Hey i've read through a lot of this and been lurking for a while. I can sing rather decently but a few days ago I was going loud just for the hell of it. Suddenly today I can't hit anything high, I actually noticed a slight chest pain.

I'm totally lost as to what is causing it i'm guessing improper breathing at some time..but I don't know when. Any help would be greatly appreciated, and the day I was singing high I also gave a shot at screaming so that could have done it. It seemed absolutely fine at the time though the sound was coming from my gut and not my throat..problem free without pain.


Thanks a ton in advance and awesome forums.
(Note: I was asthmatic when I was young...that could mean something)

i have a question

i dont know if uve heard audioslave, but the vocalist chris cornell does this scream thing sometimes that doesnt sound like screaming, more like distortion but it might be screaming. If someone knows what im talking about could you tell me how i could od that?

also are there any exercises that help increase range, mainly in the higher range.

[QUOTE=Guitar Symphony]So in learning to sing. Do I have to be able to be born with the right vocal cords to sing? Or is it something you lean such as an insturment and eventually get good at it?[/QUOTE]

you can learn it. there are only six singing vowels. ay, ee, I, oh, u, and ah
thats it. everything else is a mixture of those, or a consanent. which is interrupting just noise produced by your mouth and tongue. so the key is to get your proper breath support from the gut, and to be able to seperate the vocal muscles from the throat muscles. the bad thing is that most people have learned improper breathing and learned incorrect vocalizing. even talking incorrectly. so go here and read my replies. i hope you can get some useful info. [url]http://www.musicianforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=219911[/url]

[QUOTE=Guitar Symphony]Haha, I think I know I can sing higher then bass, I just have to use a twice the force to sing higher whether it sounds good I don't know. Would need to have someone hear me. I attempted singing higher recently (in the shower of course lol) and I think it came out well (but again, I don't know it really sounds good. never recorded it or anything).

Question: Does hooking a mic up to my guitar amp kind of tell me how my singing sounds? Cause I heard that when someone talks that their voice sounds different from what they think. I recorded my voice through the comp with a cheap headphone type thing, just to hear my voice and it's SOO differnt. It might be the mic, or the computer since I'm just using the default Sound Recorder that comes with windows. :p[/QUOTE]

analog is always the best, but that would have to be good quality because a slower or faster motor makes your voice sound different. any decent digital device is a good go. I would try to run it through a mixer into the comp, or as clean as possible without going through an amp or anything ya know, so there is nothing between your voice and the recording device. a guitar amp isnt the best because its built for higher pitches, like a bass amp isnt good for a guitarist. now a PA speaker/system is for the voice. And yes, a cheap mic just doesnt have the responses and nuances that it takes to get a good representation of the vibrations youre causing in the air. it just cant pick it up. try to get a decent mic. my friend borrowed mine but i have two Shure mics. not sure what model. but Shure is a good mic. they were each about 160 dollars. a decent mic can be had for about 50. if you can get a good mic. try to find a cheep Shure. or a used one. just disinfect it good first! in any event it is very important that you listen to your own voice. Because you do sound differently than what you here yourself. know why? and this is cool. because when you sing or talk, youre hearing with your body, like an antenna. the resonance and vibration of your nasal cavities, brain, head size and shape, lung area, body density, etc, plays a very significant part in the vibrations that reach your hammer,anvil and stirrup(from science class) and extremely, youre also hearing with your toes. to make my point, your whole body vibrates when you talk/sing. And this is why meditationalists use specifice sounds, chants, and mantras when doing certain meditation. and i am a meditation/ spiritual freak. so i know about that(mantras also work wonders for breath/vocal control). but most people dont take it serious, or have reservations about it. the fact that you can alter your mind by chanting certain words. everything is energy vibrating. everything. so manipulating energy is manipulating vibrations. Thats why singing or listening can make you really feel a certain way. Anyways, you should send me some samples. i might be able to critique.
see ya

[QUOTE=deat]Very nice guides Silver!

