[QUOTE=Chrisman69]hey i got a question man :)

i sing with some rasp, against me! style. but to be able to do get the raspy sound, i have to be singing for a while first. usualy after singing a few songs at the very top of my range the raspy stuff just naturaly sets in. but ive found that even if i warm up for an hour i cant get the rasp, i have to sing high and really loud for 10-15 minutes before i can get any kind of rasp.

this is lame because the only way i can warm up for a show or something is to go into the bathroom or something and yell randomly for like 10 mins. which can be embarrising and im guessing not to great for my voice.

so is there any way i get this sound without just screaming my *** off?

thanks :)[/QUOTE]
I can't offer you more than what I've said in this thread. Namely, to quickly review:

Screaming or yelling is NOT a warmup and probably kills your longevity. read the warm up sections.

Any screaming sound can be done with 80% or less of push. You just have to be able to balance out the note while blocking the airflow a bit with the false cords and larynx. And of course proper breath support is vital. You shouldnt even really have to think much about your throat. There are no quick tricks but it will take practice. Again, try to get a decent sounding scream by barely pushing. This will help you isolate the things that produce the sound. Its not about force and push its about technique.

I'm sure this has been asked before but the thread is too large to search through using dial up :( if you have a link to an answer you could just post that, but here goes...

What technique does Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden) use, how do you do it (like what is going on inside), and what exercises can be done to learn how to do this. I thought a long time ago I heard that he somehow bridges his chest voice and falsetto but i have no idea how this could be possibly done...

[QUOTE=panthersfan16]I'm sure this has been asked before but the thread is too large to search through using dial up :( if you have a link to an answer you could just post that, but here goes...

What technique does Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden) use, how do you do it (like what is going on inside), and what exercises can be done to learn how to do this. I thought a long time ago I heard that he somehow bridges his chest voice and falsetto but i have no idea how this could be possibly done...[/QUOTE]
lol...thats a good one...bridging chest voice with falsetto? Bruce used a good bit of "supported falsetto" which basically means a strong falsetto. You've got to have good breath control of course. chest voice is your lowest voice you do know that? You've got to be able to get into head voice(which is not falsetto) in order to get a feel for adding pressure to big high notes. You should post a sample of you doing an upward gliss, or basically one long connected note from your lowest to your highest. And maybe a downward gliss. Do you know what head voice is, and can you acess your head voice? Chest, head, falsetto. The three main registers. Some seem to get this confused.

Whats going on inside? The same then that your cords are doing when you try to hit that note except his are either less blocked, with a more open larynx, supported and relaxed, or all of the above. Trust me, the cords are relaxed even if the sound is tense. That comes from overpushing air through and scraping it off a slightly closed throat.

If youre talking about his normal singing then thats just pushed vocals.

So then he is in falsetto? Because he hits some really high notes that, being right inbetween a tenor and baritone, seem to be unthinkable for me in head voice.

So to get this reinforced falsetto you basically have to just practice it a lot and push a ton of air when you are singing, thats what im getting from this, correct me if im wrong

BTW all of your singing tips and stuff are the only reason im not mute and my famliy isnt deaf, just want to say thank you.

Bruce pulls up chest voice quite a bit, especially lately. He also is pretty good at mixing chest and head voice for higher full voiced notes. On Where Eagles Dare, the DARES before the instrumental breaks are all a strong mix of chest and head voice which is called mix.

yo merk,

haven't posted in a while, but still been reading what others have to say. your posts are still as insightful as ever - good stuff!

I do have 2 questions though:

1. Lately when I've been singing, I've found that when i'm singing in my higher range (in head i would assume it to be, definitely not falsetto) so around the E-G above middle C range, I'm finding that quite often my voice temporarily "breaks" (into falsetto i assume?). This has been happening lately because for the higher notes i'm trying to be careful not to push too hard (so as to not rasp the note because I want to sing it cleanly) and also not to cause fatigue/hoarseness but as a consequence at times my voices breaks, and this happened a couple of times in our last two shows, which i was told sounded terrible/funny. Do you have any suggestions to overcome this problem of my voice breaking in the higher regions of my range?

