vocal crapness

[LeSedna]

You should be able to do it at very low volume as well. If you cant, the technique is not good. You can do it also with just air through your throat, not producing any sound. For example I sometimes try the high pitched tagtgren scream without the sound as if I was trying to do a scream while whispering in a quiet room, and them slowly blend in some fry with a high note. I can't go as high as him, but I can feel its the proper way of doing it because it's comfy, even if it sounds crap with no proper training.
You have to let the air flow in your throat, from the low part of your belly. Contract your belly as if you were defending from a belly punch, and open your throat just like you are yawning, and push air in a controlled manner. Don't use your actual vocal chords. It's more or less what you are aiming at, you should be able to do an angry scream without hurting your vocal chords this way. You have to forget about using your "voice" as in talking. Then later you can blend a little bit of it to make it into a fry note (think Kurt cobain, or Phil anselmo).

 

[Extreme Vocals]

3)That said, there is no "damage-free" style of extreme vocals. You will have to accept that some harsh vocals will put strain on you.



Sorry, but that is just completely false. It's a common misconception spread about, but it's just not true. Not meaning to sound like a prick.

Believing that actually DOES lead to damage though as then people think they aren't doing it right if they don't feel strain or damage.



6) Finally, simply accept that some people can't do certain types of vocals and move on. My black metal voice will always be a shriek rather than a low rasp, because that's just what my voice does. You can't change what's there, but you can take full advantage of what you do have.



Not true as well. Expanding range and tonal capabilites takes time and training. I keep getting people who have been told that they are incapable of something and it always seems to be the teacher that was unable to help them, not the limits of thier voice.

Not everyone will be an opera singer or what have you, but at least being able to do a certain style, genre or tone? Never seen it happen to anyone provided with the right tools and that had a normal healthy voice.

 

[ArnaudM]

Right Rodney,

I am able to sing lyrical themes, melodic heavy metal and extreme screams. I'm far from being the best vocalist in the world, true. BUT I am polyvalent, and believe it or not, this is what future is about in terms of rock and especially metal vocals. I'm glad, even if I only sing for my own pleasure and my neighbor's one, to have got rid of the clichés about what it is possible or not to sing. It has been a real liberation for me, on a physical and mental level.

There are plenty of interesting researches about the way human voice can produce sounds. Everything can be done with no harm. Every human being is naturally able to produce the sounds he will have to use to live : screaming, yelling, growling, whispering, etc. The only limits are the cultural schemes, including the technical misconceptions about how the voice really works, and also the muscular tensions created by the way we live, our habits, the language we speak. It's so inspiring : an almost virgin territory. And metal explored the new borders !

Before the 70s', nobody really knew what singing was exactly, on a physiological level. The classical, I mean, the opera school, was considered as the only "safe" pedagogy. But the classical pedagogy is mainly empirical, and it's impossible to apply it to, for example, rock singing. The endoscopic studies, the watching of vocal chords at work, is something very new and it brang a lot, and broke even more legends and idle statements.

Really, more than Melissa Cross, whose DVD is just a promotional work (but I won't deny her teacher's abilities) I encourage all of you to read the articles and books edited by the Jo Estill institute (the pioneers), Kathrin Sadolin and CVT teachers, Allan Wright (TCM), Gylliane Keys (Vocal Process - "Singing and the Actor" is a true VOCAL BIBLE). And Rodney from Extreme Vocals has a lot to say, too. His advices helped me a lot on my own path.