Everything is a lie, and thats the only truth : Vocal Facts.

[Dim5um]

This topic is posted for my friends in soft and other vocalist that i have came across. Nevertheless, I am just mere mortal who is sharing pure fact from what i learn. I hope there are people who benefit from this post. Those with more knowledge can probably share more.

The reason why I am posting this is because too many people i know has ask me why they get sore throat when singing, why emo punk bands can scream for a long term, why other there so many freaking issues like you can hit high notes on good days and sometimes you can't.

Having been in vocal singing for 4 years, its a pain for myself to go through a transitional change last year. I decided to take hobby in singing to a next stage by coaching myself properly. After going through different schools and people, I learn through the hard way both physically ( vocal strenghtening and finanicially) and mentally ( trying really to understand what is vocal).

I will not talk about how a our vocals work because theres too much online material that can easily cover that. The only issue is if each of us bother to really do a check. 1st things first, there are two tissues that produce voice within us. The first one hits your falsettoes. The latter produce your "first pounding" voice or more commonly known as "real" voice. In actual fact, all voice is real, just that because of the nature or tone of it, there are terms we give to it.

(1) the first ever questions that i keep hearing from my friends are always "how do you sing higher notes?" how do you break make sure when you sing, you dun sound like a whoosy and you can keep you voice with hard rock quality??"

In actual fact, all of us can sing high notes. I believe you would want to disagree at this point that some peoplel are born with low voice. Just imagine this, why can some poeple have such a good body? Because they work out for years and build it. So, am i saying you can hit high notes when you work your body out? Not necessary Yes and not necessary No. Why am i saying this? Because by nature, when all of us are born, our capacity to scream was probably at a five octave. ( an octave is a session from C note to B) So what the hell happen to us? Well, some of us get lucky and our parents bring us for singing session since young. Some of us not so, ( you probably get smack everytime you cry and scream) so through years, we do not exercise our full potential. It will definately take time to train back your vocal notes and range. But the end result or goal is to ask yourself; why do you want to sing higher or how much high do you want to sing? Why? The truth is we can never be EVERYTHING in life. because we just cant. And thats why there are two catergories of poeple for males " barritone and tennor" ( i myself is a barritone). A good singer is not one that can hit high notes, a good singer is one that know his/her own vocals inside out at the tips of his/her lips. ie, he knows where is his range from chest voice to mid voice to high voice to head voice to whistle. And he knows where he can transition from each portion to the other. I will probably cover that in a later part if i have time. Right now, I hope those reading this, ( to my friends) stop thinking about singing high notes for now. There are other things you should train as a vocalist first.

 

[synapse]

I'm interested. Please elaborate

 

[Dim5um]

Speech Singing : Part I, Vocal Tones

This will seemed very jumble up cos i dun really know where to start. But then again, sit back and read on with patience.

When I was 15, the first ever song exposed to me was "nothing else matter" by metallica. I went on learning my first ever instrument; an acoustic guitar. By the time i hit 17, i fell in love with pop. The heavenly king who top the charts was Jacky Cheung. Life goes by and i'm 18. I was shocked and awe by laruku, more known as l'arc-en-ciel, a jap rock band. Then came various other influences. In between those years, i had no idea what was singing.

Singing probably meant one of the two : screaming at my top voice to hit high notes and trying to mimic what the singers did. KTV became avaibable by my 20s, and we all became so exposed to places like KBOX and Party World. I never looked back at english songs anymore then. Everything since was about chinese pop. I felt improvement on my vocal scales. I hit higher notes. I began screaming more during high notes to hit the songs. I managed my voice by living on with sore throats after every KTV sessions. I listen to what friends say, " keep singing the song again and again and you will improve. Dun need to go classes, how professional you trying to seek?"

Each of us individuals are different, but one thing i know for sure, going classes improved my singing, and im gonna tell you why, and where, how it helped, and when it helped and who it helped; ME. I had a choice to choose to ignore training my vocals, after all, we are all skeptical and singing doesn't really sound like a very bright future. Moreover, its just a hobby. I took the time and pain to research, and i spend a deal of money in schools. I hop around. I have seen students whom even with good coach, can never understand what the teachers are trying to bring across; even if the coach is teaching very basic stuff. The truth is, theres too much variable in singing and its not just thinking your vocals are a pair of insturment (although it is) it is much more harder to establish or teach it. Why? because i can feel a guitar string, i can tune it, i can press my saxyphone, i can scale through the black and whites of my piano. But you can't go down through your throat to tune your vocal flaps. When your guitar string is broken, you change it. How many times can you change your vocal folds?? The answer is less than twice probably. (you can do it with improve surgical.)

jazz, R & B, blues, funk, latin, ska, reggae, hip hop, rap, rock, hard rock, death metal.....

