THIS is the video I wish I had seen when I started my singing journey a million years ago. So much misinformation, confusion and contradiction, especially once RUclips singing took off. Phil is an amazing teacher and I know this will save singers a lot of time and frustration with this invaluable information.
If you are experiencing vocal pain from improper singing, seriously consider getting lessons with Phil Moufarrege. Phil definitely saved my voice and he did it in a pretty short time too. I feel like other coaches would have said anywhere from 6 months to 12 months of rest..... what is great about Phil's system is you do not have to stop singing to recover but just start working in the new warm ups and techniques. His teachings really increased my range as well. This is not a paid endorsement or anything. I am sure there are other good coaches out there. I am just saying this because I know how devastating it is as a singer to lose your voice and not be able to sing. And Phil in a very accessible, practical way showed me out of that. All the best Phil! -Nick in Philly
If you want to work with me and get your voice to a level where you have the vocal range, freedom and ease to sing your favorite songs in their original keys confidently then click here: philmoufarrege.com
One of the two videos from Phil that actually help me to improve my singing. Singing in higher note makes my singing tone sounds so much better. Big thanks from me Ozom, from Malaysia
@@philmoufarrege Insane! Just went to the a rehearsal space to give your "chest voice scales pushed towards the vocal break" a try. I was cruising to D (10th fret), 11th fret was decent.. but I was too fatigued to consistently hit the 12th fret with stability and power. Where on the vocal range is that 12th fret E located? Definitely a good exercise that I will apply to strengthen my range. "AY", "AH" and "OH" vowels are markedly easier for me than "OOH" and "EE". Lots to work on 😅
I have 3 videos that are a good place to start and will give you an overview of some of the core elements needed in the process: ruclips.net/video/MQw5ydp3GAM/видео.html ruclips.net/video/JWjbdmHma8s/видео.html ruclips.net/video/SapvqgoGF88/видео.html In your case if you're stuck at middle C, you really should not be doing anything to do with "bridging into headvoice" or "twang" or any of that stuff. You need to strengthen your chest voice at least to the F4 using the ideas in the first video, then to go beyond F4 you need the stuff in the 2nd and third video
Maybe you can explain an issue I've been having. I used to have a decent range, and sang long sustained notes at the top of that range with no problem. I believe I was able to get up to G5 in chest voice when I was at my best. Somewhere along the line, my voice began flipping into falsetto when I would try to sing notes I used to hit without issue. It seems to happen when I try to push too hard, causing my voice to break. The frustrating thing is that it never used to happen, so there are certain songs I just don't sing any more, because I can't seem to control it. I feel like it can be fixed, I'm just not sure what exercises to focus on. Any thoughts? My goal is not to have a crazy high range, but just to perform like I used to with confidence. Any thoughts?
Hi there. I've worked with a lot of people like this - people who used to be able to do things and somehow lost the ability and can't figure out how to get it back. I also have dealt with this in my own voice in the past and it taught me certain things that I had overlooked or missed. Most singers are getting by on their innate talent which is essentially luck. if they lose it they have no idea how to get it back because they never built it in the first place, and have no idea what they need to do to maintain it, repair weakness and build strength etc. So most people "just sing" and do various exercises and call it "singing training". Then if they lose their voice they basically scramble around trying everything hoping something "clicks" magically. The problem is though that they don't understand how they ever "got their voice" in the first place, what things were needed to maintain it, and what things are needed to rebuild it if they lose it. You can see this as a curse or you can see it as an opportunity to go on a journey to REALLY understand your voice and REALLY build it, not to where it was before but even better than before, and to have the confidence of knowing exactly how to do that and how to get it back if you lose it again. You said "I feel like it can be fixed" this is a great attitude to have. and yes you are right you definitely can get back to what you were doing with the right knowledge, and even beyond it.
hard to say, it depends on where that person is starting from. I would say 1-3 years to get to a point where you can sing the songs you want to sing freely is a good time frame.
hey phil, this is a very great video and its the same point youve been talking about for years now, but if mixed voice is just very well developed chest, does that mean that my vocal break will keep going up? as in my current vocal break for example is f4, does that mean after training chest extensively it might be A4 or c5?
By and far the best and simplest explanation of Mixed Voice. I wish I had known this 20 years ago. Would have saved me a lot of time, money and frustration. Thanx Phil!
From my own experience, slowly sliding on a vowel helps. If I'm going too fast or i'm tensing/lacking support, I crack at a G#4/A4. If I do it slow and controlled, I can slide smoothly up to about an E5 in full voice.
