Merkabas Voice-Help Hotline

[CrazyDiamond725]

Originally Posted by CrazyDiamond725

I'm sixteen and my voice is still squeakin on me. I made a microphone in an electronice clas in school and I taped myself attempting to sing on mt stereo. I never heard myself sing before. I was thought my voice was ok. Until I listened to it on the tape. I can't sing in key or anything. I think I'm just gonna stick to playin bass cause I suck at singing. I don't know if a cr*ppy voice could be changed, but if it can mines gonna take a lot of work. Would it even be worth it for me to try to sing, because my band has no singer?

Oh yea and voice is pretty deep too.

[Merkaba]

Originally Posted by Chris-Bassist

i really wish i had a good singing voice but my voice is always high pitched even when i try to sing normally...do you think me being 13 might have something to do with it...a reply would be most appreciated

well it definitely does. before you go through puberty your larynx is smaller. this makes for higher pitched sounds. its like trying to get a low sound out of a flute. or a high pitch out of a tweeter. follow..?? So as you mature your larynx grows more and gets bigger which is what deepens your voice. this is why range is something that does have limits. your larynx size will play a very important part in range. Just keep practicing and singing. doing exercises and the isolation stuff. over time you will be developing a lot of flexibility in your cords as you keep them very active and stretching as your larynx grows. just remember to warm up, stay hydrated, dont over push and warm down.

[Merkaba]

Originally Posted by CrazyDiamond725

I'm sixteen and my voice is still squeakin on me. I made a microphone in an electronice clas in school and I taped myself attempting to sing on mt stereo. I never heard myself sing before. I was thought my voice was ok. Until I listened to it on the tape. I can't sing in key or anything. I think I'm just gonna stick to playin bass cause I suck at singing. I don't know if a cr*ppy voice could be changed, but if it can mines gonna take a lot of work. Would it even be worth it for me to try to sing, because my band has no singer?

just keep practicing and do the isolation exercises. if youre squeaking, i take it you mean breaking and cracking while holding a note. it either means youre not strong enough for that note or your air supply isnt steady. a high larynx will greatly diminish breath control. isolation!!...

and get a good mic first before you judge yourself, no offense on your handywork though. you always sound different when you hear yourself from a recording beause when youre talking or singing youre hearing with your whole body (especially your upper body) not just your ears. singing in key is something that just takes time through practice. however if you overthink it you can really make matters harder. hit a note on your guitar and try to do running melodies and scat and whatever as you play notes, or make extra melodies during your favorite songs. its really helpful.

[Merkaba]

Originally Posted by btoto

Wow, you know your job...............I did what you said i.e pushed air without sound and now I'm sure..........yes it is my throat. I don't know why I thought it was back of my head

Ok I'll be frank with you. Actually all these problems with pain and mucus started to appear after I sang and played Nirvana's "Drain You" for several days, trying to sound like Cobain too much. Maybe this is the reason, but it's not that hard song.

Yes, mucus started to come around over last week. I mean, it's not it causes me so much trouble. And sometimes I even like..........because, you know that with mucus it's easy to get raspy and sound cool. But it becomes irritating while talking.............I know that it annoys people I'm talking to. I guess they think that I have a bad desease and going to die soon...lolz

Ok I'll try to sing lower for a couple of minutes after I finish...........well, actually I doubt I can do it. Let me explain the situation:

I do all the singing and guitar playing at home. But I do it when there's no one around. And it happens not that often. I mean I'm kinda ashamed to sing when my family is at home. So as soon as they leave, I pick up my guitar and start singing. And I don't do any warmups because I know that I have for example only 35 minutes, and I want to enjoy myself all that little time.

I guess now you understand me why I don't any warmups. Simply because I have little time for singing and I want to use it for my own songs.

Also, if it's possible for you, can you please download Nirvana's "Lithium"? I want to know what Cobain is doing in chorus. The "Yeah Yeah Yeah" part. Because as it sounds to me, it's not screaming......and I don't want to scream, I just to be able to do that thing he does, it sounds to me more like an agressive singing rather than screaming.