2. I was wondering how the hell James Hetfield of Metallica could sing any of the songs off any of the albums up to and including The Black Album without screwing up his voice? Songs like Master of Puppets, Battery, One, For Whom the Bells Tolls etc. seem to place an immense strain on his voice... I can sing along to them (kinda), but only in a clean style. How does he get that general bassy/gruff sound (it makes high notes sound lower than they are) without screwin up his voice? I know you have to keep everything relaxed etc. but when I try to do it it just comes out terrible.

Thanks

[QUOTE=panthersfan16]So then he is in falsetto? Because he hits some really high notes that, being right inbetween a tenor and baritone, seem to be unthinkable for me in head voice.

So to get this reinforced falsetto you basically have to just practice it a lot and push a ton of air when you are singing, thats what im getting from this, correct me if im wrong

BTW all of your singing tips and stuff are the only reason im not mute and my famliy isnt deaf, just want to say thank you.[/QUOTE]
Well you don't want to make the classic mistake of thinking that you have to push a ton of air for higher notes. Its the pressure you want. Its almost like when you try to catch a sneeze before it gets out. ITs the diaphragm, you want it to be kinda in balance with the cords so that they are kinda playing off of each other. Think about them as being book ends or if you were to pick up twenty books off of a shelf. If you dont equalize the pressure on each side then whats in the middle, in this case the air for your cords, goes to shlt. Remember you don't want to blow out a candle if its in front of you. Even with screams.

merk what happened to the soundclips?

Sorry I didn't see this thread so I will post this here too, I will delete the other post if I have to.

Merkaba, I don't know if you know anything about clean vocals, but I have been playing guitar for a while, and I would like to learn to do some vocals as well. The trouble is I am god awful :( . I can't seem to keep in key and am just in generally a bad singer. Do you have any suggestions for practicing to eventually at least be able to sing in key? Thanks.

[QUOTE=hotpants_67]merk what happened to the soundclips?[/QUOTE]
They are still around the last time I checked...but someone else said the link had changed or something. I'll look into it.

[QUOTE=renaissancerebel]I'm a "classically-trained" soprano... and for the most part, I love my voice as it is, but there are times/songs when I would love to be more of a "belter". So how do I go from sweetly stratospheric to a low, rich, "Judy Garland" sound?[/QUOTE]Breath support, which I'm sure you have, is key. But if youre a soprano and youre trying to sing a bit lower and forcefully it will take some practice. If you can sing the notes normally then you shouldnt have any problem singing them forcefully if you don't tense up the throat, which is someowhat of a natural tendency since clamping off the area is wanted when doing so many other high power moves with the diaphragm used to keep internal pressure, like straining or pushing a heavy object. So in these cases you have to isolate everything from everything and learn to use that power while keeping the throat open and relaxed. I'm sure you know most of that... Just remember its more about technique than power and push.


[QUOTE=chorbalan]Sorry I didn't see this thread so I will post this here too, I will delete the other post if I have to.

Merkaba, I don't know if you know anything about clean vocals, but I have been playing guitar for a while, and I would like to learn to do some vocals as well. The trouble is I am god awful :( . I can't seem to keep in key and am just in generally a bad singer. Do you have any suggestions for practicing to eventually at least be able to sing in key? Thanks.[/QUOTE]


yea..you obviously haven't read this thread.

[QUOTE=adz_18]yo merk,

haven't posted in a while, but still been reading what others have to say. your posts are still as insightful as ever - good stuff!

