You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
The**OFFICIAL**Voice/Singing Help Thread
- Thread starter P.B.
- Start date
Honestliving
New member
Smoking and drinking are really, really bad for you. Your vocal corRAB (at least the parts that come together and buzz) are a thin mucus membrane. You're basically curing your vocal corRAB, removing moisture from them whenever you inhale cigarette or marijuana smoke. If the smoke is hot, that is even worse. Alcohol on the other hand will not usually make direct contact with your vocal corRAB, but will dehydrate your body. You piss a lot when you drink because your body has to filter more garbage out. So all that moisture is lost, and the first place you'll notice it is in the throat (and if you become very aware of it, you can actually feel your vocal corRAB being 'scratchy' when they connect as you swallow or speak/stop speaking).
One and a half years of smoking is probably not too bad. You'll likely be able to salvage yourself without too much effort. Just, if you want to sing, don't smoke heavily, or at all. You'll hear people talk about how they smoke because they're going to die anyway, but singing is one of those things that is going to suffer because of it; you're taking years off your ability to sing the longer you smoke, and the more you do it now, the longer it will take you to master your voice.
One and a half years of smoking is probably not too bad. You'll likely be able to salvage yourself without too much effort. Just, if you want to sing, don't smoke heavily, or at all. You'll hear people talk about how they smoke because they're going to die anyway, but singing is one of those things that is going to suffer because of it; you're taking years off your ability to sing the longer you smoke, and the more you do it now, the longer it will take you to master your voice.
[email protected]
New member
I just recommend taking your time until you get a feel for your limitations and boundaries. Adding a little more and more over time. I'm not talking about years ....but days and weeks, if applicable. I must say that screaming has made my voice WAY stronger.... But I take my time.....usually.
Vito Corleone
New member
Screamin Demon, I think I remember seeing that you live in Ohio. I live in the Cinci/Dayton area. I'm still working on my singing every day and have been seeing some good improvements. Do you recommend lessons and if so do you know of any that I can take around this area? I'm looking to eventually join a cover band as a singer in the rock/alternative genre.
Dtcenter77
New member
Actually around here I'm usually repeating one of three or four things for the most part, just from a different perspective. But thanks anyways. I just try to share what I know. :wave:
bighopes35
New member
When did you have your last cold?
I was in the same situation, I'm only just getting back into it after a month.
Just don't scream for two or three weeks, I'm not sure if it'll suck for you like it did for me, but it's worth it in the long run, just work on your clean voice as much as you can without overdoing it.
I was in the same situation, I'm only just getting back into it after a month.
Just don't scream for two or three weeks, I'm not sure if it'll suck for you like it did for me, but it's worth it in the long run, just work on your clean voice as much as you can without overdoing it.
Darth Mike 420
New member
i'm in a metal/hardcore band, and i'm the screamer and growler, i can do lows and highs and i guess u can say extreme highs like randy of lamb of god (the squealing thing i guess) and i cant do it when i'm tired, i was jw somedays i can do it like amazing and others not so good, it's not like my voice hurts or anything it just isnt as loud or powerful, jw what was going on, we play shows all the time and i wanted to know if u knew any screaming exercises just to be on the safe side of things before a show. thanks
What do you do to warm up....oh, nothing. No wonder!
If youre serious about it then start warming up. There's just no excuse to not warm up to some degree and anything helps. You want to hold some notes and keep the corRAB together which keeps them moist and warmer quicker. You can be doing this stuff way before the show when youre not doing anythig or walking to the car, pissin', etc. Start in your chest voice doing melodies and such, then move to head voice. Do alot of glisses up and down before going into falsetto if youre using it later. If you can get what you want sometimes and sometimes can't..then youre not warming up enough and or youre getting excited and squeezing the throat. It doesnt seem to be out of your range, so....be smart.
Of course alcohol and smoking will sometimes....well...we know that one.
