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paisarocker

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how do i increase the power/agressivenes of my voice? if you know what i mean though...

but dont think i wanna growl or do something similar and unpleasing, its just that ive found a tone a feel comftarble at and people tells me it sounds good, but i want to have more power in my singing in order to be a more ''complete'' vocalist, so how do i do it?

what i thought of was practicing some metallica songs, but if there is any excercise or something, thatd be great

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It depends on how you define power. Normally, I twang and support hard enough that I can hurt your ears by singing near you. I mean, your ears will hurt from the volume. But my tone is clean and doesn't sound mean. For it to sound mean requires backing off the volume, essentially, creating a softer note upon which distortion is added, primarily a rattle. Then, the note sounds "meaty" ir "metal" or whatever you want to call it even though it's less actual volume than my most power clean note.

I've tried it both ways, recently working on "Last in Line." The song begins with softly sung lyrics that end with gritty roar that lasts 4 measures. I've done it clean and so loud my own ears hurt. In recording, it didn't sound very powerful until the end of the note and the compressor lets off.

Then I tried it with a rattle distortion I have been learning from Jaime Vendera. The actual volume of the sung note is not nearly as loud as the clean one but, because the onset of phonation is easier and the breath support is matching that, allows one to vary the width of the pharynx and get a relaxed rattle. If you get a chance to hear what I am doing with Last in Line, pay attention to the four measure note.

And I think that is what you want with "aggressiveness."

Well, this is the right place to learn extreme effects but trust me, you can't do the special effects unless you have control over the basics. Breath support. Breathing and learning to control that for clean and distorted notes (the support feels slightly different because the phonation is actually lighter on notes with growl). Vocal fold adduction. You have to learn how to hit the note clean and in tune before you add a rattle on it. Resonance. You have to tear away from the notion that the "screams" are coming from chest resonance, even though they sound meaty. Higher notes are lighter notes and actually require less actual air. Have faith to start in falsetto to get placement of the note and add to it later.

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Yes, if you mean "agressiveness" or "edginess" when you talk about power, ronws is right. You can achieve it with vocal effects and sound pretty cool. On the other hand, you said you didn't want to growl or anything like it, so I'm assuming ronws' advice won't help you a lot. But then again, you talked about practising Metallica songs =\ If you want to copy Hetfield's style, you can't really do it with a totally clean tone.

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True, anonimuzz. Metallica aims for a particular sound and James Hetfield stays in baritone because it allows a thick growl that doesn't hurt him. And he warms up before shows, too, with scales in an almost choir boy tone (watch the documentary of them recording the album St. Anger and Hetfield's therapist is along for the ride.)

For me, power is the pure sonic blast of a note, usually pure. To me, power is not the tone of the note as much as it is the volume and solidity. Others' definitions may vary.

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how do i increase the power/agressivenes of my voice? if you know what i mean though...

but dont think i wanna growl or do something similar and unpleasing, its just that ive found a tone a feel comftarble at and people tells me it sounds good, but i want to have more power in my singing in order to be a more ''complete'' vocalist, so how do i do it?

what i thought of was practicing some metallica songs, but if there is any excercise or something, thatd be great

power is something i'm intimately familar with because it's always been there for me.

if you're talking paul rodgers, chris cornell, lou gramm, mickey thomas power:

here in a nutshell is what you need for power:

breath support...no let up from the onset to the very end....it can't waver, it can't peeter out.

resonance, maximizing all the areas responsible (singer's formant)

plain old desire (singing high and powerfully is an innate desire to, an inclination towards that kind of phonation... i think.)

an open and relaxed throat

notice how i never mentioned the word volume? it's not about volume. volume is a byproduct. (thank you steve fraser).

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