Here is a place for people doing vocals in a band, or for people starting off and\or that need advice.

Well I'm not in a band, but I like to mess around and do growls and extreme vocals. I’m trying to work on screams and shrieks. What I would like to know is if anyone has any advice\pointers for trying to do clean vocals (from scratch). I wouldn't even mind any input on power metal styles.

Well I figured this place needed a thread for vocalists, I hope to see it grow!

I can do a mean King Diamond, I wouldn't know how to explain how to do it though, I just sort of tighten my throat.

I'm one of the fellers who aim to have a clean toned voice with incredible range and timbre!

As of right now my practice includes singing along to cd's solely, but I'll change that soon enough. On a good day I can sing 'Dust In The Wind' by Kansas pretty much dead on.

I play in a deathrash band. I play bass and have been tagged with singing. I'm considering taking a Tom Araya approach and just sing even though I suck.

I guess that’s something I should try do more often to start working on clean vocals, try to "sing a long" with a CD. As for the thrashy vocals, that is something I've tried and horribly failed at; but I will try it again. I really like the style of vocals on Malevolent Creation's “The Ten Commandments”. I just think it would be good for me to develop different styles, so I can have flexibility if I ever found a band.

I do some harsh vocals. Been practicing for a while, went to a growling workshop some time ago by the vocalist for Abed (they're on the archives, great band). My best voice is a Brutal Death grunt, I can do it as low as Ptoe from Lykathea or even Christ Denied stuff.
My goal is to be an all arounder type of growler, I dont think I'm gonna be a frontman but I'm definately plan on doing harsh backing vocals or a harsh second-vocalist in the band I'm gonna form one day. So now I'm trying to master the more Oldschool type of DM growls and also the more Melodic ones. I think I can do BM screams pretty damn good but I can never really hear myself or record it because it's really fucking loud when I do it, and there's always people in the house. I can do a low volume growl but with the screams it's almost impossible, and my family already thinks I'm weird so if I start to shake the house's foundations with screams they'll send me to some institute...

haha yeah my family hates me screaming and growling and shit too. my dad acctually makes fun of me and pretends hes barfing but watever. I was wondering though. lately i havent been able to scream as well as i ussually do and i dont know why. the weather is getting colder and all does that have anything to dop with it?

Hm, I'm not much of a singer. That said, I'm at my best when singing War Pigs or Fly Me to the Moon.

I can do extremely guttural Devourment-style vocals and the lower exhaled vocals of artists like Despised Icon, but I have trouble with normal Deicide-style vocals. I understand that the former two styles really can't physically have a lot of volume, but doesn't the latter have a serious amount of force behind it? If anyone could give some tips on how to increase volume and maintain tone, I'd appreciate it.

for volume i cant help you iv always been able to do vocals at a good volume. for tone id say just make sure you dont move your neck/throat around and try and keep the same volume/ amount of air passing through constant and it should keep your tone steady.

I don't sing, I really want to.

My hearing is dead on and I can re-make anything I hear, so that's not a problem. I used to be able to sing almost as good as Opera tenors. I think I've lost my touch over the years.

Can anybody post a URL to some site that explains how to growl/scream/scriech/whatever correctly? Often after like 10 seconds of "growling" my throat is sore.

Well from personal experience (not that I have alot), I find the more you try growling the more used to it you will get, therefore last longer. I heard of eating honey can help. Make sure you drink water while practicing. The main issue I have is getting a high volume. I will try to get you a link to a growling tutorial I used some time ago.

mix the honey with some water

Same issue I have. Form isn't trouble, as the more extreme varieties can't be done at a high volume, but others that require a more forceful, percussive style trouble me.

What type of growl are you trying to do when you encounter the volume problem? If its the really low ones there's no way to increase the volume...

