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Devin Townsend, Suicide - Cover

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Draven Grey

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After my last cover being an older R&B style, I thought I would go for a heavier rock this time. At the suggestion of friends, I chose Devy Metal. I'm very comfortable with the style normally, but I'm definitely not used to using so much grit. I usually only use grit as an occasional effect. Also, singing the F4 and G4 with a solid grit can be extremely difficult. Up to E4, no problem. A4 and above, no problem. F and G, ugh. The moment you do it wrong once, it's extremely easy to start pushing and grinding. With my students and friends, that range in grit has it's own name, "F'n G." You can get used to it with practice, but it takes time - and I didn't practice this song for very long.

I tried to do a second take of the whole song, and immediately hit my throat when doing grit. Everything went downhill from there. So, what you see in this video is another single take with two camera angles. I did overdub two small parts, but only because I said a couple of words wrong since, apparently, I didn't fully know the lyrics yet.

The other guy in the video, Charlie Munro, I found at random when trying to find an instrumental for the song. The only instrumental I found, he had done all the music for and uploaded to SoundCloud. I asked him if I could use it, and the next thing I know, we're doing a video together. Cool guy, great studio engineer and guitarist.

All in all, it was a lot of fun, and a cool challenge to take on. I'm working with Robert on a couple of online courses specifically for grit and screaming, so I figured, "why not go all out?" 

I'm happy to answer any questions you might have about grit and screaming. 

 

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On 2/27/2018 at 11:25 PM, Draven Grey said:

Also, singing the F4 and G4 with a solid grit can be extremely difficult. Up to E4, no problem. A4 and above, no problem. F and G, ugh. The moment you do it wrong once, it's extremely easy to start pushing and grinding. With my students and friends, that range in grit has it's own name, "F'n G." You can get used to it with practice, but it takes time - and I didn't practice this song for very long.

I'm glad it's not just me! In fact, as a beginner (two years of solid singing and practice), I have decided to get that E4 - Bb4 area rock solid before trying grit again because if I do it wrong I think it has a tendency to make me sound flat, then it sounds like I am straining (although I feel I'm not) which is not the effect I am trying to achieve.

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Well you have great resonance and are able to move that in acordance with the notes and specially that bit you talked about, Grit.

 

And you are indeed a true pro! But I must ask, why in your screen shot are you holding a guitar but not playing it in the song? Nice wig BTW

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2 minutes ago, Atkinson The Bop! said:

Well you have great resonance and are able to move that in acordance with the notes and specially that bit you talked about, Grit.

 

And you are indeed a true pro! But I must ask, why in your screen shot are you holding a guitar but not playing it in the song? Nice wig BTW

Thanks! The photo is Devin Townsend, not me.

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