Growls

[BrandonS]

I know this question has been asked a thousand times, on a hundred forums. But I'm at the next step after the "basic answer" and I need some help.

I figured out how to breath using my diaphragm, and pushing air out is fun. I'm like a less-fat, less-pink Kirby with sucking and blowing action. But now comes the part with the actual growling. I find that my throat is very dry-ish and raw, even after taking lots of drinks of water and tea and such.

I would really like to know what I am doing wrong, and why my throat doesn't sound wet and lubed like Somn's awesome vocals. The growls sound like they slide right out of the throat if you know what I mean. Thanks for the help!~

 

[DeathBlade]

Short answer is, growling hurts. No doubt about it. I know that when recording Tears... Sonm made a potion of sorts... various items mixed together to help soothe the throat. I dont remember the recipe, but Im sure that if he remembers Sonm will tell you.

 

[Sonm]

Thank you guys. I don't think my growls are something exceptional. I've been trying to produce a good roar since I have graduated from school. Growling really hurts if you don't spend some time on rehearsing and training your throat. I am a slacker and never prepare myself for singing. Neither before recording nor before playing live. Two years ago I simply wasn't able to speak after 1 hour of performance. But nowadays my clean voice stays nearly the same even after 2 hours of howls and screams. I don't know why. Maybe the throat got stronger. I really need more training and I do so every evening while driving home. Thus, I hope to achieve much lower growls on the new CD... And finally about that bloody cocktail... It was honey, beer and coffee as I remember correctly.. some jam or milk was added too. Purely and undeniably pukable stuff but helps... And indeed i have noticed that with time the intrinsically, growls get situated lower in the throat. Like something does push them down. I know what Oinkness fellow means by saying it goes right out the throat... So now I feel like it goes more from my lungs or slightly higher.

 

[BrandonS]

I'm slightly underage, so is there a substance I could use in place of the beer? hehe. What do you mean by practicing growls, just trying to growl and such? Because I didn't think I was doing it right and I didn't want to get situated with doing it wrong and not be able to change. x.x

 

[Sepsis]

y hello oinkness! I started a similar thread around Christmas, because I was supposed to sing for a church thing (which I didn't make it to) and thought I could get some advice here.

Anyway, enough about me. Sonm recommended this concoction:

Have a good sleep, do not talk for the whole day and just before singing try (if you dare) mix one raw egg, half tea spoon of sunflower-seed oil, 50-100 gramm of cognac, blend it well, gragle and swallow.

I know, it's got alchohol, and I'm underage myself, so I didn't try it. You might experiment with various things like coffee, tea and energy drinks.

 

[DeathBlade]

Yeah, I would recomend tea. Specificly use lots of Honey with the tea (no sugar). I imagine that even if it doesnt help before hand it would be soothing afterwards. Hmm if you want types of tea I would say herbal, green tea, and what ever you like. I doubt that last part matters a lot. Just use honey, even honey plain may help? Try and report back. GO TEST MONKEY GO!!!

 

[Omin]

2 Oinkness Don`t use beer! Sonm lies as usual Coffee won`t help your throat too! I think that the best mix is honey and lemon washed down with tea without sugar.

 

[Sonm]

2 Oinkness Don`t use beer! Sonm lies as usual Coffee won`t help your throat too! I think that the best mix is honey and lemon washed down with tea without sugar.

You arsy bugger! Me saying lies?? Looks like you are worried that somebody will drink a little just to make you jealous so you aren't able to claim "All beer is mine!"
Beer was there!!:Spin: As well as coffee. Onanka! Evdoka has a better memory than you dick-puller! I don't say anything which could harm people. Lies as usual! Tell me when I was saying lies last time? I just fantasize sometimes!!
....

practising growls means trying to make it deeper and lower. Some blokes say it can set your growls in a wrong way, but I don't think so. Just don't try so hard. After all it's your own throat.

Egg, cognac and stuff bla-bla is good BEFORE SINGING, but irrelevant for setting up your growls. And of course you are right... the lees you talk the stronger your voice is, but training is needed anyway. Otherwise vocal cords get weaker and stuff.
Ask Mike of Opeth what he does for that. I am pretty much sure he will answer - nothing in particular.

 

[Anth]

Yep, guys, nothing in particular, just this magic word - PRACTICE (a bit??) and FEEL and HEAR what you are growling, reveal the hidden posibilities of your throat, trying to keep it not dry but naturally wet, dont strain it but keep relaxed as much as possible but still not loosing control of it... everyone finds his own way ...