Hi Gunnar. It's less about the exercises and more about STRENGTHENING the voice in a specific way. For example, you could do all sorts of scales etc but you're just doing them with your existing mechanics and so you just hit the same wall every single time. it's not so much about just doing different scales or exercises. I get people blasting through those E4 plateau and getting up to high C sometimes in just a few weeks and the scales I use are not much different than what they've done before...what's different is the actual TECHNIQUE behind what I get you to do with your voice and then it's very much a STRENGTHENING process. I have a couple videos that will give you a good overview of what I mean by this here: ruclips.net/video/MQw5ydp3GAM/видео.html ruclips.net/video/JWjbdmHma8s/видео.html ruclips.net/video/SapvqgoGF88/видео.html watch those then if you want to learn more you should check out my website philmoufarrege.com
Really great informative video! Question, what if I want to sing with a headier sound and go lighter lower? I can take my chest voice up and it "bridges"/shifts gear by default but only at my second break of G4/G#4, meaning my "mix" is always too heavy as it carries the weight of the previous note.
thanks! If the voice is prepared properly and ready to do it, all you have to do is just sing softer volume-wise and the voice will just do it. What happens to most people however is when they try to back off the volume, the larynx shoots up and the voice gets really unstable and wants to flip back to falsetto. So the key here is first learning how to get the vocal cord compression so strong while the larynx is in a stable position loudly. Then I usually have people learn how to reduce the volume but keep the solidness and weight of the chest voice. Meaning, the volume gets smaller but the tone doesn't get softer, it still sounds super solid, just quieter. This takes a ton of muscular effort, you have to REALLY squeeze down and compress the voice until it gets really small. Once this gets really strong, only then do I have people learn how to actually SOFTEN the voice, and then at this point the voice can become very soft and heady as you put it, without the voice flipping to falsetto or becoming unstable. It's quite advance.
I wonder how much of this confusion over terms and concepts is a product of Speech Level Singing dogma. I initially struggled to develop my upper tenor range because I was afraid to go beyond F#4 without falsetto (which I was convinced at the time was "head voice" because it wasn't hollow and breathy blah blah). I feel like so many guys on the internet falsely believe they're Baritones and naturally low voices because SLS nonsense has scared them away from actually singing with the volume and intensity needed to develop a strong upper chest.
I think it's not just SLS. In fact Seth Rigg's never defined headvoice as the falsetto headvoice. If you listen closely to his demonstrations of what he calls headvoice particularly his older demonstrations, he's actually in full voice (or what people call mix). but it seems the OTHER SLS instructors out there when they show headvoice are usually just in falsetto and push the whole "transition into falsetto and eventually it will become full voice". So my theory is that somewhere along the lines the students who became teachers were mishearing it and misinterpreting what they were being taught and started teaching it the wrong way. There are also plenty of classical teachers who also make this same mistake too so it's not just an SLS thing.
I don’t see mix as “just chest voice.” I understand why you define it this way; many people (mostly females) mistakenly believe that mix is the inverse of your perspective: that is, they believe it’s just a loud falsetto/m2. But imo, both definitions fail to address the most important aspect of mix, which is the dynamic modulation of registration that eliminates the vocal break and homogenizes the vocal range. Mix can and should be produced in BOTH m1 and m2 as both mechanisms have their own unique tonal capabilities. Many great mixes sound and even feel very chesty but may actually be produced in m2 and vice versa. Studies show that singers are not so good at identifying the register in which they’re singing as they think they are especially in the pitch range typically associated with “mix.” Your demonstrated high C may not have actually been in m1 but just felt like it based on your resonance strategy and firm adduction. It doesn’t really matter which vibrational pattern is happening though, as long as it sounds and feels appropriately “chesty” or “heady” depending on the vocal task. Mix is not one thing, it’s exacty what it says it is: a mix of the two registers. Any other way of defining it will just lead to imbalances imo
Thanks for sharing your view. To clarify my view a bit more... the reason I define it in this way is because the way I get people to develop and achieve this result is through the chest voice, not through falsetto. At the end of the day singers want to know in a practical way what they need to be training and what "voice to train it from" and this is the angle I do it all from.