Anyway I wrote this at another topic here, might help a few folks:

I'm talking about the traditional death metal growls that one would find in Deicide or later Morbid Angel. Can't say I really agree with black metal vocals being less dangerous for the throat; see Legion of Marduk. Knowing how to do those screeches without the voice breaking would be nice as well.

Well as far as I know, the more air you push the more volume and power you get. Maybe it seems obvious but it's actually pretty hard, controlling your air flow is a bitch. If you push too much air out at the beginning of a word/sentence, you'll get tired and your growl will die out at the end of it. It happens quite alot, the worst I've seen is that big fella in Amon Amarth when they played a show here a couple of years ago. His growls died real quick, and after the third song he couldnt do his lower growl anymore. Some of the credit goes to the hot, overcrowded venue, but the lack of correct breathing surely damaged his great vocals.
Work on some breathing excercises if you dont already. The better control you have on your breath, the better you will get obviously. I gave one example in my previous post, but there're much more on the net. I can verify this really helps, I had many problems with my growl a while ago and after I saw a lecture by the vocalist of Abed, he gave a couple of advices and breathing excercises including that one I mentioned earlier, and since then both the length and the volume of my growls became much better. I can now almost do 20 seconds growls, and sing for like half an hour before I feel any pain/dryness in my throat.. And for the volume, my aunt can approve that it got better too, I was walking near her house one day growling along some music and then later she told me that while she was in the shower she thought she heard "someone singing loudly the kind of music you listen to!".

And for the BM screech thing, I dunno what happened to that Legion dude, but I know from my personal experience that my BM scream is much less felt in my throat than any other type of vocals I do, and I can probably go at it longer than any of my other growls... So I guess if I feel it less, it's less of a burden on the throat, which makes it less dangerous. But maybe my logic is wrong.

I might upload my vocal cover for Lykathea Aflame - To Become Shelter and Salvation soon, though I fucked it a bit and it was recorded on my MP3 player... Though I'd like some comments, it's the first time I recorded something and didnt just sing along or growled in the shower

yeah that would be chill if you uploaded a vocal demo of you. i like to hear other people do them ill commet if you do it.

but now that i think of it there is one type of growl i cant do loud: the growl that alot of goregrind bands do like holokausto cannible its like a low do do dio do growl and i can do it but i have to have a big ass loogey in my traot and it isnt loud at all its almost a whisper. does anybody know how to do it correctly and loud?

That's the style that can't be done loudly, if I'm thinking of what you're referring to. I assume you mean the Devourment-style internal gurgles?

i guess... go here. http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu ... D=72925191

and the second video on that page i cant do either i dunno if its the same thing or not though.

I can do some fairly deep death growls without hurting my throat, only problem is I can't sustain them for very long. Is there any way to get past this problem? I can do some Araya style vocals (such as the ones on Hell Awaits) rather well, so perhaps I should stick to that.

I think I can pull of some of the middle 80s idiosyncrasies, a bit of mid to high falsetto, and obviously some banshee shrieks. I want to develop my thrash vocals, as death and black come so easily to me. I think I'll first experiment with older NWOBHM and speed, and see how it relates to thrash in vocal evolution.

how do you do goregrind vocals? like cattle decapitation

There's seems to be volume to that, but damned if it doesn't resonate insanely far back in the throat. Just try doing a normal death growl, but from the back of your mouth instead of the middle.

http://www.myspace.com/120980797

I've uploaded a clip of my doing a cover for Lykathea Aflame - To Become Shelter and Salvation.
It sucks, I know. Kinda fucked it in some places (Like when my growl turns into the voice of a constipated old man), but I think it went pretty good for a one-take recording through my MP3 player's microphone.

Any comments? Please dont laugh

I might upload some more covers soon, probably of something like Orphaned Land - Mabool.

I've done vocals in quite a few bands that never got around to doing anything, though I used to be in Laid to Waste (they're on here). I left before they recorded the demo, though, and the material prior to it was better. Heavier and thrashier. I've got a large range, but can do clean, aggressive, growling, grunting, that weird gargling sound and screaming. I'd record some clips but I'm currently suffering from tonsilitis. Which, as you can probably guess, sucks.

thats sick man i like it. do you think you could explain how to growl like that?