Why did i state the above genres? Because i started out with no direction. because if you choose to do A maths, E maths, Combine Science and Mother tongue with compalusary english, you have to end up either in JCs or Poly and you still have to specialised. You either, 1) specialised in something you like or 2) end up doing what you not like or love 3)is very talented and becomes something special or 4) you fail and give up in life. The examples i gave are extreme. Even for myself, i have witness people who can sing very well without vocal coach. But one thing for sure, you need to know your direction. And that is why your direction will probably set you a target to meet.

Facts: the most open/direct way to train your vocal is to go classical.

What do i mean?? Simply said, if you learn piano, and if you go classical, you will know your basics inside out, from there on your transit, you break the rules, you create, you freeplay. Ask yourself, have you quarrel with others? have you tried screaming at someone? can you recall how it felt? have you tried crying and talking babbling out words? how did you feel during the moments? Have you tried going concert and screaming out your lungs to cheer? Why does it feel tougher, more stresss when you are doing it intentionally? Why didnt you feel stress when you are angry screaming at others? Why? why can you hum a song, at great ease. Why cant you translate that to singing? The fact is, you can, but you need to know how. And by doing exercise, knowing your own vocals, it helps. What do i mean by knowing my own vocals? like i said previously, you need to know your chest voice all the way to your whistle. You need to know your range, your tone. its straight forward, either a barritone or trenor or in-between. That you can never change for your voice quality. The moment you decided to be matured and cross that transition, your tone quality is then and there. Then again you will disagree, so why does alot of singer like the chinese male pop JJ Lin sing so high key but he talk like very low. Why huh? Your vocal quality is what you have now. Your speech voice, your nature voice box that you have been speaking and training every moment every time when you talk to someone. Whether you choose to use that tone or not, is to be decided by you. You CAN have your own style and sound nassle or edgy or growling... But like i said, if you haven master what is A, A major, A minor, do you think just by learning A chords with that 3 keys you can play the full scale?? So back to tone quality again, you can only know that if, 1) you are once in a choir and your teaches tells you which group you are in 2) you decided to train in a singing class or 3) you can find someone with vocal knowledge and determine it 4) you probably should have figure out yourself what you group you lie in. ( for females, its the same thingy, but i forgot the two terms...pardon me...)

Chest, Mid, Head, Whistle.

An average vocalist by left or right should be able to hit 3 octaves. By 3 ocatves, i mean 21 notes. So what does that mean? It means, an average male should be able to do "do re mi fa so la ti DO" 3 times going upscale with every progression. A 4 octave guy is term as quite good. 5 octave guy is solid. ( so far i only know one angmor that can hit 5 octave.) So now means we must all try to hit 4 octave of notes to become good singers? Nope. What I am talking about now is rating the capablity of a good singer in terms of vocal stretch only. So lets go back and talk about 3 octaves for now, since we all must have a clearer understanding on an average male, so at least we can all have a gauge. We will leave the talented or extremes out of the picture for now. 3 octaves, 21 keys. If you have a slight understanding on music theory, you should, and will probably know what is middle C. but gauge of middle C, i suggest use a keyboard of piano to train, it is by far through dunno how many million light years, the most abused tool to train artist. from middle C, you should be able to go down 5 to 6 keys lower. There really aint any piont to go further than 4 keys behind middle key cos...no one really sings lower than that. (maybe got lar but not alot i guess...) from there, scale up your singing, ( you can choose to do A,E,I,O,U any of the vowels.) feel your chest vibration and the moment you feel strain in the next keys, you can gauge how wide your chest voice actually is. In singing school, we have a few ways to practice chest voice. I cannot explain in plain text on how and what is chest voice. If its that simple, non of us will need coach. ( yup there still are people who doesnt go to coach and can really sing very well...imagine if they go .....because you never know how far you can go...there might be cases where the coaches will teach you something different because only you have the talents to learn the higher skills....) anyhow, lets not talk about talents again. Going up your chest voice, is your mid voice. From mid voice, where you dun feel your chest trembling, to the next level where you cannot control and hit high notes, ( you will notice your vocal quality change) that is your mid voice. How to gauge? They way i say is like very simple...easier said than done, I myself can't gauge it initially. A tip to take note, when you do your scaling, take note of your own voice box. when you go home and hum your way from low notes to high notes, you will notice the sound in your mouth travels from chest to around your mouth and to the back of your head/nose. The sound didnt actually travel there, it feels like it travelled there. In mid voice, your "feel" should be around mouth area. Once you cannot control any further and you move on the scale, the second last portion is head voice. Head voice is , sound travelling through the head. In this instance, head voice is falsetto, but...i say again, but falsetto is NOT head voice. Its very hard to explain it here. I probably have to do a few falsetto so you can know what is really falsetto and why i say head voice is falsetto but not the other way round.... the last portion is whistle...but we dun usually do whistle voice unless you like in opera powerhouse then..i dunno... for now....lets digest this part. We will talk about singing in flare or voice control, the facts and logic behind head voice, when i have time.