I have a pretty bad problem. I can sing as loud, or soft as I want. I'm very versatile. I can imitate many artists out right now. But...whenever I try singing in front of ANYBODY, I get extremely nervous and forget all the lyrics of what I was going to sing, I blush a lot, and I don't know what to do. Doesn't matter who I'm in front of, close friends, family, even just one person and I freeze. I know this may have something related to not being comfortable with my voice, but I don't know what to do to get comfortable with it. I've tried somethings now, but they haven't worked.

Oh yes, and I've been a lurker for quite some time now. Thought it would be time to join. ^_^ Everybody here is very welcoming, unlike some other forums I go to.[/QUOTE]

Thats not a problem, unless of course, you want to sing professionally!

All i can tell you is to practice to the point to where you so confident that its not a problem. i mean the first times are definitely worse than the others, and youre gonna grow and learn along the way, but it can be way more fun and not painful, if you make sure you have enough practice that youre confident you'll get it all right. after that, there is no point in worrying about it, just realize that youre gonna blow people away.

[QUOTE=Ninjerk]Two things:
1) For those lacking body in their voice try to think about what your throat does when you yawn. Your throat should expand in the space between your chin and your adam's apple. Try to reproduce that when you are singing. It helps.

2) A note on changing tenor to bass, etc.: I'm not sure of any exact technique for lower or raising the range of the vocal chords. However, my stepfather tells me he was a tenor and sang duets with his mother in his church choir that would bring the old folks to tears (not literally I don't think). Upon doing a decent stretch in the army he has become a bass and has become to a degree "tone deaf." Also, I think it's interesting to note the vast difference in the voice of Eric Clapton when he was in Derek and the Dominoes and his voice on From the Cradle (a great blues album I bought for my dad). His voice sounds more like Louie Armstrong's on From the Cradle.[/QUOTE]

you can sing ohs and low ohs to help add body to your voice. and yes, its about learning to open your throat. this is always in my posts. that is where you get resonance and tone, from having an open throat so the sound can bounce properly. just experiment. and take more than fifteen minutes one day to learn your voice. it takes a long time if youre not a "natural" .

as far as range. there are muscles that pull your cords tigher/thinner, and those that pull them shorter thicker. you just have to work with this muscles. try to hit lower and lower or higher and higher. the catch is that you must have a relaxed open throat so that you can get enough airflow so that you can actually get the airflow so that you can activate the cords at the note youre trying to reach. be careful when going up in pitch because your cords are thinner. dont over push and make sure youre pushing from the gut, not the throat. doing staccato "ha" 's helps build strength. staccato means there is a quick pause between. broken. not connected(legato is connected) be sure to come from the gut. This is neat. The H sound is the air passing when activate the cords the air is already passing so to shut it off to activate the cords, this is extra work. but its balanced by the staccato-ness. so the muscles that open get worked as much as the ones that close. its like clapping your hands together as mark Baxter puts it. clap your hands together a few times. then alternate between clapping and almost clapping but not clapping. you can see how much work is done to not let them clap. this is basically what your cords are doing. hhhh is the air, aaah is the activation. off, on , off, on, etc. . becareful not to push to hard when doing higher ranges with this exercise. you should be able to get a high pitch without pushing hard.

[QUOTE=XAna_ElizzaX]hallo...well this is my question:

I really like to sing but i never do it in front of other people, im in the chorous of my school but I dont know if its maybe because they needed people or because I do sing decently...
I have a band and our lead singer left :evil: and i used to make the background voices so everybody in my band started to ask me to sing...and I would do it but, i odnt have a good voice, i mean i am on tune but i would like to sing better, should i take classes i will time make my voice better?[/QUOTE]
both. it is imperative that you have alone time. where you feel totally comfortable and there noone to judge you. for me, this is my car. (just dont compete with the volume too much). you have to find your own limits and be able to experiment with your sounds. so that if you do something that sucks, noone is there but you. and you can try to manipulate your throat and voice until you find the good stuff for you. but yes a teacher would help you immensley. and time of course is a part of life. its up to you if you will get better with it!