Although, I didn't like the "sound" of it, you can growl.

Now teach us.

Cant exactly explain how to do it. If you can get the sound of the growl, then I can tell you how to get a lower, more brutal one - close your mouth in a little round shape. And also position your head low, as if you're looking at your penis or something. It'll make the brutal sound easier to produce (try growling when your chin is close to your chest and then move your head up and notice how you cant hold the sound).

I've recorded another cover today. This time a completely different type of band and growl. Orphaned Land - Mabool.

http://www.myspace.com/120980797

Less fuck ups this time, but the sound isnt exactly like the original. I've had to use a more BM scream-ish growl, while Kobi's growl is not quite like that. I think it sounds good though.

Comments will be appreciated.

I suck arse at clean singing, but I can do a guttural scream pretty well and I can do a 'vomit growl' okay. I can't sustain them very long though.

What I do is to just drive out the air using the diaphragm muscle. To make your voice deeper you have to stick out your lower jaw and and flatten your tongue against the floor of your mouth.

I haven't attempted much sing-alones but as for sing alongs, I do one hell of Steve Perry (Journey). I think... I'll have to record it though, to be sure.

I can also do James LaBrie and Tim Owens quite well on occasion. Every one in awhile, I can pull off Bruce Dickenson okay-ishly. Sometimes, I can sound like the shitty singer from 3 Inches of Blood (minus the hxc screams). I can do (that is, imitate) some power metal pretty well, but I can't say that I'm a good singer as I've rarely attempted adapting my own style to bands. I'll try it soon and tell you folks how it goes. I haven't tried much growl/screams either.

this ones pretty good too i wouldnt call that a growl though its more of just a scream. i dunno if your doing this on purpose or not but when your ending the words you say i can kinda hear your normal voice come out and it would soun better if you could keep a steady scream. unless you were doing it purposely but your recordings are good and your a good vocalist. but i dont reall understand how you explained it i can do a normal growl but when i lower my head it makes it so i cant even do it...

King Diamond and alot of high pitched male Power metal vocals use the falsetto style... doesn't that use the false vocal cords as well?

SCMugen hit the nail on the head though for growls...

That advice actually helped better my abilities to an extent.

Probably mentioned before, but eat the mike... well not put it in your mouth but get really close to it.

I was watching this crappy deathcore band in someone's garage called Throw Up perform and I couldn't here the vocalist. They asked someone to sing because they had no lyrics for the one song, so I volunteered and sucked less than their vocalist.

SCMugen, nice cover of Mabool btw! ^_^

I can sing like glen benton and do some cannival corpse style singing, but i still wana get it deeper, death to emo!!!

I can do Heavy Metal vocals and Thrash Metal vocals. As I do not possess a high range i can't go into high shrieks or screams. I can do some low growls, but my throat is incapable of pulling out Black Metal singing.

Well as promised here are some links to some growling\harsh vocal tutorials:(not a huge fan of Tony Bullard's choice of examples, but take what you want.)

http://www.tonybullard.com/?page_id=19
- The Metal Vocal Tutorial by Tony Bullard

http://www.wikihow.com/Do-Harsh-Death-Metal-Vocals
- How to Do Harsh Death Metal Vocals

Link.
- by Chuck Stelzner

all three of these links are very good resources esspecially for begginers. the last one is more than a lesson it has a bunch of other shit too that was very interesting. and the quote from the second one haha very true though, you can damage it at any age you are just more likely to damage it worse. "This type of singing is not for folks under 16, since it could damage your vocal chords if not fully matured."

