I'm not sure how long it will take, should be less than a week. I got the 2nd edition for free because i'm a student and I work for him on different things, so I got mine from him personally so im not sure how fast the publishers will get it out to you.

The lip rolls are part of the warm up routine, but not the main method (Isolation Method). It is made up of Falsetto Slides, Transcending Tone, and Sirens, so its best to wait til you get it to try any of it. There is actually a program outlined in the book that covers 2 months, so you might want to wait and follow that.

As soon as you get the book, go to the members section and download the audio files and check out the message board; theres a ton of activity there everyday and everyone will help you out with your questions.

[QUOTE=Screamin_Demon_Auz;16141884]I'm not sure how long it will take, should be less than a week. I got the 2nd edition for free because i'm a student and I work for him on different things, so I got mine from him personally so im not sure how fast the publishers will get it out to you.

The lip rolls are part of the warm up routine, but not the main method (Isolation Method). It is made up of Falsetto Slides, Transcending Tone, and Sirens, so its best to wait til you get it to try any of it. There is actually a program outlined in the book that covers 2 months, so you might want to wait and follow that.

As soon as you get the book, go to the members section and download the audio files and check out the message board; theres a ton of activity there everyday and everyone will help you out with your questions.[/QUOTE]



Damn, a program outlined for 2 months, seems pretty damn good. I guess I could continue asking a million questions like this, but I guess i'll wait.

Thanks

Yeah if you follow the program, your guaranteed to get some pretty amazing results. He has online lessons and other things available too so you can get personalized help from him if you run into any problems, because some of the exercises are difficult to understand at first

[QUOTE=Screamin_Demon_Auz;16147254]Yeah if you follow the program, your guaranteed to get some pretty amazing results. He has online lessons and other things available too so you can get personalized help from him if you run into any problems, because some of the exercises are difficult to understand at first[/QUOTE]


I havent got the book yet, but i've been doing the exercises on the audio files from the members section(he emailed me the password). After 2 days of doing them, I can already feel and hear results. Every note that I could already sing, feels easier. Vibrato is happening more easily now. I gained a bit of range.

Talk about a miracle :p

Edit:
Book came in the mail, a week and a half later, but it still came!
First thing I did was read a lot of the beginning, the actual exercises, the daily routine, the 7 week plan and a bunch of other stuff. I made my own daily routine sheets to motivate practicing, and wrote out a summary of every week in the 7 week plan. I plan to get intense with this :p .

Alright I'm a drummer but I've been looking to get into singing for a long time. Mainly screaming really like Lamb of God or Blessthefall or August Burns Red. But I do it, I record it, I sound terrible. But when I'm doing it to me I think I sound good. So I was wondering if I could get some tips on what I could sing to, or what I should be doing. Thanks for any and all help.

singing lessons are a must!
 

I spent years trying to figure out how to manipulate my voice to do what professional singers would consider basic, such as singing in-tune. I thought that the more I sang, the more I would sing in-tune, etc. To an extent, this was true, but I was never able to significantly improve my singing because my technique was fundamentally wrong. I sing rock-type music, and the way I was trying to produce sound was making it super difficult to sing on pitch and in the style I aspired to. I finally swallowed my pride and tried taking singing lessons from a bona fide professional opera singer. As it turns out, the "right" way, or the healthy way, to sing one is pretty much the same, regardless of the style you want to sing. So in a year I have learned that I didn't have an intonation problem. My pitch problem was caused by a total lack of air supporting the notes I was trying to sing.

Anyway, long story short, I don't think that any amount of practicing, reading books, or watching web demos by myself, would have corrected the fundamental technical flaws I kept relying on. It took an actual human professional to guide me...

It all depends. Some people can just read or here something and figure it out immediately. Others have to actually work with someone one on one to get it right. The people I work with usually start out with no ability at all. After they read some books, watch some videos, and try that stuff out for their self, they develop a good sounding voice, but usually still have some issues they need to work out. Thats when they come to me, and I work with them to fix up everything they havent been able to figure out themselves, and I mainly do online webcam lessons now so its still not even 1 on 1 in person.

My point is, I know from experience that people can benefit quite a bit from working with other things other than a one on one, in person vocal trainer. Its not for everyone, but most people can benefit somewhat from it. A lot of it has to do with how objective you can be; you've got to record yourself all the time, then pick it apart and fix every little thing you dont like about it.