If someone has a specific qwery...then we will look into that seperately

 

[zenguan88]

this guy is cool he could be a tutor for soft here keep the info coming in dude

 

[live33]

This is interesting. Nice job there!

I would also like to understand how to build up the basics like breath, attack and placement? (What exactly is placement?)

 

[Guest]

yea sometimes when i sing right, i don't run out of breath, and i articulate my words properly, but my head feels like i'm holding my breath while hanging upside down at the end of the chorus before i take another breath. basically, i got no breathing problems or slurring of words but i keep getting that head swelling feeling :? save me!

 

[Dim5um]

zenguan88 : thankx for the compliment, I appreciate it but the name "tutor" is too much a big hat for me to wear. I'm just doing info sharing and I,myself is only a vocal student as of now. I'm still a long way from coaching.

live33: Breathing : We don't actually need to learn breathing, the fact that you can survive long enough to see this post probably means you know how to breath. Lolx. Kidding, I know what you are getting at, when singing, how to control breath and hold to hold long notes. There are a few various ways to train or should i use the word, "familiarize" yourself singing while breathing. This part of singing is probably the least touch on upon. Why? because most of us would already have tempo or know how to moderate our pace when singing. There are a few of us, whom, tend to go faster or more "anxious" when singing thus resulting in the need to catch a breath.Do a search online and there are already tonns of report on breathing techniques. The simplest way is just to have a metronome and do a breathing count of sucking in air, holding breath, and finally breathing all those out. But seriously, if you can swim ( i assume most of us can) and hold your breath for at least 10 to 20 seconds under water, what is the issue cos most songs don even go on a single breath of 20 seconds continueously. The only problem is now, how do you hold your breath when you are singing? Theres a few obvious way you can spot your own error 1) when you sing to a mic, you hear alot of "puurr purr" sound coming out. Its like extreme air hitting on the mic. Thus you release too much air when singing. 2) cover your mouth with both hands and do a "ahhhhh" on any note. Intentionally do one with alot of air release, and do one with no air release (ie, holding your breath, yes its POSSIBLE). feel the difference.

Since you are just asking whats the basic, I won't touch on harder breathing techniques. Still got harder? Yes, still have...there are ways to do a single breath singing in a single full sentence, then by technique, continue the second sentence without doing an obvoius breath in of air showing an obvoius air breathing sound... Don't ask me how to do it, ask yourself why you wanna learn such technique??don't do it for the sake of doing it just because there is such a technique.

Attack: what do you mean by attack? I learn from chinese school so i dunno what attack is. Direct translation to chinese means "Da2 Jia4" which i dun think i come across something like that....I can't make sense what you trying to mean, probably you can re-explain what you want to know.

Placement: what do you mean by placement? are you referring to tone placement as in when you sing, which direction your vocal sound should be positioned? If that is what you trying to ask, In my previous post I already touch on the basics of voice placement. Ie: chest voice should be where, middle, and etc. But I didnt touch on mouth placement. Like in Ah EE Wu Yu OO Eh MM.. Neng.... Those involves tongue placement. If you do a "AHHH" with your tongue touching your front row teeth, it will sound different when you do a "AHHH" with your tongue lying full flat down. Bare in mind to try this on the same note. I can't possibly teach you that in laymens term, cos even most of my teachers/coach can't finish the whole syllybus. It will take probably more than 3 to 4 pages of hard text explaining in depth which position each tongue should be to produce which sound. But I shouldn't be talking about that and we shouldn't be learning about that. Why? Simple, you don't wanna sound too technical. So how did i learn vowels; learning vowels is the same as learning voice placement, why??!! because you learn the basic 5 a,e,i,o,u and from then on you exercise your mouth stretch to produce those sound and you get the placement like in Ahh, you will feel it in your front row teeth and your mouth is wide open, and rightfully, you should be in a smiling state and your cheek bones should be up. I know, some of you will ask "sure anot...like very detail what cheek bone move what this what that." If I can see you face to face and exaggerate the effect and make you do it, I can probably show you how true vowel expression can change your entire song. But right now, I can't cause we are all virtual. And its only right for you to be skeptical. Do a search on placement and you probably will see tonns of teaching materials for free. The only way you can see results, is to ask someone who knows it to do it and demo it.

