Chest vs Head Voice, Larynx Getting Stuck, & Straw Sirens

A SUBMITTED QUESTION

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I've been doing what you told me and realized something when switching between resonances. Whenever I go high/into head voice and I want to go back down to chest voice my larynx gets stuck, it's a really odd feeling. I was trying to go back down from head voice while using the straw when I felt everything jam up into place with air nowhere to go - it created a really pressurized chamber inside of my mouth combined with the puffy cheeks.

I have been trying to cry but I suspect I've been doing it wrong. I feel tension in my throat when I'm crying so I guess that's not correct.

Also, I'm still not able to utilize forward placement. The most I've been able to feel is vibrations in my nose. The straw warmup did clear my chest voice out but it's not helping me even while doing the sirens because of the larynx thing.

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Great question! This is something a LOT of people struggle with at first, both with the straw AND the missed fundamentals of the singing voice that can smooth out the transition of chest and head voice as well as ghelp you with more effortless singing in geneal.

STRAW VS NORMAL SINGING

For the straw sirens, don't worry too much about your voice flipping. It's mostly about a stretch from as low as you can sing to as high as you can sing while staying SUPER LIGHT (light and sqeuaky on the top end). As you learn more about and implement better cry vocal mode, it will smooth out, but that's not the main point of the sirens. Most vocal flips, or getting stuck trying to "switch resonances," happen because the chest voice wasn't places well to begin with—where even chest voice is mixed, which I'll describe more below.

Singing into the straw is where you want more emphasis on cry and twang. It actually takes a bit more effort than normal singing, meaning you have to give it both more twang and cry than normally required. Cry is the foundation.

When normal singing, it's all about lift and sob; or rather top-down whimper ("Michael Jackson" voice or feminization of the voice) putting resonance up and out, behind the nose and eyes, and ALSO sob relaxing the larynx. Both of these together relax the larynx and give you a mix of head-voice and chest-voice resonance throughout your range—more chesty down low and more heady up high, like a giant cross-fade. Twang, edging acoustics, or pointing the voice behind the nose or eyes adjusts your sound color. Front to back is edging to curbing (bright to round). Up and down in that spot is the top-down whimper of cry.

A COUPLE OF VIDEOS TO WATCH

One thing to pay attention to in both of the videos below (something you may not have noticed the first time you watched them) is every time you hear me start with a fry-like onset, I'm actually using a Pulse onset. Pulse register is below the chest voice, where your voice is so relaxed and loose that you only get air bubbles from the vocal cords. It's a complete relaxation of the larynx while still getting a tiny bit of surface area in the folds.

In the videos, I quickly get to the pitch in a full voice. But if I demonstrated it slowed down, you would hear me slide into the pitch from way below while trying to stay relaxed in the larynx. That's KEY in opening the sob side of cry. I'm not dopey and manipulating the larynx, just relaxed. When practicing, try that Pulse onset and sliding up into the higher pitch you actually want to sing, keeping the larynx relaxed as possible the whole way.

The Secret to SINGING BETTER — On cry vocal mode, getting out of the throat, whimpering, and effortless singing.
Mix, Cry, Relaxing the Larynx, Anchoring Resonance, and Distortion — From a previous comment. About lightening up and relaxing into a shape to get the voice you want. It includes how to use mixed voice and still get bright, where and how to place your singing voice, where to place your words and vowels so they don't throw you out of placement, and what to consider when adding distortion (especially up high).

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