Struggling with cracks, flips, or that dreaded break in your voice? You're not alone—and you're not broken.
In this episode of Vocal Tips in 10 with Amber Mogg Cathey, we’re diving into advanced vocal technique focused on erasing your vocal break and developing a connected, powerful mix voice. I’ll walk you through exercises to explore both upper and lower dominant mix, find your mix-belt without strain, and expand your range with more freedom and control.
This episode is especially for singers who feel stuck in that vocal no-man’s-land between chest and head voice—and are ready to train smarter, not harder.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
⏱️ Episode Breakdown
01:02 – Understanding Mix Voice and Vocal Connection
02:40 – Exercises for Upper and Lower Dominant Mix Sounds
04:54 – Mix-Belt Exercise
Catch it wherever you listen to podcasts or watch it on YouTube:
▶️ Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube
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Hello singers, welcome to vocal tips in 10. I'm Amber Mogg Cathey and today we are jumping into part three of a three part series here focused on erasing vocal breaks and creating your best mix voice and your most confident, connected and professional sound. The first episode in this series was all about how to get out of your own way, finding areas of tension, blocks that we have in the voice, in the body and in the mind because we are a whole person. We're not just a voice out here floating around finding those
areas of tension and being able to overcome them.
get rid of those blocks, get out of our own way so we have access to our full voice the best that we can. Then the last episode was all about a better low register, a better upper register, the building blocks of our mix voice, and connecting those registers together. Because for me, when we talk about mix voice, erasing the vocal break, I think so many of us want to work just in the mix, just over that break area. I will tell you, for me personally, mix voice first and foremost means I'm able to go
You are able to go from the bottom of the range to the top of your range everywhere in between and it all feels accessible. It all sounds like the same singer. You don't feel like you have to manipulate or do some kind of you know crazy vocal gymnastics to access some parts. You have access to your entire range and it all is connected and sounds and feels like you and it feels good and it sounds good. The two questions I always go back to. First and foremost for me that's the positive
of a mix voice, a connected voice. And when it's connected and there's not any part in it that we just feel like we can't access, right? That sort of typical no man's land around those transition areas in our voice. When you don't have to deal with those, you feel a whole lot more confident and it opens you up to sing all kinds of songs and all different styles. And sing the songs you want, how you want and with confidence.
Today's episode I want to give you some exercises and some techniques that you can use to really live in that mix.
And I always want the singers that I work with to have as many options as possible. So a lot of times when we think about mix, especially people who are first starting to work in it, we think of this really bright, brassy sound, right? Really exaggerated, nay, nay, nay, nay, nay, nay, nay, nay sounds. I love those. Those are a great gateway. And I'm going to give you one of those today. But mix is not one sound, right? You can have a really chest dominant mix. You can have a really upper end dominant mix. You can have a really balanced mix. You can have
all kinds of variations of all three of those. You can have a really belty sound and aesthetic.
So what I want to do today is give you a few different exercises and tools to play with. Let's do one that has more of that kind of upper end mix dominant sound. Let's do one that is more of that lower end mix dominant sound and we'll kind of do a brighter version and maybe a little bit richer, darker version. And then everybody loves them some belty sounds. So I'm going to give you one of those too. And all of these are about play with them in your voice. See how they work for you. If they don't work well, maybe it's not the right exercise for you, right?
anything wrong with you. It also might be that you need to go back and work on some of those fundamentals. If an upper end dominant mix voice doesn't sound great, my first question would be, how's your upper end feel? Do you feel comfy up there? If you don't, we want to do that. We want to work there first. How's your low end feel? Because that's really the power that you're going to be able to add in to that upper end sound. We want to go to those. Are there areas of tension that we need to find and kind of help you get out of your own way? So play with these in your own voice.
see what works well for you.
one tip I want you to keep in mind is I find if you want to have a more upper end dominant sound, exercises that start higher and that descend help you lock into that more easily, help that upper end, that CT muscle really jump in and join the party a little more effectively.
on the flip side, exercises that start in that low end and that ascend are going to help you get that more low end chest dominant sound. It really lets that TA muscle kind of run the show a little bit more.
