well to just help yourself just use a computer microphone. It will definately help you, and if you sound good you will sound good at shows, thus letting you sell more merch, thus letting you buy equipment!

Do you guys know any books or websites or anything with singing exercises?

[QUOTE=randomthought9]Do you guys know any books or websites or anything with singing exercises?[/QUOTE]
[URL="http://www.musicianforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=219911"]This[/URL] should have everything you need.

Hey. I was doin Merkaba's falsetto scream today (the ones at soundclick), anyway I was able to do most of them but I still dont get how to use that in a song, i still need practice I think. Anyway that's not the point. When I was done, I couldn't feel part of throat. It's like it's numb or anything, it's like I that area doesn't exist or something...hard to explain, it's only like in one small spot. I didn't feel pain or anything during the exercise or after it and I can still sing normally, it's just annoying when you can't feel that area.

Is this natural?

The Rock n Roll Singers Survival Manual by Mark Baxter
Raise you Voice by Jaime Vendera
Singing for the Stars by Seth Riggs
The Contemporary Singer by Anne Peckham
The Complete Vocal Workout A Step-by-Step Guide to Tough Vocals by Roger Kain

get those books if you can

[QUOTE=Surgicalgod]Hey. I was doin Merkaba's falsetto scream today (the ones at soundclick), anyway I was able to do most of them but I still dont get how to use that in a song, i still need practice I think. Anyway that's not the point. When I was done, I couldn't feel part of throat. It's like it's numb or anything, it's like I that area doesn't exist or something...hard to explain, it's only like in one small spot. I didn't feel pain or anything during the exercise or after it and I can still sing normally, it's just annoying when you can't feel that area.

Is this natural?[/QUOTE]

As long as you aren't feeling any pain I think you have nothing to worry about. I know when I do my screams afterwards my throat will feel numb and weird, it doesn't HURT, but you can deffinately FEEL the workout that you did. I usually end up talking funny for a little bit afterwards, but after a few hours it goes away.

I think it's safe to say that it's normal. Glad to hear that you are doing things correctly. =] Keep at it.

[QUOTE=Screamin_Demon_Auz]The Rock n Roll Singers Survival Manual by Mark Baxter
Raise you Voice by Jaime Vendera
Singing for the Stars by Seth Riggs
The Contemporary Singer by Anne Peckham
The Complete Vocal Workout A Step-by-Step Guide to Tough Vocals by Roger Kain

get those books if you can[/QUOTE]

Thanks. :thumb:

[QUOTE]As long as you aren't feeling any pain I think you have nothing to worry about. I know when I do my screams afterwards my throat will feel numb and weird, it doesn't HURT, but you can deffinately FEEL the workout that you did. I usually end up talking funny for a little bit afterwards, but after a few hours it goes away.

I think it's safe to say that it's normal. Glad to hear that you are doing things correctly. =] Keep at it.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I was just worried, it went away in 2 hours or so....so does that mean I'm heading in the wrong direction?

Another thing, I'm only 16 so I don't have my own place and was kinda wondering how you guys do your screaming practices. I mean my parents would think I'm psycho. Locking the door doesn't help as well; they can still hear it. Does practicing have the same effect if it's low in volume?

Thanks..

[QUOTE=fuzzyhair]well i was wanting merkaba to answer this (thanks for your answer though:thumb: ). I just didnt want to be following a tutorial some person using improper technique made. It is really cool. It focuses on growls. Everyone in my town wants to scream. I wanna growl!

