The**OFFICIAL**Voice/Singing Help Thread

Could you recommend a song that would help me. Maybe happy? by Mudvayne? It has clean singing, slight rasp, forceful singing, and then screaming. Would that song help?
 
I've been singing for about a year, rather I have been singing improperly for about a year. Anyway, I've recently started to take it more seriously, and I had a few questions. I've looked through the forums and a couple other places about the warm-ups, scales, glisses, etc. I did a warm-up for about twenty minutes and had a weird feeling around my throat. I recognize the pain of singing improperly from the throat tension, but this wasn't it. This was more like the feeling you get after working out with weights. It wasn't pain, more llike a tired feeling but not hehe. It's hard to explain. Anyway, if you get what I'm saying, is this normal? This may be a stupid question but I'm really set on singing properly. Also, I had a question on the adams apple. Your adams apple should stay as stationary as possible while going through low to high pitches, volumes, and intensities, correct? Any help is appreciated.
 
lol i dont sing, but okay ill try. I mean like i dont sing at all, I dont know anything, and i havnt had lessons. should i atleast sing for a year or two, and have lots of vocal training and experience before i attempt this? Or attempt it along the way, and expect this much(real screaming) out of myself after several years of singing etc.? I guess the answer would be yes...

btw i didnt see screaming as running, and singing as walking....but if it really is like that i guess i should set this screaming stuff down for a while.
I posted something earlier...


This time it was a different song by the same band, but its the same thing; the same tone(s). Mostly monotone.more on this 2 paragraphs down...



hmm..yes, I know exactly what you mean, but I dunno if 'd want to do that...

It seemed like I was already overdoing it. Just....not "singing" it. I understand that this is (most likely) just a suggestion, but I don't think im gonna sing harder too much until I figure out how hard im really pushing. Merkeba had a point when he said he couldnt tell how hard I was pushing...










ok so umm...I guess I can hear the pitches this guy is doing....Ill try to sing it, but it wont really be like...normal singing i guess, it will be very very simple....it sounRAB like thats the way it should be sung(as opposed to screamed) anyway...do you think this is so?


http://music.yahoo.com/ar-305518-videos--As-I-Lay-Dying

this is it...^^ Song-(94 Hours)


and also, another question....I dont kow if its been answered before or if its in a thread somewhere... How loud should this scream be, without a mic? I dunno if you can give me a general idea....I guess its just as loud as singing it, right? part of the problem( in my eyes) when i scream is i dont know how hard to push. I could push harder, but I dont know if its too hard.


Well thank you Merkeba, and Damien. Im being helped immensely again.... I feel like I need to give out guitar tips now or something.



I might keep going with this(screaming), but most likely I'll do what I typed in the top of this post....and try it again when I have more vocal experience overall.
 
I don't think that we've been saying "sing really hard". Pushing your corRAB more then you need too is going to damage your voice, and anyone who's simply said "just let it go" has quickly been put in their place. I'm not that much of a growler (just don't understand it yet, let alone know the sound I'm supposed to be getting) so I can't really help you at the moment.

But, just remember that simply pushing hard and giving 100% of everything you've got - will NOT give you a healthy, proper growl. Have a wait around for others to give you some tips, but just know that:

Technique>Power/Push

You will get volume from technique, so when you read people saying "just shout loudly", ignore them. Good Luck with it all though :thumb:
 
Isolating the corRAB mean you make your sounRAB without the throat/larynx moving around. Can you go up in pitch while keeping your adams apple from squeezing up?

Scales, as in do re me fa sol la ti do....etc. ABCDEF....and intervals....ACE...just typical scales in a given key.
smooth like a siren....as in one continuous sound from low to high, then high to low, then low to high to low..all in one smooth unbroken slide.

Stacatto is just ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah, e e e e e e,etc.....going up and down in pitch. But you still don't want the vowel to pop hard when you start each one. Dont blast it, you still want the start to be relatively soft.
 
i already have my registers smoothed out....and i always did it lowest to highest and found that humming made it easer to work on...

but why do you say to do it highest to lowest???



extra tip: after you smooth out your registers you'll probably feel good about holding long notes and sliding into notes...but the next step would be to get out a piano/keyboard and just try to hit individual notes without sliding....

right now i can beautifully slide into high notes and hold them...but in my normal range i have trouble just going straight to a note...i imagine practicing scales with a piano accompanment will help???
 
