah
and I think a lot of the time
and I am so well
I was guilty of this
because I was so happy in my mix and like
oh everything's perfect and fine and dandy
I neglected both extremes
and then I would start losing power in my mix was like
oh I'm not training the entire yeah
(21:02):
yes of my range
so I feel like that's really important
to have a good balance absolutely
in your training and your practice
to not lose flexibility and agility
and every single part of your range
I mean balance is the magic word
yeah right
like mix and a like
all shades of green kind of mix
can happen when there is balance
(21:24):
like you can't get a chest dominant mix like a dark
a dark green kind of mix when you ain't got no blue
yeah how is that gonna happen right
yeah and same thing the other way around as well
like you need to have a solid head and a solid chest
yeah if you wanna mix through Dream On
you can't only have chest voice
(21:44):
cause one
you're just gonna be in a floaty head because at that
in that range
you this you cannot yank your chest up that high
at some point your body's like
that's that's just literally not gonna happen again
it sounds like it but it's not what's happening yeah
yeah 100% 100% yeah so a couple practical things
(22:06):
I think that would be good
so if you are a bottom heavy singer
work on lightening your chest voice
and strengthening the top right
I I had to I had to do both right
like strengthening my
my head voice and stretching it too
because I like I would have the power
but I couldn't stretch high enough
(22:26):
so I would constantly go flat right
like under the note
so that worked really really well for me just like ah
and also
like going really high and stretching up there
so lightening my chest voice
and strengthening my head voice
and stretching it as high as I
can to like feel the stretch in my vocal folds
(22:46):
yeah you guys are
did more like bulking up the bottom
bulking up the bottom that was a big thing
cause same here with the staying and mix especially
cause I did so much musical theater speech like
and I call it like talk like singing are very different
so speech
like musical theater is like get out and stay out
it's funny how you waltz in here
assuming I'd come back right
(23:08):
it sounds like I'm talking
but yeah it sounds like I'm presenting something to you
yeah like I'm reading a story or narrating a book
you know it's a different kind of
instead of like
I got bad news baby and you're the first to know right
that's yeah
say talk like we're we're going to early blues
mm hmm and looking at um
our roots in that as well
yeah yeah
(23:28):
I don't know how I I've lost my point hahaha
I think it's good to know the difference and like
oh yeah yeah yeah yeah
yeah round sorry
can you no
please don't rounding out your voice
I had started learning how to sing blues and I went
I got bad news babe and you're the first to know
yeah and my teacher was like beautiful
can you sing in your chest voice
(23:49):
and I said that is I got bad news baby
yeah and she was like alright
we got work to do and so we literally would just train
I just on a third oh
oh isolating chest voice
true chest voice by itself
and then
I did an exercise that I recommend to a lot of people
(24:09):
who are in my predicament um
which is she called it just stomp around in chest
so this is not aesthetically based
so I literally would like move my feet and just go
I got bad news baby
and you're the first to know it's not to be beautiful
yeah it's to work out a muscle exactly
it's to work out a muscle
(24:30):
it's to do the squats
so then you can walk around in the dress
and yeah yes
I agree and I think
not being scared of low songs was something
that I needed to learn
cause I would always be like
oh and honestly
I'm not
I don't regret it because it helped me be resourceful
so if I had a low note that scared me
(24:51):
I would learn how to flip or do something different
so I was like oh OK
I
I taught myself how to do a lot of things that later on
I knew were techniques but yeah
I didn't and now I'm like okay
if there's a lower note or a lower song
there are ways to adapt without needing to change it
per se like
I don't know like we've
(25:12):
I've been working on Halo with so many yeah
and I like it's one of my favorite songs now
but like that didn't even make a sound yeah
for me it's really hard and it is very low
it's even low for an Alto yeah
it is low
it is so low and then I would immediately be like
just like let's flip it let's change it but then okay
like what is actually possible
(25:32):
and not being scared to train that area
because for me it be like
if I I
because I didn't touch it enough
if I stay too long on that side of my voice
I would just get so tired and like drained and dry
and like I will lose my high register
and same thing on the opposite
if I would stay in my head voice and belt and yeah
(25:53):
I would not have low notes so yeah
that goes 100% that goes into an uh
an exercise physiology technique called overload
that I do with students
but I don't send them home with
I don't say do this for practice
and that is where you bring a muscle
you can do this with any muscle right
you bring a muscle right up to the point of fatigue