If youre serious about it then start warming up. There's just no excuse to not warm up to some degree and anything helps. You want to hold some notes and keep the corRAB together which keeps them moist and warmer quicker. You can be doing this stuff way before the show when youre not doing anythig or walking to the car, pissin', etc. Start in your chest voice doing melodies and such, then move to head voice. Do alot of glisses up and down before going into falsetto if youre using it later. If you can get what you want sometimes and sometimes can't..then youre not warming up enough and or youre getting excited and squeezing the throat. It doesnt seem to be out of your range, so....be smart.
Of course alcohol and smoking will sometimes....well...we know that one.
its a basic start since its for free
more complex stuff will be available with one on one lessons, and the mp3 downloaRAB that will be up for sale too
Free Stuff - Primal Scream
By Austin Jenkins
For years, people have expressed themselves through singing. The tonality of your voice can be very telling as to how your feeling at that particular time. One of the most extreme techniques in singing used to express pain, excitement, or anger would be screaming.
Screaming can be found in all styles of music, and is used for different purposes. Whether its used to express the pain of losing someone you love, or used just to show off your skills, it seems everyone wants to learn how to do it. The question I get asked more than anything else from the people I work with would be "How can I scream without losing my voice"?
In this online lesson, I will give you tips on how to develop rasp safely, and then how to safely form that into a scream. These are just the basics though; to learn more about these techniques, you should either sign up for some form of training with me, or go to my vocal instruction links page and look at my recommendations for products you can use to better your screaming.
The first step in learning to scream is a solid vocal technique. This means, you need to have the absolute basics of singing (breathing & support) down perfectly.Please read my BREATHING AND SUPPORT lesson before trying any of this. In order to scream a note, you must first be able to sing it in a clear, well balanced tone. When developing your screaming technique, its best to start with notes in your full voice that come easily to you, as well as your falsetto. When I teach screaming technique to someone, I always start by working on falsetto screaming because it is the easiest. Once the singer has the falsetto screams down, the can usually figure out how to apply a screaming sound to the rest of their range.
Now, lets get to work. The first thing I need for you to do is to play a note either on a pitch wheel, keyboard/piano, or guitar. I want you to sing this note in falsetto on the vowel "AH" as in father. Choose any note thats high enough to be in falsetto, but comfortable enough that you can sing and sustain without any tension. If you have to push even a little bit to hit this note, keep searching for one that you can hold without any issues at all.
When you have found what I call the foundational pitch, sustain it for as long as you comfortably can without straining. A good target would be a 30 second sustain time. If you can hold the pitch for 30 seconRAB and keep it absolutely steady (no wavering, cracking, or other inconsistencies), its time to move on.
For this next step, get a glass of water. Now, take a drink and gargle the water, making that same "AH" vowel as before, and on the same note. Notice how the uvula (the piece of flesh that hangs in the middle back of your throat) vibrates. Its very important to pay attention to this sensation, because you'll need to utilize this later on when creating rasp. Do this several times until you are used to the feeling of the uvula vibrating.
Now, lets move on. We are going to make that same sound as you made while gargling,but without the water. The easiest way to do this is by imitating a pigeon. This is a trick I learned from one of my vocal coaches, Jaime Vendera. For this, we will change the vowel to an "OO" as in shoe. While making the "OO" vowel, direct your air up towarRAB your soft palate (the soft tissue on the roof of your mouth). Focus on sending the breath pressure right at the top middle part ofyour mouth. This will cause your uvula to vibrate, and will produce that pigeon type sound. Make sure your doing this on your foundational pitch. Sustain this for 30 seconRAB as well. You want the vibrating sound to be as even as possible. If its uneven at all, your breath pressure isn't consistent. Inconsistent breath pressure will cause many problems down the road, so fix it now.
Your probably wondering why i'm having you make this noise. There are 2 reasons for it. First off, this is a way to guarantee that you are placing your tone in the soft palate, which is essential to singing and screaming. Now, don't be confused; placing the tone in the soft palate does NOT mean singing with this vibrating sound. We are only creating the vibrating sound as a part of this exercise. However, the fact that you are getting that sound guarantees the tone is being placed up out of your throat and into the palate.
