Mixed voice
VOICE CLINIC
To the ear, mixed voice gives a sensation of head voice and chest voice at once. Its colour is shaped not in the vocal cords but in the resonators.
What is mixed voice?
Mixed voice can use mechanism 1 just as well as mechanism 2. What changes its colour, and therefore its register, happens not at the level of the vocal cords but in the area above them: the resonators, that is, the hypopharynx, the oropharynx and the pharynx. Mixed voice thus combines a vibratory mechanism of the larynx with a resonance mechanism, and it can be considered a variation of mechanism 1 or of mechanism 2.
To the ear, it gives a sensation of head voice and chest voice at once. You find it when you sing moderately loud: it is a colour you have to look for.
During Adeline Toniutti’s phoniatric examination, the same phrase sung in mixed voice showed almost no tightening of the laryngeal vestibule, the storey just above the vocal cords, whereas this tightening is moderate in belting and intense in saturated voice.
“Franco Fussi describes to us how a mixed voice can be produced in mechanism 1 as well as in mechanism 2. In certain situations, you are in mechanism 1, but you have a sensation of mixed voice rather than chest voice. It happens, then, that singers describe sensations that are not explained by what is going on at the laryngeal level, but rather by what is going on at the level of the resonators.”
Sensation and mechanism
What a singer feels does not always reveal which mechanism is at work. During a filmed examination, Adeline Toniutti thought she was moving through chest voice, mixed voice and head voice. The electroglottography trace actually showed head voice, then a mixed voice in mechanism 2, then head voice again, with no chest voice at all. Feeling that you are changing mechanism does not prove that the vocal cords are changing: sometimes it is the resonators that have changed.
Conversely, during her examination for Anatomie du Chant, one and the same note, sung in turn in head voice, in belting, in mixed voice in mechanism 2 and then in mixed voice in mechanism 1, seemed to change smoothly to the ear. On the trace, each change of mechanism was clear: the mean closure quotient, the share of the vibratory cycle during which the vocal cords are in contact, went from 34.5% to almost 49%, then to 36%, before settling at 42%.
Mixed voice in speech
When we speak, we use chest voice and head voice, and mixed voice serves as the link between them. Adeline Toniutti calls it “the magic card of mixed voice”, a subtle blend of the two. Men, who speak mostly in chest voice, can also take on a mixed-voice colour in moments of confession or intimacy, or on television. Most women also use it as a link.
Songs to hear it
To find a register, it is very useful to listen to a singer who practises it, so that you form a mental image of it that the brain can then trigger. The examples given in Anatomie du Chant:
- I Love You, by Woodkid
- Mad About You, by Hooverphonic
Exercises
The Zzz
This is the first vocalise of the warm-up. Bring your lips forward as if for a kiss, on the consonant Z. You can do it in mixed voice or in head voice, but not in belting. It is not recommended for people with a sulcus or an open cyst: in that case, do it with the mouth closed and not on the consonant Z.
“I will follow you”
Inspired by Alicia Keys and Bruno Mars, this vocalise works on soft dynamics, the inner self and handling two registers within one melody. It comes just after the Zzz and is split in two: “I will follow” in mixed voice or in belting, then “You”, the descent, in head voice or mixed voice. Look for a nice R’n’B-style vibe, a well-placed “oo” on the way down and on the way up, and a clean glottal onset on the “I”.
These exercises must be done while respecting the five pivot points. If you have a vocal cord condition, ask your specialist for advice.
CALYP
Explore your registers at CALYP
The registers are set out in detail in Anatomie du Chant (Marabout, 2024). To explore them with Adeline Toniutti and her team, book an appointment.
Frequently asked questions
What is mixed voice?
It is a vocal colour that can use mechanism 1 as well as mechanism 2. What sets it apart happens not in the vocal cords but in the resonators. To the ear, it gives a sensation of head voice and chest voice at once.
How do you find your mixed voice?
According to Anatomie du Chant, you find it when you sing moderately loud: it is a colour you have to look for. Listening to singers who use it, such as Woodkid in I Love You, helps you form a mental image of it.
If I feel a mixed voice, am I necessarily between two mechanisms?
No. A singer can be in mechanism 1 and have a sensation of mixed voice rather than chest voice: changes that take place only in the resonators alter what you feel.