4:23 I definitely have a third "voice" which sounds very different than what you do here. It sounds very Micky Mousey. I can crack from chest voice to what you call falsetto, and then I can crack from falsetto to this third voice, and no matter how much I try, I can't go smoothly from falsetto to this third voice. If they were the same thing, I would expect to be able to transition without cracking. So when you ask, "If that's head voice, then what's falsetto?" it seems I do have an answer. This is confusing to me because I never hear anyone talk about this voice. Maybe that's just because it doesn't sound good, so it's not worth mentioning. Does this just not exist for some people?
you could be cracking to your flageolet falsetto, which is used to go super high past normal falsetto notes. If I heard you I would be able to quickly tell you what you're doing. But that's my guess based on what you wrote
@@philmoufarrege Thanks for getting back! I recorded myself flipping between voices, if you have a moment to listen I'd really appreciate it ruclips.net/video/US1sT5oI91A/видео.html
they are both falsetto - it's like what I was saying above about the flageolet. there are "two types" of falsetto and at first they will feel separate and distinct, and then they can be smoothed into one and used. For example, I used to always cap out my falsetto at E5 and couldn't go any higher. Then I found this "other type of falsetto" that was super tiny and squeaky and I could go SUPER high with it, like up to C6, but I couldn't take it LOW. It would stop around E5 and switch back to my normal falsetto. Over time I learned to smooth them and combine them into one thing. It sounds like you're experiencing something similar.
My mix when working . Goes way higher than falsetto. It's like a never ending pitch at times . The coordination is a different feeling. I also have a falsetto falsetto . So when it cracks again it's higher. And also a tighter high voice from a fry feeling that's smoothed out.
THIS is the video I wish I had seen when I started my singing journey a million years ago. So much misinformation, confusion and contradiction, especially once RUclips singing took off. Phil is an amazing teacher and I know this will save singers a lot of time and frustration with this invaluable information.
Matt! long time no chat! message me dude! I lost your email.
True this man helps me a lot. Always on point. Thanks a lot @phil
Amazing C4-C5 siren demonstration Phil, you have very strong 1st-3rd formants along with impressive squillo above G4 in the 3-4KHz area!
If you are experiencing vocal pain from improper singing, seriously consider getting lessons with Phil Moufarrege. Phil definitely saved my voice and he did it in a pretty short time too. I feel like other coaches would have said anywhere from 6 months to 12 months of rest..... what is great about Phil's system is you do not have to stop singing to recover but just start working in the new warm ups and techniques. His teachings really increased my range as well.
This is not a paid endorsement or anything. I am sure there are other good coaches out there. I am just saying this because I know how devastating it is as a singer to lose your voice and not be able to sing. And Phil in a very accessible, practical way showed me out of that.
All the best Phil! -Nick in Philly
thank you so much for sharing this! Drop me an email would love to hear how you're going with everything.
@@philmoufarrege I sure will!
Nice to see you Phil! Missed you! Loved the video. Hope you’re well 🙏🏽
Jordan! so awesome to hear from you man! let's catch up drop me a msg or something. would love to hear how you're doing
If you want to work with me and get your voice to a level where you have the vocal range, freedom and ease to sing your favorite songs in their original keys confidently then click here: philmoufarrege.com
Good to see you again, Phil. I wish I had seen this when I started all those years ago, would have saved a lot of confusion!
Julien! wow it's been a really long time man! drop me an email would love to hear how you're doing. just checked out your song it sounds awesome!
Many thanks, Phil - really helpful!
very welcome!
Nice and clear video! This is going to help a lot of people
thanks Doug!!!
One of the two videos from Phil that actually help me to improve my singing. Singing in higher note makes my singing tone sounds so much better. Big thanks from me Ozom, from Malaysia
awesome thanks!
Good to see you back Phil 😉
Hope you're doing well!!
Awesome to hear from you Greg! I'll drop you a message soon
nice to see u back, Phil.
hey dude thanks for the encouragement hope you're doing good!
Love the simplicity for a beginner-singer.. I'm definitely doing a deep dive on this channel!
awesome thanks for the encouragement!
@@philmoufarrege Is it possible to train your chest voice to reach as far as your falsetto?
yep
@@philmoufarrege Insane! Just went to the a rehearsal space to give your "chest voice scales pushed towards the vocal break" a try. I was cruising to D (10th fret), 11th fret was decent.. but I was too fatigued to consistently hit the 12th fret with stability and power.
Where on the vocal range is that 12th fret E located?
Definitely a good exercise that I will apply to strengthen my range.
"AY", "AH" and "OH" vowels are markedly easier for me than "OOH" and "EE".
Lots to work on 😅
what an awesome win dude!
yeah, but how do you access mixed voice? once you hit the break, (mine is middle c) how do you develop your chest to go higher and get "mixed"?
I have 3 videos that are a good place to start and will give you an overview of some of the core elements needed in the process:
ruclips.net/video/MQw5ydp3GAM/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/JWjbdmHma8s/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/SapvqgoGF88/видео.html
In your case if you're stuck at middle C, you really should not be doing anything to do with "bridging into headvoice" or "twang" or any of that stuff. You need to strengthen your chest voice at least to the F4 using the ideas in the first video, then to go beyond F4 you need the stuff in the 2nd and third video
This😊😊!!!