I do have 2 questions though:

1. Lately when I've been singing, I've found that when i'm singing in my higher range (in head i would assume it to be, definitely not falsetto) so around the E-G above middle C range, I'm finding that quite often my voice temporarily "breaks" (into falsetto i assume?). This has been happening lately because for the higher notes i'm trying to be careful not to push too hard (so as to not rasp the note because I want to sing it cleanly) and also not to cause fatigue/hoarseness but as a consequence at times my voices breaks, and this happened a couple of times in our last two shows, which i was told sounded terrible/funny. Do you have any suggestions to overcome this problem of my voice breaking in the higher regions of my range?[/quote]
Make sure youre well warmed up. And are you over 18? If youre young we all know what that could mean. But it could also be a tension thing. Be sure you not tensing anything up in the throat area. If all else fails go back to rudiments. Do simple scales and glisses on an easy push to get the muscle memory retrained. If your voice mechanisms are tired or if you have a lack or sleep it can really haunt you around your natural break. Do you know exactly where your natural break occurs? You should have it down to within a semitone. You really need to know that.
[quote]
2. I was wondering how the hell James Hetfield of Metallica could sing any of the songs off any of the albums up to and including The Black Album without screwing up his voice? Songs like Master of Puppets, Battery, One, For Whom the Bells Tolls etc. seem to place an immense strain on his voice... I can sing along to them (kinda), but only in a clean style. How does he get that general bassy/gruff sound (it makes high notes sound lower than they are) without screwin up his voice? I know you have to keep everything relaxed etc. but when I try to do it it just comes out terrible.

Thanks[/QUOTE]
He just does the typical stuff I talk about in this thread and all the rasp threads. Its false vocal cord/larynx tricks. You partially close off the false cords, the "annk" wrong answer part of the apparatus mainly. You should be able to get rasp at minimal push. Its all we talk about. Same thing. So for him he's just singing normally, with not alot more push than he needs for whatever emotion, while adding this rasp. So the cords are not being punished like it sounds, only the sound after the cords is. He may do it naturally but it can be learned.

[QUOTE=Merkaba]
yea..you obviously haven't read this thread.[/QUOTE]

It's 41 pages long....

maybe somebody could help me. Ive been screaming for a quite a while now (maybe more than a year) and its always worked well. but latley i just cant do it. i dont know why, but it just wont work. ive had a sore throat for about 1.5 weeks but i dont think its from screaming since ppl around me have been getting sore throars lately. The thing is, ive never had sore throat make it so i cant scream at all, So im thinking that maybe its not the sore throat thats making me not able to scream. anyway, when i try to scream as i would normaly it just wont work. my voice will sound small and not really resemble a scream at all. It will just sound like im almost choking. i think the best way to describe it is it feels like my throat wont make the right shift anymore but im not doing anything different. I have some recordings of my band where i scream so maybe you guys could listen and tell me if it sounds like i was doing something wrong the whole time. [url]http://www.myspace.com/alesserevil[/url] listen to without you. (screaming will be in the chorus.) thanks in advance for any responses!!!


oh and sinse myspace sucks you can use purevolume too [url]http://www.purevolume.com/alesserevil[/url]

[QUOTE=chorbalan]It's 41 pages long....[/QUOTE]


the first page man

[QUOTE=kidthatplaysguitar91]the first page man[/QUOTE]

Yes I found it. I suck i'm sorry.

[QUOTE=chorbalan]It's 41 pages long....[/QUOTE]
.....and?
Mark Baxter's Rock and roll singers survival manual is over 200. I've read it. No I'm not Mark but....Whats 41 pages?Plus by the time you make it half way through, you've realized the questions and answers have started repeating....kinda like right now!
[quote][quote=kidthatplaysguitar91] the first page man [/quote]
[QUOTE=chorbalan]Yes I found it. I suck i'm sorry.[/QUOTE][/quote]:rolleyes:
[quote=Merkaba]
yea..you obviously haven't read this thread.[/quote]
Not even the first page!
:rolleyes:

[QUOTE=redrumsixsix6]maybe somebody could help me. Ive been screaming for a quite a while now (maybe more than a year) and its always worked well. but latley i just cant do it. i dont know why, but it just wont work. ive had a sore throat for about 1.5 weeks but i dont think its from screaming since ppl around me have been getting sore throars lately. The thing is, ive never had sore throat make it so i cant scream at all, So im thinking that maybe its not the sore throat thats making me not able to scream. anyway, when i try to scream as i would normaly it just wont work. my voice will sound small and not really resemble a scream at all. It will just sound like im almost choking. i think the best way to describe it is it feels like my throat wont make the right shift anymore but im not doing anything different. I have some recordings of my band where i scream so maybe you guys could listen and tell me if it sounds like i was doing something wrong the whole time. [url]http://www.myspace.com/alesserevil[/url] listen to without you. (screaming will be in the chorus.) thanks in advance for any responses!!!