[QUOTE=sevenseasofrhye]alright im a girl and im 13 and people have said i can sing and people have said im absolutely horrible... one reason i sound bad is because my voice is very deep for a girl im almost a tenor and if i try to sing the upper range of alto my voice cracks... yeah i know thats really weird... but then i can sing like the high notes in bohemian rhapsody and i can also sing soprano... i mean all i can say is my voice is deep and its hard to sing many many rock songs with my weird range

my question is though should i try and sing soprano which i can only do part of, or like mix the octaves with lower alto and high tenor cause it is hard for me...
also, is it normal for my voice to crack i mean im a GIRL...[/QUOTE]

a peniz or a vagina plays no part in your vocal technique. So no its not normal to break(crack). if your voice breaks, you either dont have the strength for that note, or your throat is not open and relaxed and your tensing it, causing restricted irregular airflow. The term break as a noun is the area between registers where you have to switch your technique between chest, head, and falsetto voices. just practice until you know when you need to change the muscles working the area. a vocal instructor is good for this because lots of times they can put there hand on your throat and be able to tell what youre doing. the falsetto is the highest and you open your cords and use them less, in a different way. so thats why you can get the higher range. bu it sounds like youre just a little weak. you should be able to go from your lowest note all the way up to your highest with one breath without missing anything. this is called an gliss...up. or down. are you saying you cant do this? if you cant then you are probably avoiding the break areas between the three registers because you dont have the strength/control to be able to keep the airflow constant and the cords moving. more about control than strength. you must have an open throat. try it with "ah" and make sure you are singing from your gut. and not pushing at the throat area. and also since youre a girl, you should be careful around your period time. warm up more and warm down more. your cords swell up along with the rest of your body when your period is on. they get bloated too! so be sure to stay hydrated and warmed up/down. keep us posted. oh and go here. at least read my replies in the screams part. [url]http://www.musicianforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=219911[/url]

hey im tryin to learn to sing an i was stuffin around an recorded this. [url]http://www.soundclick.com/bands/3/gnikregrubmusic.htm[/url]

Can i work with my voice?? i hate listenin to it
Is there anything i can do improve??

Thanks in advance :thumb:

ahahahaha "FRIEND" isnt part of it on the end, :p i was just stuffin around when my mate was over

[QUOTE=Winter-seed...AKA b&h]hey im tryin to learn to sing an i was stuffin around an recorded this. [url]http://www.soundclick.com/bands/3/gnikregrubmusic.htm[/url]

Can i work with my voice?? i hate listenin to it
Is there anything i can do improve??

Thanks in advance :thumb:

ahahahaha "FRIEND" isnt part of it on the end, :p i was just stuffin around when my mate was over[/QUOTE]

youre not that bad off. especially for that style of music. kinda sounds like new found gloryish?? the quality isnt the best but i can hear you've got good tone. I can also hear that it sounds like you arent taking quite enough breath because it sounds like youre not coming from your gut enough. especially the last stanza. thats what makes you go more nasal. youre trying to stretch the resonance of the sound by going slightly nasal because there isnt enough pressure to sustain that note. because you sound like youre running out of air. that shouldnt be the case in this type of song. be sure you breathe correctly. so that when you inhale your belly button goes out and your stomach expands. some people breathe from their ribs. so they take a deep breath but dont take much in, and thusly dont have as much as they think. you should have a little bubble of pressure behind the cords and the control of the push should not be felt in the throat, but in the midsection. so at the end of your verse there, your belly button shoud be going in and up so to speak. it sounds like you were throating it. thats why it went more nasal. you can get the same sound if you want(like Time of your life, Greenday) but its just stronger, truer, more defined, more consistent... when coming from the gut. kinda like that same greenday song(kinda whiney but still upfront). but again, nothing is extreme in this sample, so dont go berzerk with adjutments or ideas in your head. nothing i say is gospel. so breath to the gut, bring it from the gut and not the throat. and open up and relax.

thanks for that............but the strage thing i dont get is,like on some songs i sound alright but then on others i can do fine with singing them in key but my voice sounds really bad an nasely even if i have enough breath

no ideas?

