Let Me be vocal about my question long one (moved)

[mehvar]

i didn't know where to put this, i guess it should work,
anyways i have a problem about vocals, i've been practicing for around 2-3 months off and on, scales and vowel stuff, and practicing singing along with songs,pantera,aliceinchains.......so i have heard the changes, like i can go higher, then my usual range, and considering that this 'part' of my range was considerably ****ed, due to excessive screaming, and i think i popped something, but i m learning to overcome it, its like i go up in scale and at a certain point the voice suffers crackling and turns to falsetto, and sometimes the voice just goes higher then the fried part of the cords, and voice turns normal(in the higher range).

**** now for my question, so the thing is i know when you sleep you loose the muscle memory, like even in guitar playing, and you have to do exercises to achieve that rate of playing, then after a while it comes naturally, but my voice seems not to be equipped to sing so to say when i wake up, like i have to do some vocal stuff to get the openness,
whats the problem :S
some one give me some tips.
and when the voice goes higher its squeaky but large sounding :S
sorry for it being so long, kinda stoned.

shud i just quit trying to singing for my own pleasure and give my cords a rest.,

smother another faliure.

thanks nightvision..!

[Screamin_Demon_Auz]

Nothing to do with losing muscle memory at all. When you sleep, the air you are breathing in, combined with the lack vocalizing, lack of water being in your system, and any allergies is causing your cords to swell up. Not a whole lot like say if you were screaming without good technique for an hour, but they are thick enough that they cant stretch efficiently.

The only ways to thin them back out is:
1)Hydration
2)Vocalizing (warming up)

For hydration, start every day off with a bottle of water as soon as you wake up. Then, get a shower which will help loosen everything up as well. Hum in the shower if you can just simple stuff to get the cords activated.

Continue drinking WATER all day. For every soda you drink, drink a bottle/cup of water.Water takes at least 20 minutes to circulate through your body and arrive to your vocal cords, so don't want until you're singing to start hydrating. Do a warm up of some simple exercises ( whatever you're doing now ) then you should be set.

Stop getting stoned too. You could do everything I just said, then smoke a joint and your back to where you started. If you are going to smoke, never do it until after you are finished singing. It has a lot of side effects on your voice, but the numbing can really cause some serious damage considering you could be pushing harder than you ever have before but not even realize it. That could cause nodes, vocal cord paralysis, all kinds of stuff you don't want to get into.

[mehvar]

Nothing to do with losing muscle memory at all. When you sleep, the air you are breathing in, combined with the lack vocalizing, lack of water being in your system, and any allergies is causing your cords to swell up. Not a whole lot like say if you were screaming without good technique for an hour, but they are thick enough that they cant stretch efficiently.

The only ways to thin them back out is:
1)Hydration
2)Vocalizing (warming up)

For hydration, start every day off with a bottle of water as soon as you wake up. Then, get a shower which will help loosen everything up as well. Hum in the shower if you can just simple stuff to get the cords activated.

Continue drinking WATER all day. For every soda you drink, drink a bottle/cup of water.Water takes at least 20 minutes to circulate through your body and arrive to your vocal cords, so don't want until you're singing to start hydrating. Do a warm up of some simple exercises ( whatever you're doing now ) then you should be set.

Stop getting stoned too. You could do everything I just said, then smoke a joint and your back to where you started. If you are going to smoke, never do it until after you are finished singing. It has a lot of side effects on your voice, but the numbing can really cause some serious damage considering you could be pushing harder than you ever have before but not even realize it. That could cause nodes, vocal cord paralysis, all kinds of stuff you don't want to get into.


oh, i already suspect i have a vocal node, but you're tips are VERY useful, and i think you're right on the mark here, i don't drink alot of water,
and upper range does feel dry, i'll start drinking more water, and i do my warm-up/excercising during smoking up, makes me always feel like i m on the right note, and i keep checkin by closing:S one ear, anyways...
thanks ,

damn this vocal stuff is hard for people who don't have it naturally i presume,
btw when i warm up, my upper-range sometimes lower-range, becomes deep, but kinda sore...i cant explain it, they feel 'not relaxed' but still the note comes out,

and one more thing when i use my headvoice or falsetto :S , it goes high
and when i sustain it, i can here the drumskins rattling like overtones, like does this mean it on the right note, or is it just normal.

[Screamin_Demon_Auz]

If you think you have a node, go to the ENT doctor if you can because that would keep you from doing a lot of stuff correctly, and could lead to a lot more serious like I mentioned in my first post.

It's getting deeper because of the swelling. You are either pushing too hard by involving muscles that shouldnt be involved. To prevent that, do a lot of open vowel scales (AH as in Father and O). While you're doing that, hold your jaw down and make sure it doesn't come up. Don't pull it down just let it fall down naturally and then hold it in position. Singing scales on LAH GAH while you hold the jaw helps too. Make sure your tongue is the only thing moving, because jaw tension activates a lot of muscles that aren't needed.

The other thing with your voice getting deeper probably is more likely caused by swelling from being dry. You are drinking enough water in the first place, then you make it worse by smoking. Once you stop smoking while singing and drinking more water, it should go away. I think the lack of hydration and too much smoke caused swelling is your big problem.

Yeah, it just means your singing the same note or creating overtones that are the same tone as the drums, and you have enough volume in the note to carry over to the drums and make them rattle. Exact same thing it takes to shatter wine glasses with your voice; you sing, you hit the exact same frequency, enough volume and it breaks. Not sure if you can do that with drums though.

[mehvar]

thanks alot, you''ve been very helpful.
i'm gonna try and control myself by thinking of my throat,vocals, first.

and that frquency thing is intense, haha and i wudnt wanna break my drummers set, thanks very much, i appriciate it.

[Merkaba]

Everything that Auz said. If you think you have a node then youre just gonna continue to go downhill especially if youre doing any type of non resonant overblowing...in otherwords rock. At least with normal singing the cords come together and massage one another to some extent. Dont do any whispering either.

You should really try to "clean up" for a while to see how it effects your cords. If youre serious about it that is. In other words, lots of water, rest, good nutrition and less or no smoke. I tell smokers to at least hold it in your mouth for a second or two to cool it, and dont rush or hot box any smoke. Roll it tight as hell if youre a must have stoner!

Its not a warm up if it tires you or is uncomfortable. No vocal anything should ever be uncomfortable or painful, ever!

Vocals arent hard but like anything else, if youre not a "natural" it takes some research and practice, and in the case of vocals, deprogramming. Youre probably tensing up the larynx and pushing your instrument waaaay too hard as well. Its an un amplified acoustic instrument and it needs to be amplified to "line level" of anything else youre singing with or to. So be mindful, It does not take alot of push to get a hellish scream or to ring drum heads or glass. ( havent tried breaking any yet) Check out my hotline and read the mucus sections especially. Do some E's on whatever your speaking range is, like if someone just told you to say E, but sing it that pitch.

http://www.sputnikmusic.com/forums/showthread.php?t=219911
Merkabas Voice-Help Hotline - Music & Musician Forums