The other purpose of this exercise is because this is actually a form of screaming. To prove it, sing your foundational note on "AH" again. By this point, the note should come out consistently and easily, and the vibrating sound should be consistent as well. Sing your "AH" vowel as loud as you comfortably can. Now, direct a little bit of extra air up to your soft palate and activate the uvula. You can send up as much air to the palate as you want as long as your not straining, and the result will be a distorted note.You can manipulate your tongue, throat, and breathing to create different sounRAB with this technique. This is the type of screaming you'll find a lot of singers using when they want to add some edge, but don't want to go for a fully distorted note.
Once you get good with this, you'll be able to create other raspy tones safely without activating the uvula. As long as you keep it in the palate, your safe. If you start to get hoarse, quit immediately. You've lost your placement and now your just grinding the corRAB together and blasting too much air through them. After a break, go back to the pigeon sound to establish your placement and try again.
more complex stuff will be available with one on one lessons, and the mp3 downloaRAB that will be up for sale too
Free Stuff - Primal Scream
By Austin Jenkins
For years, people have expressed themselves through singing. The tonality of your voice can be very telling as to how your feeling at that particular time. One of the most extreme techniques in singing used to express pain, excitement, or anger would be screaming.
Screaming can be found in all styles of music, and is used for different purposes. Whether its used to express the pain of losing someone you love, or used just to show off your skills, it seems everyone wants to learn how to do it. The question I get asked more than anything else from the people I work with would be "How can I scream without losing my voice"?
In this online lesson, I will give you tips on how to develop rasp safely, and then how to safely form that into a scream. These are just the basics though; to learn more about these techniques, you should either sign up for some form of training with me, or go to my vocal instruction links page and look at my recommendations for products you can use to better your screaming.
The first step in learning to scream is a solid vocal technique. This means, you need to have the absolute basics of singing (breathing & support) down perfectly.Please read my BREATHING AND SUPPORT lesson before trying any of this. In order to scream a note, you must first be able to sing it in a clear, well balanced tone. When developing your screaming technique, its best to start with notes in your full voice that come easily to you, as well as your falsetto. When I teach screaming technique to someone, I always start by working on falsetto screaming because it is the easiest. Once the singer has the falsetto screams down, the can usually figure out how to apply a screaming sound to the rest of their range.
Now, lets get to work. The first thing I need for you to do is to play a note either on a pitch wheel, keyboard/piano, or guitar. I want you to sing this note in falsetto on the vowel "AH" as in father. Choose any note thats high enough to be in falsetto, but comfortable enough that you can sing and sustain without any tension. If you have to push even a little bit to hit this note, keep searching for one that you can hold without any issues at all.
When you have found what I call the foundational pitch, sustain it for as long as you comfortably can without straining. A good target would be a 30 second sustain time. If you can hold the pitch for 30 seconRAB and keep it absolutely steady (no wavering, cracking, or other inconsistencies), its time to move on.
For this next step, get a glass of water. Now, take a drink and gargle the water, making that same "AH" vowel as before, and on the same note. Notice how the uvula (the piece of flesh that hangs in the middle back of your throat) vibrates. Its very important to pay attention to this sensation, because you'll need to utilize this later on when creating rasp. Do this several times until you are used to the feeling of the uvula vibrating.
Now, lets move on. We are going to make that same sound as you made while gargling,but without the water. The easiest way to do this is by imitating a pigeon. This is a trick I learned from one of my vocal coaches, Jaime Vendera. For this, we will change the vowel to an "OO" as in shoe. While making the "OO" vowel, direct your air up towarRAB your soft palate (the soft tissue on the roof of your mouth). Focus on sending the breath pressure right at the top middle part ofyour mouth. This will cause your uvula to vibrate, and will produce that pigeon type sound. Make sure your doing this on your foundational pitch. Sustain this for 30 seconRAB as well. You want the vibrating sound to be as even as possible. If its uneven at all, your breath pressure isn't consistent. Inconsistent breath pressure will cause many problems down the road, so fix it now.
