Screamers and Growlers - how did you start?

[asher]

For those of you who handle metal style lead duties with varieties of screams and growls and such, how did you decide to start doing it? When did you decide you sounded decent enough to pursue this? What did you use as an early guide?

 

[Jarlesworth]

I'll second that motion..

I want to be able to scream so badly, but no matter how much I try it just doesn't come out right. It seems like I've tried a million different ways and still no progress :/ As soon as I think I'm getting it right I start to feel it in my throat and have to try a different way.

 

[vampiregenocide]

This is a good video in teaching you where to find the right place to scream from. I'm still practising, but I can do low death growls and mid range screams. I'm definitely getting there and this helped me. It's just a case of really cutting lose and just going for it. The thing I had trouble with was breaking down those inhibitions.

 

[abadonae]

I've always wanted to be able to do this, i can sing well enough to say i could handle certain vocal duties but in all honesty i prefer the idea of the more gutteral sounding stuff. And i can play quite complex guitar parts whilst handling vocal duties as well, often i'll write something that i'll have a vocal line for but no way of conveying it across so it would be brill to be able to do this

 

[The Uncreator]

Death: Atlas Assimilation by Lascaille's Shroud on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

Older song, but I liked my vocal performance on it, especially the growls.

I started out by wanting to sound like Mikael Akerfeldt (high hopes I know lol) and just started belching out shit one day in my room. I learned through what caused, and what didn't caused pain and wear how to do it without hurting myself. Now, about 5-6 years later I can do it for about 2-3 hours without any problems, although I doubt I could handle the duties of a full time vocalist.

I never watched any videos, as they always seemed to suggest stuff that hurt me, so I just experimented.

 

[Blind Theory]

I have had a hard time finding members that will stay in my band so me and the other guitarist are taking up vocal duties. I am doing death vocals and he is doing clean vocals. This way we only have to juggle 4 people.

Anyways, I always wanted to be able to sing like Whitechapel or Suicide Silence so I started singing along as best I could in my car. I basically just sang along until I found the least painful way. To this day I am still experimenting. I find some ways hurt very little to none but aren't powerful enough and some hurt more than others but sound proper...I don't know. I watch videos. So do that. I have found some exhale techniques that sound really good but I need to work on breathing to get it down better. Basically, inhale a deep breath and when you exhale use your upper stomach (diaphragm) and abs to push the air and drive the vocal distortion. Just try to do that. I believe you can go on Youtube and look for something like Fry Compression Death Vocals or some shit like that. I believe that is what it is.

 

[bhakan]

I basically just sang along until I found the least painful way.

I've been doing this to try and learn and it has definitely helped. I think practice is just important.

Also, not exactly the same as the OP, but does anyone know what type of screaming technique Neema (Monuments, Fellsilent) uses? I'd love to learn how to do that also.

 

[CrownofWorms]

Story Time:

Well I didn't always want to do growls, but I did want to do extreme styles of vocals. When I was 13 I used to replicate Mustaine off Sweating Bullets so well, it was funny. But as my tastes went heavier so were my ambitions. I was(still am) very much into Megadeth at the time, but I wanted to go heavier. I started to listen to Sepultura(Max Cavalera era) and got really into Pantera(even though I always liked Pantera). Anselmo and Cavalera had the ideal vocals I wanted at the time(with some Robb Flynn). It was very raw and dirty yet clean at the same time. I never could replicate it, but I always whispered to get a sound that is similar to that.

When I got into death metal the bands were; Carcass, Arch Enemy, Death, Children of Bodom, and Gojira. This and alongside bands like Meshuggah and Lamb of God. These guys had a bit more of a higher range and wasn't the typical lows I heard at the time. I didn't really have the ambition to do vocals then, but I had some keen for it and wanted to give vocals a shot.