chester277: There are a few ways in life when we can feel head swelling. 1) extreme fever, lost of oxygen/breath ( this is more like giddy and head swelling). You mention you didnt run out of breath, and you can articulate your words properly. But you also said that you held your breath. Now if without singing, try holding your breath, for 3 mins. By the time you hit two minute ( if you can...that is.....well I can't) see if you will start to feel the swelling. Oh you can do a few trouble shoot like keep breathing and sucking in air and see if you will feel that swelling problem. From what i know, personnally, I have only felt head heavines or swelling only when i'm hitting high notes and i keep straining them down and the whole face goes red. That was like 1-2 years ago when i attempt singing. If this is something like what you are facing now, then theres one of a few issue that you must tackle with. 1) not all notes can be surpressed, ie, if you do a whistle sound, can you surpress that note? You can't , how to surpress? Over forcing of yourself (sometimes over forcing of voice doesn't really mean you will get sore throat or break your voice only) will exert stress. The way the stress exert depends on where you are forcing. If you are doing a high key note and you over stress yourself by either biting in your vowels ( very common,...alot of singers bite their vowels in and cut their own range...they just don't know about it.) or pressing your chest voice too much. That will break your vocal folds. and you will experience sore and probably pain in the throat. If you are doing head voice and over screaming or pushy. You can feel swelling in the head. You'll probably see alot of strain in the face. Because of the fact that head voice and falsetto and whistle is too high a clear note, when you force it down directly, its equivilant to getting nowhere in vocal texture but taxing on you voice on your head. I'll post an example if i can find a metaphor to explain this. 2) always ask yourself, how high is the note you are attempting. Then after that, ask yourself on that note, what should it actually feel like when you hum it. Where is the vocal tone it should hit?? your chest, mid or head?

I'll continue on from yesterday's explaination once i get back home...right now i need to attend class.....Thanks for all the encouraging replys. =]

 

[jianrong]

Hi, me myself also a hopper in vocal singing. For years, wasted $ in private individual,group to music school group lessons... Yet never completed any of these course set in the course duration commitment. Though some are a life long courses (which i know of three) From the experience professional well known to the junior coach around.

Due to my lousy determination commitment. Maybe that why it causes me now still dont sound professionally. But i do recall most of their way of teaching and knowledge...

What i believe for myself now.

1. it doesn't matter whether a vocalist had a high wider range or less than 2 octave range.
2. everyone had at least 2 octave range. (including the unpleasant voice).
3. knowing your own vocal range is important so that you dont force,scream to abuse your vocal cord. Instead, flip it comfortable into head voice. It doesn't matter whether the note are weak soft, out of tune or into weak or power falsetto.
4. Head voice and falsetto voice are different although it may sound like falsetto for head voice. Explain this example later below.
5. Instructors (even those professional media coaches) alway talk about use diaphragm to sing. It is not true to focus and spend time learning it. Because improper or misleading usage may lead to yelling then prior to damage vocal cord. Example : lesson where advise give a loud hur ...
Instead, we already know how to use it. When we speak with various emotions... We are already using it. So dont need to go find it or think about it. It come connected naturally.

Ok, think i shall stop elaborate more points of view. LOL.

An example of head voice and falsetto sound different.

2 songs. The song sing by rick price heaven know. The chorus part - Only Heaven Know. Most peoples had told me before when they sing this song. OMG, i cant hit that falsetto.

It is actually a head register voice.

The song by Gary Cao Ge - Chen Mo Wan Ju.

If u guys heard about this song where it reach one of the high peak. After the chorus end Cao Ge sing a note with a huh huh~huh...

That is a head voice. The beginning chorus Zhong shi wo. The word Zhong is a falsetto but then later chorus he hit it with real voice.

My highest head voice could hit this cao ge song with the huh huh~huh note. Verified it in ktv version.

I am a baritone tenor. With a chest rich vocal. And it may help alittle when you are humming songs note. Using head voice + falsetto or singing your low note with a chest register. Plus a croak sounding mix voice.