Thank you

mmmm hmmm
well, i used to be in the same position. its really crippling i know. i used to have to do the same thing. however!....

you can keep your voice in a more ready place if you vocalize throughout the day. you can do low volume humming, or hum tunes or doing familiar songs or commercial jingles, just whatever. and do the lip flutter sounds like when you were little and playing with cars. do this with scales and stuff and try to keep the flutter going constant as you rise and fall. you will be able to feel the shift in opening the throat in order to keept the pressure constant. so you owe it to yourself to learn ways to sneak in vocal cord energizing throught the day. or go for a walk or a jog, this really helps warm you up, dont grunt though or make too many forceful sounds. you can do pushups and crunches or workout. you can sneak in alot of sounds then and noone will have a clue. Ya know, if they say we're getting ready to go to the store blah blah, you can start crunching or working out. now this will get obvious over time. but if you work enough you can have enough confidence so that you can at least do warm ups while they are at the house. Im 28 and still wouldnt feel comfortable singin around my sister, or much of my family. if you dont warm up you can expect only limitation and increase in harming yourself(hence the overprotecting mucus). its like running track, lifting weights, golf, bowling, anything.


Trust me, mucus is not gonna let you get the most bang for your buck. once you learn proper technique you'll look back on this post and say wtf? plus your vocie will get better tone and you wont sound like a zombie. have you checked out any of the rasp instruction posts and soundclips? its all a trick really of banking the air off of the back of your throat. theres not too many vocal effects you can do but pushing too much air is never one of them, especially in head voice. you might have been doing some fry which is when your cords just flap from the pressure. you need to look into the isolation exercises and keeping your larynx relaxed and not tensing up to get your notes. Theres a lot of muscles in the throat area. you need to work with seperating them. its like drumming. think how crappy it sounds if you cant quite seperate your foot from your hand. the greatest drummers have their brain signals completely split between limbs. great singers do the same.

When warming down go from your highest note down to your lowest like siren. do this a few times. or at the least continue to hum and vocalize...and do eee's . I'll check out lithium. i know i have that nevermind cd...it is on there isnt it? Im so happy, cause today i found my friends...etc? yea! yea! yea!. (now i want to go sing it, first thing tomorrow when i wake up! my fave was come as you are) i can already tell you most of what cobain does is just rasping off of the back of the throat, with various amounts of falsetto and head mixed ..which basically means more or less cord activation....closing the cords or opening them. THis is what everyone does. there's not much else! just takes practice to learn it without overstressing the cords. i might post a sample of it maybe. doesnt take a lot of push, not as much as it sounds! (especially with well warmed up flexible cords....ahem, hint hint)

work with isolation. once you can work with the cords alone you can pretty much take your pick as to what you want to sound like. the isolation thread has some stuff in it.

take care. and dont forget to sneak in some warming up from now on at least.

[Chris-Bassist]

awesome thanks alot merkaba-1 helps alot

[btoto]

Originally Posted by Merkaba-1

mmmm hmmm
well, i used to be in the same position. its really crippling i know. i used to have to do the same thing. however!....

you can keep your voice in a more ready place if you vocalize throughout the day. you can do low volume humming, or hum tunes or doing familiar songs or commercial jingles, just whatever. and do the lip flutter sounds like when you were little and playing with cars. do this with scales and stuff and try to keep the flutter going constant as you rise and fall. you will be able to feel the shift in opening the throat in order to keept the pressure constant. so you owe it to yourself to learn ways to sneak in vocal cord energizing throught the day. or go for a walk or a jog, this really helps warm you up, dont grunt though or make too many forceful sounds. you can do pushups and crunches or workout. you can sneak in alot of sounds then and noone will have a clue. Ya know, if they say we're getting ready to go to the store blah blah, you can start crunching or working out. now this will get obvious over time. but if you work enough you can have enough confidence so that you can at least do warm ups while they are at the house. Im 28 and still wouldnt feel comfortable singin around my sister, or much of my family. if you dont warm up you can expect only limitation and increase in harming yourself(hence the overprotecting mucus). its like running track, lifting weights, golf, bowling, anything.


