How To Sing Better For Guys By Mixing The Voice

In this article, I want to focus on how to sing better for guys specifically. Although the correct technique for singing is exactly the same for both sexes, there are some specific difficulties that male singers face that are different for female singers.

One of the main differences which we will explore in greater detail is how the male voice needs to navigate the bottle neck octave or “mix” the voice in the middle register in order to access the higher notes.

As we will see, male singers handle this differently to female singers.

How To Sing Better For Guys – Driving The Voice

For the most part the male voice is pitched an octave lower than female voices. This fact puts the bottleneck octave smack bang in the middle register of pretty much all male voices.

As I have mentioned in a previous post, the bottleneck octave is the notes from C4 to C5 that need to be coordinated correctly for all voice types in order to achieve a smooth transition between registers. If you would like to read the post – How to get better at – the bottleneck octave, please click on the link.

To correctly navigate the bottleneck octave or “mix” the voice, a singer needs to coordinate the voice so that there is a 50/50 mix between the upper and lower registers as they approach F#4. This helps the singer achieve a clean transition between registers.

How to sing better for guys image 2Trying to take too much lower register up will cause the voice to crack, break or move into a falsetto style sound.

This is what is known as “driving the voice”. Basically it refers to driving the lower register up into the middle and upper registers.

The ability to coordinate a smooth transition through this part of the voice is one of the most important thing that all singers will need to learn, as it is an issue in all voice types, but for male voices the tendency is to drive the voice through this register.

Female singers can also drive the voice as well, especially for modern styles where a lot of female singers struggle to sing above a D5, but female singers also have a tendency to take too much upper register down, which is a different issue.

So, now you know what the main issue is, how do you go about fixing it?

How To Sing Better For Guys – The Solution

Here are a couple of tips on how a male singer can stop driving the voice and achieve a smooth transition through their whole range:

How To Sing Better For Guys Tip #1 – Support The Voice

I have covered this concept in another post titled How To Improve Your Voice Quickly And Naturally Using Support, which you can read by clicking on the link.

To summarize – support is lifting the abdominal bulk upwards against the diaphragm as you start to sing and then keeping it sustained while you are singing. It is not pushing out or doing nothing at all.

It is so important because the collision of the breathing muscles with the diaphragm causes the vocal cords to close by reflex action, which leaves the larynx free from interference from the swallowing muscles, which shouldn’t be used to close the vocal cords for singing.

Proper support also sets you up for the next tip on our list…

how to sing better for guys inage 10How To Sing Better For Guys Tip #2 – Keep The Resonance Chambers Open

The resonance chambers are used to reinforce the fundamental frequency of each pitch. Depending on the pitch, the resonance chamber can differ.

For example, higher notes (B flat4 to C5 for a male) are reinforced in the nasal cavities. This means it is important to keep  all the resonance chambers completely open at all times to allow them to be able to reinforce the next pitch.

The main way to do this is to keep the tongue forward and out of the throat cavity, and most important of all, keep the soft palate down and away from the back wall of the throat. The diagram below has circled the diaphragm and shows the correct position for singing.

how to sing better for guys soft palate imageIf a singer can successfully do this, then there is no need to drive the higher notes, as they will have a fat, full tone because they are being reinforced correctly.

Summary

In this post, I wanted to cover how to sing better for guys, specifically looking at mixing the voice and the bottleneck octave. We now know that the main issue that male singers face is driving the lower notes up into the middle and upper registers.

To successfully overcome this problem, they need learn how to achieve a 50/50 mix of upper and lower registers in the middle of their voice, so they can achieve a smooth line throughout their whole range.

I hope you have found this article informative, and as always – I wish you success in all your singing endeavors.

Andy Barnes

Opt In Image
Get A FREE Singing Lesson
Give Me 15 Minutes a Day And I Will Have You Singing Better, Higher and Stronger Than Ever Before

Enter your name and email address to get instant online access to the FREE vocal training.

NO CREDIT CARD REQUIRED

Tell us where to send your free vocal training by completing the form below.

We respect your email privacy. View our privacy policy.

1 Comment

  • Dean

    Reply Reply August 8, 2017

    I have a good question, well I think its good. I’m a male and my voice is naturally high when I sing I can go from middle c to easily hitting falsetto and all my high notes the problem is I wanna try and find mix voice but when I do I end up smacking a low falsetto to a high but it just comes naturally without a struggle, if you have instagram you can have a listen to my acapella and hear for yourself. but I’m sure a few males have this problem or I am the odd ball out? supermanndean is my intsagram

Leave A Response

* Denotes Required Field