[QUOTE=AdultSwim815;16199741]Alright I'm a drummer but I've been looking to get into singing for a long time. Mainly screaming really like Lamb of God or Blessthefall or August Burns Red. But I do it, I record it, I sound terrible. But when I'm doing it to me I think I sound good. So I was wondering if I could get some tips on what I could sing to, or what I should be doing. Thanks for any and all help.[/QUOTE]

You hear the sympathetic vibrations throughout your body when you sing; all the resnonance in the bones help to make it sound fuller to you than it does to people hearing just your voice or yourself when you hear it played back to you.

The best thing you can do is to just learn from those recordings; figure out exactly every little thing you DON'T like about them, and everything you DO like about them. Then, find specific exercises to work on the things you don't like, and work on utilizing what you do like more. For the exercises you can work with a coach, or buy a book/dvd, do a consultation with a coach, anything really as long as you are learning the right things to do and doing them correctly.

Hey guys, I need some singing help.

[url]http://media.putfile.com/the-passenger-20[/url]

I've been playing guitar for a number of years, i'm interested in doing some singer/songwriting stuff but... as evidenced here I cannot sing.

I don't know what I can do to improve. Any advice? Thanks.

You drag your voice down to the point of being pretty flat at the end of every line. I think its a stylistic thing for you maybe or possibly for the song (i've never heard it before, not sure if its an original or cover), but you ARE falling flat so heres the thing.

Your singing without any support at all; the tones not placed or supported at all, so it falls all over the place as far as your intonation and the actual sound of your voice. I can hear that your jaw probably has some tension too, so i'll give you this exercise.

Hold your jaw down; don't force it down, just let it fall open and hold it in place with your fingers.

Now, sing "LAH GAH" (same sound as the word saw).

Your tongue needs to touch the back of your two front teeth on the "LAH" and come all the way back down for "GAH".

Do this on 3 tone scales throughout your range. When you reach your break, just let it crack and go into falsetto, don't force it to try to keep it in chest for now.

Thats for jaw tension and releasing your voice.

Now, to place your voice, just hum on 3 tone and 5 tone scales, all through your range. Close your mouth, make sure your tongue is against the back row of teeth and not moving. Then just hum scales on "HMM".

As you go up, you should feel the vibrations go up too. As you get higher, you will feel the vibrations behind your nose (the mask of your face); this is the correct way to feel it. If your not feeling the higher pitches somewhere in your head, your not placing properly and you need to try again.

Thats about as much info as I can give without charging the consultation fee I have to do now since my income comes from vocal coaching haha.

That should start you off though. Do those exercises as a brief warm up before doing the song, then sing it again, listen back carefully to the recording and pick it apart and fix every single thing you don't like.

Thanks for the primer :)

I will go over it when I get the time.

Hey guys, so I finaly got around to recording a video and posting it. It's one of the songs I was practicing earlier in this thread (She Will Be Loved---I know, I'm so friggin sensitive...bah!) Anyway, to me it came out ok, except for the guitar screw up.
Check it out. and give me some feedback. Thanks.
[url]http://www.youtube.com/brentoned[/url]

Loved the mess up with the words and pause:thumb:

Your pretty much on pitch the entire time, and your falsetto tones sound pretty cool and effortless.

That said, you ARE straining a bit, and you can hear it in your voice, and see it in your neck.

Listen back carefully; sometimes you'll be singing a note in full voice, and at the end of the note you'll kind of drag the pitch down. Thats you raising your larynx, increasing the air pressure behind the larynx, and letting the air all come out at the end and your larynx go down at the end of the line. If you can work on that little issue by working a bit on your breath pressure management and maybe putting a little bit of vibrato or vocal fry at the end of notes, it will improve the sound drastically.

Also, you might want to try to place your tone a little bit more, because your chest voice notes are a bit shouty. Just work on changing up the tone, and placing your air pressure behind the mask of your face a little bit.

Its good now, but if you work on those things it will be improve quite a bit, so good luck!

Goes to show how video can be even more revealing than just an audio recording. I noticed the neck strain too, thanks to the video, but I didn't really think it was an issue. I stand corrected.