And i believe that if you can speak well in dictions and inject various voice emotions well enough with no deadly bad habits and injuries. There shouldnt be a big problem with your singing quality.

 

[Dim5um]

jianrong: interesting stuff you have there. Its refreshing to see a different point of view from someone whom has joined classes. Keep it coming.

Heres another long post continueing on what i would like to share regarding speech singing. Once again, through my own experience, I hope most of you can relate to it and see if it helps.

Speech Singing : Part II, The Whats and Why?

Vowels: The why you need to know them.

All of us started singing in one of many languages. Most of us end up doing songs in our primary mother tongue. As in my previous posts, i really started singing when I was doing chinese covers from jacky cheung. What do i mean by really singing; by the fact when i can recall my first time repeating playing the jacky cheung CDs trying to listen to everyword, every little detail when he change his timing, his breathing, when he did soft and loud in his songs. I still can remember the CD tat was i kept repeated it probably cause me nightmare. I was that dedicated, but i went nowhere. Not that i went nowhere, i couldn't understand why and how he did specific part of the song. When i went back to sing english pop like west life and others, i didnt sound english. I told myself i didnt have the accent cos i dun speak english in nature. Its not my everyday language. But what if, what if you are willing to speak english everyday and make it a habit to change how you sound when you attempt english songs. Will it make a difference? Yes it will, but not fully. Like every thing in life, there are short cuts and different ways to reach our end destination. If you just wanna learn how to play D'Canon on piano, you can probably take 2 months memorising and playing the keys with a 12 hours commitment each day, or you can learn piano from grade 1 to grade 4 or 5 for a few years and attempt it. Makes sense? Well fair enough, then how do i make sure if im of any race, i can attempt any songs? Use your ears and break down the vowels. By breaking down i mean really paying attention and rewinding the individual parts. You might say, yar right...so easy i rewind but i still dun find the difference; The diff is,for english songs, they emphasise more on the vowels and stress more notes on Ttt..sound and Pss... as in sounds like Pppush and Ttt. Let me take an example, like erm....the song "Push" from Matchbox 20. In the chorus he hit , [I wanna Push you around, Well i will, Well i will.] Some of us might not empahsis on "Well (as in W..Ell) I Will ( as in Weee ill)" Try singing this portion and playback to see if you sound the same on well and will. And in works like 'around", they dun sing it "a...round" they sing it 'Eh..round" and words like "really", they dun sing it "real-lly" they sing it "reeee---ly" And that makes the difference in detail of why you probably doesn't sound english accent enough. I myself is learning how to sing vowels in english hits. And once you know the small little issues, you'll hit most of the songs not sounding like a perfect ABC, but you sound like an asian whom can sing english hits. Not to mention in your own style. Singing english songs is probably the hardest part (for myself) in singing for asians. And yes, i have seen singlish teacher, able to sing any english song sounding like a real western pop singer. And that makes the teacher special cos he/she can tell you and point out what you did wrong in your songs, AND not forgetting, telling you how and why you should sing in a specific way to achieve it. And learning from those poeple is probably the fastest ways to improve.

Dan Tian/ Diaphram: Which is what? What is it?

Alot of chinese vocalist like to use the word Dan(1) Tian(2) and says that using the Dan Tian to sing is the best way. First off, Dan tian is a spot we say in words. Its the same as in chinese when you talk about "liu tong er mai". Its like if i tell you my "Tai yang xue" (the sun dunno what spot) on my head is in pain today, i'm just telling you the middle forehead area of my head is in pain. Its just a spot we referring to. Diaphragm is a piece of muscle that settles under your ribcage. When we refer to "sing with your dan tian or sing with your diaphragm", the professionals are actually trying to tell you to sing and control your air flow. Not what "sing with your stomach area" or whatever explaination there is. You see, the body structure of us is very simple, how do you produce sound? you produce it by 1 of a few ways, with and without air. We can generally choose to talk with alot of air in our mouth. or hold our breath and talk, i dun think you can suck in air and talk, (this is the most ridiculous to try)but then lets not assume move on. Lets for example say...if you hit a high note, how does it fill if say you do it in high clear pitch or falsetto? It sounds like, not much air use, body relax. Little effort. When you do a mid voice and sing maybe like erm...lets say a fairly ok song like "stand by me". When you start out with "when the night...has come..." how do you do it? do you sing it harshly or do you just bring through the song? Listen to how the actual singer did it. He probably sound very bright and energtic with "WHEN THE NIGHT....HAS come..." then he goes low with "and the land is dark...." because when the land is dark it is dark lar you dun sing it loud in this songs context...So how would you do the "WHEN THE NIGHT?" portion? you push more energy from your body for air to go through or do you do it effortlessly? See how your body feel, from your stomoach, to your chest , to your throat and out of your mouth. Study yourself and feel it. Imagine you were to do the loud effect again on a higher note. What does it mean? Direction translation what, you charge an amp more power = more loud. So in higher pitch is = strength. But like I said, you sing on a high pitch note, you need to know what you really wanna achieve. I will not tell you how to control your diaphragm. You learn your body yourself if you really is keen on being a vocalist. Heres a tip, do an Ohh Ohh Ohh Ohh sound scaling up. In doing vowels like OHHH , you widen your mouth. It is by far the easiest vowel to attain singing strength. For singing clear high notes, do a scale on Yu Yu Yu Yu... its is much more easier to sing yu into falsetto.