[QUOTE=DasUberEdward]Hey i've read through a lot of this and been lurking for a while. I can sing rather decently but a few days ago I was going loud just for the hell of it. Suddenly today I can't hit anything high, I actually noticed a slight chest pain.

I'm totally lost as to what is causing it i'm guessing improper breathing at some time..but I don't know when. Any help would be greatly appreciated, and the day I was singing high I also gave a shot at screaming so that could have done it. It seemed absolutely fine at the time though the sound was coming from my gut and not my throat..problem free without pain.


Thanks a ton in advance and awesome forums.
(Note: I was asthmatic when I was young...that could mean something)[/QUOTE]

sorry to pass over you.
oh yea, it maybe related to the extra effort of your lungs. but singing usually tends to help out. just keep practicing it wil help to work the lungs and diagphram. if its your first time or times trying to go up in range youre going to lose it just out of fatigue. just stay hydrated, warm up, warm down, and dont think that just because your going up in pitch that you have to go up in pressure. you do, but not as much as people think if you stay open and from the gut because the cords get thinner, like the little e string on a guitar. you can pluck it too hard. keep practicing and dont force too much air, even when you scream.you shouldnt have to push more than 80% ever. at the end of a session i will go all out to help build strength. but you dont want to do that early because you have to practice acitvating the cords and using the muscles to hold there until you get it into muscle memory. plus if you push too hard the air is just gonna blow past the cords and youre not gonna get good tone. your lungs are always gonna be stronger than your cords. so you should never push 100% unless you know what youre doing. plus, over time you bow the cords up and they cant seal properly. plus you run into those treacherous career danger words like nodes, nodules, tears, polyps, calous, paralysis. so trust me. get the tone and screams at around 50 to 70 percent until you get it down. make the tone first, then go for the rasp. after a while you can do it at the same time, if you want to scream. just practice singing first. get the high pitches with good tone. work with the extra push of screams and harder stuff at the end of the session. warm up, stay hydrated, warm down. i 've posted particulars on this in the sticky. hope this helps. see ya

[QUOTE=Winter-seed...AKA b&h]thanks for that............but the strage thing i dont get is,like on some songs i sound alright but then on others i can do fine with singing them in key but my voice sounds really bad an nasely even if i have enough breath[/QUOTE]

Are the songs you sound nasally on generally high in pitch? Are you trying to hard to smile? Girls in my chorus class years ago used to smile so much they let their mouth close. Also, someone said earlier not to use your nose to breathe when you're singing. It's quite important to only breathe through your mouth.

[QUOTE=Merkaba-1]sorry to pass over you.
oh yea, it maybe related to the extra effort of your lungs. but singing usually tends to help out. just keep practicing it wil help to work the lungs and diagphram. if its your first time or times trying to go up in range youre going to lose it just out of fatigue. just stay hydrated, warm up, warm down, and dont think that just because your going up in pitch that you have to go up in pressure. you do, but not as much as people think if you stay open and from the gut because the cords get thinner, like the little e string on a guitar. you can pluck it too hard. keep practicing and dont force too much air, even when you scream.you shouldnt have to push more than 80% ever. at the end of a session i will go all out to help build strength. but you dont want to do that early because you have to practice acitvating the cords and using the muscles to hold there until you get it into muscle memory. plus if you push too hard the air is just gonna blow past the cords and youre not gonna get good tone. your lungs are always gonna be stronger than your cords. so you should never push 100% unless you know what youre doing. plus, over time you bow the cords up and they cant seal properly. plus you run into those treacherous career danger words like nodes, nodules, tears, polyps, calous, paralysis. so trust me. get the tone and screams at around 50 to 70 percent until you get it down. make the tone first, then go for the rasp. after a while you can do it at the same time, if you want to scream. just practice singing first. get the high pitches with good tone. word the the extra push of screams and stuff at the end of the session. warm up, stay hydrated, warm down. i 've posted particulars on this in the sticky. hope this helps. see ya[/QUOTE]
Thanks for the advice..you're doing a huge favor to the community.