not through fatigue not to fatigue
(26:14):
right up to the point of fatigue
and then you do a cool down
and sometimes you can bounce back
and do that a couple times
and sometimes you can work the stomp around in chest
one time and then eventually I
my voice is like cracking down here for some reason
yeah you know
and then I kind of have to just like talk like this
and then I kind of lose the access down there
and then I'm like alright
those are some signs that
you're getting a little fatigued
(26:34):
so we say alright
we're gonna hit the brakes on that
we're gonna cool down
we're gonna do something in head voice
yeah yeah yeah
so that's a really great point to bring up of like
as you're training these opposite muscles
and I think it can be more present in chest voice
but it does it does happen in head voice yeah
um
the to understand like if you're
if you are like so dead set on pushing yourself
(26:55):
don't put yourself
through technique in the name of singing
haha like
oh my God don't hurt yourself in the name of anything
like no please don't come on
especially on your own
like if it's a lesson we can guide you
but yeah yeah
I'm listening for it yeah
we've all been there we've all like
we've all done a road trip where like I just
you just sing the whole time
and then at the end you call someone on the phone
oh me too
(27:16):
you call my mom on the phone
and then I talk over the sound of the road
the whole time and then I like get to my destination
I'm like hey
how are you yeah
I'm like oh
totally f yeah I definitely have done that
I think yeah
I and I think that's also like part of you know
it's fun yeah
and it's okay like just don't do it all the time yeah
(27:36):
yeah exactly
like stay in balance anything in moderation
mm hmm yeah
yeah for sure
can we ask you Emily
to maybe do some a couple like demos
I would love to of like something that's a little
I would love to I love singing a little chestier
a little headier yeah
a little darker green a little lighter green
a little bit more mix it like a 50 50 kind of green
just so we can kind of hear what does this sound like
(27:58):
and it's sounding different in every voice okay
like every voice is gonna sound a little different
and that's okay I mean
I can try and demonstrate too
because I have a very different voice than you
so we would be like polar opposites yeah
but I just probably can't go as high as you
but that's okay hahaha
um I changed my song hahaha
I'm gonna do driver's license oh OK
(28:20):
I know we weren't perfect
but I okay
I think it could be fun if I just give you like
my balance mix and then you just like
tell me a little more of this
a little less of this this shade of green
this thing and we can just see like what that does yeah
let's try it to experiment okay
so this is how I would approach the song
if I'm singing the whole thing in mix artistically
(28:41):
I'd probably like
weigh down the bottom and lighten up the top
so I'm just gonna keep it balanced
beautiful
cries tears in uh jealousy I guess
(29:06):
how how is that like your 50 50 mix is like booty oh
cause it it it sounds very powerful right
uh well OK
let's see what that sounds like a little chest here OK
and
1 great can we try and make that a little less bright
(29:29):
see what happens and I
so that's like a little more Lady Gaga now
yeah right longer yeah yeah
just a little huh right
uh uh what did you change
uh I thought uh uh uh uh uh
(29:51):
that that so vowel changing yeah
it was a vowel change
but it triggered like a little dropping of the lyrics
yeah yeah okay
cool what if we did the opposite now
what if you did this kind of like an Ariana Grande
and I
(30:12):
cool what if you did that like the uh
you know like that kind of Ariana Grande
oh yeah OK
and I
one great that top note can we make that just a little
(30:33):
yeah
you want it you want to go on it more head
no way
yeah yeah yeah
right there yeah
ooh OK
how how are these all feeling to you
like do they all feel OK for you to do yeah
yeah they all feel well
I mean I've been
I've been training these muscles
I've been working these these guys out
(30:55):
this is also the range of like
every college song I ever say right um
this is your sweet spot this is my sweet spot
this is primo bullshit yeah if you had me sing like
which I did sing with you
right but that's I'm like alright
chest chest
chest chest yes
um there and
and then higher is a different sort of like comfort
(31:18):
but when we're talking about mix yeah
this is my sweet spot sweet range
and it's the opposite for me
the hardest part for me to sing
so let me try like I cannot
I don't have the kind of
control that you do over this range
but let me try the same thing
so that you can hear how it's from a different
how it's different in in somebody else's voice yeah
(31:38):
okay oh
I know whoa okay
let's try I know
that was that was better
like all the way up I'm like
how do I get all the way up
and so I'm actively really thinking
don't pull up too much chest
(32:00):
did that translate yes
I think so especially that second time yeah
I also like how you you mentioned this too about how
like when you couldn't hit the low notes
you started being creative
I mentioned this on another episode that's in it
