Mix Voice Part 1: Pharyngeal Workout
How’s your high range doing after last week’s head voice workout? Jason and I had a blast singing some really HIGH notes for that workout! This is the second workout of this month’s series, designed to really exercise and challenge your vocal cords… and still have fun doing it!
(Catch up on the earlier Low Range Chest Voice Workout and High Range Head Voice Workout here.)
This week it’s pharyngeal voice workout (let me hear you say WAH!)… this is the critical final ingredient in connecting our low range and high range, getting rid of the vocal break, and bringing more power to your entire voice!
Next week—Mix Voice Part 2: Finding A Balanced Tone.
Hi Charmaine
I have done some classic voice training before joining your program and we worked a lot with chest and head voice. I get that the pharyngial voice is the bridge between these two and overlaps them but in the highest parts of my range, should it go into pure head voice or always have that overlap of phayngeal? The tones are quite different.
Thank you!
Great question! In the very highest part of the female range, it will definitely be pure head voice (for most women, on and above the high G/Ab/A). The goal is to be able to mix with pharyngeal up until that point, although you don’t always have to sing in a full-on mix voice up there… especially if you’re singing softly, head voice/head mix is more preferable.
The more you become comfortable with pharyngeal resonance, the more you can work on blending chest/pharyngeal/head seamlessly so that it is pretty much always a blend of resonance throughout your range.
Hopefully that answer helps a bit… let me know if you want clarification on anything more specific! One other thing I would say — in contemporary worship songs, we typically don’t sing higher than a D, maybe Eb or E in a rare case… and the female voice is very capable of achieving mixed resonance (using the pharyngeal) on and above those notes, so for singing worship music I would say always aim for a mix!
Thank you! That answers it perfectly 🙂
You’re welcome!
Charmaine, I am trying to start to replace lyrics with voice exercises, but sometimes I feel unsure, for instance, Lauren Daigle’s Trust in You. At first, I thought chest voice for a large part of the first verse, but then I thought, no its Pharyngeal. I’ve gone back and forth so many times that now, I have no idea.
I am so grateful for your ministry! xoxo
Hey Jodie! I’m not super familiar with that song, but I do know that Lauren Daigle uses a lot of pharyngeal resonance throughout her range, so for the verses (of many songs!) what we want to aim for is a mixed/blended resonance… chest + pharyngeal. This gives depth, richness and power in the low range plus it helps brighten up the tone and connect it into our higher range!
Hi Charmaine,
What’s the best program to follow each week? Should I repeat the workout everyday of the week, or warm up everyday then pick a couple of days where I do the workout? Is the workout a replacement of the warmup or both should be combined for best results?
By the way: this is a great website. Praise God for your life and Ministry!
Regina
Hi Regina! Have you been through the “Discover Your Voice” course? There is a suggested weekly schedule to follow there, to take you through all the workouts from that course. And then I suggest, moving beyond that course, to really focus in on the areas in your voice that need the most work. Ie for many people, head voice is their weakest resonator, or for others, chest voice or pharyngeal. What I would recommend is working out your voice 3-5 times per week, alternating between the Full Voice Workout from Lesson 7 of “Discover Your Voice” – https://theworshipvocalist.com/discover-song-application/ – and on the other days, focus on whichever area of your voice needs the most work.
For example:
Day 1 – Full Voice Workout
Day 2 – Pharyngeal Workout (which could be the pharyngeal workout from “Discover Your Voice” or this one here, for variety!)
Day 3 – Full Voice Workout
Day 4 – Pharyngeal Workout
For this pharyngeal workout, if you’re doing it later in the day, you should be fine not doing a full warmup, as the NG hum is a warmup. If you’re doing it in the morning, I would recommend also doing a lip roll warmup before you begin this workout.
Hope that helps! I’m glad you’re loving the website!