EDIT: and about joining the band. I didnt want to be pressured into growling when i didnt want to, like if it starts to hurt. Thats why i wanted to wait a few months so i can develop it so i can have more stamina.[/QUOTE]
yea...and its the same area that I talk about in the voicehelp hotline when I say make the ANNKK sound like a wrong answer buzzer, or a typical growl or bark like a dog. Then you "take control" of it as Tony says...but you keep that feel and activate your cords to get the vowel you need. The shape of the mouth, as he mentioned, goes hand in hand with the vowel. Most death stuff has a lot of Ooh sounds,....kinda like a baboon/monkey lip thing. Most people can make a low baboon ormid to high monkey sound. Its all the same thing. But if youre gonna be doing this low stuff youre gonna have to be able to relax and opent the throat. Thats how you get it to sound full. Just warm up and experiment....and like he said, he's learned alot from being in the car and practicing.

[QUOTE=Merkaba-1]yea...and its the same area that I talk about in the voicehelp hotline when I say make the ANNKK sound like a wrong answer buzzer, or a typical growl or bark like a dog. Then you "take control" of it as Tony says...but you keep that feel and activate your cords to get the vowel you need. The shape of the mouth, as he mentioned, goes hand in hand with the vowel. Most death stuff has a lot of Ooh sounds,....kinda like a baboon/monkey lip thing. Most people can make a low baboon ormid to high monkey sound. Its all the same thing. But if youre gonna be doing this low stuff youre gonna have to be able to relax and opent the throat. Thats how you get it to sound full. Just warm up and experiment....and like he said, he's learned alot from being in the car and practicing.[/QUOTE]
Yeah it sorda helped me get some lamb of god stuff. low screams/ growls. Its all good though. my throat doesnt hurt that bad after i do it, so i must be doing it right. I will warm up though. Thanks!

[QUOTE=Surgicalgod]Yeah, I was just worried, it went away in 2 hours or so....so does that mean I'm heading in the wrong direction?

Another thing, I'm only 16 so I don't have my own place and was kinda wondering how you guys do your screaming practices. I mean my parents would think I'm psycho. Locking the door doesn't help as well; they can still hear it. Does practicing have the same effect if it's low in volume?

Thanks..[/QUOTE]
I usually pick a time when they arent home. But recently i moved my stuff in the basement, and they still may be able to hear me, but it's a lot less embarassing for me at least. Oh the pain may just be from the extra air. But if it goes away in a short pd. of time, 2 hours, you should be okay. If it persists then maybe not, but right now you are just breaking your voice in. If you were to compare it to guitar it would be the same as getting caluses.

Yeah, my mom is never home, so it makes finding a time to practice very easy.

[QUOTE]Oh the pain may just be from the extra air[/QUOTE]

No I never had pain, the 'lightness' of my throat went away this morning and now it seems that my throat has gotten heavier. Weird...it's like theres a ping pong ball shoved down my throat (this has happened to me before randomly - not related to singing). I can still sing everything right and I just did a range check (which made my throat feel even heavier) but it's still bugging me.
Other than that, I've been short of breath (I can't really understand why).

Has this ever happened to any of you guys when you tried screaming for the first time? I don't mind it happening this one time, but I sure hope this doesn't happen everytime I try this thing.

I'm hoping a good night sleep will fix this.

P.S: I only practiced for like 15 minutes.

[QUOTE=Surgicalgod]No I never had pain, the 'lightness' of my throat went away this morning and now it seems that my throat has gotten heavier. Weird...it's like theres a ping pong ball shoved down my throat (this has happened to me before randomly - not related to singing). I can still sing everything right and I just did a range check (which made my throat feel even heavier) but it's still bugging me.
Other than that, I've been short of breath (I can't really understand why).

Has this ever happened to any of you guys when you tried screaming for the first time? I don't mind it happening this one time, but I sure hope this doesn't happen everytime I try this thing.

I'm hoping a good night sleep will fix this.

P.S: I only practiced for like 15 minutes.[/QUOTE]
Did you do warmups. You should always do Vowels (AEIO) Do each one for about a minute and a half. And maybe do some other workouts. Sorry if you allready do. You may be pushing too much. Are you trying to be loud? If so just try to keep it at a speaking level. And sing into a PA or amp with some treble.

