I divide it into 2 cat.s: regular vocals (singing etc, aka "clean vox") and growl vocals(opeth/haggard like).
Anyway, this thread is about vocals 
I know there are plenty singers out here, so c'mon, share your tips with the community 
I'd like to recommend a DVD called "The Zen of Screaming", by Melissa Cross for those who are into Metal vocals.
Last edited by Helios on Thu Oct 12, 2006 5:49 pm; edited 1 time in total ...the vocalist in my jazz quartet is amazing? Regular vocals of course.
From experience, when it comes to regular vocals, I think there are really only two important factors (once you know how to sing in tune!!!): Phrasing and passion. You don't have to have a perfect voice...Katy Melua for instance has a very weak voice but great phrasing and oodles of subtle passion. You can argue that Norah Jones has a near perfect voice, and a far better tone than Katie Melua's, but who's to argue that her singing's better?
For me, the ultimate in vocals is Johnny Hartmann, on his legendary album with John Coltrane.
There's also the third category: opera vocal (the one that I'm studying ). I didn't really expected it as though I've been singing in many choirs for over 4 years I was rather into punk music. However, there was a party when after drinking certain amounts I started singing Nightwish and classical songs. My friend, who's a music student told me to apply to a music school at once, so here I am . I know that my future will be connected with music, I don't know if in an opera, theatre or rock band, but certainly so.
BTW. Opera vocal doesn't have to necessairly be connected with the classical music, there's a lot of rock/goth/metal bands that have opera singers (eg. Nightwish, Therion, Theatre of Tragedy, After Forever, Leave's Eyes etc.). If someone could find for me a band playing similar music but with a male opera singer I would be grateful. I'm very curious if there's a one the_mariska, you should try the band "Haggard".
They combine between growl vocals and opera.
You can say that they're a "medieval metal band" 
There are some songs with male opera vocals and some songs with a female(they have 2 sopranos in the band!). | Helios wrote: |
the_mariska, you should try the band "Haggard".
They combine between growl vocals and opera.
You can say that they're a "medieval metal band"
There are some songs with male opera vocals and some songs with a female(they have 2 sopranos in the band!). |
I guess my friend has even borrowed me their CD, but I put it somewhere and didn't listen to it at all. I think it's the hight time to look for it, you made me really curious 
There's something exceptional with these 'medieval' metal bands. I've been always wondering what do they have in their music that it sounds medieval. Now, when I'm in the music school I studied medieval scales, music forms and techiques... and it's still a mystery to me I don't know what's so "medieval" there, i'm not really a big expert at that area, but they do have at least 10 band members who play on classical instruments:
http://www.haggard.de/eng/band/musiker.html
Anyway, let's stay on the topic. Growling technique is used by rock singers, right?
I'm trying to learn how to growl right, because my clean voice is pretty bad for singing haha. Growling is something I really wanted to learn ever since I started listening to melodic death metal.
My favorite kind of growling would be that of Jari Maaenpa from ex-Ensiferum and Wintersun. His clean voice is beautiful also.
But yeah - after a while of practising my throat gets unbelievably sore | Nikkori wrote: |
| Growling technique is used by rock singers, right? |
That's correct.
To be specific, it's used by dealth/black metal singers.
There is growling and grunt vocals.
Some singers like Asis(from Haggard) have quiet grunt vocals which are amplified by a microphone amplifier. (Just like myself)
The sound of this 'style' is more deep and low.
And there are vocalists like Alexi from Children of Bodom who shout loudly while growling. (that's why your throat may hurt)
The sound of this 'style' is more high(high frequency).
Both 'styles' are acceptible.
Hehe, and there's Mikael from Opeth, who's special lol
Well, at least that's what I think from my little experience.I've also heard that there is another technique of growling for girls (this 'grunt' version). My friend wanted to learn it and told me that vocal chords of a woman ar much more delicate than of a man, so this is much harder to learn and if not learned well may actually destroy your vocal chords. And a girl could learn how to do it only from another girl who already knows it. If you could give me a few examples of growling girls, I'd be grateful
Anyway, keep your fingers crossed, tomorrow I'm having my vocal exam Well, this is actually nothing for me... the next weekend I'm singing Ave Maria on my cousins wedding and I got the sheets only yesterday. I'm a bit scared I won't do well
[- BTW. Thanks for Haggard, I really fell in love with their music. Well, I already knew some of their songs and thought that it was by Therion -] Therion rocks.
