heavier vocals?

[brokensilence11]

Hey, ive been more seriosly working on singing ever since around Christmas i think. I realized i still need some work on getting louder and breathing more correctly, but i think i can get that down with more work. the thing ive been thinking about is how to get my voice to sound more heavy, like Kurt Cobain or Layne Staley. not to sound exactly like them, but to get that heavier, grittier grunge or hard rock sound. any tips on this? or even maybe some other imprtant singing tips i should know? thanks.

[chaotick]

I'm not a great singer, I just scream in a death metal band but here's what I got:

Try singing from different parts of your throat and head. There are different places where you can force the sound from: high in front / face / nose, low in the throat, mid level, etc and they all make varied sounds.

To get that low rasp try forcing your sound out of your middle-to-low portion of your throat.

It's worth a try.

[somegeezer]

Originally Posted by chaotick

I'm not a great singer, I just scream in a death metal band but here's what I got:

Try singing from different parts of your throat and head. There are different places where you can force the sound from: high in front / face / nose, low in the throat, mid level, etc and they all make varied sounds.

To get that low rasp try forcing your sound out of your middle-to-low portion of your throat.

It's worth a try.

You should never force it out. You will damage yourself very quickly by forcing anything.

But certainly, you want the sound to be coming low in the throat.

Death growls should be coming from your gut or low in the chest.

But NEVER force it.

[chaotick]

Originally Posted by somegeezer

You should never force it out. You will damage yourself very quickly by forcing anything.

But certainly, you want the sound to be coming low in the throat.

Death growls should be coming from your gut or low in the chest.

But NEVER force it.

I have to disagree -- you are very correct that you could damage something but some vocals demand to be forced and raw sounding.

Listen to Hatebreed or DevilDriver and tell me the vocalists aren't forcing it to be that raw.

I do recommend caution, of course, and that you drink lots of water, take lots of breaks, and stop immediately and rest if there is pain.

[paganjack]

Invest in a diaphragm.

Seriously though, you should use your core to sing as much as possible. As far as producing different types of vocal distortion, you have to learn to use the various parts of your vocal tract in different ways. There's more than one way to get a 'heavy' sound. Death grunts will come from pushing air out from as low as you can.

Vocal fry register - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[hrodbert696]

I'm not an expert, but no, don't force it. Yes, there are lots of singers who do -- and wind up with short singing careers. To some extent, I believe, anatomy sets the framework for what you can and can't do vocally -- when I was in school, hanging out with the Gilbert and Sullivan Society, they would comment on how some people just had Broadway voices and some people had opera voices, regardless of how they practiced. Still, you can experiment with resonating your voice differently and see what results you get.

[brokensilence11]

ok thanks for the help. i wil be working on that. i was trying to sing along to heart shaped box by Nirvana, i could sing it fine until the yelling part "Hey, wait" but couldnt get that gritty yell sound.