I can do vibrato ok, but I've never been a big fan of the style. It usually seems to make things sound just TOO formal, old-fashioned, operetic. I think it just reminds me of church music (gag) for some reason. Of course there are exceptions when it's not overdone. Bono for one, uses it sparingly and it works for him.

Any other ways to work on support that you know of? Any specific drills?

Thanks,

Yeah, im not talking huge amounts of vibrato, just possibly a small touch of it at the end of the line, or otherwise you could just cut the note off without the drag in pitch at the tail end of it. Either way, the point is to clean it up just a little bit, but it doesn't even sound bad to do it like you are, it just gets monotonous if you end every line exactly the same way.

There is no real exercise for support, its just a feeling you have to get accustomed to. Heres an article I wrote for my site that will eventually be up; read over it ,try it out, and you should be good to go.

[B]BREATHING & SUPPORT



Breathing and support; these two things are the most crucial aspects to singing. If your not breathing correctly and not supporting properly, you will never, among other things, unlock your full range potential. More importantly, you will not be singing safely. Singing improperly can cause many problems such as nodes, polyps, and vocal cord rupturing. However, you can avoid this by getting your breathing and support under control now.

When breathing for singing, just remember the following things:

*Stomach Expansion;
When you breathe in, your stomach should push outward naturally.

*Rib Expansion;
Your lower ribs (called the intercostals or floating ribs) should come out. To feel this, put your hands around the lower ribs and inhale. Your hands should move outward along with your ribs.

These 2 expansions happen simultaneously.

When inhaling, theres no need for a huge, slow breath. Instead, take a quick and short breath, like you take when something surprises you. I call this "taking a 1", because it should take just one short second to make this inhale. When taking a 1, make sure that you still have stomach and rib expansion. Your shoulders should NEVER rise when inhaling to sing.

Now for support. There is just one method of support that I teach, with varying degrees of pressure. This is no new technique however. Its been taught for centuries in bel canto, and has been revitalized in the past few years by coaches like Melissa Cross and Jaime Vendera who have made it a very major part of their technique.

To support, all you have to do is push down. This helps to manage your breath pressure, which keeps you from pushing up too much air and straining. The feeling of pushing down is the same feeling you get while using the restroom, coughing, or for women, giving birth. Remember, your pushing DOWN. Your not pushing the stomach outwards or pushing more air up into your throat.

Depending on the volume and pitch of the note, you're going to use varying degrees of push. For a loud note, you'll push more than for a soft breathy tone. For a loud note in full voice, you'll push down more than you would for a loud note in falsetto. For a loud scream, you'll push more than you would for a loud clean note. It's all about adjustments, and you'll have to figure out how to dial in the right pressure for each note and vocal inflection yourself by trial and error.

No matter what your singing, follow these steps and you'll be fine;

*Take a 1; make sure you have stomach and rib expansion
*At the same time as you take a 1, push down. The amount of pushing depends on the note.[/B]

Very cool. Thanks.
So my advice to the other guy earlier about pushing out a deuce wasn't far off then. Cool.

I'll try to post another vid this weekend.

Speaking of deuces...uhhh... I gotta go...

alright i finally uploaded a sample of me screaming, i'm really just looking to know if anyone can tell me if i'm clearly screaming improperly. I assume i am since i can't sing as well after screaming for a little bit, but i've been trying for months and can't figure out any other way to scream for the life of me

[url]http://media.putfile.com/Scream-54-40[/url]

I want to increase my vocal range. My current range is D2-A4.

I want to ask Screamin_Demon_Auz if exercises can really affect your range drastically. I don't mean one note up but like a minimum of three.

Did exercises pay off for you? What was your range before and what's your current one? Also, how much time would it take (assuming one is committed to exercising) to notice any major changes?

[QUOTE=Surgicalgod;16248250]I want to increase my vocal range. My current range is D2-A4.

I want to ask Screamin_Demon_Auz if exercises can really affect your range drastically. I don't mean one note up but like a minimum of three.

Did exercises pay off for you? What was your range before and what's your current one? Also, how much time would it take (assuming one is committed to exercising) to notice any major changes?[/QUOTE]

Yes, exercises can increase your range. Its not so much the particular exercise itself though thats going to do it; its the drilling and stabalizing of technique.