oh and sinse myspace sucks you can use purevolume too [url]http://www.purevolume.com/alesserevil[/url][/QUOTE]

Maybe just try giving your voice a break. Also, if your throat's not making the right shift, maybe you should try paying more attention to just keeping it open and pushing from your gut.

From your screams, it definately sounds far too throaty. Remember, creating the rasp is from the air rushing, not from your throat, you don't want to create white noise by smacking your chords together, which is what happens when you squeeze your throat to get the scream, get in touch with your diaphragm for your screams, take deep breaths and clench that area for the rush.

Hey, ive just started screaming/singing heavy metal.. and well i suck.. my voice is REALLY weak.. im not quite sure what to do.. or what exactly is wrong with it.. so i dont know what to work on.. i am going for a more hard rock then death metal scream. a more atreyu or trivium esque sound..

[url]http://www.megaupload.com/?d=B8OPLMVL[/url]

theres a clip of a song im working on with screaming in it.. any comments... suggestions.. or anything to help me out? what to work on.. what not to do.. i dont know.. tear me a new one.. please thanks

Hey .. First of all .. sorry if that question asked before ... this thread has almost 50 pages, it was kinda hard to find what i m looking for.
I want to ask the Mr. Merkabas.... how can i find my true identity like a singer.
I am guitarist and drummer for many years, i used to play covers and mimicking the singers voices very succesfull .. now when i m trying to sing my own songs i sound like S**T and the weirdest thing is that , my voice it can be very high (ex. All American Rejects) and very low (like Eve6 or Lit) do i have to stick just in one style ? i sound like 2 different singers when i sing high and then low ... :/ and its kinda silly if i use both for my own songs.

some tips for you to help me out

when i sing AAR i can show more power than the low rockish style of Eve6/Lit sometimes i have some problems in the highest notes of AAR but i know that i can master them with practice.
Now with the Eve6/Lit style i have more confidence in myself plus my vibrato works much better when i sing low. That gives more points to Eve6 style right ? but still... i dont like it because i dont wanna be another ordinary rock vocalist, there are so many with this kind of voice.

Helpppppp pleaseeeeeeee ....


ps. hope u understand my english :)

Just try and sing in the voice that you normally speak in that should be your true voice.(i think)

Any tips on how to sing like Matt bellamy from muse? I know that he is definately one of the most elite vocalists out there, but if you have any tips on how to pull these kind of vocals off then i would greatly appreciate your help.

Thanks

[QUOTE=GolDfingeRNoFXRaNc|D]Hey .. First of all .. sorry if that question asked before ... this thread has almost 50 pages, it was kinda hard to find what i m looking for.
I want to ask the Mr. Merkabas.... how can i find my true identity like a singer.
I am guitarist and drummer for many years, i used to play covers and mimicking the singers voices very succesfull .. now when i m trying to sing my own songs i sound like S**T and the weirdest thing is that , my voice it can be very high (ex. All American Rejects) and very low (like Eve6 or Lit) do i have to stick just in one style ? i sound like 2 different singers when i sing high and then low ... :/ and its kinda silly if i use both for my own songs.

some tips for you to help me out

when i sing AAR i can show more power than the low rockish style of Eve6/Lit sometimes i have some problems in the highest notes of AAR but i know that i can master them with practice.
Now with the Eve6/Lit style i have more confidence in myself plus my vibrato works much better when i sing low. That gives more points to Eve6 style right ? but still... i dont like it because i dont wanna be another ordinary rock vocalist, there are so many with this kind of voice.

