the Classical wrote:1. Doesn't it hurt your throat? No, I took tons of theatre/speech/voice classes as a kid, I warm-up and generally take care of my voice

I'm genuinly interested in this. I have a degree in theater (including speech, etc.) and we never covered screaming. We were taught not to do that, i.e. shape the sound with your throat. How do you scream without shredding your throat?

1. Doesn't it hurt your throat?

I used to lose my voice alot.

2. Did you scream/shout (at home) before you did it in the context of a band?

Not really. I just always knew I had it in there somewhere.

3. Did it surprise your band-mates when you started screaming for the first time (in rehearsal or wherever)?

I think I was 17. The drummer and I were driving around Joliet listening to Big'n and I was like "I can do this." He didn't believe me, so I started screaming along in the car. And it turned out that I could scream pretty decent. We went back to his house and recorded us playing Chinese Jet Pilot into a boombox.

4. Do you have a favourite screamer/shouter to whom you owe your screaming/shouting style?

Bill from Big'n is the obvious one for me. Yow of course. I really liked the screaming on the Out_Circuit album.

murderedman wrote:

the Classical wrote:1. Doesn't it hurt your throat? No, I took tons of theatre/speech/voice classes as a kid, I warm-up and generally take care of my voice

I'm genuinly interested in this. I have a degree in theater (including speech, etc.) and we never covered screaming. We were taught not to do that, i.e. shape the sound with your throat. How do you scream without shredding your throat?

Well, I'm sure they told me not to scream as well, but I just took all the stuff I learned about projecting my voice, doing warm-ups, singing from my diaphragm, etc and applied it to being in a band.

I don't do particularly harsh screams, I've found less is usually more in this area, but all the yelling and shouting stuff, never bothers my throat.

the Classical wrote:Well, I'm sure they told me not to scream as well, but I just took all the stuff I learned about projecting my voice, doing warm-ups, singing from my diaphragm, etc and applied it to being in a band.

I don't do particularly harsh screams, I've found less is usually more in this area, but all the yelling and shouting stuff, never bothers my throat.

Do you think you could summarize some of what you've learned? I mean, I realize that you're not going to be able to tell us everything, but any tips would be awesome.

1. Doesn't it hurt your throat? Not while I'm doing it. After the first 3 shows we played I couldn't do it for at least a week afterward but I think your throat scars or something... haha.

2. Did you scream/shout (at home) before you did it in the context of a band? I did at hardcore shows when I was still into hardcore. But even then the stye was closer older punk bands. Hardcore, punk, whatever...

3. Did it surprise your band-mates when you started screaming for the first time (in rehearsal or wherever)? It was a pleasant surprise because the music was aggressive and at first I tried to sing to it.

4. Do you have a favourite screamer/shouter to whom you owe your screaming/shouting style? As far as the shouting it was always just my thing. A friend once said it sounded kinda like Keith Morris from Circle Jerks/Black Flag or the guy from DRI (I think?). As far as the growling goes, I got into death metal and grindcore heavily (listening to almost nothing else) for a few months and Circle of Dead Children's "singer" was a big influence. Now I'm better than most of the people in straight up death metal bands.

ChristopherM wrote:

the Classical wrote:Well, I'm sure they told me not to scream as well, but I just took all the stuff I learned about projecting my voice, doing warm-ups, singing from my diaphragm, etc and applied it to being in a band.

I don't do particularly harsh screams, I've found less is usually more in this area, but all the yelling and shouting stuff, never bothers my throat.

Do you think you could summarize some of what you've learned? I mean, I realize that you're not going to be able to tell us everything, but any tips would be awesome.

hmm, most of my training was pretty informal and it was like 15 yrs ago, I've just sort adapted it to my current methods...basically when I sing or shout or whatever I always try to project my voice to the very back of the room. I usually I think about where the soundguy is and I sort of "aim" in the that direction.

I try and warm up before hand, usually "Do-Re-Mi". The more time I spend warming-up my voice, the stronger it is. Also, I try to avoid diary, booze, caffeine before doing any singing. Key word here is "try".

I also do everything thing from my gut, not from my throat, like it starts in my stomach and works out from there.

The key thing is, I've learned what the limits of my voice are (and its pretty limited) and I don't try and push it any harder then I feel comfortable w/. I've been singing like this pretty regularly (practice, shows, tours, recording etc) for 4 yrs and never had any real problems. Even when my voice was totally blown out (cuz I was partying on tour), it came back fast enough to record.

This stuff has worked for me, yr mileage may vary.

All you need to know. I heard an interview with her on NPR I think. It was pretty comical.

Jon

I talked to a vocal teacher about this once and I remember the short answer: You have to learn proper technique or you will certainly ruin your voice screaming continually over the years. apparently nasty things will form on your vocal chords with unpleasant surgery to follow. this can be avoided with proper care, warm-ups, and vocal techniques. I noticed frank black's vocal delivery is so boring and lifeless now and I think its cause he tours so much and cant afford to write screamy parts. If you see him do pixie songs like "tame" live, he's cheating on the choruses and kind of doing this breathy quiet scream thing that, amplified, sounds kind of screamy but is mostly just gay.

click-my-heels-midair wrote:frank black is mostly just gay.

I fixed your post.

Christopher J. McGarvey wrote:
frank black is mostly just gay.
I fixed your post.

If you have been following his solo career of late its like the ass-end of a bell curve.