I would like to carry on talking about screaming next time. What is screaming, what do we mean by screaming, is there a corret way to scream, is screaming shouting? How do rockstars shout? Till then, I hope everyone has an enjoyable weekend. =]

 

[jianrong]

nah, not under any vocal training course now.

Everywhere can sing.

:arrow:

 

[LobinHoot]

Ehh i got a question.

For judas priest-green manalishi....the last part, he using what voice? I can hit that note but doesnt have the impact.

Same for skid row - i remember you....last part where he kinda screams.

Thanks

 

[Dim5um]

LobinHoot :

I believe both of the songs you send belong to either the screamos or super metal / rock start group?? Pardon me course i dun listen to such songs. for judas priest-green manalishi, the last part is done in "head voice". why i bracket it, is because he didnt really use head voice, he went to whistle and he did a slight scream/shout to achieve his effect. It is not that obvoius than the second song. I have recorded something similar and this is how i would probably do it if i were to sing it classical. I didnt do the full note till the max. Since its just for your reference on aga-aga what he actually did. I did a clear one without the effect he did. All those notes lend in your head to whistle range. Just for you to take note. for skid row, i remember you, i can't find a live version of his performance. but from the mtv, he scream/shout. by scream/shout i really mean breaking your voice and doing it. It might not seemed obvoius, because recording can do anything. Even if its not recording, you can achieve subtle/ temporary shouts for concerts. In a long run, you will break. Yes, you will. grind a guitar and see if the strings will snap.

http://www.purevolume.com/pocketwall3t - # i'll delete the temp file by 26th.

I welcome any rock star to do a demo and help him out on this one. Sorry, i only do classical. =]

Below attach is a live performance of what Creed did for his song "One Last Breath" Listen carefully and replay it again and again and again and again. Creed has currently change their singer and has switch their band name. What happen to the old singer? He can't sing anymore. Why? You figure it out. If the below rock effect is what you wanna attain in your singing status, it is very very easy to achieve. You just need to (1) endure pain (2) willing to sacrifice your vocal folds. (3) promise you won't BIT#H about it.

Yes, your vocalist lifespan will be short. very short.

Just take a look at how he sings his chorus, how his struggling with it. how much tear you can hear from his voice box as he keeps rubbing, rubbing, and rubbing them even when they have blisters. If you have blisters in your hand, you probably will let it heal. What if you have blisters and you keep rubbing your hand and your blister bursts and blood comes out contaminating your whole hand. Yes..this is what happened to alot of artist. Just imagine all that happening in your throat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jW7lgNa-ECk

 

[LobinHoot]

Ah thanks a lot. I didnt know that was classified as whistle. I thought whistle is much higher then that. How i got it out was hrmmm "think high" + do a arrrrgggghhhh with mouth/throat + use force. This one doesnt strain the vocals that much i think. Its the second one that will hurt the the vocals chords. That comes to another question, it is possible at all to display anguish/torment in one's vocals without hurting the vocals chords?

 

[Dim5um]

LobinHoot - first off, tat wasn't whistle. The actual whistle is really like whistle sound, very thin and very crisp. Few people can do it properly. By properly means engaging a whistle as and when without breaking your vocal box. I say he was singing towards very high head voice to whistle. My whistle range probably ends there. At the later part of his "ahh -ahhh " portion. So tats my end point. You are right, a real whistle is much higher. Its just like, my chest voice is from middle c to prolly f or g but maybe your chest voice is from c above high c to f above high c? ( its quite hard to find such a chest voice....if you are, your voice box is really very precious).

