Building Billy Gibbons lows

[Judge MOTW]

Hi guys, my 1st thread here

About the gibbons lows ,I dont have them, i darken my high 2nd octave to sound more like him but that's it, andthe more I darken notes the more they get weak, they sound at some point almost an octave lower.

Bottom note that's always there is F2

Is it possible to build the lower range with that power (and sweetness, don't wanna growl to do it i already can do it) ? And how to do it? It feels like a "harder to learn " skill then highs

Thanks alot

[Elvis]

I would like to know as well..seems like every teacher is giving you the benefit of learning highs...but i cant seem to find lows anywhere...my lowest note is F2 but its soo weak its almost unusable

[ronws]

Mic proximity and eq tricks. Otherwise, do I like I did and just sing it in the range that you are comfortable with. That's what Billy does. And some of the high notes are actually done by Frank. And Billy doesn't sing really low. But he do got some rattle. Must be the beer they serve in Houston.

 

[Judge MOTW]

Hey ronws, thanx for the answer.

The mic proximity comment, TRUE. yesterday I noticed that he gets a lot closer to the mic when he gets low in blue jeans blues. But according to "the range place" he does get pretty low, down to F1. BUT i guess it isnT as powerfull as it sounds

I actually don't want his notes just to cover him, it' to get more tools as a singer, I just don't want my style to be determined by my technical abilities. I did la grange live once and added some growls in the intro, worked cool that way, but I wanna be free , not forced to not sing high or low.

[KillerKu]

I too find lows a lot more mysterious than highs. Waking up in the morning I can sometimes get a quiet Eb2 with no fry. Throughout the day F#2 is normally always there with no croak, but even that could become a struggle if I was singing very heady for some time.

 

Vocal fry definitely is the only trick I know of to get lower, but it is croaky anyway I spin it. It does seem like there are less croaky and 'stronger' versions. Maybe someone here has some advice on how to achieve this. Speaking of Range Place, I don't really care much about range, but John Lennon is one of my favorite all time singers, so I took a gander over there and they spotted this clip:

 

 

That's some really powerful fry he was doing with a lot more tone than the average croak. I do think it would be a really useful technique to have a powerful fry. If my low range was consistent, I'd probably just accept whatever it was, but sometimes a low note sounds great, and is very musical and other times the same note is just not coming without some fry to assist.

 

If there is a way to train a strong, less croaky fry technique that could be there as a backup plan and guarantee range that is not always otherwise guaranteed I think that would be cool.

[James Lugo]

Man developing lows is so difficult. A guy like Billy kind of came out of the womb with that voice. One thing you can do is make sure you don't push to much air. Another thing that I learned from Buddy Mix who learned it from Seth Riggs' wife was the low resonance Ear-row-why exercise. If anyone here trains with me may know what I'm talking about. If anyone wants to learn it hit me up and I can show you quickly on the phone or Skype. That exercise is cool and developed some over tones one the bottom end.

[MDEW]

    Is this low enough?   

 

 This is his "Tips"  

 

   No this is not me at a younger age.

 

 

I still have not figured out how to SHOW the  videos.

 

 

 One suggestion is to not make the mistake of dropping your head into your chest. People think that you must lower your head for low notes just like they try to reach for high notes. Aim the sound a little in front of your mouth.

  Another suggestion is the Bwa, bwa, bwa exercise.(these are for normal voice not the fry grunt thing from the videos.)

[ronws]

Here you go, MDEW.

 

 

[Sexy Beast]

 

Is it possible to build the lower range with that power (and sweetness, don't wanna growl to do it i already can do it) ? And how to do it? It feels like a "harder to learn " skill then highs

 

Your low range is determined by how big/thick your folds are. You might be able to get a few more notes or a little more power down there but that's about it...

[KillerKu]

One thing I forgot to mention, is awhile back Jonpall suggested maintaining a twang when going low which gave me an extra reliable note. It is common and was intuitive for met at least to go 'woofy and dopey' on low notes, but if you maintain a good twang it can help with both lows and highs.

 

I do agree with Sexy Beast there are a lot more physiological limitations with lows, given the acoustic resonating chambers of your body. If you view your vocal cords a bit like a reed. it's a bit like there are different kinds of woodwind instruments with a kind of reed, and a resonating chamber. Or like a guitar string vs a bass guitar string, depth is determined by thickness and tension.

