The EASIEST Mixed Voice Exercise | How I Learned to Sing in Mixed Voice | The Nay Exercise
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- Опубликовано: 25 авг 2024
- Hi guys! Yup, I'm talking about the Nay exercise again! I've discovered some new tips and tricks to help you do it, as well as WHY the Nay works. Why do we say specifically "nay"? Why not "pay" or "nee"? Why nay? Learn everything you've ever wanted to know about this crazy little exercise right here!
MIXED VOICE LESSON: • Mixed Voice: the Key t...
Let me know if you have any questions and I'll do my best to help you out in the comments!
If you were interested in one-on-one online lessons with me, check out my website: katecosettevocals.com/schedule-a-consultation
HUGE thanks to Eric Arcenaux, Felicia Ricci, and Roger Burnley of Singing Made Simple. You guys seriously helped to shape the singer I am today.
Guys, check out each of their channels! They're FANTASTIC teachers! I've learned so much from them each!
The videos for the "Nay" Exercise:
Eric Arcenaux - • How To Sing - High Notes
Eric Arcenaux - • Video
Felicia Ricci - • Video
Singing Made Simple - • Video
Happy singing!
Hey everyone! Hope this video helped you in some way! Please feel free to leave your questions below!
Also, I do offer online voice lessons if anyone is interested! You can schedule a lesson with me at my website at katecosettevocals.com
Happy singing!
My singing teacher charged me $600 across six lessons to teach me this but I never got what she was trying to teach me because she never explained ANY of this. Thank you !!!
I’m so happy I can help☺️ let me know if you ever have any questions!
Happy singing! 💕
I don't know what it is about you, but you have a way of explaining things that make them really accessible.
This means so much, thank you! ☺️
I’ve been listening to your videos over the past few days and I must say that you were born to teach singing. I’ve been a musician for 30 years, and your videos have been more helpful on the topic of vocals than any course I’ve taken.
Thank you!
You should really consider creating your own online course, with your Meet/Zoom lessons as an “upgrade”. Even though you have so much free material on RUclips, I think people would be willing to pay for a step-by-step course from you because of the quality of your instruction (you explain things amazingly well).
Wow, this means a lot, thank you so much! 😊
Also thank you so much for that idea, I hadn’t actually considered doing courses but I will definitely be giving that some thought! Thanks again so much for your comment and kind words, it really means a lot! 😊
Knowing the “why” of an exercise motivates me to continue doing it. “Nay” is humming with your mouth open. Relaxed singing is my goal. Working with your instruction seems like a great way to reach my goal.
☺️
May God Bless You For Your Teaching,I Will Find You And Bless You Myself When I Can.
I'm so glad I found another 'over thinker' 😄...I'm not alone!
Definitely not! If it helps too, I haven’t worked with one singer yet who wasn’t an overthinker 😂 there’s hope for us all 😂😄
I’ve watched a lot of videos on mixed voice. This brought it all together for me. Really well done.
thanks so much, I'm so glad I can help!
@@katecosettevocals i can do those nays and access mixed voice but it tends to be squeezed in a way that you make your throat when you want to impersonate kermit, any advice on how to fix that? i found one solution but it’s very difficult, basically i try to sing while tilting my head up to the point that i can’t swallow without tilting my head back down a bit. in this setting i can speak normally and sing notes below my break point but can’t really access mixed voice here, the muscles are wanting to tilt my head back down as if to swallow.
what i understand is that my brain associated producing this nay mixed voice setting with using the swallowing/squeezing muscles
i would really appreciate your advice on how to fix that. maybe i’m entirely wrong with this then please tell me. anyway this video was really awesome and made a lot of sense
@@kristianze3755 apologies on the delay! I didn’t see this until now!
If you’re having trouble with getting nay to sound right/get in the right placement, then I totally suggest you try the humming trick I mention in this video. Basically, just hum (softly) and then open your mouth a fraction, and try not to change anything about the structure of your mouth. Your hum should turn into a very resonant, loud sound. This is your mixed voice, and what nay should sound and feel like. It should be very loud and raw sounding, it won’t necessarily sound good or like singing to your ears. That’s okay! We’ll turn it into singing later.
When you do this, make sure to open your mouth very, very slowly. If you go too fast, your voice will lose the placement. Really focus on where you feel the hum with your mouth closed; it should stay in the same exact place when your mouth opens.
When you get used to that, try to say “nay” as you hold it there. You want to get to the nay exercise because just doing the humming trick will take a lot longer to make a habit, and the nay exercise is great for singing over songs.
Let me know if that helps!
I practice in my car too and for the same reasons...it's sound proof. I just try to pay attention to my posture, which can suffer when sitting in a car seat. Nay is great and you did a wonderful job explaining it and setting up the proper expectations. Nay triggers a certain muscular coordination that is hard to discover via other means. I would love to understand anatomically what is exactly happening.
I’ve heard of this exercise from someone else on RUclips, and they also said that the more creaky and crackly it sounds at the end, the better.
This is a really great and very detailed explanation by the way. I love this, because it leaves no room for confusion.
thanks so much for your comment! 😊😊 so glad I could help! ☺️
OMG! This is so helpful! I can’t believe how effective this is getting clearly into my mix. Why isn’t everyone teaching to nay nay through a whole song… and then going from nay to a vowel and then ultimately to the words. SO GOOD!!!