Okay Merkaba i think i actually did something right! I did warm-ups earlier today. Then tonight I just picked up the mic and started screaming along with different styles of scream music. I did some lamb of god, norma jean, and i screamed along with my friends band. I tried really hard not to push so hard so that i wouldnt hurt myself. I remembered to just imagine sending air into your head. After I did that i was screaming just fine. I still get squeaks hear and there and its not the best scream, but its something. So I did this for about an hour (a new record for me) and guess what? My throat barely hurts! The only pain I feel is a little bit on the top of my throat where i was pushing air and a little bit of muscle stress on the sides of my neck. But I think thats more from the face I make when I scream. So thank you very much Merkaba. You have taught me well!

oh and one other thing lol. to the right of my adams apple, i think its my vocal chord, feels kinda stressed. Is this normal? Is it normal to have on side hurt worst than the other? Thanks!

Sorry for going off topic, but Fuzz, did you see the replies to [url]http://www.musicianforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=424313[/url] (the thread on modes)?

Just lettin' ya know :).

[QUOTE=Trigger_003]Sorry for going off topic, but Fuzz, did you see the replies to [url]http://www.musicianforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=424313[/url] (the thread on modes)?

Just lettin' ya know :).[/QUOTE]
Thanks I totally forgot about that. I really appreciate it though!

[QUOTE=fuzzyhair]Okay Merkaba i think i actually did something right! I did warm-ups earlier today. Then tonight I just picked up the mic and started screaming along with different styles of scream music. I did some lamb of god, norma jean, and i screamed along with my friends band. I tried really hard not to push so hard so that i wouldnt hurt myself. I remembered to just imagine sending air into your head. After I did that i was screaming just fine. I still get squeaks hear and there and its not the best scream, but its something. So I did this for about an hour (a new record for me) and guess what? My throat barely hurts! The only pain I feel is a little bit on the top of my throat where i was pushing air and a little bit of muscle stress on the sides of my neck. But I think thats more from the face I make when I scream. So thank you very much Merkaba. You have taught me well!

oh and one other thing lol. to the right of my adams apple, i think its my vocal chord, feels kinda stressed. Is this normal? Is it normal to have on side hurt worst than the other? Thanks![/QUOTE]
could be your cord or your throat muscles. See how it feels after about 24 hours. Now when you do mid to high voicings see how it feels. If it hurts to do your highest true voice in a singing manner, you might want to lay off for a while. I couldnt really tell ya because its hard to tell what exactly youre talking about over the internet. So be careful.

Okay my throat is back to normal today.

I did warmups when I tried screaming, but I don't do the vowels seperately, I have a CD that has some great vocal warmups from a teacher that I know.

I'm still worried about this though. I mean I read everything Merkaba wrote on screaming and he keeps saying you're not supposed to feel any pain and then one of you guys pops in and says he felt pain after practice or something.

[QUOTE]My throat barely hurts![/QUOTE]

Does that mean it used to hurt more before? If so, doesn't that mean you're doin it the wrong way? I'm confused.

Another thing, I'm a natural singer and I've been singing for 6 years now, and I just want to acquire a new skill that I can use. I don't want to scream hard, I just want some rasp or light screams in some songs that I sing with my band...nothing heavy (something like a Seether 'rough' voice).

What I mean is I don't want to do any permanent damage, so can someone please explain this point to me? Are you supposed to feel a slight pain after screaming practices? And does screaming lessen the quality of your clean voice singing?

Thanks again.

Once you learn how to scream properly using your false cords you can make it as heavy as you want because youre not really using your cords to get the sound effect. But you can use more and more to increase the tone or intensity underneath it.

Yes, you shouldn't be getting any pain and I think he was having more pain before If I remember correctly.

I think if you warm up and warm down and know your limits you can increase your clean singing, just as bench press increases your chest related activity. However you will find various plateaus in either that require patience and technique to overcome, and there is always a ceiling for any given body, physically. Warm up, warm down, stay relaxed and take your time.