 

[Anth]

Magic drinks mentioned above indeed help to achieve more rich growling sound
Also Pitch Shift

 

[Mazah]

I'm not that keen on those growl potions really, they may help you get a more moist sound but they don't do good for your clean singing, it's hard to sing high when there's something weird blocking your throat. The only thing i drink before any kind of singing is just plain room temperature water. You should be able to produce a good sound without anything special.

I feel my low growl mostly in the gut, and the position of the throat is too hard to explain, but it is definetly not a scream or a loud sound. It's slightly higher than my normal talking voice. This doesn't really hurt but i'm not shure if it's totally safe. I found this technique by accident a few months ago by just fucking around with my voice, i made an Abe Simpson impersonation (you know, the old dude from Simpsons, you have to use a lot of diaphragm to get that sound too) and added even more pressure and something happened in my throat and suddenly i sounded like the singer from Meshuggah. Then i lowered the pitch and got this really nice Chuck Billy sort of a growl sound.

I do my high screams very differently, and this is even harder to explain. It makes a quite similar sound to Marko's (Farmakon) but i'm not shure if it's the same technique. I do a note in falset, then i sort of constrict my throat (this is the bit i can't explain but Sebastian Bach uses this to distort his voice on his cover of Iron Maiden's Children of the Damned) and add pressure from the diaphragm. Also there is some sort of a passage or something that can when resonated make this sound even more edgy and high, and that sound is fairly loud though still not a scream.

That's how i do it, explained very very badly...

 

[BrandonS]

Like Mazah said, I wouldn't want to have phlegm in my throat when I'm trying to sing clean vocals or high clean vocals and such. My band is planning somewhat of a dream-theater type band but with growling, and closer to metal. Actually its more like prog metal with growls. So there will be a lot of clean vocals as well as a lot of growls! I can growl very low, and if I growl any lower I will burst a tube or something... my problem right now is learning to growl higher than my absolute low.. I can scream and do a low, but not a medium... its sad for me! I drink tea daily, but it has a cup of sugar in it. I will stop using sugar and buy some honey... How much honey would replace a cup of sugar?

 

[Sonm]

A cup of sugar? Have never heard people saying that. A cup of tea with a teaspoon of sugar - yes, but a cup of sugar with a teaspoon of tea... maybe somebody likes it tho))) But if I would drink that kind of mixture... well, well, well... Won't I sound too SWEET?) LOL))
Honey is a great stuff. One spoon should be pretty much enough I reckon.

 

[BrandonS]

A cup of sugar? Have never heard people saying that. A cup of tea with a teaspoon of sugar - yes, but a cup of sugar with a teaspoon of tea... maybe somebody likes it tho))) But if I would drink that kind of mixture... well, well, well... Won't I sound too SWEET?) LOL))
Honey is a great stuff. One spoon should be pretty much enough I reckon.

Hahaha no!! That would be lethal! I make tea by the pitcher, so its a little over 2 liters in the pitcher with a cup of sugar. Making tea by the cup I always thought was too difficult! And if I was going to take it with me on stage, I'd need a mug.... hmmmm.... I must purchase a mug that I can make tea with honey in! And I still must purchase honey. I went shopping today but forgot to look. I went guitar shopping also but didn't see a model I liked and the ones there were very expensive... there was an amazingly blasphemous painted guitar there though, with tombstones and skulls!

 

[SFall]

I find drinking canola oil helps me...and beer. Beer helps everything though. Somehow it turns me into Brad Pitt.

 

[Mazah]

I find drinking canola oil helps me...and beer. Beer helps everything though. Somehow it turns me into Brad Pitt.

You too? That happened to me a week ago. I didn't get to have sex with Angelina Jolie though... I've been sick the whole week, and last night a drank and now i've a hangover, a diarrea and a cold. Today i'll drink some more and hopefully turn into some healthy person.

 

[Sonm]

Goodness... Sometimes I'am just happy being not a drunkard. The curse still works))
I can imagine though how would it feel like if you growl having a hangover... total horror!

 

[BrandonS]

I drank a half-gallon of chocolate milk today. Not only was it delicious, but it seemed to make my throat growl less painful. Did you guys ever experiment with chocolate milk, Somn? And how goes the new CD recording? I'm actually writing material for my demo LOL. :Smug:

 

[Sonm]

Magic letters, magic chars
Flip and flop them 's a par!
Sonm distorts becoming Somn
Omin - Omni, brain is blown...
............................................
No choc milc - puke - ))

Cd is okay Nearly finished "The Autumn Dancers" - the song rocks the hell out og me. And good luck with the demo)))
CheeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrs!

 

[ColdDarkNord]

Oral sex.. here's the point~!~
(all bassplayers are gays)