I’m so happy it’s helping you! Haha I definitely thank the fact that my attention span doesn’t like scale warm ups/exercises so I started experimenting on songs 😂 so happy I could help!!
Kate you give everyone so much hope ! Thank you so much !
so happy I can help! :)
Wowwww I was doing it wrong and as I kept watching you explain and then I felt it in soft pallet! And I was relaxed, definitely recommend watching the full videos, don’t assume you got it!!😂
thank you so much for the encouragement!
guys, lets do this! see you at the end of the year with your progress :)
Yes!!! 😁
Hi Kate, just sharing my one month progress.. il keep on working... even harder.thanks again for your tutorial... ruclips.net/video/trUX5vY1_DE/видео.html
How is progress going, a year later?
@@katecosettevocals wow! It's nice to see a creator asking that, not many remember xD very wholesome
I will start doing nay too :)
Thank you ! Your nay videos are the best 💕
Revolutionary! :O It's funny- I've definitely heard this exercise before (I'm also trapped in my head voice most of the time), but the way you explained WHY it worked when all of those other teachers couldn't just unlocked a whole new level of the matrix for me. Thank you so much! I'll take all of this awesome content you've gifted us with, do some practicing, and definitely swing by for a lesson sometime. Thanks again!
I'm so happy I could help! Sounds great, I'd love to help you along your journey!☺
Happy Singing!!
How are things going with the exercise? ☺️
Hi Kate!!! right now I'm almost doing the NAY exercise for 7 months and rigth now, I can go to the vowels but not to the words? And even I can go to the vowels, like i feel i don't have the range, like I can switch the vowels up to F4 and F#4 and it's not hurting my throat , but i see the progress of this exercise. I feel my soft palette is raising and the sound resonate to my cheeks! and I think i just need a little bit more of time to go to the words? And Thank you Kate! ❤️💖 your so Awesome! you made me feel always inspire when you doing NAY videos thank you so much, I love you.😘 😍💗
Hi Jorem!
That's fantastic! Congratulations on making so much progress, that's amazing!! Thank you for your kind words, I'm so happy I can help!
So at least in my experience, I practiced the nay exercise a lot, and it was a full year, maybe a little bit more before I could sing on the words in mixed voice without having to resort to the exercise. So you're absolutely doing everything right, it just takes some more time!
As for finally getting to the words, practice them SLOW. So, literally sing a phrase of your song on the words incredibly slow. Find the vowel in each syllable you're singing (for example, in the word "happy" you have Ah - E.) Sing on the word, but really lock into that vowel as you sing it. Do this in front of a mirror for extra help. So what you're doing is going slow to allow your muscles the chance to get used to singing on the words with the vowels. The reason it's hard to go to the words is because we have consonants in words that close your mouth and ruin your vowels. Plus when we go back to singing on the words, our old habits are soo linked to the words, making it just something else we have to build some muscle memory for. So as long as you practice the words slow and really make sure you're holding onto those vowels, it's just a matter of getting use to it. Do this a lot, and it will soon become natural to sing on the words with the mixed voice placement!
Also, if you go higher and you feel like you're starting to lose your mixed voice placement, go ahead and just say "nay" on that high note, then go back to the vowels or words. Use nay as a crutch now, using it for whatever high notes you are nervous about or feel like you're losing the placement on. Use this as much as you like and as long as it takes for it to become natural, and again, for me, it was about a year for all of this to become natural. So you're halfway there! Definitely keep practicing on the vowels and then playing with singing slowly on the words. You'll get muscle memory in no time!
Keep up the amazing work and keep me posted! Let me know if you have any other questions and have fun with it!
@@katecosettevocals Oh thank you! 😍❤️ your so kind godbless you always, and I will always be your fan.😘
This was SO helpful! Thank you!!!
So happy to help!! ☺️
I loved your in-depth approach on why, how, and the motivation! That's what I needed, I just can't thank you enough
No problem at all, so happy I can help! Let me know if you ever have any more questions! ☺️
Well explained! ❤
I enjoy your tutorials. I'm so subscribed! Thanks!
Such an awesome video. Watched it 3 times back to back, took notes, starting this today!
Thank you!
thanks so much, so happy I can help! :) how did the first practice go??
@@katecosettevocals great! Been doing it daily. I have to be careful not to pull up chest voice though. Got a break that nasty habit.
Sorry I missed this reply! RUclips does not like alert replies haha.
If you have a lot of tendency to pull your chest voice up, I suggest learning head voice first and practicing that a bit! Head voice is almost exactly in mixed voice placement and it teaches your muscles to relax so it’s much much easier to go into mixed voice from there! If you need a link to the head voice video let me know, I’m replying to this on the go but I can grab it for you later! xD
@@katecosettevocals Thanks for the info. I think it's just me carrying too much weight up into my mix, I've got to learn to let that go and truly relax, as you say in the video.
:)
great explanation! thank you 🙏
thanks so much, so happy I could help!
Thanks Kate! Your voice lesson videos have honestly been the most helpful singing videos I've watched on RUclips and I've watched A LOT of singing videos haha! I feel like I've watched them all in my journey to try and learn how to sing.
Aw, I’m so happy to help!! 🥰
Thank you! That´s the tip I needed
Yay the nay!! Love your teaching style 🙏 thank u
Wow! This was super helpful!
