What is going on....

solful

Ok, so.... I've lost my mid voice... again... and I don't understand how. I went back to doing the bridge connection like you told me @highmtn, soft and low to work out the wiggle, and continued to stretch chest. My chest voice feels amazing. No pain, no tightness, no "scratchy feeling", no raspyness and I've even stopped coughing. The range of my chest voice has increased also. I hit every note on Queens "Don't Stop Me Now" (before warming up, foolishly, i will add.) And felt nothing after except for excitement. My mid voice is coming back a bit more now, but this worries me greatly. What in the world am I doing wrong in my bridge that's causing this?

highmtn

Don't know. Gotta hear it. Want to put up a sample that exhibits the symptom?

solful

@highmtn here is a sample. I didn't want to do it too much because it sounds awful. It just goes out in the bridge section. It's actually better than it was before, no sound would come out around the bridge section yesterday yesterday.

https://youtu.be/TraXW6Rp0QU

solful

@highmtn Should I send some of me doing chest voice also?

highmtn

It sounds like you're using too much pressure through your passaggio, so you have no control and are not bridging properly. You'll probably need to go back to bridging 101, where you learn to bridge smoothly by very gently and quietly blending from chest to head.

I hear people do that who have no idea where there bridge is or should be, so their break just happens randomly and they are unable to coordinate moving smoothly and directly between chest voice and head voice. I can do that same sound if I demonstrate to someone what it's like to be confused when bridging and not knowing where to release. Instead you kind of panic and randomly go back and forth between head and chest. Instead of blending, your vocal break is emphasized and you yodel up and down through the passaggio. Loss of steady support will also cause you to have a loss of control there.

You need to re-learn to bridge smoothly. It must be a smooth motion, in one direction, no zig-zagging, no going back and forth. You kind of jump across it, you don't dwell there and listen to your break continue breaking.

Bridging is learning to de-emphasize the vocal break that is naturally there. Instead, you are panicking there and dwelling at the center of your vocal break. Smooth it out and move from chest to head, or head to chest. De-emphasize your natural break between the registers. You were just recently working on getting rid of the wiggle in your breath, so there may be some residual uncertainty of proper pressure regulation as you go through your passaggio.

Your issues have been with confusion about your mid voice, and you know your mid voice lies in-between your primo and your secondo passaggio. So you may be losing your place, thinking you're in the clear when you're right in-between your two passggios. This is an area where you need to monitor your volume. We are not stretching chest here. We are bridging. Bridging has to be done more quietly than stretching chest voice. Bridging means smoothly getting through that area without a yodel. That means very softly until we get our bearings well enough to start slowly and gently increasing volume. We have to maintain balance and equilibrium in order to prevent turning over the applecart with yodels and speed bumps.

Don't get too excited with "foolish" warmups. Warm up responsibly. You can knock your voice off-track by having just a little too much fun before your voice is ready for it.

solful

I understand. That "pressure" is most like the reason my bridge vocal cords keep on going out. I will continue to do the light workouts for my bridge until I get this sorted out. Patience is the one thing I hate to live with but can't live without, I see that now.

And one more thing, am I on to still do the chest voice exercises?

Thank you for the help. @highmtn

highmtn

I think you should do the chest voice exercises, but very lightly. Be gentle, and don't be too discouraged. Discouragement will plant that seed that you "can't" do it, when actually this is just a little bump in the road that you will get past. So no need to be bummed.

What might also be helpful to you, also is to do some light sliders and slide through your chest and mid voices up into head.

1 octave or 2 octave sliders, through the passaggio area. Do them lightly and see if you can avoid the breaks, and feel your voice sliding through that area with a little more confidence. Get the feel of successfully transitioning through that area, starting in chest and arriving in head with no vocal break.