[display anguish/torment in one's vocals without hurting the vocals chords?]

answer is possible. Which kind of anguish you talking about? the death metal kinda anguish or singing pop song with anguish tone? if you still thinking of the first one, answer is NO. have you seen or tried scolding someone? I have tried scolding someone tat pissed me really off and i end up coughing..you probably see before in drama or shows, the old people scold the youngsters scold till very agitated and then cough vormit blood...When you are angry, what do you do? you sub-consiously raise your voice level and unintentionally, you use more air to project your sound because you are so pissed trying to bring the message across. So imagine if you doing a death metal scream and you wanna sound anguish. Its just like what i show you, the video of creed's vocal doing "one last breath" it probably and is his real last breath. You can continue to attempt it, you will break your voice, which already has its own limit. Unless you dun do it often, every time you break it, you let it rest. Its all logical thinking.

The second part to it is yes, you can achieve an anguish feel if you are doing pop songs without grinding on your words. What do i mean? there are certain phrases in a song that you can push individual words and do emphasis. It can get you an effect or anger or torment for that sake. But not all songs can sing like that. Like example, if i sing " i love you" - if i were to do it with anger, does it make sense? it prolly will be like death metal kind of " I LOVE YOU..arghghahh" if this is what you wanna portray then ok lar...i got no comments. But if you sing songs like Push from matchbox, "i wanna PUSH you around" you can amphasis and make an anger out of it. Or you can sing " i dun wanna be LONELY no more" like you really angry about being lonely. or you can do it like " i dun wanna be l--onelyy no more" and really make a fuse of it like you really dun wanna be lonely as in really alone and lost and feel unwanted. It all voice down to what you wanna portray and why you wanna do it. But with the words attach, not all emotions can tag along to the sentence nicely.

*Classical : when i say classical, i didnt really mean im singing classical as in like choir " lalala " those kind. In chior you probably learn how to break down words by words singing. But if you sing pop songs, you can't break down words. my apologise if i confuse anyone. I simply mean singing in speech.

 

[LobinHoot]

Hrmmm actually i should say anger? instead of anguish? To me anger is anger i dont categorize it into "death" or "pop" or whatever. It just that metal music brings out the anger full blast...well if the music is pop, then doesnt makes sense to scream as hard.
Ah well i guess interpretation for everyone is different, you can do a soft "i love you" like saying something to your girlfriend in private or do a screaming one when you wanna declare to everyone you love her Again, personally i think the music that accompanies the lyrics is critical. Like metal + "i love you" i will sing it harder to some extent. If like easy-going music + "i love you" then definitely i will do it hrmmm softer.
Well i think well you said about ruining your vocals cords makes sense i guess. But contary to what you stated, screaming isnt that easy to do as least in my opinion. It takes techique + lots of emotions. Else everyone will be marilyn manson/skid row lead singers already. No offense intended of course.

 

[LobinHoot]

Well just to add on all about singing. Here i what i found out after trying out stuff with my voice over the years. I did not attend any kind of vocal lessons so most of them might just be crap but here they are however:

1)Extending Vocal Range

This one is quite straightforward to do actually. I myself also started with pop music before i shifted. Firstly start off singing a song that is within your range. Then shift it half a key or 1 key higher and so on. Some people uses piano or guitar to find the keys for example. But dont force though. Just keep upping the key until you know you cannot then stop and repeat from the first key or something. Well it kinda works at least for me. For self practice(well not really those formal kind) i will use those power females songs (whitney houston/celine dion/marieh carey) for practice. Not that i can hit every single note but after a while i can hit higher and higher stuff.

2)Voice Projection

Well this one is a bit confusing. I also found out during my experiments with my voice that hrmmm the sound that comes outta your mouth is different when you project it differently. For me what i do is i use some imagination. Kinda like, if i want clear/high voice out. I imagine the "output" of the sound to be on top of my head. Like i want a growling voice. It will be from chest/throat. Like sharp/screaming voice will be from the back(not top) of my head. I guess this projection thing works different for everyone. Gotta experiment with it yourself.

3)Emotions

Well this is what i think plays a large part of how you sound to others. Some people emaphise too much on techique and forget or about this. I mean singing is like a way of communicating whats in the music/lyrics/feelings to others. So if you doing a song which requires anguish..then obviuosly, you have to feel the anguish and blend it into your voice. Trying to do that classical will be.....out. Same vice versa. If the song is moody then you gunna project a moody kinda of voice...screaming will not work. If the song is all about being happy, then you have to feel happy. I mean like, if the singer cannot understand the mood of the song, then how the hell the audience gunna get it?

