When doing transcending tone exercises, I will reach a certain point in 'transcending', just past what I would consider a mix, where my voice breaks, and shifts down a fifth of the note I'm trying to hit. If I focus, focus like crazy, I can bring the note back up and it'll be full and clean. Is this correct? It sounds awful, I break up and crackle and the end result feels pretty much effortless and I'm very happy with the way it sounds...Is this just a step in being able to go smoothly from falsetto to mixed to full? Or am I doing it incorrectly and is this huge break my vocal folds doing something funny?

I'm no Jaime, but I would guess that you're not focusing on the note. You say that if you focus like crazy you can bring it back up, and that suggests to me that you're not putting your full focus on getting it right to start with. I just learned recently that part of my trouble with hitting my upper notes was that I shut off my brain when I tried to hit them--it takes a lot of focus and energy to maintain the right note, at least for me ;).

It doesn't always have to be channeling the focus on the note, either. Some times just putting all your concentration on the emotion of the song creates the same result as focusing on the notes themselves (and usually comes out sounding better, anyways).

Don't sell yourself short Anthony;) Anthony is right. As far as the cracking and dropping, that's what happens when you aren't in control and the muscles aren't strong enough. That's why i say that when you crack or flip like that, that you must SLOW DOWN throught that transition and allow the muscles to adjust ;)

JV

I've been working on Jaime's exercises for quite awile and transcending tone is awesome, and weird at the same time..

Don't worry about the cracking so much..I know Jaime says try and slow down the transition, but sometimes no matter how much you try to slow down the transition you'll still get those cracks..I know I do but I also noticed that the more you practice, then all of a sudden one day that transition that used to crack doesn't anymore...just like Jaime says the muscles aren't developed yet, takes practice..

I also noticed for me at least sometimes when I hit a transcending note and it starts to crack I put my finger on the back of my tongue and hold it down, and bingo clean note...so for me I think I carry alot of tenseness in my tongue and neck which takes alot of practice to try and keep loose.

I say transcending tone is weird also because now it is directly effecting my singing, and not just when I practice...

example. before when a certain part of a song would come and I knew previously I had to go into false to hit it..I now find it just comes out in full voice and without even thinking about it but for those upper high notes that I'm working on transcending well those are now coming out in my high cracky full, rather than false and it seems to take twice the concentration to remember how I even did it in false...lol...not cool you sing the whole song amazing then blow the killer scream..lol damn transcending tone..

I know it'll pass once again once my musceles get trained enough to sustain those notes..