Thank you 😊
my pleasure! ☺️
Thank You for explaining this in a way that I can understand and practice
Brilliant advice. One of the best I've seen on Nay exercise. Thankkyou
thanks so much, I'm so glad I could help!
Thank you! This helped me a lot! 🙏🙏 there is a space in the back around the soft palate the sounds resonates and now I see why we should try the vowels. That no one said it! Have to try Nay for. While . Thanks again
my pleasure! so happy I could help!! 😊
This helped me sooo much I'm about to try now😭
awe I’m so happy I could help! ☺️
This is the best singing tutorial on the internet 🎉
Oh my gosh! Iloveyou! Thank you so much for this video. Extremely informative. Now I understand the purpose why the hum, the N A Y. Thanks a lot!
Of course, I’m so happy to help!!☺️ let me know if you ever have any questions! Happy singing!
This is excellent, thank you!
Can u please help with videos on how to hold the note steady ( the breath staying smooth and not shaky or wobbly ?)
Thanks so much for your phenomenal work ! God bless you
there could be a few reasons this is happening so I’m not sure without working with you, but I would start with these!
ruclips.net/video/oBOs0sUEHhU/видео.htmlsi=MCvKT5sGGX6EueHJ
ruclips.net/video/_LPeeRDcV7M/видео.htmlsi=bd7_ZEEN4miDENrn
not me thinking my mixed voice is my head voice lmaooo this video helped so much!!
Hahaha that’s exactly what I did for sooo long, don’t worry! 😂 So glad I helped, let me know if you ever have any questions! 😄
This is the video that made a difference for me
So happy to hear that!! ☺️ let me know if you ever have any questions!
I absolutely love you!
😊😊
Thank you❤ from the bottom of my heart!
I really would like to give her a big hug and way more than just one thumbs up! As it is not possible here is some applause instead👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
I always found it so wierd that humming works on notes that are to high for me to sing.
But still as I ascend while doing 'nay' it quickly becomes thin and starts lacking volume. Guess I am straining then(?)
haha thank you so much! I'm so glad it was helpful! :)
You'll know you're straining when you feel a lot of uncomfortable pressure or tension in your throat, mouth or face, so if you aren't feeling that, you aren't straining. But if as you go up your voice starts lacking volume, it sounds to me like you're maybe flipping into head voice. (head voice is like that lullaby voice). If this is happening, then try to go back to that humming or baby cry slide exercise on the notes you feel yourself flipping into that quieter sound.
However, if you're talking about the very tippy top of your range, it will naturally get thinner and lose a bit of strength there because our voices naturally do get thinner as they go higher.
Here's a video I made about chest voice, but in the 2nd half of the video, I mention how our voices get thinner as they go higher and I have some examples of it in the video. Check it out to see if this is what you're dealing with! ruclips.net/video/5YoUEC2XcUI/видео.html
It's hard to tell without hearing you, but see if those things help! I do offer online voice lessons if you ever needed or wanted 1-on-1 help! You can find that info at katecosettevocals.com if you ever needed it! :)
Keep up the awesome work, you've got this!!
So great!!
This is a great.
You're awesome
Nice explaination, subbed :D
Goshhhh I appreciate you!!!! Why are you helping ppl like this 😂😂😂 this should cost money lol I can only imagine if you had students ….!!! Amazing
hahah thanks so much! I do have students through online lessons haha but since so many RUclipsrs helped me learn to sing through their free content when I was still struggling with my voice, I really wanted to pay it forward and do the same for someone else ☺️ I’m so happy I’ve been able to help, your comment really made my day! 😊
I discovered this one accident and started to practice it over and over tell I could sing with it slightly then I started doing notes and scales. After a while I was able to sing high. I mean like really high. I hit the not in Crawling last night by Linkin Park. I was so amazed with my self. My entire faced buzzed from hitting it and I couldn't believe what I just did. I always wanted to sing high safely. I am a Tenor/Bari but for me to even sing some of Chesters stuff is incredible.
I want to ask you somethig i can hit A4 and B4 with nay nay exercise and sometimes C5 but when i want to sing i can't even pass the G4 and it sound very ugly and i strain a lot and break especially on the e and o vowels what should i do to get over this problem??
@@abed9134 I have to see what you are doing. I'll right out my exercises for you so you can get it. 1.Lip drills. 10-min warm up. If you don't like them just do straw phonation because it's the same thing. The second exercise is where you stick out your tongue and do the OOH vowel shape over it with your mouth and do scales for 10min. Slide up slightly into mix on all the high notes. This helps you get your tongue relaxed for open throat singing. If your tongue isn't relaxed you will choke off the chord. Next is the Ah vowel for 5min. Then AA, Aye, EE, OOH. Then I do LAye, EE, I, OH, OHH, Vowels all together. The only thing that gets sore is my chin and the sides of my jaw. Which feels like pressure. I haven't got horse one time or a raspy voice and I do this for an hour a day. EE and O have vowel mods. EE Lee, eh as in led. 2nd mod as in Late A-EE. It's kind of complicated but it should feel like a natural shift to it when you go higher. Only sing the vowels and find the placement for each vowel. Sorry for the late reply. Notes aren't a problem if you understand the mods dude. Trust me! It becomes all about the vowel. And my biggest tip always take a proper breath.