Helpppppp pleaseeeeeeee ....


ps. hope u understand my english :)[/QUOTE]

Well truth be told...most rock voices are "ordinary". It will just take some experimentation to know what youre capable of but you wouldnt just put yourself into one particular voice or style. Youre probably kinda in the middle of the road, light baritone maybe if you can get up decently high without falsetto.

If you can sing, then just experiment with your voice and delivery. some songs in a certain key might require you to sing lower. If you did everything in an upper range, then that would be rather monotonous. It can be a blessing in disguise to have your "problem" because it means your voice is probably not restricted to a low voice or a high voice, but kinda lets you walk between the worlds.

There are no tricks. I would say just practice singing stuff acappella, with no music, and that can help you find "your own" voice as they say. But really, someone will always find someone to compare you to, so just relax and let your emotional relationship to the music at hand guide you. Stay open like Ahhh for the doctor cause if you pinch the throat you can kiss consistency goodbye. And maybe backoff the push about 20% to experiment, when youre going for you upper third range. Most people pinch the throat and overpush because they think higher notes meant higher push and higher squeeze, but you should really think about higher notes meaning less push and less squeeze so that you only "flip" into your higher notes, as they say. It should feel more like rolling up into your range.

[QUOTE=Kierz]Any tips on how to sing like Matt bellamy from muse? I know that he is definately one of the most elite vocalists out there, but if you have any tips on how to pull these kind of vocals off then i would greatly appreciate your help.

Thanks[/QUOTE]
I listened to Knights of Cydonia on youtube. Not much going on in that song. He has a good voice but he's just singing. I think he has a naturally light voice....probably a baritone or maybe a baritenor. If youre talking about this song's type of delivery then youre just talking about breath control. Any other songs of theirs youre talking about?

Yea, i think New Born has quite a good vocal range and so does Bliss.
I have been told that falsetto is used frequently and have picked up on this. I can handle the falsetto but have trouble with the actual singing.

Also Thom Yorke from Radiohead has a similar, light tone.

[QUOTE=Merkaba]Well truth be told...most rock voices are "ordinary". It will just take some experimentation to know what youre capable of but you wouldnt just put yourself into one particular voice or style. Youre probably kinda in the middle of the road, light baritone maybe if you can get up decently high without falsetto.

If you can sing, then just experiment with your voice and delivery. some songs in a certain key might require you to sing lower. If you did everything in an upper range, then that would be rather monotonous. It can be a blessing in disguise to have your "problem" because it means your voice is probably not restricted to a low voice or a high voice, but kinda lets you walk between the worlds.

There are no tricks. I would say just practice singing stuff acappella, with no music, and that can help you find "your own" voice as they say. But really, someone will always find someone to compare you to, so just relax and let your emotional relationship to the music at hand guide you. Stay open like Ahhh for the doctor cause if you pinch the throat you can kiss consistency goodbye. And maybe backoff the push about 20% to experiment, when youre going for you upper third range. Most people pinch the throat and overpush because they think higher notes meant higher push and higher squeeze, but you should really think about higher notes meaning less push and less squeeze so that you only "flip" into your higher notes, as they say. It should feel more like rolling up into your range.[/QUOTE]


thanks man for your advices :thumb: i think now i m on my way to find my true identity as a singer. I ll keep on practicing ofcourse :) I ve tried to sing acappella in my car 2day (its embarassing at home :rolleyes: ) and it was really helpfull, i m starting to like my own voice, enough with the "mimicking technique"

thanks again :thumb:

Well, I posted in this thread a long time ago, and I finally got a recording. Not the best quality in the world, but I followed Merk's advice and I'm fairly happy with the result.

[url]http://media.putfile.com/The-Never-Ending-Hell[/url]

The growls and screams don't tax my throat at all, so I think I've got it down.

I've been skimming through this thread, and trying to find this but cdnt, sorry.

I've never done any proper singing before. As far as singing just as a normal day to day thing, i would say i'm "average to poor". I'm 17. Should I give up hope now? or can i start learning to sing (can't afford lessons...) at this stage?

And how? plz?