Ya, as mentioned above, the third link is more of a physics experiment with comparing octives, harmonies etc.. between clean and growled vocals. In the first couple of pages this is some pointers about growling. By the way if anyone has any other vocal tutorials (mainly for metal) I'd like to see some posted.

well here is a thing i found in a diferent forum a while back that i saved as a word document. i looked for the original thing so i could just link it there but i couldnt find it and i forget what site i found it on. i dont know there name but i give full credit to the person who wrote it.

Ok so iv noticed allot of people talking about how there throats hurt and what not when they sing, also about using foods and drinks to "make" then sing. So im going to try and make a guide to follow so that no one else gets hurt or tells people to do things that will do 0% to improve the healing process.

Step 1: BREATHING

Ok so many people think that you have to take huge gasp of air just to find small parts, that’s wrong. Also when you sing, it shouldn't be louder than a loud talk. IF you in a band and u have to raise your voice to get over the guitar/drums, just stop until u have an amp that gets loud enough without u having to scream ur nutz off.

First thing to know is that you sing out of your diaphragm and use your ribs for reserves. Take a deep breath and make sure that you’re SHOLDERS DO NOT MOVE. What you’re looking for is your rib cage expanding. Place ur hands on your ribcage to feel it. Then push air out of your mouth using your diaphragm. To do so you need to push the diaphragm down. It will feel like your taking a shit (ha-ha). Hold that for as long as you can. Make sure to NOT use any from your rib cage. When your diaphragm is out then u can use your rib cage as your reserve. Doing so allows you’re to sing long parts without having to worry about air intake. I can hold notes for 30+ secs and screams/growls for 15+.

Hold to tell if you’re doing it right.

Lay on your back with your right hand on your stomach and your left, ball your hand into a fist and place it on your rib cage (on the left). Now take a breath in for 8 counts (DONT MOVE YOUR SHOLDERS). Then slowly breathe out and only use your diaphragm for 4 counts then your ribcage for 4. Repeat 3 times. This will help build your stamina and your ability to do so.

A way to see how your diaphragm works is this. Make a bark noise. You will see that your abs clench up when you do it. That’s using your diaphragm.


Step 2: PITCH

Ok so most people just try to imitate there fav singers, well this is wrong. DONT imitate people when you’re starting, it’s only cutting your talent in half. Singing is from the inside.

How to find your pitch. Close your lips and make a hum (would sound like mmmmmm). Start as low as your can (DONT TRY TO GROWL OR USE YOUR THROAT) and then raise it until it is at its max. You will tell when it’s totally comfortable to make this pitch and you get a kind of ringing sound in your head. No open your mouth and keep that pitch, do it until you can't anymore. Remember this is YOUR PITCH, not someone else’s so don't try to imitate what you want to sound like. Now hit that pitch again and open ur mouth, and now say MMMMEEEEE NNNNEEEE. Do it slow and try to keep the sound constant. Do that again only when you get to the 3-4 NNNEEE lower your pitch a little. You will tell when you get it because it feels like a click in your head. Once you do that you have your pitch. Congrats. Now try to hold that pitch along as you can, and keep it constant.

Step 3: Heat/Fire

Heat is added a "Crunch" to you voice. You can do so by using your nose. This is also for screams. An easy way to get this is by making a Marge Simpson voice. You notice how it’s all in the nose. That’s how it should be when you scream, all in the nose area, not the throat.

Fire is a growl. You do so by pushing air out of your diaphragm and raising your Addams apple. This creates a vibration in that gives your the growl sound. A good way to build your growl is to do jumping jacks while saying your ABC's in a growl. Make each one strong and in your center pitch.


Step 5: Heat

If it hurts SHUT UP!!! It’s the best thing you can do for your voice. Whispering is almost as bad as continuing to scream/growl wrong. No food/drinks will help heal your voice. Just shut up if it hurts. Also don't do growls for my than 5-10 mins at a time when you first start because you’re probably going to do it wrong first time around.

Well that should give you some ideas and explanation on how to scream/growl properly.