4)Understanding/Tuning the Music/Lyrics

Well hell, if you are doing a song, then you need to understand the song in order to know how to project the thing out to others. This is defintely critical so it helps you to do point 2/3 better. Also, the same song may be played in all sorts of different ways. For example. Careless whisper. I heard two versions. The funk version and the orginal. Obviously the vocalist have to do both a bit if not entirely different. Although lyrics is the same but have to blend with the music.


This is just my few cents worth. And i am an amatuer. Lots of incorrect info but i hoped it makes at least some sense anyway.

 

[Dim5um]

But contary to what you stated, screaming isnt that easy to do as least in my opinion. It takes techique + lots of emotions. Else everyone will be marilyn manson/skid row lead singers already. No offense intended of course.

its ok, hahha, im quite open. I agree with you that screaming also needs lots of emotions. hmm, i shouldn't just have made a statement that screaming is much more easier on a general note. I do agree that marilyn manson/skid can do something most people can't do. i shouldn't have make screaming sound like some kinda cheap thing very easy to attain and you can just "arrgghhh" your tongue out to make the effect wat marilyn manson can achieve in his songs. Your right on that even though the way it is done damages our vocal folds, but without them doing it, we couldn't hav heard songs sounding that way. =]

on the anger thingy, there is a way to sound angry differently in pop anger or screamo anger. in screamo anger is what you probably heard in your mentioned songs or like you said " i love you" in heavy metal. In pop songs or soft rock, it can be injected like in rob thomas's "this is how a heart breaks" when he sang the chorus, he didnt do it like clear strong pop as in high notes in "open your eyes..." In " this is how a heart break" that sentence itself can be injected as an anger sentence. Its not the kinda anger in those screamo though. i believe you know what i mean. =]

 

[LobinHoot]

Yeah i understand. Different people will take one song and interpret differently else everyone will sound exactly the same haha.

 

[wjvocalist]

Pretty interesting topic about singing facts here. Well the truth is that for singing, it is simply very easy to tell if u are singing correctly. It's definitely a "no no" u are having to strain yr throat and start feeling pain in yr vocal cords.

For the actual fact, we humans are singing instruments...too. If u were to study the actual church dome,trumpets and woofers, y do u think is it shaped in that way???

There must be a reason y it is rounded with its open shape cos it helps to refocuss the sound and make it loud. It's the same for singing. If u don't open yr mouth and lips in the same way, how do u sing?

Musicians spends time to train to play an instrument, then why do u think that u don't train to be a singer??? To be trained is to make sure u can excute yr technique and maintain yr standard to be singing in a healthy manner

 

[Dim5um]

Happy new year to everyone, been missing in action for quite some time. Its a good year start with lots of bands coming out and gigs going on around the island. Best wishes to everyone out there for the new year.

Been pretty busy recently and its almost like lesson 14 for my own classes. I don't have much agenda at this point and this post is simply just to share a recent session i had in class. Yes, my own singing session in class. Please do not hold too high an expectation, the post of my own singing session is merely a sharing case study as after all this while, i finally saw some light in the tunnel. Nevertheless, its open for discussion or critises. ( my english very poor dunno how to spell) The song is "I believe" from FAN YI CHEN, a taiwan singer who re-sing the korean show's main theme. It didn't really choose the song, but it was something that my vocal teacher think i should attempt inorder for her to change and correct all my poor habits. And so, its a chinese song, but still regardless of the language, theres flaws and technical errors in the singing. But I am quite satisfied with the overall condition because i stopped most of my poor habits in singing; ie 1) straining and using lots of efforts in chorus, 2) I always have the bad habit of singing loudly during the first word of each sentence, i still do though... 3) I have a problem with prounouciation at words with "i" (meaning Eee or Yii sound) and 4) i am very lazy and prounoucing words correctly. It is always a pain to learn singing alone, and im really glad that i had a vocal coach who could point out every detail mistakes that I had. Sometimes in doing self recording and listening back to your own singing, it is very hard to pick out the texture/accuracy in pitch and projection problems. It also takes alot of time to plan your songs and how you sing it. Even this days, my cresendos and decresendos are not very wide and significant. I hope i can post one of my teachers' singing ( she will always guide us partially along the song and sing some verses) but its always tough luck. Till next time, heres something to share. =]

http://www.purevolume.com/pocketwall3t