that's clipped too that's like
a lot of iconic voices have creative
solutions for their breaks yes
like you you grab that dip song and made it work wait
(32:21):
you didn't go wait you went wait
and use the narrowing to shoot you through
if I don't do that I go spready and shouty
hmm way
way it's like oh well
there's a little bit of grit coming through too
but it gets like I can't if I stay too open up there
my default is and we're pushing
(32:42):
and my default for my whole mix is to be as narrow
as your way
as your e mm hmm interesting
hey
oh but not here
but I'm not like here hey
it's the back of my
it's the back of my mouth that I feel like is wave
uh wave
no OK
(33:02):
that's pretty good yeah
there you go look at that nice OK
so thinking back here yeah
like I'm I'm if you're just listening and not watching
I'm pointing like underneath my earlobe haha
like back here okay
see this is so interesting
because I've worked with so many different people
and like
having you coaches all coach me through a song too
(33:24):
it's like I'm getting so many different
inputs from so many different people yeah
and I'm like
okay what yes
that's awesome but that's so and everything
like all the little things that people give me
everything has its place
and everything works in a certain song
in a certain way and it's like oh
but that like that was really cool
like it not like just focusing narrowing in the mouth
(33:46):
yeah it's not in the front doing it more back
usually not the front of the mouth no
unless your jaws engaging
it's already too late
I'm not talking about the front of the mouth yeah
unless you're trying to bow to the classical front yeah
with the closed front
that's gonna darken your tone so much
it's like no yeah
yeah yeah
but okay that was very successful
thank you that was a cute one
(34:07):
that was awesome I'm very happy about that
but again like my mix and your mix and you like
you can do all different kinds of mixes
but even all the different kinds that you're creating
are not compared to what I'm doing
is so it sounds so different
my heaviest mix
and your lightest mix are still not aligned yeah
and that
but that's why when if we go sing a duet together
(34:29):
it's gonna be so interesting to listen to I mean
it is cool to hear like the lilting
like voices that are perfect blends yeah
but it's also so exciting to hear two voices
blend that are not the same yeah
like that yeah
that that coming together is just so
interesting for the ear and it's also
I feel like this is a great example of like
(34:51):
yes I will give you a I'll model in a lesson
I don't expect anyone to sound like me
and I don't expect to sound like anyone else yeah
because if I tried to mix the way you mix
I'd be like really working my chest voice
mm hmm and that I'm trying so hard not to hahaha yeah
so yeah
exactly so it's like
you know you work on different things
(35:12):
depending on what your default is
and where you want to go mm hmm
you can have the same goal to like
we have the same goal but like we gotta
we gotta work our way there in different ways
mm hmm mm hmm
I love that we're all built differently
yes we are
we are and I know the grass is always greener yeah
oh yeah oh yeah oh
(35:33):
but guess what it's not hahaha
it's really not
and I think that it becomes really apparent
when you focus on your own voice
yeah and stop comparing and then you're like
oh actually
like I have a lot of really cool things
that I bring to the table
and it's different and it makes me stand out
and I think that's that's really beautiful yeah
yeah yay
(35:54):
that's something I talk about in artistry
sometimes phrased differently
which is okay which totally forgot to mention
but um
how is the artist approaching the verse if you
if you really are struggling to like see how
how emotion comes
out of your voice and an external expression
like how are they approaching it
let's take that and put that in your voice
(36:15):
so not try to mimic their warm vowel
but if they're bringing a lot of warmth to it
what's warm in your voice
yeah use that
use that approach and start there
that's how you can start figuring out your signature
sound yeah
love that is so cool thank you
I mean
there's a million things that we could say about mixing
yeah but do we feel like we covered the important parts
(36:36):
I think so I think so yeah
I love it oh
well I
I got a little coaching session here too
so I'm happy I'm very happy
that was so awesome yes
well if you wanna work with us here at Box Safe Studios
book a session we'd love to do an intro with you
figure out what's going on
what do we need to work on
are you bottom heavy are you top heavy
how can we get you to that mix
(36:56):
and pretty much do anything else that you wanna do
with your voice we're happy to help
you can book a session with me through the link below
and then we'll see you know
who we wanna work with here for more sessions
if you're like yep
I'm all in I wanna keep going uh
but either way let's start with an intro session
and then take it step at a
one step at a time already
but I'm excited to sing with you in a session
otherwise I'll catch you in the next episode
(37:18):
alright bye
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