Basically, when you sing a song, theres too much involved. Your trying to sound good, sound cool, put some emotion into it, your not just singing on vowels like most exercises, the phrasing changes throughout so your breathing isn't really consistent, ect.

So, the smart thing is to do exercises, and focus on one thing at a time. When your doing a scale, lets say its a major scale consisting of 5 notes on the vowel "AH".

While you do this exercise, you are only focusing on one vowel, which is "AH". This vowel is good for opening your throat, relaxing your jaw & tongue, and working on placing resonance. Thats just 3 huge benefits on focusing on this 1 vowel.

The next big benefit is that you are only covering 5 notes at a time, and none of the intervals are too far apart. This lets you smoothly and slowly cover your entire range, and really focus on getting your notes down well. If the scale goes 1,2,3,4,5,4,3,2,1, your going to eventually get to a point where within the scale, you are changing registers. Notes 1 & 2 may be in chest, then notes 3 and 4 may be your break where your going into a 'mix', then note 5 will be either falsetto or head voice based on your development/tonality your doing the exercise in, then you go back down into that mix, and finally back into chest. If you can do this all while staying completely relaxed, you'll get through it. If not, you'll break and you can try again.

The other big benefit is you can focus on your breathing technique and support. Before each round of scales, you take your breath, expand your stomach and intercostals, and push down a little bit (or a lot if your doing this loudly in your higher registers). You don't always have that much focus in a song.

Once you get all these good habits integrated, your voice is going to unlock, and your range will increase in both directions quite a bit. Your almost always going to see a larger increase in high notes rather than low.

As far as myself, I havent checked my range forever so I honestly don't know, and im not warmed up enough to check right now. I will guess that it would be around C2-F#5. I can go somewhat higher and somewhat lower with more effort, but not with enough comfort or consistency to count it. The register those notes are in really just depends on how much support and volume I put in it. It starts sounding a little thin and screamy around D or E 5 i'd say, depending on the day, but they can all be consisdered head voice. Its all just a style thing, I stick with more of a classic soul/R&B style, with some Queensryche/Priest styled vocals mixed in. This summer I will be working full time as a vocal coach and doing session work, so when I have that time available to me with recording, i'll have some stuff to post.

When I first started, I wasnt very good at all. I'd say I probably had maybe 2 octaves, probably under, but the voice was very weak with a sucky tone at that, so exercises have helped a whole lot.

Theres no amount of time you can put on how long it will take to increase your range though, because its very dependant on how much focused practice you put into it. If you focus diligently on what I said earlier in this post, it should come to you in a few months, a few notes at a time. If you obsess with range, it will never come because you'll always be focused on the note, and therefore you will tense in preparation for it and you'll be a lost cause. Once I finally quit doing that, my voice kind of unlocked and everything came together.

Ok guys I got another video up this weekend.

Demon, it does get pretty shouty at the end, but I'm not sure how to correct that. I tried putting my voice more "up front", behind (or even in front of) my face, but it just didn't sound right to me, so I ended up reverting to the hollering. I don't want to go falsetto there either because I think it should be more powerful. Any suggestions?

Here's the link.
[url]http://youtube.com/watch?v=OIHPLATIzJA[/url]

[QUOTE=BagONickels;16255322]Ok guys I got another video up this weekend.

Demon, it does get pretty shouty at the end, but I'm not sure how to correct that. I tried putting my voice more "up front", behind (or even in front of) my face, but it just didn't sound right to me, so I ended up reverting to the hollering. I don't want to go falsetto there either because I think it should be more powerful. Any suggestions?

Here's the link.
[url]http://youtube.com/watch?v=OIHPLATIzJA[/url][/QUOTE]

Very cool cover. Strong vocals, good tone, good pitch accuracy, nothing wrong with it at all really. The shouty part isnt even bad, and its not really going to cause damage either. Just make sure your pushing down like your going to the rest room; if you do that right, and it does take some time to find the right amount of downwards pressure, you'll get even more power behind it and no strain at all.

[QUOTE=BagONickels;16255322]Ok guys I got another video up this weekend.

Demon, it does get pretty shouty at the end, but I'm not sure how to correct that. I tried putting my voice more "up front", behind (or even in front of) my face, but it just didn't sound right to me, so I ended up reverting to the hollering. I don't want to go falsetto there either because I think it should be more powerful. Any suggestions?