@@darksidessj25 thanks for this info i will try all of this and I will tell you the results
@@abed9134 I got my voice to go to e e5 just like in the video. It's freaking crazy once you get good at it. I don't even need water and I did an hour of practice! I'm a guy and this is nuts for me to be able to even do this. I must be a contralto. C5 isn't that hard anymore. You will feel your lower abs engage if your doing this right. My goal is c6.
I also recommend getting KTVA if you wanna take this further but everything is right here on RUclips.
Love you sis!
Thanks you so much!! 😍
Of course!! 😊
Get a driving license. Get a car. Practice "Nay nay nay". Got it.
THANK YOU! Best explanation on the “nay exercise.” Thank you for it explaining it so well and keeping it simple for us to understand! AND for demonstrating it! Also, I have a question. Do I always need to be in mixed voice when I am singing and do I always need to send my “voice” or sound to the back?
Hi! My pleasure, I'm happy to help! :)
No, mixed voice isn't the only voice you'll sing! You'll still have chest voice and head voice as registers to sing in. Think of your voice like a color spectrum of two colors, say blue and yellow. When they mix, they turn green. Think of blue as chest voice, and yellow as mixed voice. On the bottom of that spectrum, it's fully blue, and fully chest voice. So, the lowest notes of your range will all be in chest voice, because they physically can't be any other register. As you go higher, and as blue inches toward yellow, it turns green as they mix. Same thing with mixed voice! As you get higher in pitch, you'll start mixing your chest voice with a little head voice, which is mixed voice. Then as you keep going higher (you'll hit the solid color of yellow) and you'll be in head voice. The highest notes of your range will always be head voice, they can't physically still be in mixed voice.
So, think of mixed voice as just the smoothing transition between chest voice and head voice. Mixed voice is the biggest part of your range, but it varies. When you sing a little higher, it'll still be closer to chest voice than head voice. But when you sing a lot higher, it'll be closer to head voice than chest voice. Mixed voice is the foundation of your voice for this reason, since pure chest voice and pure head voice are just the bottom and the top of your range. Also, a great thing to know especially when doing this exercise - mixed voice BEGINS where chest voice ends, and that is where you feel like as you sing higher, you hit a sort of ceiling in your mouth, or you feel like your voice gets stuck in your throat. That's your vocal break, which is the end of your chest voice, and the beginning of where you use mixed voice to transition to head voice. (eventually, all of this becomes so natural you don't have to think about any of this at all; your voice will simply and reflexively understand what to do as you sing).
Yes! As you sing higher, you will ALWAYS sing backwards, through the crown of your head (so, like, up and backwards). Here's a little visual of why: the lowest notes of your range - your chest voice - is sung in the front of your mouth. The end of chest voice (which you find by trying to sing a scale up in pitch, and you stop when your voice pretty much hits that wall) stops when you feel like you hit the roof of your mouth. People always try to sing up in pitch by thinking about it going up straight through the top of your head. But that isn't physically possible to do, which is why this ALWAYS makes people strain and struggle. No matter what you do, if you try to sing straight up, you never will be able to; you'll either strain badly or switch to head voice abruptly. Your voice needs space to circulate air in your mouth, so if you think about chest voice ending at the roof of your mouth, you literally have nowhere for air to go when you hit the roof of your mouth. There's bone and your brain, lol, you can't physically sing higher straight up. Instead, we have to think of where you have more space in your mouth to use as you go higher. if you pretend to yawn right now, you'll feel your soft palate raise in the back of your mouth, and you'll feel a TON of space. That's where you have to move your voice! It's the only place you physically CAN sing higher. So, as you sing higher, you will ALWAYS be moving your voice up and backward into that area. That's just the physical journey of your voice.
It's a little hard to explain in word form, so I hope I haven't lost you. I explain a lot of it here in this video though! ruclips.net/video/0nblvip0HQI/видео.html
Let me know if you have any other questions! Hope I helped, and please keep me updated with your journey!!
It seems like singing is perfect way of exercising one's facial muscles.
Thank's so much for this video! It is so motivating! What would you say: when you do the "nay" excercises every day, will it be counterproductive, when i also sing normal songs every day and the old bad singing habits kick in?
Best Regards from Germany!
Hi! I’m so happy to help! 😁
That’s a great question! Thinking back on how I learned mixed voice, I stopped my bad singing habits 100% when I first started using nay. So if you normally strain or “pull your chest voice” too high etc definitely stop doing that (firstly because it’s very damaging!!). When you’re not practicing the nay and you just want to sing songs without practicing, it’s okay to flip up to head voice though!
I’d really commit to doing the exercise all the time you sing! You’ll see a difference in the first few weeks right off the bat. It’ll get easier and easier to find that placement and not have to always rely on the exercise. Then you can switch to only using the exercise when you need it - so you can sing songs like normal but when the high notes come you can switch to the nay just for those notes and then go back to singing the words. The more you practice the nay the quicker your muscles will get used to it! And after a few months of it, your muscles will be so used to mixed voice you will rarely have to use the exercise and you can sings songs on the word with total ease and freedom!
So the short answer, I’d cold turkey quit singing with old habits and really spend your time singing with the nay! Again, this is only for a little while! It won’t be for forever.
Let me know how your progress goes!!!
Thanks a million for this gem you put up, it finally helped me understand exactly what the mixed sound is and how to do it 😅 question, should i continue to sing and practice normally during the months Im practicing with the new found mixed sound or stop entirely?
