Jump to content

What I believe is the most difficult technique/scream


Overdrive

Recommended Posts

For a while I have been hoping to learn this specific singing technique that all of my favorite bands do. Rise Against, AFI, Anti-Flag are the major ones. Anyway I have learned a few other vocal techniques but they aren't right. I would really love some help with getting this down. I found two pretty good examples where the singer uses the technique a ton.

(AFI)

(Rise Against)

If you can personally do this technique that would be amazing and I hope you would give me some tips and even if you never really figured out this technique but merely have ideas for getting it please speak up! I am willing to try anything! :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think what you are referring to is fry screaming. I can do this, but it is much easier on higher notes. As I understand it, essentially what you are doing is decreasing the air flow to the point where a "clean" and "constant" note is not smoothly sustained. You can start to get the hang of this by singing down from a comfortable note. Keep going down and down and down, and eventually the note will become too low for you to sustain it cleanly, at which point you will go into vocal fry. Figure out how low you need to go to naturally produce vocal fry, then try to bring that same sensation up into the notes right above your "low fry notes." I've found that holding a note clean and then "pulling back" until vocal fry kicks in works well for training. Btw, singing vocal fry on specific pitches is a lot harder than simply "screaming" on no particular pitch. Controlling the amount of fry is not easy. Good luck.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh that's very interesting, I didn't know you could have a certain amount of fry. Anyway I luckily have a recording on box.net of me attempting to fry scream not too long ago. Would you please check it out and give me some tips to fix it?

*fixing link*

Sorry you have to download it, it works with iTunes awesome though

Edit: Oops the recording was wrong, hold on please...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

WOW this took me long enough but school and other dumbness kept me from getting this up.

But finally here it is! the recording of my attempt at fry screaming

http://www.box.net/shared/ppo0pgbqn2rz2s1rqlyc

It's in an iTunes format so if you have iTunes it will take 1 second to download and delete after please :D

Any help is really appreciated, this seems like a technique I really like but can't figure out

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh yeah and warning my fry is really really suckish. Before listening to it expect someone choking and moving around mouth shapes and pitches while they choke. Only then will you be ready haha.

I really need help with it though. I love professional fry screaming, and I don't want to give up just because I suck at the beginning stages

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You're compressing your chords too much, and not pushing enough air. It also sounds like the placement of the air is wrong; you wanna push the sound underneath your actual chords.

So you should feel the sound resonating more directly above your chest and your power comes from your gut and diaphragm. Don't push the air directly through where your modal voice is; because it will hurt like hell and with extended wear and tear can (*auto edit*) your vocal chords royally.

to get highs, you want to push the sound up through your nasal; I personally have found that twanging helps a lot, based on the advice I have been given for singing.

Drink lots of water, lukewarm. Never drink anything ice cold and never try to scream on a dry throat. best of luck dude.

Also, the sound isn't going to "feel" loud to you. It will be loud based on resonance and air placement. Bear that in mind; you aren't screaming your lungs out, you're controlling your airflow in a certain way to get the sound you want. Which I'm sure you know, but, better to tell it than not. (:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It sounds like you're producing fry fine. The tough thing about fry screams is pulling back to go into fry, yet really pushing with your support. All I can say is to keep at it. If you go up really high it actually gets a lot easier to do fry screams. You can try hitting a high pitch and then doing a "fry siren" down until you lose it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've been trying to get this technique down for a while as well. Check out Melissa Cross: Zen of Screaming 1 and 2. She's worked with loads of top screamers and these dvds tend to be the first resource lots of screamers suggest. Personally, I prefer Jamie Vendera's Scream Extreme series. He explains it a bit more technically, whereas I found that Cross kind of dumbs it down sometimes.

Keep at it though! it may take some time as it requires quite a bit of finesse to pull off. Just find out what works best for you and go with it. As long as it's not hurting, it's all good!

Here's a quick video I've posted before, but i think is worth another shout. It shows a dry fry scream and then screaming placed in the context of a recorded song. I think it helps put into perspective the volume of the scream and how it actually sits in a mix/band, so you're not pushing and trying to blow your brains out when learning it! I also think it's important to note that on record, some of these screams will sound a lot better because of the production value compared to how the screamer sounds live. However, it can be done! Just watch some live Killswitch Engage videos for some great examples.

I hope some of that has helped. Anyways, the video (screaming starts around 48secs)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi9aRpPeJ_4

Link to comment
Share on other sites

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi9aRpPeJ_4

Strong ass tune bro.

I agree with pretty much everything you said. Zen of Screaming are DEFINITELY worth checking out, but for me Vendera's series was very important also.

However combining this unpitched fry screaming with pitched singing with fry added, that is just another story... One singer who kills me is Dave Grohl. He'll throw out a pure fry scream here and there and jump straight back into chesty belty rock singing.

Overdrive: you are compressing the vocal folds together too much. There needs to be more air pressure (Note: not an airy sound, but more pressure against the folds so you get more energy). Also note that it should be felt higher in the throat, even in the back of the mouth, just like when singing high. You have the idea right, but you just have to practise and develop it. I am no expert, and trust me, it is taking a lot of hard work for me to try and get this down. I know several guys who can just scream their head off and they have no idea how they are doing it... Oh well ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...