Trust me, mucus is not gonna let you get the most bang for your buck. once you learn proper technique you'll look back on this post and say wtf? plus your vocie will get better tone and you wont sound like a zombie. have you checked out any of the rasp instruction posts and soundclips? its all a trick really of banking the air off of the back of your throat. theres not too many vocal effects you can do but pushing too much air is never one of them, especially in head voice. you might have been doing some fry which is when your cords just flap from the pressure. you need to look into the isolation exercises and keeping your larynx relaxed and not tensing up to get your notes. Theres a lot of muscles in the throat area. you need to work with seperating them. its like drumming. think how crappy it sounds if you cant quite seperate your foot from your hand. the greatest drummers have their brain signals completely split between limbs. great singers do the same.

When warming down go from your highest note down to your lowest like siren. do this a few times. or at the least continue to hum and vocalize...and do eee's . I'll check out lithium. i know i have that nevermind cd...it is on there isnt it? Im so happy, cause today i found my friends...etc? yea! yea! yea!. (now i want to go sing it, first thing tomorrow when i wake up! my fave was come as you are) i can already tell you most of what cobain does is just rasping off of the back of the throat, with various amounts of falsetto and head mixed ..which basically means more or less cord activation....closing the cords or opening them. THis is what everyone does. there's not much else! just takes practice to learn it without overstressing the cords. i might post a sample of it maybe. doesnt take a lot of push, not as much as it sounds! (especially with well warmed up flexible cords....ahem, hint hint)

work with isolation. once you can work with the cords alone you can pretty much take your pick as to what you want to sound like. the isolation thread has some stuff in it.

take care. and dont forget to sneak in some warming up from now on at least.

Well thanks for great advices again. I checked the isolation exercises. I'm already working on them. Today my parents went to aunt's birthday and I stayed home to sing a little. But this time it was I feel Good by James Brown. Have you ever tried to sing his stuff? It's actually easy, there are only some tricks which take time. If you haven't sang his stuff yet, I advise you to do it. It's really challenging.

Also today I decided to take 5-6 vocal lessons with a teacher. Probably I'll start them in 2 weeks. In my country it's not so expensive. 1 hour of lesson costs 2 dollars. So I decided to take a few lessons of proper breathing. I guess that's all I need.

Uhmmmm..............It's kind of hard to ask you, but can you give me some more Cobain tricks? I promise I won't give 'em away It'll be our little secret.

You know, there are a few vocalists I'm trying to copy before I find my own style. I'm already doing success with 2 of them. The first is U2's Bono and second is the girl from Cranberries........I don't even know her name lolz....I have one Cranberries CD and it's very easy for me to sound like her. Bono is a bit harder to copy but still challenging. The last one as you may already know is Cobain. He's the hardest singer I ever tried to copy. So it would be great if you give me some more help on him

Thanks a lot

[Merkaba]

Originally Posted by btoto

Well thanks for great advices again. I checked the isolation exercises. I'm already working on them. Today my parents went to aunt's birthday and I stayed home to sing a little. But this time it was I feel Good by James Brown. Have you ever tried to sing his stuff? It's actually easy, there are only some tricks which take time. If you haven't sang his stuff yet, I advise you to do it. It's really challenging.

Also today I decided to take 5-6 vocal lessons with a teacher. Probably I'll start them in 2 weeks. In my country it's not so expensive. 1 hour of lesson costs 2 dollars. So I decided to take a few lessons of proper breathing. I guess that's all I need.

Uhmmmm..............It's kind of hard to ask you, but can you give me some more Cobain tricks? I promise I won't give 'em away It'll be our little secret.