[QUOTE=j0s1ah]who is chris carrabba?[/QUOTE]

Dashboard Confessional. Many emo bands seem to have a distintive accent in their voices, as someone has already said. Me and a few mates are starting an emo band pretty soon and someone needs to sing. I can only really sing in a punk style english voice ie Johhny Rotten, Joe Strummer. I wanna learn how to sing like emo bands do so is it worth learning how to sing naturally first or should i just go straight for learning the 'American way'? That probably made no sense at all. But anyway. Oh yea I can scream well enough so will that help?

[QUOTE=sid_took_punk_to_the_grave]Dashboard Confessional. Many emo bands seem to have a distintive accent in their voices, as someone has already said. Me and a few mates are starting an emo band pretty soon and someone needs to sing. I can only really sing in a punk style english voice ie Johhny Rotten, Joe Strummer. I wanna learn how to sing like emo bands do so is it worth learning how to sing naturally first or should i just go straight for learning the 'American way'? That probably made no sense at all. But anyway. Oh yea I can scream well enough so will that help?[/QUOTE]
i feel like an idiot. dashboard is like one of my fav bands....lol.

did everyone just decide to skip over my post or something?

i actually was writing to it the other night and i somehow didnt get the post up. i listen to Chris every day. I can do anysong of his that i want. its not that hard. but getting his upper range is more work than anything. but what youe talking about is basically the same thing. that scrape. more or less of it. mid and upper mid range tones you can play around with more because you can get more vocal cord activation in them. so if you make sure you have an open throat, push from the gut and not the throat, and learn to relax and keep an open throat gives you that nice resonance and you can scrape it a little to get that distorted affect. like in the song im listening to now. Sweet sunshower. its all the same technique to sum up. trust me. i gotta get to work. but read my sticky if you havent already. oh, and whats your fave audioslave songs. i love Last remaining light, and shadow of the sun. kick *** album.

thanks for the reply, i will look for ur sticky.

my favorite songs are probably bring em back alive, its fun to sing and play.

oops, shadow ON the sun. i was in a rush. hehe

Im a newbie to this site, but ive been working on my vocals for about two years. I have recorded my self quite a bit and it seems i stay in key well, but my voice has more of a nasaly sound, like im singing with my nose pinched shut. This doesnt really work with singing in a metal band. Any tips to improve on this would be appreciated. THanks in advance.

yep. youre probably closing your throat some. which makes the feeling of the sound end up higher in your throat because the lower part of your throat is blocked off. tension and the idea of moving the throat to move the notes is what causes this. so when you make a note you try to gain the resonance of the sound by forcing it into the nasal cavity because the sound feels so high in your throat. And singing is way more about feel than what you hear. Go to my hotline sticky, here in the jams forum. read at least my first post in the screams section. i have a reply in there about isolation exercises, which should help you some. and try to imagine shooting your sound out of your chin...for now. and relax, and of course make sure youre pushing from the gut and not the throat.

Hi guys. I'm new to this but I have this book called Vocal Release that has really helped my singing. It's a little pricey but it's an investment and it's cheaper than lessons. The website is [U]vocalrelease.com[/U] incase you wanna check it out.
Hope it helps. See ya.

hey hey, against the rules there lil honey.

Im guessin'

lol i checked that out, i downlaoded the .pdf version, but i don't have the cd. i bet it would be great if i had the cd. :)

yea i checked it out, but we'll see if lil sarahs post count ever goes up! haha. if not then we know who she works for!

but it sounds a bit interesting. seems to hit on a few keys i like to stress, like positioning of the larynx. which i would love to see how this guy conveys it, and that zip up thing gives a little bit of mystery and makes ya wann know whats going on. so you downloaded a copy? hmmmm? tell us, or share with us.

yea i have the book and the cd. so far it has really helped me. sorry if i broke the rules or anything.