So happy I could help!! :)
The one thing to definitely stop entirely is any kind of straining or pushing you usually find yourself doing when singing. But you can definitely still spend time singing just for fun without thinking about this at all! However if you find you need to strain when singing for fun, I’d suggest skipping over those parts in the song or singing them quieter, like in head voice (I have a video on head voice on my channel as well!). Pretty much, we really want to make sure we’re staying away from strain and pushing, haha.
But as long as you’re spending 30 or more minutes like 5-6 days a week practicing the Nay exercise, you’ll start to notice that when you’re singing for fun or “normally”, it’ll start becoming a ton easier and your voice will naturally begin to go to the right placement :) if you strain to sing when singing normally and continue to do this on the side of practicing this exercise, it could set you back since strain and tension prevents the exercise from working. But the more you practice the exercise, the faster it will get into your habits!! (However always take at least one rest day and don’t overdo it! 1 hour a day, even split up over the day, is more than enough!)
But if you did want to stop singing normally during this time, that is perfectly fine too! In my experience I just made sure to stop straining. But if a lot (or all) of your singing tends to be tense or strained, it could be a good idea to stop for now, just until the Nay exercise works it magic haha 😄
Keep me updated on how it goes!!
This is the closest I’ve ever got to understanding, I love the way you explain things! But also, after practicing this a while I’ve now got myself into a confused state haha…
So is Nay in chest voice or head voice? cause it sounds like it should be more head voice- but ‘nay’ in my head voice doesn’t go very loud but you said if it’s not loud then it’s not correct, so I try and just make an annoying noise but i’m certain I’m doing that with my chest voice so now I’m in such a muddle and confused it seems I can only do one or the other but this is meant to be encouraging mixed voice 😢
What you're experiencing is super normal, so at least know that! :)
The Nay exercise is in Mixed Voice placement, so it isn't in either head voice or chest voice. We tend to spend more time in daily speech in either head voice or chest voice, and we don't often use our mixed voice so that's what makes it a lot harder to find. But once you do find it, it changes everything 😄
Since mixed voice can be so tricky to find, it can take some extra steps to get to that Nay exercise, but those steps really depend on what's going on with your voice specifically. I use a lot of tailored approaches when singers find it harder to find mixed voice, so my best advice would be potentially doing a lesson together just to figure out what's going on and how to get you there so you can go back to practicing it on your own :)
But if that's not something you're interested in or want to do, my best advice is to think of mixed voice as something separate from chest voice and head voice. If it feels like head voice or chest voice, it probably is. If it's too quiet, it's probably in head voice. If it's strained or rough or difficult to maintain, it's probably pulled chest voice (trying to use your chest voice too high).
Mixed voice is loud on its own, and it's under your soft palate, and truly the epitome of a baby cry. If you're trying that baby cry imitation and you're trying to make it loud, that'll cause tension and pull you into chest voice. Really try to imitate a very annoying crying baby haha. Try not to think about it as singing. It should feel 100% effortless - we all have the ability to imitate a baby cry effortlessly, as it's part of our human nature. Our voice naturally loud in that placement because it had to be when we were young. That baby cry is like a survival type of instinct, where our body just knows where to put our voice in order to make it loud from the moment we're born for protection, so that we can be heard. We never lose that as we grow up. I'd guess that if you're struggling with it, it just means you may be trying too hard/forcing it, or you're trying to make it loud rather than just let it be loud on its own. It should require very little effort to do. Really lean into the "annoying" aspect, not strong or powerful, as if you're just mocking a baby's crying. Mixed voice is not our most powerful voice anyway ;) (Chest voice is!)
It's hard to know exactly what your voice is doing without hearing you, but I hope that helps! If you're still struggling with it, I would be happy to work with you one on one to get you on the right track for the exercise! 😄 But up to you of course! Just know that mixed voice IS 100% possible for you still, there's just something preventing you from getting there. Once you find what that is, you will be well on your way!! :)
Hi, wow thanks for the reply! I’ve just had another go and yes it feels like when I got close to doing mixed voice I was breaking and wobbling all over the place, I’ve always known I struggle to find mixed voice, I think it’s burried deep down as of I’ve never touched it haha, I probably will book a lesson with you hopefully soon!:) x
Of course! And that is super understandable, because we don't often use that mixed voice register haha. It was the hardest thing I had to learn in terms of singing (finding mixed voice), and a lot of the singers I work with tend to take a few weeks just to find that placement and get used to it even before attempting the Nay exercise due to lots of unhelpful habits getting in the way. It definitely takes some strategizing sometimes haha, but once you get it, it will all come together! :D So just know you WILL get it! :)
Your voice breaking and feeling wobbly or shaky/hard to control will always be an indication of tension. My best advice in the meantime until we get together to see what's going on is to do your best to sing without any kind of strain, tension or force. The more you can practice being relaxed, the better! Even if your voice doesn't sound the way you want it to sound, it's always better to be relaxed than try to push. Also, any kind of strain or pushing will actually block off the mixed voice register, so starting to ease back on that will be the best thing you can do to start off :)
I'm super excited to meet you and work with you! No rush of course, though! Whenever you're ready, you can send me a message here! www.katecosettevocals.com/schedule-a-lesson
Keep up the awesome work, and keep believing in yourself!! You are going to get there!