Sorry if this has been addressed a billion times

6

[QUOTE=Bleeding Through]Well, I posted in this thread a long time ago, and I finally got a recording. Not the best quality in the world, but I followed Merk's advice and I'm fairly happy with the result.

[url]http://media.putfile.com/The-Never-Ending-Hell[/url]

The growls and screams don't tax my throat at all, so I think I've got it down.[/QUOTE]
Woooah man. Those screams sound like they hurt. I'm not doubting you at all, I'm just saying, if they sound like they hurt, people won't want to hear them.. no matter how good they feel.

The growls are nice sounding, pretty much exactly how they should sound. Have you tried pushing harder and just using that same rasp to scream? You have a drastically different style for screaming and growling, and it shows.

[QUOTE=Toaster]Woooah man. Those screams sound like they hurt. I'm not doubting you at all, I'm just saying, if they sound like they hurt, people won't want to hear them.. no matter how good they feel.

The growls are nice sounding, pretty much exactly how they should sound. Have you tried pushing harder and just using that same rasp to scream? You have a drastically different style for screaming and growling, and it shows.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I know....it's kind of crazy. It's not the best recording in the world, and the high screams do sound like they are ripping my throat to shreds. They really don't though, and I'm not pushing that hard to get that kind of sound.

I've tried going to a more uniform sound in terms of screaming and growling, but anything other than what I'm doing causes pain. I have an unusual voice I guess. If you heard my speaking voice, you wouldn't think I could make a growl like that. :p

No singing ability?
 

Hey guys.. I've got a midterm-like thing coming up for a class where I need to sing... now the problem is I've never really sung before, and I was practicing and came to the conclusion that I suck. bad. Like I can't hit notes/sing in key/make it sound decent without it sounding really forced. Anybody have any exercises or whatever I could do to work on this? I've tried syncing up with my guitar, but I failed at that too.:upset:

I've skimmed this thread, and i probably missed alot, but if someone could throw some sort of ultra-beginner help me way, that'd be swell. Thanks

[QUOTE=Wag of the Finger;13250779]Hey guys.. I've got a midterm-like thing coming up for a class where I need to sing... now the problem is I've never really sung before, and I was practicing and came to the conclusion that I suck. bad. Like I can't hit notes/sing in key/make it sound decent without it sounding really forced. Anybody have any exercises or whatever I could do to work on this? I've tried syncing up with my guitar, but I failed at that too.:upset:

I've skimmed this thread, and i probably missed alot, but if someone could throw some sort of ultra-beginner help me way, that'd be swell. Thanks[/QUOTE]

YOU FAIL AT SINGING!!!!!:wave:

Just kidding... Well you should keep practicing with the guitar and making scales. I'm betting youre tensing up your throat to some degree because it's so common to new singers. Be sure youre not overpushing, it doesnt take alot of push to sing, and make sure youre keeping your throat open kinda like youre saying ahh for the doctor. Its a good practice to sing ahhs as your first warmup vowel and just do melodies on ahh to help practice because its just one of those shapes that you can't make without being open. Be sure youre "coming from the gut" as well. If youre not sure then look up that section on the first page and do the motor boat drills. Best wishes. Oh and post a sample if you can.

Okay, I just joined the forums tonight because its pretty much the greatest thing ever. I would love to be able to sing/scream because I've been doing it forever, just like by myself, and now im convinced that im probably doing it wrong because i have never even thought about technique...I just sing. So i need to start from the beginning. But...all the links at the beginning of this thread are broken. So where do I start?

Sorry if im the millionth person to mention the broken links, I've read a few pages of the thread and i havent seen anything...but i cant read all of them cuz there are 42.

[QUOTE=RedDragon642;13272867]Okay, I just joined the forums tonight because its pretty much the greatest thing ever. I would love to be able to sing/scream because I've been doing it forever, just like by myself, and now im convinced that im probably doing it wrong because i have never even thought about technique...I just sing. So i need to start from the beginning. But...all the links at the beginning of this thread are broken. So where do I start?

