Singing For Dummies
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The female singing mix is a sound that you can use when you want to make a thicker sound in the middle part of your voice. Mix is appropriate for almost any style of singing but isn’t as commonly used in classical music.

You can use the female mix when you want to make a thicker sound in the middle part of your voice, so you want to work your middle voice until it’s quite strong. Work on the speaking voice exercises so you have command over the onset of tone, and then tackle mix.

Using mix is appropriate when you don’t want to use a belt sound or when you want to explore different sounds to express the text of your song. Some songs don’t need a heavy chest voice sound, but instead need a sound that’s rich and full, like a mix.

To find your mix, try the opposite of what you normally do to sing in middle voice. To sing from middle voice to head voice normally, you gradually lighten the sound as you ascend in pitch. To strengthen your mix, you need to avoid lightening the sound into head voice as you ascend.

Gentlemen, the pattern in the next illustration is fine for you to sing. You can sing the patterns in your falsetto if you’re just getting the hang of your falsetto. If your falsetto is pretty secure, you can sing the pattern in a mix.

As you sing through the pattern below, think of singing straight out. Allow the tone to move out in front of you and not rise higher in your head as you ascend in pitch. This feels odd at first, but you’ll gradually sense the sound getting wider as you ascend in pitch. You can also think of your chest opening wide as you move up in pitch.

You can pretend to be swimming into the tone. As you swim toward the tone, open your arms and your body to move into the sound. You can also imagine your chest and throat opening to make more room for the sound. Because you normally allow the resonance to move higher as you ascend into head voice, you want to keep the space open so the resonance stays down as you move higher in a mix.

Keeping the resonance down (instead of allowing it to rise to your head as you normally do when you ascend) makes it sound as if you ascend and stay in chest voice.

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Singing in a mix is a choice that you want to consciously make. As you explore the mix, continue to work on your middle voice transitions into head voice so that you can still make the sound gradually lighten as you ascend in pitch when you choose to do so.

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Pamelia S. Phillips is a professional singer with over 35 years of teaching experience. She has designed curriculum for high school students, college BFA programs, and professional training programs, helping thousands of singers refine their singing technique.

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