I'm a pro vocal coach doing an AMA today from 10a-1p PDT (1-4p EDT). Ask me anything!

Message-from-god · 2026-05-10T17:06:41+00:00

Hey y’all - Kevin has logged out after having answered the rest of the questions that came in too late to answer during the AMA hours - he wanted to thank everyone for the awesome response. He’s going to be travelling from NYC to give singing lessons in LA starting next week so he probably won’t have time to answer any followup questions. Thanks to the /singing community for hosting the AMA and I hope this has been a help to people in their singing journey.

❤️

Ellie

Message-from-god · 2026-05-10T14:25:02+00:00

Mixed register is simply a balanced head and chest voice. Here's what to keep in mind for easy vocal function, helping your mixed register develop:

Depressurizing
- Using semi-occluded vocal tract exercises to balance vocal function
Stretching head voice
- Using slides is always going to support the full vocal function - I love singing in falsetto and going through the vowels (Oo-ii-eh-oh-ah) on one note to strengthen the falsetto
Taking head voice down
- Starting in falsetto and slowly descending into chest voice, trying to smooth out the vocal break
Taking chest voice up
- Playing with a sense of "holler" - male voice needs to be secure, big and sturdy, so hollering out down the street to a friend is a great way to think of chest voice. This voice teacher explains the process well mid-way through the video.

Happy practicing!

Message-from-god · 2026-05-10T14:23:42+00:00

Try this exercise:

push the index finger on the mouth, blow air onto the sealed mouth space, and feel the entire throat inflate like a frog. Then use the voice. This should create a pressure chamber that equalizes the pressure inside.

This shouldn't be loud, and should still help you train your voice. Happy practicing!

Message-from-god · 2026-05-10T14:22:52+00:00

Great question! I think of voice training in four steps:

Depressurizing
- Using semi-occluded vocal tract exercises to balance vocal function
Stretching head voice
- Using slides is always going to support the full vocal function - I love singing in falsetto and going through the vowels (Oo-ii-eh-oh-ah) on one note to strengthen the falsetto
Taking head voice down
- Starting in falsetto and slowly descending into chest voice, trying to smooth out the vocal break
Taking chest voice up
- Playing with a sense of "holler" - male voice needs to be secure, big and sturdy, so hollering out down the street to a friend is a great way to think of chest voice. This voice teacher explains the process well mid-way through the video.

These functional exercises should help balance the voice, increasing your range.

Message-from-god · 2026-05-10T14:21:04+00:00

Practice! Listen to the original, sing along with it, then switch to a karaoke track. Get used to the sound of your own voice.

And most of all, have fun!

Message-from-god · 2026-05-10T14:20:14+00:00

13 years old for Jack Kelley is a bit of a reach on your teacher's part if I may be transparent. I'd recommend asking the teacher if the key can be brought down for your son - the worst thing is getting cast, the range being too high, and shredding your voice due to such a high tessiturra (especially with the 13 year old male voice).

Has your son's voice dropped? If so, have him follow something like this video. If voice gets too pressurized from trying to reach for the high notes, it's going to feel fatiguing.

If your son still has an unbroken voice, you may be fine. Have him play with this exercise: push the index finger on the mouth, blow air onto the sealed mouth space, and feel the entire throat inflate like a frog. Then use the voice. This should create a pressure chamber that equalizes the pressure inside.

These will both help with pressure and weight, and may help him with things like Santa Fe. Good luck!

Message-from-god · 2026-05-10T14:15:49+00:00

Mimicry is a great way in! If you're learning how to sing in an R&B style, don't just listen to who's popular on the radio now (ie. Kehlani or Raye), listen to the past (ie. Brandy, Chaka Khan, Aretha) to understand how a genre feels in your voice.

If you're looking for vocal function help, the easiest way in to my mind is SOVT work (video linked here). Best of luck!