Okay so I learned how to scream recently. Which is cool and its good, but I can't seem to get the falsetto scream down. I think I'm doing it right, but when it comes out it comes out like a deep scream. Any advice
 
Working on setting everything up for recording right now, but within a couple of weeks i'll have it all ready to put up for sure, theres just a lot going on right now to get everything ready and starting on actually giving in person lessons.

You don't HAVE to use this method though; its just a better approach for screaming, but you cant really get the brutal death metal vocals with it, thats where Melissa Cross comes in.

For now until I get audio examples up, just gargle like I said and pay attention to the feeling in your throat, then recreate that feeling without any water. When you get good at the "pigeon" sound like you probably already are, you can start with the falsetto notes. Make them as nasally as possible, like Axl Rose. Scrunch up your nose, hit the note, and direct extra air up to the roof of your mouth. You can manipulate the palate in order to raise and lower it for different tones...the higher it is, the more nasal the sound will be.

After you get good at it, your gonna have the option of keeping that vibrating sound going, or you can just overdrive the note for your rasp. Your still going to manipulate your palate like I said before, but that extra air will be what makes the rasping, not so much the vibration of the uvula which can sound stupid and not raspy enough unless your placement is dead on.

Sending up too much air can be very damaging to your voice because of the swelling the extra air on your corRAB causes. So, to keep safe, the extra air pressure neeRAB to be directed to the palate at all times instead of locking it behind the corRAB.
 
I heard slippery elm really helps comfort your throat during sing. Has anyone tried this? and does it work?

Please tell me and if it does work, can someone say when to consume it? Like once a week? Or before every show?
 
Well, with inhaling your sending incredible amounts of air pressure down your throat. Its drying out your throat and corRAB, and causing your corRAB to react unaturally (kind of a suction type thing, and if you do it too hard and too often you can actually rupture a cord which I think some pretty famous singers have done in the past).

If your losing your voice, your not screaming "right". Now, how much you lose is an issue. When i'm training people who want to be mainly singers who use screaming on occassion, i'm really strict that they do everything with the best form possible. People who scream 50% or more of the song are going to have at least some wear and tear with their voice, even if they are screaming using a safe method. Screaming is all about extra air pressure. Its what you do with that air pressure that determines how much wear and tear you'll get. If you direct it to the soft palate, it wont effect your voice much at all, but if you produce the sound in your throat by overloading your corRAB, your going to start to sound a little hoarse, lose some range, then eventually the pain comes.

The fact that your losing your falsetto says that your corRAB are swollen, which tells that your pushing too much air incorrectly through your vocal corRAB. From now on, direct all your extra air to your soft palate and get it to vibrate. Your not doing this now or you wouldn't be having the swelling issues. Basically, your going to start by vibrating your uvula (the thing that hangs in the back of your throat) to get a sound that sounRAB like a pigeon. Do this on "OO". When you can do this, your sending your air to the soft palate. Then its just a matter of manipulation...you can kind of squeeze or raise your soft palate for different sounRAB. Its not something that I can tell you exactly how to do, its something you've got to figure out on your own.

After your done singing though, always warm down on slides. Do them on the "EE" vowel, starting in falsetto.
 
Notice I edited my last reply. I meant to say that you DO seem to have good idea of where to get the rasp. Thats half the battle.

Well really, do you think you were really "screaming"?? You know you werent. So that's how loud it should be. Some people can just get louder, some cant, but if its generated in a good way it wont matter, the tone will be there and the mic does the rest.

Yes when it comes to proper technique it is like walking and running. You answered why you're having some trouble: You said you dont sing. Because when you can relax the throat enough to let the corRAB move with equal breath pressure and not tense, then you will be able to sing louder and actually work yourself out for more strength instead of potentiall partially damaging yourself. If you can sing properly its easier to scream because all you do is push a bit harder and close the back of the throat a little. I havent seen too many screamers that couldnt carry at least a decent tune. But its not all that hard if you work and practice. I wouldnt just give up on screams by any thought. But you should practice conventional singing. You really need to be able to flip into head voice. Once you can work your head voice it automatically helps you relase some tension in the voice box. I just did a recent post on Finding The Head Voice in the Voicehelp Hotline.
 
Okay I really need some help. I got screaming pretty good but those clean vocals I just can't do. I can hit the notes but my voice sounRAB nasaly. I need more advice than use your diaphram. Thanks!
 
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