Sorry if im the millionth person to mention the broken links, I've read a few pages of the thread and i havent seen anything...but i cant read all of them cuz there are 42.[/QUOTE]

all of my links worked for me just now, except the samples. I'll try to fix that....

Okay, it works for me now. Don't know what that was about. Thanks.

so, what can i do about the samples? are you going to put those up on another site or something, because those would be SO helpful seeing as I don't exactly know what i am doing wrong and that would help me with warmups and such.

I need some help....BAD. Well, actually our singer does. We have a performance coming up and we're all not too pleased and confident with the quality of our singer's voice. We're going to sit down soon and critique his voice and give him pointers on how to improve. Problem is...we don't sing so we wouldn't know how to properly explain it to him. Well....here's his problem:

He tends to oversing...big time. He used to sing R&B all the time and I think that's where his problem lies (not sure if that is the case.) He tries to do the whole vibrato thing all the time and tries to do all this crazy stuff with his voice. When he starts learning a new song and he's not too focused on his voice but more the lyrics, his voice actually sounds good...BUT...the more and more he sings, the worse and worse it gets. Is that even possible? When he gets into it...that's when he starts to oversing, and then his voice goes into a higher pitch than his natural speaking voice and he starts to sing off-key. ALSO, he's so focused on trying to sound good that his timing starts to go off.

Sorry if this is long but it's been frustrating. What advice should I give him? He thinks its boring to sing songs where the singer doesn't go all out (like Brandon from Incubus). Maybe that's his R&B mentality? He also refuses to listen to recordings because he hates the sound of his own voice. What should I do?? We don't have much time left to perfect our playing.

Also, kicking him out is not an option. haha.

[QUOTE=dagnammit;13291187]I need some help....BAD. Well, actually our singer does. We have a performance coming up and we're all not too pleased and confident with the quality of our singer's voice. We're going to sit down soon and critique his voice and give him pointers on how to improve. Problem is...we don't sing so we wouldn't know how to properly explain it to him. Well....here's his problem:

He tends to oversing...big time. He used to sing R&B all the time and I think that's where his problem lies (not sure if that is the case.) He tries to do the whole vibrato thing all the time and tries to do all this crazy stuff with his voice. When he starts learning a new song and he's not too focused on his voice but more the lyrics, his voice actually sounds good...BUT...the more and more he sings, the worse and worse it gets. Is that even possible? When he gets into it...that's when he starts to oversing, and then his voice goes into a higher pitch than his natural speaking voice and he starts to sing off-key. ALSO, he's so focused on trying to sound good that his timing starts to go off.

Sorry if this is long but it's been frustrating. What advice should I give him? He thinks its boring to sing songs where the singer doesn't go all out (like Brandon from Incubus). Maybe that's his R&B mentality? He also refuses to listen to recordings because he hates the sound of his own voice. What should I do?? We don't have much time left to perfect our playing.

Also, kicking him out is not an option. haha.[/QUOTE]
He's obviously pinching his throat off and straining and blocking the airflow with a high tense larynx which is trade mark. If he doesnt like to listen to his own voice, then he's not a singer. If kicking him out is not an option, then sounds like youre screwed. Tell him to come read through this thread. And tell him the most important thing to remember is that singing harder doesnt mean singing Higher, and singing higher doesnt mean singing harder. Very common habit.

I'm having a lot of trouble screaming. I've read tons of threads about it but I don't quite understand everything. It would be incredibly helpful if you could email me, because I don't get a chance to go on forums very much. My email is [email]ryan5012@hotmail.com[/email]. Thank you very, very much in advance.

hey there merk,

this may be off topic, but as a someone who appreciates great singing ability, thought you might wanna check this guy out, if you haven't heard of him already. [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tireh[/url] ... check out the audio samples, has a pretty damn good whistle register (can do it with vibrato aswell). If you can possibily find a copy of 'power of love' (it used to be in wikipedia but now it's gone) you should definitely check it out. this guy has one of the best head voices i've ever heard. not just incredible range, but maintains amazing tone and power. awesome stuff.

let me know what ya reckon.