Confused about mixed voice.

Hello !

I've been playing guitar and singing for quite  some time.

I want to tackle my long standing issue: songs that hit notes around C and F (4?) can put me in trouble quite fast (bad voice strain and, once strained, every note becomes a pain) and most of the songs do touch those notes. It's even worse when using certain vowels like an A.

Now, thanks to the course I'm starting to realize those may be passagio notes, but I have 3 questions.

1) I'm gettin the impression those notes require a more than ordinary diaphragmatic support, is it correct ? Should I try push some more while containing the volume ?

2 ) Is it better to first improve my chest and head voice range to fill the gap, and only then practice mixed voice ? Because some day the gap seems even bigger, having too many notes on passaggio (like from B to G, not sure if it's possible).

3) Related to previous Q. How do I know if I'm hitting a note (let's say C or D) which still requires chest voice instead of mixed voice? I can't feel any precise breaking point so I'm completely lost.

Sorry for the lenghty post, and thank you soo much.

Robert

Good questions, Robert!

To help clarify where your passaggio is, sing a full, chest voice "AH" towards the higher end of your chest voice range. Slide up in pitch and back down again (you can start be singing a perfect 5th on D3-A3-D3). Gradually raise your starting pitch by 1-half step and repeat. Keep going until your voice "flips" into head voice, and note which pitch it "flipped" or "cracked" on. Your passaggio is typically a narrow collection of notes over which your voice naturally switches from chest to head voice. (For me, my first passaggio is around Eb4/E4). 

Which registration to use depends on the pitch and the desired sound. That's why we want to train our different registers in an overlapping fashion. For example, carry chest voice (or a chesty mix) up into your head voice range. Similarly, carry head voice (or a heady mix) down into your chest voice range. That way, you're training different coordination on the same pitch. 

As for building chest and head voice before working on your mix - that may be helpful! I will say, it's really tough to give mix advice without hearing you. If you still feel lost, please consider booking a lesson and letting the instructor (myself or Abram) know that you'd like to work on your mix!

Best of luck!