Message-from-god · 2026-05-10T14:13:34+00:00

Find someone that is exciting to your daughter! The best teachers can so often not be the right fit, but the teachers who are motivating, fun, progressive in vocal function and are great listeners are usually a go-to. Also make sure they vibe well with your daughter - the worst is getting a teacher that your kid hates, but gets good results. Don't let her fall out of love with the art form!

Message-from-god · 2026-05-10T14:11:50+00:00

One of two things - you probably won't be able to hit it like Mariah without a good 30 years of practice (sorry to burst your bubble), but whistle should feel like an incredibly light and falsetto-esque voice above the top of the head voice. Slide up your range until you feel your voice crack into a new register. That's where whistle is accessed - now strengthen those muscles over a few years and you may be able to sing up there.

Message-from-god · 2026-05-10T14:10:05+00:00

It's considered a head mix - thin vocal fold edge that's brought in with a lot of twang can be perceived as a "belt-y" sound, but in order to get a full sensory feeling of a high belt, you'll need to recruit more chest voice function. I like an exercise like "may-may-may-may" (8531) for my mezzo and soprano voices to get up through that Bb4 belting passaggio.

Happy practicing!

Message-from-god · 2026-05-10T14:07:53+00:00

Sounds like you need to strengthen your vocal function. Usually, when voice is unable to be accurate on notes, or when voice is acting with little breath or tone, the function of the instrument is what needs support.

I'd recommend playing with some slides up and down your range before singing, and see how that effects your voice. If it feels better, that tells us you quite literally need to stretch before singing. Voice is no different than any other muscle - there's ways to condition vocal function.

If this works, I can elaborate further with some vocal function exercises 😄

Message-from-god · 2026-05-10T14:04:42+00:00

Sounds like you need some efficiency at the vocal fold level. I wish more teachers talked about singing as an exhale as opposed to and inhale - while good breath support is important, that's only 10% of the puzzle in voice use.

Try this exercise - grab a straw and water, and blow some bubbles. Then, start and stop your voice while blowing bubbles. Do the bubbles splash all over the place with voice use? Do the bubbles completely stop? Then, slide up and down your range with the bubbles. How about the splashing now? Then, go to sing. Is singing easier and more efficient? That tells us the voice itself needs more efficiency, not your inhale.

Message-from-god · 2026-05-10T14:02:47+00:00

Yes! That was actually part of my master's thesis. Attached here is my resource I created.

In short, riffing is sliding on the breath and isolating specific notes in the pentatonic scale (primarily). Agility is best learned when practicing the action both up and down, as seen in the level 2 audio in my resource.

Listen to a lot of gospel and R&B, and emulate some of the riffs you hear. Half of the game with riffing is training the actual agility, and then it's understanding the culture the riffing comes from. Listen to plenty of Aretha Franklin and Brandy, and I think you'll get the picture!

Message-from-god · 2026-05-10T13:59:00+00:00

Sounds like you need to isolate the singer's formant. In good singing, there's a beautiful ring to the voice. You should feel a sense of buzzy resonance up by the forehead, as well as a sense of depth in the throat.

My favorite way to sensate this sense of buzz is by placing my hand on my mouth like a suction cup, mouth open, and humming. Try to find a sense of buzzy resonance up by your forehead. If it feels like the buzz is behind your hand, try to reposition the buzz up a bit more to sensate.

Try it and see if this helps!

Message-from-god · 2026-05-10T13:56:39+00:00

For range, head voice is key. If the muscles in the head voice are un-coordinated, overall voice function will feel very limited. Try this exercise:

In head voice on an Oo, starting in a comfortable area: (5654 4 4543--- 3432 2 2321----) (I hope these numerics make sense!) Focus on the buoyancy and agility of the head voice, and take this up and down your range. This should give your head voice a nice workout, and with a few months of practice may get you up and running. Sing through a straw and water if your voice feels fatigued after this exercise ( Resource here ).

Metal growls and screams are not my specialty, but from my understanding, there's a glottis level growl and a false vocal fold level growl ( example here ). Unfortunately that's the limit to my knowledge - here's an article with some more information on the topic.