[QUOTE=Ninjerk]Are the songs you sound nasally on generally high in pitch? Are you trying to hard to smile? Girls in my chorus class years ago used to smile so much they let their mouth close. Also, someone said earlier not to use your nose to breathe when you're singing. It's quite important to only breathe through your mouth.[/QUOTE]


I breathe through my mouth, i dont smile, i open my mouth...but not to much...............maybe im just broken :upset:

Merkaba-1, here is a part about cord adducting:
[QUOTE]Yes it is very important to have proper breathing, but it is not an end all. Breathing is only for support. If you can’t adduct your cords, control the position of your larynx and your resonance, breathing will not help you sound much better.
Cord adducting exercises
The biggest problem most beginning singers have,( that is people that have never sang before), with communicating with their coaches is when the coach tells them to go higher in pitch. Because unless the singer naturally sings correctly when told to do this, the first time the response
will be to take their chest voice as far as it will go, force out more air and push it further. Very bad for the voice. Unfortunately many coaches have no idea how to teach someone how to adduct, zip up, shorten or as it is otherwise known compress their vocal cords. The coaches hope
is that with enough scale work the student will do it naturally without thinking about it and without knowing what it is they have done. And of course have to come back for more vocal lessons to keep it going. If you are stuck in your chest voice and or cannot sing higher notes without strain, this is most likely the reason. You have simply not learned to adduct your vocal cords.

Let me give a simple to understand explanation of what happens as your cord are adducting. Your vocal cords lay horizontal in your larynx. As air passes up through them the vocal cords resist against the air and vibrate. When you are at a low pitch for your range the cords are almost all the way apart from one another. As you rise in pitch what should happen is that they begin to
zip up and close off. As you go higher less vocal cord is actually used. Think of your cords as a string instrument in this sense. Pluck a string without fretting and you get a lower sound than you would if you hit the same string while fretting in the middle of the neck. Shorten the length of the
string and the pitch goes up, the same applies for vocal cords. Shorten the vocal cords and the pitch goes up, all without straining. Also keep in mind that as you go up in pitch, adducting, less air is needed to maintain pitch, as there is less cord to resist against the air. I can’t stress this enough. If you want to have a great voice that functions without strain, is very resonant and smooth out the breaks or bridges in your voice, you need to learn how to properly adduct your cords. Here a few exercises that have worked time and again on my students to teach them just that.

Stuttering D’s: This exercise will be performed on both scale one and scale two. Say the D sound a few times. Pay close attention to the slight feeling in your larynx as you do. That feeling is your cords briefly coming together or adducting. This exercise is a warmup for the other adducting exercises. Done well there will be a massage like feeling in your larynx. This is your cords opening and closing. You may also feel resonance in your upper head cavities. First place your tongue on the roof of your mouth and stutter a long string of D’s on scale one or two. Have you ever heard young boys pretending they have machine guns? It sounds just like that. Make sure you make the D full and solid. Hold on very hard to the D sound. Do not go airy with
it and add the low larynx sound to it as you progress through the scale. If you have a problem with this, start off buy saying the D sound a few times to warm up then go into the stutter. This may seem a bit silly, and you may be thinking, “ fine it adducts my cords but how’s that going to
help me with actually singing adducted.� Well, like I said, it’s just a warmup for the next exercises and will make your vocal cords more likely to adduct when you want them to. It will also help you to use the proper amount of pressure against your cords before using the open mouth exercises.

The grunt: Yes that’s right the grunt. Grunt a few times like your pushing something heavy. Uhh, Uhh, Uhh. . Now if you’ve sang before but don’t know how to adduct, use this exercise. Take in a breath, grunt, and break into a note, and keep some of the effect of the grunt. Uhh, Uhhh, Ahhhhhhhhhh. You’ll notice the effect better if you try for something in your higher
range. You should notice right away that this makes it very easy to hit a high note. The grunt compresses your cords. As you do it, it zips them up. Don’t over do it. You can quickly wear out your voice this way. The trick is to use the grunt to get used to adducting then back it off, but keep the compression of the cords that resulted from it. The grunt is great to develop a mental to
physical tool, that gives you control over shortening your cords. If you never sang before and someone told you to shorten your cords you would probably be very confused. That is the main stumbling block in learning to sing. You can’t see what you are doing, like someone learning to play guitar. You have to go solely on how it feels and sounds [/QUOTE]

He refers to scales on the CD in this section, which i don't have, but i am guessing its just the major scale or variations of it.