The term "mixed voice" creates confusion for thousands of singers around the world every day. The main problem is that it is often misunderstood by voice teachers and therefore, it is not explained properly. The result is, it makes students think there is a mystery, 3rd register between chest voice and head voice, but this 'mystery 3rd register' does not exist. When this confusion persists, it leads to students developing a lot of confusion and frustration about how the singing voice really works and even worse, this confusion creates doubts in the students ability to sing. Students that train with confusion in regards to the term 'mixed voice' have a high risk of getting all 'mixed' up because they are chasing phantom vocal registers that do not exist.

There is in fact a "mixed" resonant sensation that singers do feel as they bridge the vocal registers, primarily, from formant 1 to formant 2. The sensation is similar to feeling a light pressure, low and in the back of the head and in fact, as the formant shifts from F1 to F2, the resonant energy shifts will begin to amplify more in the pharynx region of the vocal tract. The idea of a "split" sensation or registration is real, but the term "mixed voice" and more importantly, the inability for some voice coaches to explain what it really means, is a source of a lot of confusion. In order to explain what "mixed voice" really means, a voice teacher has to understand formants in singing and some science about the acoustics of singing. Given that the acoustics of singing and understanding formants is the most difficult concept to grasp in regards to vocal technique, there unfortunately is a high percentage of voice coaches that just cannot explain it.

In summary, students get confused about what a "mixed voice" is and assume, or are told that it is a mystery 3r register, which is wrong. The source of this mistake is typically the fact that the voice teacher responsible for introducing "mixed voice" into the students training vocabulary, also does not and cannot explain what it means because they do not understand what singing formants are.

An alternative term for this split formant and registration sensation is called "covering", or simply "formant shifting" or "dual resonation". Enjoy this lecture, it has proven to be a very popular lecture and stirred up some 'chatter' when it was first posted.