Maybe you can explain an issue I've been having. I used to have a decent range, and sang long sustained notes at the top of that range with no problem. I believe I was able to get up to G5 in chest voice when I was at my best. Somewhere along the line, my voice began flipping into falsetto when I would try to sing notes I used to hit without issue. It seems to happen when I try to push too hard, causing my voice to break. The frustrating thing is that it never used to happen, so there are certain songs I just don't sing any more, because I can't seem to control it. I feel like it can be fixed, I'm just not sure what exercises to focus on. Any thoughts? My goal is not to have a crazy high range, but just to perform like I used to with confidence. Any thoughts?
Hi there. I've worked with a lot of people like this - people who used to be able to do things and somehow lost the ability and can't figure out how to get it back.
I also have dealt with this in my own voice in the past and it taught me certain things that I had overlooked or missed.
Most singers are getting by on their innate talent which is essentially luck. if they lose it they have no idea how to get it back because they never built it in the first place, and have no idea what they need to do to maintain it, repair weakness and build strength etc.
So most people "just sing" and do various exercises and call it "singing training". Then if they lose their voice they basically scramble around trying everything hoping something "clicks" magically. The problem is though that they don't understand how they ever "got their voice" in the first place, what things were needed to maintain it, and what things are needed to rebuild it if they lose it.
You can see this as a curse or you can see it as an opportunity to go on a journey to REALLY understand your voice and REALLY build it, not to where it was before but even better than before, and to have the confidence of knowing exactly how to do that and how to get it back if you lose it again.
You said "I feel like it can be fixed" this is a great attitude to have. and yes you are right you definitely can get back to what you were doing with the right knowledge, and even beyond it.
Hey, how long does it take for one to fully build mix voice?
hard to say, it depends on where that person is starting from. I would say 1-3 years to get to a point where you can sing the songs you want to sing freely is a good time frame.
hey phil, this is a very great video and its the same point youve been talking about for years now, but if mixed voice is just very well developed chest, does that mean that my vocal break will keep going up? as in my current vocal break for example is f4, does that mean after training chest extensively it might be A4 or c5?
yep and then we just get rid of the break entirely purely by working with the chest voice
By and far the best and simplest explanation of Mixed Voice. I wish I had known this 20 years ago. Would have saved me a lot of time, money and frustration. Thanx Phil!
awesome to hear James. if you have any questions or need help don't hesitate to reach out to me
I'm a baritone and I just can't hit the higher note in "More than a feeling" song, which is my mark for a high note. :(
What exercises do you recommend to keep the voice from switching into falsetto and staying in chest voice even after the "break"?
From my own experience, slowly sliding on a vowel helps. If I'm going too fast or i'm tensing/lacking support, I crack at a G#4/A4. If I do it slow and controlled, I can slide smoothly up to about an E5 in full voice.
@@deathrattle216 Lucky you! I am already struggling with an E4!
Hi Gunnar. It's less about the exercises and more about STRENGTHENING the voice in a specific way. For example, you could do all sorts of scales etc but you're just doing them with your existing mechanics and so you just hit the same wall every single time. it's not so much about just doing different scales or exercises.
I get people blasting through those E4 plateau and getting up to high C sometimes in just a few weeks and the scales I use are not much different than what they've done before...what's different is the actual TECHNIQUE behind what I get you to do with your voice and then it's very much a STRENGTHENING process.
I have a couple videos that will give you a good overview of what I mean by this here:
ruclips.net/video/MQw5ydp3GAM/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/JWjbdmHma8s/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/SapvqgoGF88/видео.html
watch those then if you want to learn more you should check out my website philmoufarrege.com
Really great informative video! Question, what if I want to sing with a headier sound and go lighter lower? I can take my chest voice up and it "bridges"/shifts gear by default but only at my second break of G4/G#4, meaning my "mix" is always too heavy as it carries the weight of the previous note.
thanks! If the voice is prepared properly and ready to do it, all you have to do is just sing softer volume-wise and the voice will just do it. What happens to most people however is when they try to back off the volume, the larynx shoots up and the voice gets really unstable and wants to flip back to falsetto.
So the key here is first learning how to get the vocal cord compression so strong while the larynx is in a stable position loudly. Then I usually have people learn how to reduce the volume but keep the solidness and weight of the chest voice. Meaning, the volume gets smaller but the tone doesn't get softer, it still sounds super solid, just quieter. This takes a ton of muscular effort, you have to REALLY squeeze down and compress the voice until it gets really small.
