Before reading: Make sure your vocal cords are fully mature. Do some exercises to warm up your vocal cords. This article only explains how to prepare your mind to growl. If you want to control your breathing, increase your vocal range, etc… you just need to practice, and lots of it.
Steps
Step 1. Learn to breathe correctly:
sit with your back straight, and simply hum in your normal, closed-mouth voice. When you hum like this, you automatically use your diaphragm and abdominal muscles, so you should feel your abdomen go in, while your chest and shoulders don't move. Now you are exhaling. To inhale, expand your abdomen and lower ribs, while keeping your chest and shoulders still. Practice this breathing, and master it.
Step 2. Hum (mouth closed) and gradually increase the volume
Notice how your abs contract inward (this means your diaphragm is relaxing and pushing air out).
Step 3. Keep increasing the volume, and you will notice that your humming is starting to vibrate
Step 4. Take a breath of air and push your voice higher, making it vibrate even more
Keep the airflow constant (about five seconds maximum).
Step 5. Inhale again, hum in the same way as before and open your mouth
You're singing growl. This is your 'death voice'. Now you can just change its pitch, and make it sound "lower" or "higher".
For a dark-toned black metal voice, simply growl at a higher pitch: hum in a higher pitch than your normal voice, turn up the volume, keep your tongue down, make a grim face believe it or not - help) and open your mouth. Keep your head tilted a little. You're singing in a dark voice. For some people it may take some time to work on raising the hue
Advice
- You will probably never look like your favorite singers. Everyone has their own set of vocal cords and because of this they will emit a unique voice. If you try to achieve the same sound as someone else, you will probably end up hurting yourself.
- Singing in a growl while inhaling "might" damage your vocal cords in several ways, but it doesn't usually hurt. In general it is advisable to avoid using the voice while inhaling.
- The black metal type of voice could hurt if you try too hard or after very long and intense sessions. Keep this in mind and try to avoid such situations.
- Eat healthy (to avoid heartburn), don't drink milk or drinks, or try to avoid them before and after your sessions.
- Always warm up your voice for about 10 minutes or more before practicing.
- If you stop singing growl for a long time, your acquired skills will decrease. If you resume singing after a long pause, take it slow, as your stamina will be much worse. Although, you will be able to heal it much faster than the first time.
- Remember to drink lukewarm water during rehearsal sessions and shows.
- Register to experience the right volume, tone and style. It is recommended to register, listen and listen again after only a few hours, so that the mind is able to identify even the slightest errors.
- Relax your body totally. Forge the voice in the mind, express it with your strings. Don't try to force your vocal cords to do what they shouldn't. Keep your throat relaxed.
- Get in the habit of drinking tea sweetened with honey, but not too hot. It is also good.
- At first don't practice more than 10-15 minutes a day, it will take some time for your vocal cords to get used to their abuse and will eventually sound better. If they hurt you in the early days, however, stop and review your technique - maybe you are trying too hard?
- The growl never needs to be loud. If you can't growl at a very low volume, then you're either not singing right or you still need to practice in order to have more control.
- Do not drink alcohol and do not smoke. Some say it helps, but it doesn't really help your voice or your health.
- This style of vocalization is difficult to explain in words, much more difficult than explaining how to sing with a "clear" voice, because it is very personal and talking about it is a kind of taboo. Anyway, the seven things above make up just the basic tools that may, but may not, help you get started, find out if your voice fits the genre, or not.
- Singing in growl should "never" hurt. So, if it hurts, even a little, review your technique, even if muscle pain around your throat and neck isn't necessarily a bad sign. When you start to growl, you use muscles that you have never used before at such a level. If the muscles around your neck or throat are tired, stop singing until the pain subsides and then start again. It's kind of like weight lifting in the gym; you use your muscles much more intensely than normal and then you wait for them to recover each time before using them at a higher level.
Warnings
- Never go too far. If your vocal cords are too weak during a performance, so be it. Don't you want to ruin your throat like this?
- Check your breathing. Improper breathing can result in incorrect technique and possibly more serious damage.