You know, there are a few vocalists I'm trying to copy before I find my own style. I'm already doing success with 2 of them. The first is U2's Bono and second is the girl from Cranberries........I don't even know her name lolz....I have one Cranberries CD and it's very easy for me to sound like her. Bono is a bit harder to copy but still challenging. The last one as you may already know is Cobain. He's the hardest singer I ever tried to copy. So it would be great if you give me some more help on him

Thanks a lot

****, what country do you live in? jeez

Bono just has good cords. lots of control and few tricks. he's just talented. I dont know much about cranberries but i did like that song about In your head, in your head, they are fighting.....zombie zombie...and i loved that slow waltz deal they made , and i miss you when youre gone, that is what I dooooo, heyheyheyah... i used to love singing that song even before i really started singing. lots of falsetto for cranberries stuff...at least for me.
cobain is just rasp off the back of the throat. Theres nothing else you can do. its just a matter of trying to shape your cords to sound like his voice. but otherwise thats all there ever is..and then the usually used affect is rasping. just my usual posts. check out my sample if you havent.

[btoto]

Originally Posted by Merkaba-1

****, what country do you live in? jeez

Bono just has good cords. lots of control and few tricks. he's just talented. I dont know much about cranberries but i did like that song about In your head, in your head, they are fighting.....zombie zombie...and i loved that slow waltz deal they made , and i miss you when youre gone, that is what I dooooo, heyheyheyah... i used to love singing that song even before i really started singing. lots of falsetto for cranberries stuff...at least for me.
cobain is just rasp off the back of the throat. Theres nothing else you can do. its just a matter of trying to shape your cords to sound like his voice. but otherwise thats all there ever is..and then the usually used affect is rasping. just my usual posts. check out my sample if you havent.

Haha I live in an ex-soviet country (now independent)........so everything is cheap here because everyone's starving

Yeah I aslo like singing Zombie also a few other songs like Salvation.
I checked out your samples...........wow you can't imagine how much pain I felt in my throat when I heard you screaming. You definitely worked a lot on your voice. Great man, keep going

And it's all there in the first page so I guess I can work on it.

Also, who's singing do you find harder? James Brown or Louis Armstrong? Yes, I know that you like Armstrong, but I guess James is good too

[Merkaba]

Originally Posted by btoto

Haha I live in an ex-soviet country (now independent)........so everything is cheap here because everyone's starving

Yeah I aslo like singing Zombie also a few other songs like Salvation.
I checked out your samples...........wow you can't imagine how much pain I felt in my throat when I heard you screaming. You definitely worked a lot on your voice. Great man, keep going

And it's all there in the first page so I guess I can work on it.

Also, who's singing do you find harder? James Brown or Louis Armstrong? Yes, I know that you like Armstrong, but I guess James is good too

You mean as in harder to do? James Brown, and he sings way harder too if thats what you meant. I just mention louis all the teime because he gives the sound of rasp at a very low push and volume(sometimes), at least in that particular song. James just has vocal cords like steel i think.

[btoto]

Originally Posted by Merkaba-1

You mean as in harder to do? James Brown, and he sings way harder too if thats what you meant. I just mention louis all the teime because he gives the sound of rasp at a very low push and volume(sometimes), at least in that particular song. James just has vocal cords like steel i think.

Yes that's what I meant. I also thought James' style was harder although I like singing his "I feel good"

[Merkaba]

what about the big payback. listen to it if you havent. and try his screams and let me know if you can do that. if so, i envy you. I'm getting there but its a slow process. hehe

[btoto]

Merkaba-1,

No actually I can't do his screams. Especially in "I feel Good". It's not that the scream is hard, but the reason I can't do is his vibrato. I mean I can barely scream, and in the same time I have to do a vibrato. This is what makes it very hard for me.

I'll check out the pig payback and give my opinion.

[Merkaba]

hmmm. not really familiar with the screams in I feel good. I'll have to check it out.

yea i love payback. its kinda funny at the same time as being funky.
"look here...dont do me, no darn favors...I dont know karate, but i know karazor"...

and he screams after the music breaks down and they play a little riff. the riff is the "hit" that he is feeling, "hit me" bowmp bowmp, womp, chicka bowmmm...."heyy heyy HEEYYYYYY!!!" sounds like a mix of head and whistle. its strong whatever it is. mmmmm

[btoto]

Wow yeah I downloaded that song...........too repetitive although funny as you said.