Your probably wondering why i'm having you make this noise. There are 2 reasons for it. First off, this is a way to guarantee that you are placing your tone in the soft palate, which is essential to singing and screaming. Now, don't be confused; placing the tone in the soft palate does NOT mean singing with this vibrating sound. We are only creating the vibrating sound as a part of this exercise. However, the fact that you are getting that sound guarantees the tone is being placed up out of your throat and into the palate.
The other purpose of this exercise is because this is actually a form of screaming. To prove it, sing your foundational note on "AH" again. By this point, the note should come out consistently and easily, and the vibrating sound should be consistent as well. Sing your "AH" vowel as loud as you comfortably can. Now, direct a little bit of extra air up to your soft palate and activate the uvula. You can send up as much air to the palate as you want as long as your not straining, and the result will be a distorted note.You can manipulate your tongue, throat, and breathing to create different sounRAB with this technique. This is the type of screaming you'll find a lot of singers using when they want to add some edge, but don't want to go for a fully distorted note.
Once you get good with this, you'll be able to create other raspy tones safely without activating the uvula. As long as you keep it in the palate, your safe. If you start to get hoarse, quit immediately. You've lost your placement and now your just grinding the corRAB together and blasting too much air through them. After a break, go back to the pigeon sound to establish your placement and try again.
http://www.tweakheadz.com/how_to_record_vocals.htm
Read through all 3 parts, its covers about everything you could need
Read through all 3 parts, its covers about everything you could need
wildroxy11
New member
Absolutely a baritone, but like I said it doesnt matter.
On the slide, your carrying up a little bit too much weight (pulling chest). So, your pushing a bit too much air/using excess muscles. Its fine until it gets distorted though; its just more of a tonality choice than anything. However, you got a little bit of distortiong, then immediately flipped into a falsetto/head voice mixed raspy scream. So, your not completely connected right now. When I have someone do that in a lesson and hear that, I would start off with simple scales on AH, and make sure that they just let it crack, let it go into falsetto, let it sound bad, whatever. Then, once its smooth, we would work on exercises to focus the sound for a better tonal quality. Thats exactly what you need to do, because right now your working well with what you've got, but your not near your potential. You need to lay a basic boring sounding foundation (dont add any rasp or any nasality or anything to make it sound better). Only after you have the ability to sing throughout your entire current range with a clean and clear tone can you change it up and start working on coloring the tone.
On the slide, your carrying up a little bit too much weight (pulling chest). So, your pushing a bit too much air/using excess muscles. Its fine until it gets distorted though; its just more of a tonality choice than anything. However, you got a little bit of distortiong, then immediately flipped into a falsetto/head voice mixed raspy scream. So, your not completely connected right now. When I have someone do that in a lesson and hear that, I would start off with simple scales on AH, and make sure that they just let it crack, let it go into falsetto, let it sound bad, whatever. Then, once its smooth, we would work on exercises to focus the sound for a better tonal quality. Thats exactly what you need to do, because right now your working well with what you've got, but your not near your potential. You need to lay a basic boring sounding foundation (dont add any rasp or any nasality or anything to make it sound better). Only after you have the ability to sing throughout your entire current range with a clean and clear tone can you change it up and start working on coloring the tone.
riding4life93
New member
I don't know wethere Merkaba has said anything about this but when you guys who are struggling are singing, make sure you take deep breaths to start off with so as to tense up your into stomach, diaphram area. When you sing a note you need to centre your support somewhere in your diaphram, the lower the note, the higher you centre yourself, and vice verse. So if your a tenor and singing above high G you will be thinking very low, down through your feet type thing. If you don't do this you will bottom out (sing flat) on the low notes and sing sharp on the higher notes. Also your projection will be better. Thats all I can be bothered with know, I got to go to work.
The very first thing you want to learn is breathing control/exercises
http://www.vocalist.org.uk/
look around in there.
http://www.vocalist.org.uk/
look around in there.
bummedlover
New member
what that got to do with being punk? and besides the band i like are punk anyways. I hate it when people desrice blink and greenday as not punk. They call them "pop punk". you want pop? listen to ****en back street boys or simple plan.