Finally hurt myself (Pain on one side only)

[Drucifer]

First off, I want to say that I already have a specialist I am going to see this week and am not expecting anyone to diagnose me, but I think it's always good to have this stuff as open source info so if people run into these same problems, they can maybe use this as a reference point.

 

I'm a very aggressive singer/screamer who has been working at getting these screaming techniques under my fingers and finally when I've gotten the sound I'm going for, I can control it, it doesn't hurt, I go and screw myself up trying to hit crazy high notes. About two weeks ago I left our band's studio noticing that the right side of my throat was really sore. It wasn't horse or burning, it was sore like a pulled muscle. I figured I just strained myself a bit, nothing out of the ordinary, though I hadn't actually felt this particular pain before.

A week passes, I don't do much singing, just maybe in the car, 5 minutes here and there but the next time I go to band practice, I feel the pain start almost immediately. I half-assed one more song then called it quits. This time the pain was considerably worse, starting from under my jaw and leading down to my collarbone. I took another week off and barely sang a note or used any extra tension above speaking level.

Another studio session, 4 takes and I was done. The pain only hurt when I was screaming. It's only with fry screaming. False chord screaming there's zero pain and clean singing I'm fine as well, it's literally only when I add any kind of fry/grit to my voice. Not even straight up screaming fry, but even a bluesy rasp gets the pain going. Surprisingly enough, I actually have a slightly HIGHER clean range than I normally do right now with no pain.

I'm not sure exactly what I did, but if I'm going to keep going for these crazy notes (I was peaking out around F#5/G5 before this happened and I'm a baritone) then it's time I get some proper instruction on getting up there. Problem is, I'm putting all of my extra money into a new house so it won't be easy finding something that'll work right now that's the real deal.

Take care of those throats, people. I drove home from practice freaking out today with thoughts of surgery or not being able to do the things I do now, anymore. I always warm up and don't do anything extensive until I'm good and ready and I warm down after sessions/shows....but I was definitely putting the cart before the horse a bit.

[ronws]

So, were your high notes fine before working on the screaming? And the working on high screams and you noticed this symptom? And now, you can still sing high if it is clean?

 

Just wondering.

 

[KillerKu]

I'd rest from the offending sound for the time being. Personally for me the bluesy rasp (my favorite kind) would kind of hit a wall around A#4 for a long time as there was a weird transition somewhere into head voice, and if I continued it would goes nuts with psycho overtones.

 

I've found I can gradually transition into a screamier thing that is placed higher, but it's different. It's a bit more like the metal one, but if I transition slowly, it doesn't have to jump into a Dio or 80s kind of sound.

 

So just try to keep in mind in your voice, some things can't be forced so you might just want to blend into the overlay. David Ruffin (my profile painting and favorite singer) was gritty in chest and falsetto on the top. Great balance, unique vocal personality. I find rasp all of the time monotonous (I find Brian Johnson pretty monotonous), so my solution is to not use rasp where it doesn't want to go or where I think it doesn't suit my voice or the song.

 

So yeah, rest, it will probably heal. If it doesn't, I don't now what to ell you. If it's only fry rasp that causes pain, it's probably a very specific muscle/nerve effected. My base of tongue pain isn't specific at all. Everything hurts it, talking, eating, stretching, even temperature changes. If it doesn't heal you can look into rehabilitation and/or nerve damage as most muscles, tendons, and so forth heal. Ligaments are slightly less so, but nerve damage is usually permanent as the nerves are not as capable of healing. If it turns out you damaged a nerve, the symptoms can be reduced with medication and desensitization exercises, which is what I do. 

[Drucifer]

So, were your high notes fine before working on the screaming? And the working on high screams and you noticed this symptom? And now, you can still sing high if it is clean?

 

Just wondering.

Well, they've both kind of come along together. Once I realized where/how to get the fry sound, my range shot up just the same. I completely shifted my approach to singing after that, it was like I finally got out of my chest voice and broke through to something new.

I can't sing as high cleanly as I can with a bit of grit/fry on there, but for a straight, clean singing voice, it seems there's a little more headroom up there than before the last couple weeks. It might be because I've really been avoiding the fry stuff and focused more on it.

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[ronws]

Well, I hope you get better, nonetheless.