I love your page you’ve helped me so much much with my voice! I have a quick question. In this video you said when you sing place your voice towards the back where the soft palate is. You also had another mixed voice video that talked more about placement and you said we shouldn’t sing placing our voice toward the back and it should be placed more toward the middle of our mouths. Which one works best?
I'm so happy I can help!
I'm sorry about the confusion! I made that other video a long time before I made this one, and since then, I'd discovered an easier way to think about things, which was focusing on where you feel your hum. In both this video and the other video, you are still placing your voice under your soft palate, but way back when, I placed it too far in the upper back of my mouth. It was still under my soft palate, but was just too far back. So you still want to keep your voice under your soft palate for mixed voice, but not so far back that it feels stuck. (the hum makes that so much easier to find).
To keep it super simple so you don't have to worry so much about thinking about where the exact placement is, just focus on where you feel your hum! Once I learned that, I didn't have to worry about being as strategic about where to put my voice. You'll feel as you hum higher up in your range that your voice moves a little bit upward and back as you go higher, but it won't get stuck. Whenever you feel you're losing the mixed voice a bit, or you're not sure if you're doing it in the right place, go back to where you feel your voice when you hum softly, and find that nay sound (and then later, your singing) that way.
The only reason I suggest focusing only on where you feel your hum as a guidance for placement of mixed voice is because it's much simpler and easier to think about, and when you do it like this, there's very little margin for error. Just remember to *softly* hum, not to push it out or try, and to really, really focus on where you feel your voice resonate so that you can keep it exactly the same when you open your mouth. (switch from closed mouth to opening your mouth VERY slowly so you can really hold onto that placement).
Try this for a week or two, and by that point let me know how it's going, and if you have any more questions! :)
The knights of “ NAY” have spoken: “ NAAAAAY”!!!😝🤓😂
I always start straining with NAY. :( What tips do you have to release the strain while practising NAY?
If you have more of a tendency to strain, that can make the Nay exercise a little trickier to get, as strain prevents your voice from going into the right placement. Straining indicates that you're trying to do the exercise from a place of chest voice or belting, which is in a different placement than mixed voice (which is why it prevents the Nay from coming out in mixed voice).
The tips I mentioned in this Nay exercise video are the best general advice I can give for doing the exercise without working with a singer one-on-one, as the reason for strain tends to be different for each singer. it takes a little strategizing to find mixed voice placement, which is something very specific to you and your voice, rather than a one-size-fits-all kind of a thing. Strain can be a hard habit to break, but it can be done!!
Try to relax as you do the exercise and really think about just making that may sound rather than singing. Try to just imitate a baby cry and really feel how it naturally effortlessly feels and try to emulate that. If you try this and are still having trouble with it, I give online lessons where you can even just do one lesson to get on the right track and then go off on your own (to avoid practicing the wrong ways or getting more frustrated). I'd be happy to help you with your voice! Here's my website if you'd like to check it out. www.katecosettevocals.com/schedule-a-consultation
Hope that helps!
Great videos. Do these techniques apply to a male voice as well?
Absolutely!
So how do you transition from the nay to the nice sounding sound? What do you change exactly?
To go from the Nay sound to the nice sound, you just use singing vowel mouth shapes!
The Nay exercise sounds so “bad” because when your mouth is that closed (which is helpful to find the placement), it sounds really cringy, or rather just too “bright”. To get rid of that, all you have to do is open up the space in your mouth, and you do that with singing vowels. You can’t sound cringy with singing vowel mouth shapes, haha. But opening up the space will most likely yank your placement out of mixed voice when you’re new to this, so get used to the placement with your mouth closed first and then practice going into a singing vowel.
In this video is an example of going from the Nay exercise to a singing vowel to the words: ruclips.net/video/0nblvip0HQI/видео.htmlsi=PTDXPgcXqEiU8pWQ
And in this video I go over singing vowels: ruclips.net/video/JCgwjBmlHjc/видео.htmlsi=wvZB5SQ-UF81FTgi
@@katecosettevocals thanks alot!
Hi Kate. Great video! But I'm still confused about the vocal break. If I'm to sing a song that has lots of switching between chest, mix, and head voice, do I do the same with the nays? If so, I can still hear my vocal break happening when going from chest to mix, for example. I thought the purpose of an exercise like this is to erase the break by placing the voice correctly.
Gotcha - great question!
First, let me link this video if you haven't watched it already: ruclips.net/video/0nblvip0HQI/видео.html
In that video I explain a little more about the vocal break and its relation to head voice and chest voice.
The Nay exercise is only the placement for *mixed voice*. Mixed voice in of itself is where you vocal break is, but it's just a smoothed transition rather than that abrupt change between voices. Mixed voice is a mixture of chest voice (chest voice placement is in the front of your mouth close to your teeth/talking voice), and head voice (which is under your soft palate in a very up/backward placement in your mouth). Think of mixed voice solely as the glue that holds the two main registers (head and chest) together/connecting them.
Because the Nay is just the mixed voice placement, if you try to sing a note that is in your full chest voice (such as a very low note in your range) you won't be able to do the Nay exercise because you simply don't need it; mixed voice only occurs where your vocal break starts. So, the moment you go up your range and feel that break or like you're hitting that wall, that's where you want to start practicing Nay.