Anyway, here's an example of a death metal band with a woman as a vocalist: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arch_Enemy_%28band%29 i think jeff buckley has a great voice. he can do so many things with it.
Stevie Wonder is the best singer of all time. No doubt about it !
He΄s getting old now and has lost his magic touch on his vocals though. Sad.
When it comes to "growl" Jens Kidman of Meshuggah is great. His voice is almost like an additional instrument. He must have a sore throat though.... 
My band, which is not named yet due to extreme letbacks *cough cough* no drummer *cough cough*. Anyways, my girlfriend Tiffani is the vocalist. Maybe I'm biased, but she is the best singer I've ever heard. I'm the screamer in the band, which took me a while to learn, considering I didn't know how to use my diagphram before that. Still can't sing worth crap. Oh well...
I'll put up an mp3 in hmm, lets see. 6 months, MUAHAAHAAHA.Oh, c'mon flower 6 moths?!
Btw, to other posters above, we're talking about vocals here, not about your favourite vocalists. Hahaha, I knew you didn't keep your fingers crossed 
I received only a 4+ [something like B] on my exam, but I had the feeling I could have done it better.
Helios - 6 months is not much for someone learning from the basics . We'd better wait.. and wish them good luck. I'd love to set up my own band, there were even some bands that wanted me as a vocalist, but our visions of art differed a lot so I decided not to get involved into something I wouldn't truly love. I'd love to compose very passionate, emotional and sophisticated music, [for the whole orchestra + piano & electric guitars ], and of course at least 2 opera soloists. But I don't know if I'll ever manage to do so...
I'll put up an mp3 in hmm, lets see. 6 years. Hopefully I find that the breathy/growly vocal tonality comes easily to me... but you always have to make sure your breathing technique is right on the ball. The second you don't use diaphramic breathing your growl is going to quickly turn your chords into mush.
Whoaa, this topic seems to be dead. Weird, I'm sure that there are some people who learn singing here. Or at least love singing . It seems it's time I started to miss my music school. I had to give it up, as I moved to the capital for my studies and couldn't continue it here, as I hadn't known that I had to repeat the entry exams. Now I'm a bit down, as yesterday I was in the opera [the best one in my country] and realised what I had lost.
Damn, I gave up the passion of my life for higher math and computer programming. Hope I'll come back to this some day. Now I have only left singing in a choir... and parties of course . Could anyone cheer me up a bit please? | the_mariska wrote: |
Whoaa, this topic seems to be dead. Weird, I'm sure that there are some people who learn singing here. Or at least love singing . It seems it's time I started to miss my music school. I had to give it up, as I moved to the capital for my studies and couldn't continue it here, as I hadn't known that I had to repeat the entry exams. Now I'm a bit down, as yesterday I was in the opera [the best one in my country] and realised what I had lost.
Damn, I gave up the passion of my life for higher math and computer programming. Hope I'll come back to this some day. Now I have only left singing in a choir... and parties of course . Could anyone cheer me up a bit please? |
Hey, you can always sing while bathing
The acoustics are awesome
IMO, if you truly love music, you'll return to it once you get bored from your daily job (that I assume will be software engineering ).the_mariska:
Epica is an amazing opera/classical/goth metal band. Tristania has male baritone vocals, but not really operatic.
Now Rhapsody (neo-classical power metal) Sometimes features Christopher Lee as an Operatic vocalist http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzaeudk6ThQ
Growls are boring death/black metal vocals, try one of the best norwegian screamers http://www.windir.no/mp3/Windir118401Todeswalzer.mp3 I have aband and we don't have a singer yet. My friend and I both play guitar and were thinking about learning to sing. Any advice? I was also curious how hard is it to learn to scream when singing like in punk bands? (billy talent's singer is great at it)
Over the years, I have done both regular and growl. Doing growl caused me to suffer "nodes" twice.
On a side note: Singing in the cold weather can really mess your voice. The Rolling Stones played an outdoor concert in Chicago last night (40 degrees F). Mick's voice piad for it by the end of show.
Singing is a strange adventure for me haha. I seem to have a weird range in my voice. and to make it sound good i have to sing up an octave to my normal voice, but then i can reach high notes so when they come along i have to go back down to my normal voice. Also when im in concerts i sing really loud and find myself being close to feinting. 
haha i need to take in more oxygen 
