[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.