hey guys, around september of last year i started taking voice lessons to help strengthen and improve my singing. my routine consists of going through a warmup/exercise tape for about 75min and then a break before working on songs using my natural voice but i would like to start working more on extreme metal type vocals. does anybody have any advice on practising them without blowing my voice out? in toying with them before i found that i could only go for so long before i lost my ability to distort my voice. what are the keys to gaining endurance without tiring my voice. should i be starting with quieter vocalizations to get my voice accustomed to the demands before increasing volume or should i just rely on lots of breaks and lots of water? my teacher told me in my first lesson that this style of singing is bad for the voice and even damagingin the long term but i think shes just a little biased. when i hear lots of my favorite singers i notice that their vocals get better and stronger with every new album(eg. michael ackerfelt, peter tatgren, speed strid, the almighty dev)

mikael and devin probably aren't human, thats the first thing you need to realize. mastering metal vocals like that is probably impossible!

as for "extreme agressive vocals" just think about the people you hate it should just come naturally....

but KNOW your limits ^.^

*disclaimer*
i have never sung in my life, disregard the above statements.
except this one
and this one
and this one
and this one
and that one
and that one
and that one....

I can't sing for beans, but everyone always says you need to growl from the gut (presumably the diaphragm) rather than the throat....essentially, the same technicques you'll have learnt in your regular singing lessons will really help you. Sorry, that's all I know

one of the things i learned in lessons was that the diaphragm has nothing to do with the actual "singing" per se but everything to do with proper breathing techniques( the sound comes from your vocal chords where as you need lots of air to help make things sound good and that is where taking breathes deep into your gut to fill your diaphragm help) how to growl or whatever isnt really the problem, its how to practise the technique without killing my voice real quick that i could use some help in( endurance is the key). and oh yeah, mikael and dev definetely aint from any planet i know . i'd sure love to know how dev warms and trains his voice for all those strapping shows though. it seems like the aggressive vocals are easier for him to pull off than some of the clean vocal parts. i always found clean singing(as long as im not singing in my upper range to much) much easier and less straining that more intense vocalizations.

It's kinda hard to explain how to do, but you kinda have to tighten your throat, push from the diaphragm, and make sure there's plenty of moisture in your throat, because it's kind of a gurgle thing.

The truth is,

everybody does it in a different way, that´s one of the reasons for the difference between the sounds of metalsingers.

Problem no1 most of em do it the wrong way:
You can, if you like go the easy way and just scream like you would scream at a football/soccer/baseball/hockey or whatever stadion.
With this way you will soon detune and lose your voice after a couple of songs.

The guys telling you bout something like "gurgeling" are close to the "healthy" way. But even here I can assure you, it´s all a matter of time.

Intensive training is the key to success. No voice is like the other and even if I would try my whole life, I could never sound in the screams like the Dev in a natural way (I am not talking about studio-options).
So you have YOUR voice, there is a science called voicegeneration that you learn if you study vocals here and there exist many books about that topic.

Your voice is other than mine, perhaps you are comparable to others, but you will NEVER have the same voice like anybody else, and the most important is to find a grawling way, matching to your sound, that is not taking effect to your vocal chords.

What you wrote about building tunes only with vocal chords isn´t correct.
Your whole body does the tunes. Your whole body is the instrument, so is your diaphragm.

Try it, but be sure, you have to train and train. How to make dosage of breathe for screaming is important too.

For me it´s hard to explain how to sing, but if you wanna sing metal, just mention that classic training, or pop-training cannot help you with sounding more agressive. It´s a matter of time, personal research and
feeling.

Hope that my posting is not totally useless

Greetings

Martin

do some reading about the false vocal folds as well, they can act as a sort of protection for the real vocal chords.

however, like someone above said it will only be a matter of time before you get a node or something worse, unless you're very lucky. the vocal chords aren't muscles or anything, they're just tiny little bits of SOFT TISSUE. you know how you get callouses on your hands by doing lots of hard work or playing guitar etc? well, that's alright on your hands, but you don't want that on your vocal chords. even if you have a problem removed by surgery there's a chance you'll get scar tissue which will still ruin your voice.

so how is a guy supposed to work on extreme vocals if theyre going to just fry your voice? i mean how can devin put on a strapping show without completely tiring his voice and do it a couple shows in a row. he really gives er. and you were right about vocal chords not being the only part involved in the actual singing, i just meant that they are the main thing. lots of other stuff have to do with resonance and stuff.

so how is a guy supposed to work on extreme vocals if theyre going to just fry your voice? i mean how can devin put on a strapping show without completely tiring his voice and do it a couple shows in a row. he really gives er. and you were right about vocal chords not being the only part involved in the actual singing, i just meant that they are the main thing. lots of other stuff have to do with resonance and stuff.

He's honed his technique Now consider Rob Halford. That man pushes his voice like no other - yet after 35 years of singing, he still has the same voice.

It's all about the correct technique, plus taking care of your throat - don't strain and drink warm liquid, most seem to prefer honey.

Oh and one other thing. I remember hearing from someone that you should growl so, that you can do it without any effort - you should almost speak to the mic, not push your voice. Just do it very easily. Enough to break the sound (in the good sense), but not pushing it.

i think your right when you talk about speaking to the mic. i think that for growls the volume should be floating around speaking level and then the mic does the rest though i suspect that the best guys like ackerfelt are able to push it a little more.

i think your right when you talk about speaking to the mic. i think that for growls the volume should be floating around speaking level and then the mic does the rest though i suspect that the best guys like ackerfelt are able to push it a little more.

Actually, Akerfeldt (opeth singer, right?) grunts with very little volume, like speaking level.

My brother and I have a technique we like to use to strengthen our "doom growls". We go driving around yelling at people or singing Sepultura songs to random people (refuse/resist is a great one).

Me, too. When I drive in the car it is the only place where noone is harmed through my missmatched vocals - at least noone who knows me- , the only place, where I am alone. When I try to growl like the Dev it is always little above audible, sometimes volumed up to loud speaking, but never more. I am no singer at all, my voice isnt made for singing or at least it never get enough training for it. But sing along with Dev is so much FUN; OM, Terria, Infinity, City - I tried it all, but I think the only song I really really get 100percent correct is 3 a.m. from OM. On songs like Earthday or Home Nucleonics I am quite happy, when I get a least one right note that nearly sounds like Devin, you know.

How can I train my voice for singing? Must I attend lessons with a teacher or can I learn singing to some degree for example online on the net or with a book or just by trying to sing along with songs?
Is there a way to improve my voice without attending lessons? Just want some tips from you...

How can I train my voice for singing? Must I attend lessons with a teacher or can I learn singing to some degree for example online on the net or with a book or just by trying to sing along with songs?
Is there a way to improve my voice without attending lessons? Just want some tips from you...

I recommend lessons. A very large part of singing is learning to use some muscles around your stomach correctly, learning how to breathe, and such things. It's much easier when you have a teacher to correct you.

Agreed. Singing more than any other instrument (IMO) is very difficult to learn to do correctly on your own, I'm sure you could do it, but a teacher can tell you what you are doign wrong and how to correct it pretty quickly. I've heard people say that anyone can be taught to sing....I might have a bet with one of those people and take myself for lessons, haha