 

But the difference between the voice and other instruments is vocal fry does change the way the reed is functioning, the actual pattern of vibration is different. I've heard singers clearly get croaky, but like less so. So if it is possible to 'bridge' into the croak, kind of like people bridge into head, that would seem more likely.

[Kari]

Man developing lows is so difficult. A guy like Billy kind of came out of the womb with that voice. One thing you can do is make sure you don't push to much air. Another thing that I learned from Buddy Mix who learned it from Seth Riggs' wife was the low resonance Ear-row-why exercise. If anyone here trains with me may know what I'm talking about. If anyone wants to learn it hit me up and I can show you quickly on the phone or Skype. That exercise is cool and developed some over tones one the bottom end.

Thanks a lot James for learning me that low exercise. I dont have any problems to go low but i feel like its not as good as it was before i started to practice falsetto/headvoice, its more "dry" now. i hope it will get even better, than before, more nuanced, and with overtones.

Thanks!

[Judge MOTW]

Killer and beast, thx alot for the info, really helped me undersand the proccess.

MDEW, u gotta love that dude, followed him for years. The bwa exercise helped alot. Thx alot.

James, thx for the info, I hope I will be able to learn that exercise and more from you one day

Here is for the benefit a helpful video with alot of commun info with what most of u guys already said.

youtube.com/watch?v=b0WwKGFT2Cs

[Owen Korzec]

   

I still have not figured out how to SHOW the  videos.

Do not click the hyperlink function, literally just paste the full url in as text.

[benny82]

Just as a side note Growling/Grunting/Pig Squeal tends to be very quiet, too, and also depends on mic amplification. The main thing about singing those lows is to keep support and TA activation high. People tend to lower their larynx for the lows, which brings the folds apart and then you can't supply enough sub-glottal pressure anymore with your support.

 

Try to keep your sound bright on the lows, more like your speaking voice and not too hooty or darkened. Also compress your air as much as you can to increase sub-glottal pressure. Support the notes as if you were singing in the 5th octave. What we want in the low range is to increase TA activation so the folds get thickened at much as possible.

 

Here is a song I did a while ago in the low range. All ot this is still "normal voice" except for the low note which is fry (it is something like a G#1 I think).

 

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Compare that to other versions of the song on YT, even the original. There is often so much airiness in many of those ones that they need really heavy amplification to be eaven heard over the instruments. The biggest mistake you can make is to think that low notes need less effort/support than high notes.

[ronws]

There is often so much airiness in many of those ones that they need really heavy amplification to be eaven heard over the instruments. The biggest mistake you can make is to think that low notes need less effort/support than high notes.

Amen, twin brother from another mother.

[Nalyd]

 People tend to lower their larynx for the lows, which brings the folds apart and then you can't supply enough sub-glottal pressure anymore with your support.

 

Try to keep your sound bright on the lows, more like your speaking voice and not too hooty or darkened. 

Could it be that people tend to lose the twang as they lower the larynx when reaching for low notes? 

Definitely keep the sound bright to get compression, but I think it must primarily be achieved by twang, since a too high larynx will shorten the length of the vocal tract and make powerful low notes impossible. It seems that the combination of twang and a low larynx can be counterintuitive.

 

Yes, support. What I find interesting is that constricting in the low range can be a rather subtle problem. In the high part, one is hardly in doubt when the support is inadequate for powerful notes. However, in the low range, one will know that it has likely been going on when the voice has been noticeably weakened after singing or speaking.

 

Best regards

[benny82]

Could it be that people tend to lose the twang as they lower the larynx when reaching for low notes? 

Definitely keep the sound bright to get compression, but I think it must primarily be achieved by twang, since a too high larynx will shorten the length of the vocal tract and make powerful low notes impossible. It seems that the combination of twang and a low larynx can be counterintuitive.

 

Yes, support. What I find interesting is that constricting in the low range can be a rather subtle problem. In the high part, one is hardly in doubt when the support is inadequate for powerful notes. However, in the low range, one will know that it has likely been going on when the voice has been noticeably weakened after singing or speaking.

 

Best regards

Yes exactly. Most people lose twang when they drop the larynx too low. Too high larynx can cause constriction though, so its kind of a balancing act. And yes, constriction in the low range can be less obvious.