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Mix voice...

I do exercises for mix voice. My teacher gave them to me. I have to do sirens on "soo" (oo as in food, basically u with 2 dots on it). I also need to exercise lip trills. I tried connecting these, but I can't. I did it a couple of times, but no more. Should I just try, or are there some tips? Oh, I only connected it with sirens, and not lip trills. What should I do?

Comments

  • highmtnhighmtn Administrator, Moderator, Enrolled, Pro, 3.0 Streaming Posts: 15,354
    Lip trills are the easiest exercise to connect on. Try lowering the volume on lip trills to see if you can connect.
  • coljacolja Member Posts: 45
    highmtn said:

    Lip trills are the easiest exercise to connect on. Try lowering the volume on lip trills to see if you can connect.

    How the hell can I thank you? You sir, are amazing.
  • bentkbentk Moderator, Pro, 2.0 PRO, 3.0 Streaming Posts: 1,650
    I know right, @highmtn gives very solid advice ;)
  • highmtnhighmtn Administrator, Moderator, Enrolled, Pro, 3.0 Streaming Posts: 15,354
  • coljacolja Member Posts: 45
    Nevermind, that was just lucky. Now I still can't connect. Any other tips? What does it feel like to connect? Do YOU have to flip into another register, or does it do it by itself?
  • bentkbentk Moderator, Pro, 2.0 PRO, 3.0 Streaming Posts: 1,650
    edited January 2017
    Keep the volume super low and choose the path of the least resistance. Does that sound logical to you? You slowly ascend towards your head voice, but you don't break from full chest instantly to head on one note.
    When your voice wants to break, you can add a little 'H' to the sound and using a little extra air, just don't overdo it and don't keeping doing this forever. Don't exaggerate this 'H' and air, it should be subtle and about the same volume as the rest of your scale. In this bridge-building exercises you try to keep the volume the same through the whole exercises, so there shouldn't be a massive volume drop during the transition areas, even though you are using a little 'H' and a little more air.

    You don't have to be able to sing with your mix voice or anything right now, if it's hard for you just focus on the exercises for now. When you can do the transitions well on low volume, you can up the volume and maybe even start ascending at a later point, so bringing chest voice higher first. With 'up the volume' i do NOT mean using a lot more air or 'forcing' the notes.

    The slow ascend towards head voice is key, you actually keep the open feeling in your throat, and focus on your support. If you have the PRO bundle, you can find the Dudes basics videos from Ken with his student Adam. In the lip roll exercise video, Ken shows you EXACTLY what he means with going towards head voice. Check it out if you can.

    Oh and one more thing: don't forget your vowel mods, also use them in your head voice.

    @highmtn , please correct me if i'm wrong: The support for head voice (when you transition completely to head voice on briding exercises) feels a little different than when you fully support chest-only? I get the feeling that it can be harder because of the difference?

    Cheers and good luck, let us know if you need a few more tips

    Ben
  • highmtnhighmtn Administrator, Moderator, Enrolled, Pro, 3.0 Streaming Posts: 15,354
    Support varies throughout the range of the voice. Head voice is at a different pressure range than chest voice, so compensating for those changes and differences is an ongoing process.
  • coljacolja Member Posts: 45
    Thanks! I tried lowering the volume and singing slowly on the "soo" sounds, and I connected it! I just went slowly! But there's a problem. I can connect it with mix voice only going up when doing sirens. I can't connect while going down.
  • bentkbentk Moderator, Pro, 2.0 PRO, 3.0 Streaming Posts: 1,650
    Ah, I encountered this same problem @colja

    I can actually still stumble sometimes on the descending scales if i don't focus enough.
    I think it helps to really focus on your technique when ascending, and applying this technique in reverse when going back down. If you need to add some 'H' and a little (!) amount of air, go with that for now. Just think about shaping your vocal tract, and how this changes when you ascend towards head voice. You are actually shedding off weight from the sound, letting your head voice come in little by little as you go up.

    You talk about the sirens, but how do the usual scales go for you? Those teach me the most about the sensation and stages of connecting.

    Feel free to present any more questions or problems,

    Cheers,

    Ben
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