Here's the link.
[url]http://youtube.com/watch?v=OIHPLATIzJA[/url][/QUOTE]

Pitch was good except it was a little off in the bridge (cool,cool baby its all cool). Pretty good cover minus the style difference.

The only thing i'd say to work on is the guitar rhythm, besides that, it seems like you just changed the style a bit.

The "shout" part just seemed like you need to add more UMPH. Get the note and punch it in the face, dont tense up, but punch it in the face.

[QUOTE=Surgicalgod;16248250]I want to increase my vocal range. My current range is D2-A4.

I want to ask Screamin_Demon_Auz if exercises can really affect your range drastically. I don't mean one note up but like a minimum of three.

Did exercises pay off for you? What was your range before and what's your current one? Also, how much time would it take (assuming one is committed to exercising) to notice any major changes?[/QUOTE]

Exercises are a must do. If you've never done them, and you start doing the exercises correctly, you'll notice changes in 2 weeks in tone, feeling, and range.

Getting a teacher will definetely help, go for one that teaches you to use head voice and not to stay in chest all the time which is what classical voice teachers generally do.

Screamin Demon recommended me Raise Your Voice a little bit ago, and its a damn good buy. I already notice improvements after 2 weeks of doing the full voice exercises(the first 2 weeks are warmups and falsetto exercises). In 2 weeks of full voice workouts I went from a slightly strained A above middle C, to a comfortable B under high C.

The book is as close as you can get to a pill that makes you a good singer. Although it will take work. :thumb:

[QUOTE=Screamin_Demon_Auz;16249631]Yes, exercises can increase your range. Its not so much the particular exercise itself though thats going to do it; its the drilling and stabalizing of technique.

Basically, when you sing a song, theres too much involved. Your trying to sound good, sound cool, put some emotion into it, your not just singing on vowels like most exercises, the phrasing changes throughout so your breathing isn't really consistent, ect.

So, the smart thing is to do exercises, and focus on one thing at a time. When your doing a scale, lets say its a major scale consisting of 5 notes on the vowel "AH".

While you do this exercise, you are only focusing on one vowel, which is "AH". This vowel is good for opening your throat, relaxing your jaw & tongue, and working on placing resonance. Thats just 3 huge benefits on focusing on this 1 vowel.

The next big benefit is that you are only covering 5 notes at a time, and none of the intervals are too far apart. This lets you smoothly and slowly cover your entire range, and really focus on getting your notes down well. If the scale goes 1,2,3,4,5,4,3,2,1, your going to eventually get to a point where within the scale, you are changing registers. Notes 1 & 2 may be in chest, then notes 3 and 4 may be your break where your going into a 'mix', then note 5 will be either falsetto or head voice based on your development/tonality your doing the exercise in, then you go back down into that mix, and finally back into chest. If you can do this all while staying completely relaxed, you'll get through it. If not, you'll break and you can try again.

The other big benefit is you can focus on your breathing technique and support. Before each round of scales, you take your breath, expand your stomach and intercostals, and push down a little bit (or a lot if your doing this loudly in your higher registers). You don't always have that much focus in a song.

Once you get all these good habits integrated, your voice is going to unlock, and your range will increase in both directions quite a bit. Your almost always going to see a larger increase in high notes rather than low.

As far as myself, I havent checked my range forever so I honestly don't know, and im not warmed up enough to check right now. I will guess that it would be around C2-F#5. I can go somewhat higher and somewhat lower with more effort, but not with enough comfort or consistency to count it. The register those notes are in really just depends on how much support and volume I put in it. It starts sounding a little thin and screamy around D or E 5 i'd say, depending on the day, but they can all be consisdered head voice. Its all just a style thing, I stick with more of a classic soul/R&B style, with some Queensryche/Priest styled vocals mixed in. This summer I will be working full time as a vocal coach and doing session work, so when I have that time available to me with recording, i'll have some stuff to post.

When I first started, I wasnt very good at all. I'd say I probably had maybe 2 octaves, probably under, but the voice was very weak with a sucky tone at that, so exercises have helped a whole lot.