Even though Nay only works in that middle of your range, keep in mind that that is the MAJORITY of your range. Pure chest voice and pure head voice are very small blips on the spectrum of your range. So that's why it's so important to really get that break smoothed out. But when you are practicing, you can 100% still do the Nay exercise over parts of the song that are your lowest or highest notes that aren't in mixed voice, but just note that you'll feel the placement change and that's okay; those notes are supposed to switch. The amazing thing about doing Nay over a whole song is that it keeps you in the correct mixed voice placement and your voice switches naturally when it has to, so that your muscles are really learning how to adapt even when you don't use the exercise later.
And as for feeling your voice continue to break, I would bet that you aren't doing the Nay in the correct placement. You're probably doing Nay in a more chest voice placement, so definitely make sure that you are achieving that very upward and back "cringy" sound! Record yourself doing it and compare it to how my voice sounds doing the Nay, and make sure it's got the same quality of sound!
Also keep in mind that mixed voice is not belt voice. Once you get your break smoothed out, you'll be able to work on your belting and higher chest voice, but let that come after you smooth out that break.
Let me know if that managed to help!
Hey Kate, when I'm doing the nay exercise, do I transition to my head voice or keep it in high mix? (like a belt I guess)
Sanya Palta Hey! 😁
When you do the nay exercise you don’t have to worry about transitioning voices! Remember, it’s just a sound you’re making. Do your best not to think about it as singing so that you don’t go into it with old singing habits. Let your voice do what it naturally will as you go up with the exercise. The exercise is great that way; it holds the position of your voice for you so you don’t have to think about it! Effort-wise, it feels as easy as head voice. But it will be stronger than head voice (though not as strong as a high chest voice or a belt, which will come later).
As mixed voice gets higher, you feel it go up and backward in your head, and it’ll become a little thinner the higher you go, but that’s just how your vocal chords work. Mixed voice doesn’t exactly turn into a belt, at least in the way I think of a belt voice. Belting feels like you’re holding nothing back and you have nothing left to give, and it’s more of a high chest voice. Mixed voice will feel like you’re not giving your complete all, but that’s okay. That’s what it’s supposed to feel be! Mixed voice is the foundation of your voice. Also remember, mixed voice is just humming with your mouth open. That’s exactly how it should feel when singing. You can try humming notes through your range with your mouth closed first, so you know what to expect to feel/hear when you do the exercise.
Let me know if that helps! 😊
@@katecosettevocals Thanks Kate, I will practice this and let you know how I go with it! Love you!
Sanya Palta yes! Keep me posted!! ❤️❤️
Hi Kate! In another video you did on mix voice you said that when doing the "Nay" exercise, it don't have to sound nasal or you don't have to feel it in the nose, but in the upper back of your mouth. However, what I don't understand is that the consonant "n" is nasal, and no matter what, you have to feel the sound in the nose, for example with "twang." Also, the "Nyah" exercise is for the chest voice, but it sounds the same to me and I feel it the same as doing the "Nay" exercise, I feel them both in the nasal resonators. Is the twang used for the mixed voice? How am I supposed to do it without feeling it in the nose? When doing the exercise and plugging my nose, the sound still flows but it sounds more nasal. Am I doing it wrong?
Hi! My best advice is for the Nay exercise, really think about where you feel that hum, and where you feel that baby cry. Naturally, neither of them will be in your nose. We want to really make the Nay exercise identical to the feeling of both of those things. As for the Nyah exercise, it's very identical to the placement of that "Valley Girl" accent, or saying "ewwww" in a high pitched voice as if startled by a spider or something gross, haha. The Nay exercise is underneath your soft palate, so it won't be in your nose. The Nyah exercise is under the roof of your mouth and by your front teeth, so it is definitely *near* your nose, which gives it a bit of that twang sound, but it won't be in your nose. As for the "N" sound, I feel it right under the roof of my mouth rather than in my nose.
I think what you may be dealing with is putting the exercises in the wrong placement, but it's a little hard to tell without hearing you. I offer online voice lessons if you were interested in double checking your placement so that you can practice the exercises in the right places, you can find the info for them at katecosettevocals.com . 😊
I hope that helps! 😊
This is pretty much twang right?
Yes! 😄
does mixing Still Work if I pinch my nose?
It does, but only in a specific way. If you pinch your nose and sing *into* your nose, it will feel easier but will not be mixed voice. (You’ll also tell that the sound doesn’t sound very good as you sing, it will be very thin and nasal.) however, and this is a trick I often have people do for mixed voice, if you pinch your nose and sing specifically NOT in your nose, so you sing toward the upper back of your mouth, that is completely mixed voice. (This is a great way to get your voice out of your nose, if you have the tendency to do that.
Unless your voice is in your nose and you hear a very nasal sound as you sing, I would not make this your sole way of practicing mixed voice. I would stick with practicing the nay exercise or humming, because it helps you find mixed voice much easier.
Hope that helps, and let me know if you still have more questions!
@@katecosettevocals thankss. Im still Confused Until now how To sing In Mix.. It always Flips To headtone when I try To Hit A4 up from chest..
My advice is to avoid trying to sing up through your range, and trying to force yourself not to flip - all of that. If you go about trying to learn mixed voice this way, it will be very hard to do (for me, impossible). Your habits are going to keep trying to use chest voice reflexes as you go up if you go about it this way, and chest voice doesn’t work all the way up your range (which is why you have that point in your range when you flip, which is called your vocal break). It can be incredibly frustrating if you try to sort of “force” yourself to try to mix that way, so I really want to stop you from doing that to save you the frustration. Mixed voice is something you’ve never done before, therefore you have to sing in a place you’ve never sung before to achieve it. Fight your habits, haha!