The five bands that made me go brutal and want to do vocals were; Cannibal Corpse(More so on Fisher than Barnes), Behemoth, Necrophagist, Obscura, and Morbid Angel(Both Tucker and Vincent). I started going for vocals that were alot more low and abrasive. I could remember growling to Stripped Raped and Strangled for hours until I got it right(sorta). George Fisher and David Vincent made me want to be not just low all the time. So it made me just want to find my own sound and I still tend to be on the lower side of things, but with a little bit of "me".

My best advice is to find your comfort zone and not try to sound like somebody else. Everybody has a different voice and you never know if you are low, mid, or high. You will find it, get used to it, and expand on it. Also don't try to head straight for a loud volume, that could really hurt your voice. I guess the right thing to do is to gradually get louder and louder naturally. There is no set time for people to learn, people progress differently.

MOST IMPORTANTLY: Control your breathing and articulation; I am having trouble with breathing and it is very crucial if you do vocals. You don't wan't to run out of breath after the first verse right before your rapid vocal lyrics(ala George Fisher). It would throw you off and would show fuck ups. This means don't go too crazy if your going to be exhausted after your crazy stunts on stage. Word articulation is tough, but after you get used to the song's structure you'll catch on to it. I mean you can watch some "In Studio" footage of your favorite band recording vocals and they would fuck up on saying some words. This is where vocal classes or studying could do the trick(even if you do growls).


Hope this helped

 

[ilyti]

Last time this kind of topic came up I suggested Melissa Cross's The Zen of Screaming DVD. I even watch it for entertainment value.

I can't find a trailer for her first instructional DVD but here's one for her second:

 

[Floppystrings]

Here is how you scream:

 

[iamdunker]

practice is the only way imo

 

[Triple7]

Start in the car. Turn the music up real loud, and start sceaming and trying and mimic the vocals in the songs you listen to. Over time, turn the music down, and start to listen to how you sound. After that, start screaming the songs how you would sound, not trying to mimic the vocals in said song.

Hopefully that helps, it worked for me.

 

[poopyalligator]

Yeah, when I first started getting into music with that type of vocals, I was listening to a lot of Thrice, In Flames, and Thursday. I basically just tried to mimic them when i was driving and stuff like that. It got to the point of where I felt pretty comfortable singing in that style. Although, these days I wish I could actually sing more than anything.

 

[Miek]

Practice your growls and you'll be scarin' cats in no time

 

[BIG ND SWEATY]

try to mimic as many metal vocal styles as you can and mix em a bit to get your own sound

 

[squid-boy]

A few moments after I was born. I was a natural.

 

[KingAenarion]

I started because my friend wanted to start a Metal band... I joined and he wanted me to scream.

As a trained Jazz and Classical vocalist I was first like "what is this shit"

Then once I worked out how to do it easily without hurting my voice I started doing it more and more.


As with singing, it's all about Breath support.



And yea, watch the Melissa Cross DVDs... her ideas on warmups are great, as are her techniques for control.

 

[Sikthness]

Sing in the car like people said, and mimic as best you can. Screaming/growling is not difficult, and shouldnt be. I think people overthink it. Also, a lot of vocalists in screaming style arent really screaming loud, same with growling especially. Most growling actually is not very loud. Like i can mimic Akerfeldt and Randy Blythe style vocals and its just slightly louder than talking level. If the problem you are having is you get that tickle in your throat or whatever, try eating a bunch of crackers with peanut butter on them. It will coat your throat and you wont get so much of they dry irritability.

 

[AeternusEternus]

I'm going to go against the grain here and say learn to sing first, then learn to sing very powerfully. You need a lot of muscle memory that comes from singing, and it's counter-intuitive to use the muscles you need as opposed to the ones you use when you're screaming madly or if you just start screaming cold. So unless you somehow stab in the dark and get it perfect, you'll hurt yourself a lot.

I've never made my vocals about coating my throat. Also, when you're in the car, you're sitting down, so you're not even using your abdominal muscles. It's a full-body exercise. If you scream in the car, you'll scream with your throat alone and you'll arrive at your destination with a fucked-up voice.

 

[S-O]

Throw your favorite jams in the car, belt it out while driving. Repeat!