Thanks for the fast reply.

Well I think everything I read from your voice hotline helped cause now I know that most screams are falsetto and I'm really good at that. Before the practice session I did or before even reading your threads, I was able to do some rasp and 'light' screams but it was all uncontrolled (not induced - some was induced though). Like when I sing certain songs (ex: Tears of the Dragon by Bruce Dickinson) my voice gets raspy on its own on the parts where its supposed to get raspy.

Anyway your writings gave me the dictator to control my raspiness and I thank you for that. I can now induce raspness in songs though I'm still not that good at it (I can rasp most of 'What a Wonderful World' - which brings me to the next issue). There are some parts of some songs that I can't rasp; parts of the same verse, and I don't understand why cause it's really the same thing. I think it's the letters used or something.

My question is, are you supposed to be able to rasp or scratch any part (or note) of a song you want at some point? Like can you rasp songs that are supposed to be sang in clean vocals? Another thing that's been on my mind is trying to rasp when I'm singing on a key that sounds the best and failing to do it on that key. So what I do is change the key so I can rasp it but then I realize the clean singing part doesn't sound as good in that key..so yeah I'm kinda lost, am I doing it right? I think I should post a sample...I'll do it soon.


Thanks guys, you're all a great help! Cheers! :chug:

To answer the question, yes i was having slight pain before. The pain felt yesterday went away today. I dont think it was really pain, more like stressness, like the same kind you get if you walk all day when you rarely walk. I'm going to scream some more today and try to get my voice in shape. I think after about 2 weeks of this it will eventually go away. The thing is, when I scream I am only comfortable screaming through an amp. I like to be able to hear myself. I like to scream along with music when I scream. My scream isn't really that loud though is that normal? Okay well I gotta go.

Surgical....you should be able to rasp any note you can sing. With minimal effort. This is where the whole isolation comes into play. Being able to know what it feels like to only move your cords.

Fuzzy...if its not loud....its not a scream right?

[QUOTE=Merkaba-1]Surgical....you should be able to rasp any note you can sing. With minimal effort. This is where the whole isolation comes into play. Being able to know what it feels like to only move your cords.

Fuzzy...if its not loud....its not a scream right?[/QUOTE]
Hell i dunno what it is. Its kinda loud but not like a yell. Today i figured out it was louder than spoken voice so i guess i am good. I screamed for another hour today and it just feels like i did a workout but my voice isnt really affected to much. It seems a little bit deaper but not really that much. I guess its just from singing/screaming. I concentrate more on guitar but its fun to just play some songs and scream along with them. But I am being careful and I quit when I feel the need to.

I'm a horrible vocalist and I would enjoy being able to sing so that I could do some back-up vocals in my band....where should I start...can someone help me?

[QUOTE=jerrod_gilbert]I'm a horrible vocalist and I would enjoy being able to sing so that I could do some back-up vocals in my band....where should I start...can someone help me?[/QUOTE]
Merkabas voice hotline. He covers just about everything. And never say you are horrible.

thanks fuzzyhair

[QUOTE=jerrod_gilbert]thanks fuzzyhair[/QUOTE]
no problem, did you find everything you need?

I don't think that'll help him alot if he's looking for clean vocals. Why don't we have a clean singing thread anymore? I think we should start one. I can help by giving everyone audio exercises and warmups. Do we need to ask a moderator for starting such a thread?

Oh yeah and could someone please draw 'raspiness in action'; like where the air should pass and stuff like that cause I think that would help me and others to understand it better. If it's not too much guys? Thanks...

question?
 

hey i play guitar and sing in my band. i was just wondering why after i have been singing for about half an hour, i start getting painful short headache like pains in my head after every time i sing no matter if i sing for only 5 seconds or a whole verse. and then after we have finished practicing i hav a very bad headache. these short pains are realllllly painful.