So an exercise that I like to give you kind of an upper end and I also feel like this really works for a good balanced mix voice sound is five notes descending. We're gonna start a little higher and descend to let that upper end muscle run the show a little bit more.
It's me, ya. Think M E dash Y A. In all reality, you guys, once you get going with this exercise, you sound like you're meowing like a cat. So if you're comfortable to just meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, that's a great way to go too. If you are a person that listens to this and is like, I will die if I have to meow like a cat. Don't do it. Think me, ya. And you're just going to work your way up.
your way down. What I like about this is that me, we've got our our nasal consonant, we've got that bright vowel shape, that bright E. E itself though is not the greatest for mix. We need to have a little release so that ya helps us release the jaw. But we already get some brightness in and get that upper end dominant sound or just a really nice balanced kind of even-steven sound.
person who feels resonant buzz, That buzzy byproduct of resonance happening in the vocal tract. I feel this big time in my nose and in my cheeks, a little bit in my mouth, but it feels very buzzy in my face, Or you might say your vocal mask and vocal mask if that works for you is wonderful. If you're like Amber, that is really confusing It's your face friends, right? I feel very buzzy there. So I love this exercise to really get a nice either
your
upper end dominant sound or more of just a really balanced mix voice sound. Then if I want to get kind of a low end more chest dominant sound,
I like to start lower and ascend.
Bug and what, Wa-wa-wa or ba-ba-ba. Again, whatever feels better for you locking in two sounds, you already know how to make, which is one of my favorite things, and basing it in speech. Wa-wa-wa, that W is better. If you have a tendency to get a little squeezy, right, you have some constriction, you can't make that W sound without airflow. And then like that nice vowel shape with a little vocal cry added to it to boost
our resonance but still give us a little richer darker sound. Whoa whoa whoa whoa what? Buh buh buh that B consonant B is a plosive. Buh it's going to give you immediately more power to the sound. Buh buh buh buh
With any of these, I don't feel any weight, any pressure, any discomfort, really much of anything at the vocal fold level. I'm thinking about all of this happening at the end of my vocal tract, everything above the vocal folds. And then lastly, I want to give you a good belty exercise. And for me, almost all belt is a really chest dominant sounding mix, Belt is just an aesthetic quality that sounds like we are calling out to somebody.
lot
of power, it's got a lot of emotion. So an exercise that I like, we're gonna do five one and we're just gonna call out to our mom or to our dad. So literally just think mom, dad, right? Loud. We all know how to do that. You don't need to do both. Play with whichever feels better for you. There's benefits to both. And you're just gonna put it on a pitch calling out to somebody. Mom, dad.
Mom! Dad! I love this one. An extra little tip for you guys to play around with, I love the megaphone. I'm just gonna take my hands and I'm gonna make a triangle and I'm gonna put it over my nose and my mouth. And what this reminds me is, you might even hear a little bit difference in my speech, this is my focus. So nothing above my nose because then we get heady. Mom!
I lose my belt aesthetic, but nothing below my mouth because then that's really throaty.
Nobody wants that sound. I'm not even gonna do it because it feels horrible and it sounds even worse. Everything is in this megaphone so it gives me a really great focus and then it reminds our body of that natural sound we make calling out to someone just like you would through a megaphone. So this gives you guys an exercise to play with that is more of an upper end mixy sound, a balanced mixy sound, mixy not a technical word, mix voice sound, a more lower end chest dominant mix voice quality and then
really working on that kind of belty calling out sound. I hope you guys found this helpful. If you did and you want to learn more about just kind of all the ins and outs of erasing your vocal break and creating your most connected consistent sound, check out my Erase Your Break course. I'm gonna put the link down below. You can join the wait list now or check out my Vocal Pro membership. You can try out two weeks for absolutely free and the Erase Your Break course is available to all Vocal Pro members 24-7-3.
I hope this is helpful guys, happy singing and see you in next episode.
