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Hello and thank you for deciding to read this short article, which only wants to respond to some perplexities typical of the topic Mixed Voice.
Who among us does not remember the unpleasant feeling experienced at the first attempts to imitation of our favorite singers, in the intimacy of our bedroom?
A very strong mechanical limit, evident and apparently insurmountable: the sudden transition between full and falsetto voice!
I remember it very well, when I tried to sing 'The show must go on', 'The Final Countdown' or again, 'Always'!
And I remember him even more when I tried to imitate female voices, because songs like 'Drops of memory', 'I Have Nothing', 'I Will Always Love You' or the wonderful 'My All', they excited me a lot, also for the Virtuosity with which they were interpreted, and I would have liked to interpret them too, without "lowering" them of shades.
But ... the passage was always there!
Very evident, while in the voices of these famous interpreters, it is not felt.
If I tried to push, in the end I screamed, the vibrated flattened and I was crashing.
If I relaxed, however, the vent of the falsetto was reduced, but I sang in falsetto!
And it wasn't what I wanted.
I didn't know what to do and 16 years of age I stopped singing, in order not to delude myself that everything was fine, because it was not so!
Let's see what happens specifically
A simple and natural thing. In the larynx there are two antagonistic muscle forces: the arrestoid one, which generates the full voice, and the cricotiroid item, which generates the item in falsetto. The falsetto in particular, once trained, is a "drug" because, made decorated and reinforced, it prevents you from returning to the full voice, both for physiological and comfortable issues.
The antagonism, however, is not necessarily prevaricating, in this case, of one force on the other. You can also be antagonists in trying to resist the other, without breaking it down, as happens in the muscle forces of our body but, alas, not in the intrinsic muscle forces of the larynx (which cancels) ... or as happens, for example, in the shot At the rope!
Let's imagine two people who pull a rope, but one strange the other by prevaricating. In this case, we will always have a full voice or a falsetto voice, depending on those who prevail.
Instead, let's imagine that these two people cooperino in keeping the rope in tension, or rather, in dynamic tension balance.
In this case, it may happen that one may prevaric on the other, but with a view to mutual cooperation, this never happens, or does not take place in a sudden and unwanted way.
This implies that muscle activities can give up one out of another, even with the same note, and this yields it translates into an issue in which the full voice can be unloaded, while the falsetto one is enriched with a quality addictor typical of the item Full, in a point of the extension in common between these two registers, in which almost all can sing both in falsetto and in full voice.
This is the mix or the mixed voice, i.e. a dynamic tensor balance between the intrinsic muscle antagonistic forces of laryngeal full and falsetto, which, or rather registers, still remain separate sound dimensions, as their merger is not possible physiologically. However, a connection remains possible, that is, where the other starts, and vice versa.
Antonio di Corcia
What does this statement mean?
Those who sing in Mixed Voice never really sings in full voice, nor truly in falsetto, but use two variations of the same, that is, "a full voice that goes towards the falsetto " and " a falsetto voice that tries to become full ".
It is from this game of balance that generate the mix in full voice or the falsetto that together make up the mixed voice, better defined as a medium register with mixed consonance, i.e. a didactic register in which the full or chest voice (M1) And the voice in falsetto or head (M2) pass the relay in an almost connected way, even to the same note.
You will have understood that this is not a natural physiological attitude, but rather acquired, through a strong ability to "detect" the outside world thanks to the mechanism of mirror neurons, or by means of a didactic preparation aimed at obtaining this "game of Forces ”in dynamic balance between them.
How to get it to get it, or how I managed to get it, maybe I'll tell you in a next article.
Is there therefore a difference between a note in the register of a chest and the same note in the mix of chest?
Certainly, otherwise historical teaching should not have introduced this terminology.
First of all, the note in the register of a full voice (which can be in a chest consonance, or in the consonance of the head - occipital area/of summit), is perceived precisely either in the chest or in the neck/vertex; While the note in mix should be perceived in the mixed consonance, which, so to speak, is perceived frontally between the upper lip and the paranasal sinuses.
Then, the note in mix by its nature, has characteristics of brilliance and full -bodied that often saturate the ear of both the listener, but also of the performer himself.
Think of the attack of " and I ..." of the refrain of 'I Will Always Love You' by W. Houston, or to the "... My All. "." in the refrain of 'My to Mariah Carey; But also to the "... so right " in the end refrain of 'part time love' by Steve Wonder, or even at the " Will Love You " by 'Always' by Bon Jovi.
Are there differences in the management of the Mixed Voice in the modern field compared to the classic area?
In lyrical singing (and also reflected in science) we speak of the average register (M1) just before the passage, and of a mixed voice (often m2) shortly after.
Therefore, the mix is considered as a technique to adjust the relationship between full voice and falsetto and then covered the resulting.
In the classical field, however, two schools of thought exist: a separate learning of the registers promotes the extension of two and a half octaves; While the other, states that this extension must be managed by a single timbre homogeneous register: the average register with mixed consonance.
I would say that it all depends on the effect that one wants to obtain according to the repertoire or the character who carries on stage.
In modern singing, the main difference is given by the extension, being able to manage four octaves in mix, thanks to the use of microphones and compressors; But there is the same criterion of choice (if separate or connected management of the registers) based on the vocal imprint that you want to set up on that particular song.
To be clear, the verse of a song from Crooner should be faced in the breast register, and then mix in the event of a very high refrains, perhaps preferring a type of chest mix, also called chest mixed voice, to give a stamp continuum to the whole the emission.
Two short but important specifications, for the most experienced: balance according to physiology and according to teaching
Physiologically, to obtain a mix in full voice, it is necessary to make a plumbing of the arrestoids, with a simultaneous setting of the larynx (a bit as if the vocal cords were placed slowly, in parallel with the flow of air). Follows Tilt thyroid (which allows the ropes to be passively lengthened, with the relative increase in fundamental frequency).
This is obtained, a more disconnected mix in the passage (which we have called standard mixes - listens for example Timo Kotipelto, singer of the Stratovarius).
If on this basis, we stimulate the activity of the cricopharyngeal muscle and the false-cordal hypertonic interest on the front third, we will get a more connected mix (which we have defined extreme mix-listens to Michael Kiske of the first Halloween and read article 'mix and medium register 'by A. Di Corcia and F. Fussi, still downloadable for free on Siing.net).
Read the article: What is extreme mix or Extreme Mix Voice by Antonio di Corcia?