Do you mean the the scream somewhere during 07:01 ? It sound head to me. I won't try it now because my dad sits next to me right now reading newspaper. So maybe later. But yeah, I probably won't be able to do that

[btoto]

God, I can't stop listening to your Inhale/Exhale scream Merk.

I'm not a screaming fan, but that inhale/exhale thing blows my mind. It's so great.

You can make money on that..........really, just record your screams and sell them for horror movies.

[Merkaba]

.....hmmmmm......


thanks man! Now i do think most of them were at like three in the morning too. And i dont practice the inhale scream. maybe i should.

[the_guy]

Merkaba-1, you rule! I've read mainy threads about screaming and I've always been trying to do it from the gut. Now that I've heard your screams and instructions, it seems way easier than I thought. The only problem I'm having now is I can't get a good volume on it. It doesn't sound full. I wan wondering if you could give me some tips. Also, I was wondering if the scream at the end of "A Decade Under the Influence" (by Taking Back Sunday) is done the same way.

[Merkaba]

I havent listened to it yet..but i can guarantee it its. (unless its an inhale scream)

yea...just listened. its the same thing. I keep telling everybody that the cords cant really do much but make vowels! other than that its what you do after the vowel. That scream is kinda a mixed voice. a little bit of head and falsetto perhaps, which is quite common. He has a good bit of vocal cord involved with the sound. but i can get that exact scream he did with a good fifty to sixty percent push. I think anyone can. To repeat, it sounds harsher than it is...if you know what youre doing that is. same technique as in all of my posts so far. have fun!

[btoto]

Hi Merk........I'll have to do it again. Another stupid question I'm really sorry, but I have to ask you.

Well I started taking lessons with a teacher. It's been only 2 lessons yet, but anyway. We were working mostly on breathing because she said I'll have learn proper breathing before we start seriously.............blah blah. What I want to say is about pain in my throat. I told her about it, but she couldn't really understand what causes it. She said: "There must not be pain in your throat because you're singing from your diaphragm, you don't even give much tence to your throat........so it's just not normal. I can't say what causes it because you are singing right and there simply must not be any pain"

So, she couldn't understand what causes it. But then she added this: "It could probably be because you were singing wrong when you started and you damaged your cords, if it is so, we need some time to work on it. After singing correct you'll get rid of it........just a matter of time, other than that I don't know any reason" (And yes, she is maybe right. I DID try to copy Bono and Kurt without knowing what is a diaphragm..........it was a few months earlier)

So, I wanted to know what you think about it. What could be causing this pain? Any suggestions?

To make this easier for you:

It's not a kind of pain that you have when you get cold. And it doesn't come up until I start singing.........I mean if I don't sing, I won't have it. Also, it's not that bad pain which tortures me to death. It's like when I sing, I feel my throat (or cords). A good example: When you have little toothache you don't have so much pain, but you kind of feel your tooth. The rest of time you don't feel that you have teeth right? So, same with the throat.

Sorry to cause you problems again

[Merkaba]

come on dude...you know its not a problem.

anyways, I'm not gonna act like I'm going head to head with your teacher but just because youre coming from the diaphragm doesnt mean you cant be damaging your cords. I mean you actually have a big tank of pressure at your disposal with such. I say it is cord related. Yet on the otherhand i would probably guess its like she said. You might have damaged your cords a bit so that more isolated, proper energizing actually could be causing some irritation and whatnot to previous scar tissue. I would look for it to go away expecially with proper singing and instruction. and dont forget to warm down regardless of what she says or says about warming down. just make ee's throughout the day whenever you can. sneak them in! i do it all day. Course im singing and vocalizing all day, luckily i work in a moderately noisey/isolated plastic manufacturing environment. perfect for kinda goofing off and sneaking in singing time. and of course all the usual cord help stuff i say at the end of posts. good luck. And good to see that youre not tense and all!