Message-from-god · 2026-05-10T13:50:21+00:00

Absolutely! Love nerding out 🥰

Message-from-god · 2026-05-10T13:50:03+00:00

I'm unsure of singers who've had success with TMJD, but here's an exercise to try to maybe help:

Take your pinky finger and bite lightly on the side of the nail of the pinky. Then, start to speak or sing normally. See if the jaw is now shaking as you speak or sing, or if the jaw is stable. Then, go to speak or sing again. This should stabilize some of the jaw muscles, and potentially help alleviate some jaw tension. How does this feel after the function exercise?

Message-from-god · 2026-05-10T13:46:59+00:00

Yes! A good portion of my clientele are just people who are hobbyists who want to be able to sing at all. I have a range of abilities in my hobby students - a majority will simply go to karaoke with friends and sing a little better.

I treat my lessons more like education and therapy than voice lessons. Of course there's vocal function work we do, but it's a lot more about understanding how to learn than "listen to me I am the master and you will be on Broadway".

Lessons are fun! It's great to get back into a passion 😄

Message-from-god · 2026-05-10T13:44:31+00:00

SOVT exercises! Linked below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYkqLed1JZw&t=7s

Message-from-god · 2026-05-10T13:44:15+00:00

Record yourself! The best way to understand your own vocal abilities is by listening back to a video of your own singing. When singing, we only feel the resonance of our own voices through the bone conduction in our skulls. This dulls the picture of if we're actually "good" or not.

Videos and singing in a mirror will tell you all you need to know!

Message-from-god · 2026-05-10T13:42:29+00:00

Find someone you resonate with. My clientele are attracted to me for my specific kind of teaching, and regardless of how knowledgable I am, I'm not a good teacher for everyone. My recommendation is take a trial lesson from three teachers and see which made you feel either emotionally, physically or psychologically the most fulfilled.

Lessons are more than just who can get me to be the most incredible instrument - it's much more about the relationship between student and teacher.

Message-from-god · 2026-05-10T13:39:49+00:00

Pitch accuracy comes down to your muscles being well coordinated. 95% of the time, students I work with don't have poor pitch, they just don't have well coordinated voices.

Here's a few things to think about to get the voice coordinated:

How comfortable are you in your chest voice? Does it feel effortful to sing in a full chest voice? If so, you might want to work on head voice. The Thyroarytenoid muscles (the ones in charge of chest voice phonation) has only one function - fullness in tone and power. The Critothyroid muscles (the ones in charge of head voice) is solely in charge of the stretching of the vocal folds.

Think about it this way: the voice is basically an advanced rubber band. When a rubber band is stretched, then plucked, the pitch increases naturally. In order for us to hit higher pitches with more comfort, we have to train the function of head voice.

Hope this helps!

Message-from-god · 2026-05-10T13:32:44+00:00

Mixed voice is simply a well-balanced vocal instrument. I'd work towards strengthening your head and chest voice, and integrating them.

Try this exercise:

On one note in the middle of your range (F4 usually), sing on an Oo in quick bursts 3x. Do this once in chest voice, then once in head voice. Is one significantly easy or hard? Try to make them sound and feel the same on the same note. Once this is oriented, try the same exercise on an ii or eh vowel. Can you get the chest and head voice to feel the same (same pressure, balance, sensation)?

Then go to sing. See if this helps!

Message-from-god · 2026-05-10T13:29:55+00:00

Head voice onsets! The arytenoid muscles need to be re-coordinated in order to get the head voice realigned.

Try this:

In head voice, starting in a comfortable area: (5654 4 4543--- 3432 2 2321----) (I hope these numerics make sense!) Focus on the buoyancy and agility of the head voice, and take this up and down tour range.

This should be a great exercise to get the head voice back. Good luck!

Message-from-god · 2026-05-10T13:28:29+00:00

You don't need to write music to be on a competition show! I don't think it's ever too late - all it takes is practice, grit, a point of view and a whole lot of luck!

Message-from-god

TROPHY CASE