I know it can seem very counterproductive to relax and only do these exercises that I explained in the video, but I promise you that they are the easiest and fastest (some of the only ways) you’ll achieve mixed voice. Mixed voice is a very different feeling than chest voice and is in a different place than head voice. It’s going to feel uncomfortable and weird at first, but it’ll do absolute wonders for your voice.
Give these exercises I mentioned in the video a solid two weeks of practice, and see what happens. Do the baby cry to the nay sound, as well as doing the hum to the weird noise that happens when you open your mouth. Do them SLOW, very slow, and focus on where you feel your voice. It should stay in the same place when you hum as well as when your mouth opens. Really, really give these exercises a shot and spend a lot of time with them. And remember - nothing should ever hurt, strain, or feel like effort. You should feel like you can do this exercise for hours and hours without tiring. Keep your hum very quiet and soft and easy.
If you’re still having trouble after you give it that few weeks to try it out, I do offer online voice lessons if you’re interested (katecosettevocals.com), and I can help you find what is standing in your way, and really help clear your confusion. But first, really focus and try those exercises and make sure you’re doing exactly what I do in the video, as slowly as I do them. Once you get this exercise down, you’ll be developing mixed voice in no time!
Let me know how trying those exercises goes!
@@katecosettevocals Thanks A lot maam...
It would be awesome if you posted a playlist of songs that would work well with Nay for the average female singer. When the song gets too low do you just stop and then come back in when it gets to a certain pitch?
Absolutely!! I'll post my go-to playlist in a comment here. :) But as a rule of thumb, it's whatever feels high for you!
Great question!! Yes- keep saying/singing Nay over the low parts of the song as well. Mixed voice does start in your mid-range, because your higher and mid notes are under your soft palate. Low notes are under your hard palate, closer to your teeth. When you are using the Nay exercise over lower notes, you'll feel your voice move to the front of your mouth/lower/by your teeth, and don't worry about that. Those low notes aren't in your mid-range, so they won't ever be mixed voice. Definitely keep singing Nay the whole time regardless because it will help you really smooth that transition between the high notes and the low notes!
I actually just recorded a video of me doing the Nay exercise over part of a song as an example, and it includes some low notes as well. That video should go up either this week or next week!
Here's my own personal favorite songs to use the Nay exercise for. Most of the high parts are in the chorus of these songs (as well as most in general haha) But again - use the Nay exercise on the whole song!:
- All I Ask - Adele (quite honestly, nearly any song by Adele)
- You and I - Celine Dion
- Not About Angels - Birdy
- Unthink You - Wiktoria
- Sirens - Cher Lloyd
- Here We Go Again - Demi Lovato
- Rise Up - Andra Day
- Symphony - Clean Bandit
- Never Enough - The Greatest Showman
- In Case - Demi Lovato
- Blow Me (One Last Kiss) - Pink
- Hero - Faouzia
- Cruel Summer - Taylor Swift
- So Emotional - Beren Olivia
- Fireflies - Binky
- Plastic Hearts - Miley Cyrus
Artists that usually have higher songs: Adele, Beyonce, Celine Dion, Demi Lovato, Ariana Grande, Pink, lots of musical songs and Disney songs, Bruno Mars, Adam Levine, and a lot of others that aren't coming to my mind right now, haha!
There's something to start you off, but really it's just about whatever feels high for you, since we all have different ranges :)
Amazing! Thanks so much🥰 From a fellow overdeveloped head voice singer🤪
@@christiefreeman7153 haha of course!!!! You are going to be so blown away with what your voice will become! 🥰
Let me know if you have any other questions and please keep me updated on how things go!! You’ve got this!! ❤️
Okay i have to own a car now
cars are very helpful but not required 😂
@@katecosettevocals i have a question….. do i need to Hold my diaphragm tight all the way through my singing or just when i am belting notes??
@@bibekkunwar2236 Don’t worry about tightening anything! The more you try to “tighten” your diaphragm you’ll more likely be tightening your ab muscles, which will actually hinder your breath by restricting your lungs from expanding as much as they need to. (Speaking from experience!) Way back when I was first learning to breathe I had read that you should tighten or firm your abs/stomach muscles but it did not help one bit and definitely made it harder to draw in and maintain that breath.
Here’s my breathing video: ruclips.net/video/oBOs0sUEHhU/видео.html
When I breathe for singing, the only difference I feel is that the breath is lower and if you put your hand over your stomach, you will feel it move outward. But I tighten no muscles at all; as long as you focus on sending your breath lower and getting that expansion (your hand to move) you will have all the breath support you need. If you have trouble maintaining that breath, then just practice releasing less breath at a time. This can be done by taking in a long expansive breath, and making a “shh” or a “tss” sound with your teeth together, and trying to let as little air out as you continuously exhale out your breath. You can measure that by timing yourself; the longer it takes you to exhale it all out, the better your control over your breath. I don’t believe I put that exercise in my breathing video but it’ll go on my list of future videos to make!
Let me know if you have any other questions!
@@katecosettevocals yeah it makes hard to maintain if i keep my abs tight and yeah i do those exercises. Its just been recently that i have started doing it. Thank you very much
Great free video, thx for it