Theres no amount of time you can put on how long it will take to increase your range though, because its very dependant on how much focused practice you put into it. If you focus diligently on what I said earlier in this post, it should come to you in a few months, a few notes at a time. If you obsess with range, it will never come because you'll always be focused on the note, and therefore you will tense in preparation for it and you'll be a lost cause. Once I finally quit doing that, my voice kind of unlocked and everything came together.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=kidthatplaysguitar91]Exercises are a must do. If you've never done them, and you start doing the exercises correctly, you'll notice changes in 2 weeks in tone, feeling, and range.

Getting a teacher will definetely help, go for one that teaches you to use head voice and not to stay in chest all the time which is what classical voice teachers generally do.

Screamin Demon recommended me Raise Your Voice a little bit ago, and its a damn good buy. I already notice improvements after 2 weeks of doing the full voice exercises(the first 2 weeks are warmups and falsetto exercises). In 2 weeks of full voice workouts I went from a slightly strained A above middle C, to a comfortable B under high C.

The book is as close as you can get to a pill that makes you a good singer. Although it will take work.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the reply guys. This really helps! The problem is, I don't really have the time or the money for a teacher so I'm going to stick to doing exercises on my own. I've gotten the Brett Manning Singing Success program a while back and I'm going to start working with it soon. I read good reviews about it so hopefully it will be of benefit!

[QUOTE=kidthatplaysguitar91;16257979]Get the note and punch it in the face, dont tense up, but punch it in the face.[/QUOTE]

I like the way you describe that. Im going to try to think of it like that next time I'm playing that song or one with similar notes/phrases.

Thanks for the feedback.

While I wait for the actual site to be finished, I decided to start a vocal technique blog. You can check it out for artist interviews, articles on singing, singing Q&A, and you can sign up for lessons with it as well. If you have any questions you want answered in the Q&A database or something you want covered in an article, leave a comment on the page and I will add something as soon as I can. This way I can help to keep everything organized and eventually will have 1 site set up with as much free advice as I can give that people can keep going back to. Please share the link with every singer you know as well;
[url]http://austinvocalstudio.wordpress.com/[/url]

Just a small question here...

the lowest note i can reach physically is E2 and comfortably is G2, i can then go as high as roughly around A3, where my break seems to be, i can then reach A5 doing (what i think at least is) a falsetto scream.

So i was wondering what my range would be classed as and also would this be classed as a good range for an 18 year old male?

thanks :)

Tobius,

Don't worry about classification unless you are going to do musical theatre/opera. It just really doesn't matter otherwise, and is limiting.

Could you do an audio example showing your range though? Your numbers are throwing me off abit, because you should be entering your break from chest/head (or falsetto depending on your ability) around F#4 (the F# above middle C), give or take a few notes. If you mean A4, thats possible, but I would need to hear it to make sure your not pulling chest up in an unsafe way.

Anyways, it doesn't really matter again. What matters is that you can sing CONSISTENTLY in that range. If you can't, drill some exercises to improve strength, flexibility, and tonality. You could either take lessons, or buy some kind of program for those exercises.

Screamin_Demon_Auz

thanks for replying :)

wasn't too sure of the best way to show you my range so i just had a go at a rising slide type thing and also a small excerpt from Journeyman by Iron Maiden. Hope that helps.

Slide
[url]http://media.putfile.com/vocal-slide-91[/url]

Journeyman with music
[url]http://media.putfile.com/journeyman[/url]

Journeyman without music
[url]http://media.putfile.com/journeyman-no-music[/url]

Absolutely a baritone, but like I said it doesnt matter.

On the slide, your carrying up a little bit too much weight (pulling chest). So, your pushing a bit too much air/using excess muscles. Its fine until it gets distorted though; its just more of a tonality choice than anything. However, you got a little bit of distortiong, then immediately flipped into a falsetto/head voice mixed raspy scream. So, your not completely connected right now. When I have someone do that in a lesson and hear that, I would start off with simple scales on AH, and make sure that they just let it crack, let it go into falsetto, let it sound bad, whatever. Then, once its smooth, we would work on exercises to focus the sound for a better tonal quality. Thats exactly what you need to do, because right now your working well with what you've got, but your not near your potential. You need to lay a basic boring sounding foundation (dont add any rasp or any nasality or anything to make it sound better). Only after you have the ability to sing throughout your entire current range with a clean and clear tone can you change it up and start working on coloring the tone.