Once this gets really strong, only then do I have people learn how to actually SOFTEN the voice, and then at this point the voice can become very soft and heady as you put it, without the voice flipping to falsetto or becoming unstable. It's quite advance.
@@philmoufarrege Thank you! I'll definitely keep this in mind.
you are most welcome
My life makes so much more sense now
I wonder how much of this confusion over terms and concepts is a product of Speech Level Singing dogma. I initially struggled to develop my upper tenor range because I was afraid to go beyond F#4 without falsetto (which I was convinced at the time was "head voice" because it wasn't hollow and breathy blah blah). I feel like so many guys on the internet falsely believe they're Baritones and naturally low voices because SLS nonsense has scared them away from actually singing with the volume and intensity needed to develop a strong upper chest.
I think it's not just SLS. In fact Seth Rigg's never defined headvoice as the falsetto headvoice. If you listen closely to his demonstrations of what he calls headvoice particularly his older demonstrations, he's actually in full voice (or what people call mix). but it seems the OTHER SLS instructors out there when they show headvoice are usually just in falsetto and push the whole "transition into falsetto and eventually it will become full voice". So my theory is that somewhere along the lines the students who became teachers were mishearing it and misinterpreting what they were being taught and started teaching it the wrong way. There are also plenty of classical teachers who also make this same mistake too so it's not just an SLS thing.
Mixed voice to me is just pharyngeal mixed with chest and head voice.
I don’t see mix as “just chest voice.” I understand why you define it this way; many people (mostly females) mistakenly believe that mix is the inverse of your perspective: that is, they believe it’s just a loud falsetto/m2. But imo, both definitions fail to address the most important aspect of mix, which is the dynamic modulation of registration that eliminates the vocal break and homogenizes the vocal range. Mix can and should be produced in BOTH m1 and m2 as both mechanisms have their own unique tonal capabilities. Many great mixes sound and even feel very chesty but may actually be produced in m2 and vice versa. Studies show that singers are not so good at identifying the register in which they’re singing as they think they are especially in the pitch range typically associated with “mix.” Your demonstrated high C may not have actually been in m1 but just felt like it based on your resonance strategy and firm adduction. It doesn’t really matter which vibrational pattern is happening though, as long as it sounds and feels appropriately “chesty” or “heady” depending on the vocal task. Mix is not one thing, it’s exacty what it says it is: a mix of the two registers. Any other way of defining it will just lead to imbalances imo
Thanks for sharing your view. To clarify my view a bit more... the reason I define it in this way is because the way I get people to develop and achieve this result is through the chest voice, not through falsetto. At the end of the day singers want to know in a practical way what they need to be training and what "voice to train it from" and this is the angle I do it all from.
wait falsetto and headvoice si the same? but they said its not
haha
4:23 I definitely have a third "voice" which sounds very different than what you do here. It sounds very Micky Mousey. I can crack from chest voice to what you call falsetto, and then I can crack from falsetto to this third voice, and no matter how much I try, I can't go smoothly from falsetto to this third voice. If they were the same thing, I would expect to be able to transition without cracking. So when you ask, "If that's head voice, then what's falsetto?" it seems I do have an answer.
This is confusing to me because I never hear anyone talk about this voice. Maybe that's just because it doesn't sound good, so it's not worth mentioning. Does this just not exist for some people?
you could be cracking to your flageolet falsetto, which is used to go super high past normal falsetto notes.
If I heard you I would be able to quickly tell you what you're doing. But that's my guess based on what you wrote
@@philmoufarrege Thanks for getting back! I recorded myself flipping between voices, if you have a moment to listen I'd really appreciate it
ruclips.net/video/US1sT5oI91A/видео.html
they are both falsetto - it's like what I was saying above about the flageolet. there are "two types" of falsetto and at first they will feel separate and distinct, and then they can be smoothed into one and used. For example, I used to always cap out my falsetto at E5 and couldn't go any higher. Then I found this "other type of falsetto" that was super tiny and squeaky and I could go SUPER high with it, like up to C6, but I couldn't take it LOW. It would stop around E5 and switch back to my normal falsetto. Over time I learned to smooth them and combine them into one thing. It sounds like you're experiencing something similar.
My mix when working . Goes way higher than falsetto. It's like a never ending pitch at times . The coordination is a different feeling. I also have a falsetto falsetto . So when it cracks again it's higher. And also a tighter high voice from a fry feeling that's smoothed out.
awesome glad to hear things are going well for you
Flageolet
If airy head voice is falsetto, then what is airy chest voice? :)🤣
exactly, maybe we give it a separate name like "batman voice"
Your so full of shi... 🤣 I just messing with ya. Good explanation my man 👊
🦾😎🖕