The grindcore vocal is a typical guttural sung / yelled sound in music genres derived from extreme metal, such as grindcore itself, deathcore, hardcore and death metal itself. Coined and popularized by the British metal group Napalm Death, the grindcore vocals have since been adapted to almost any kind of extreme metal expression today. The technique is based on a guttural sound manipulated in such a way that the singer, breathing deeply, causes the vibration of his vocal cords. At the same time, it changes the shape of the lips to form certain sounds or words. The result is an extremely low, or alternatively, extremely high throat sound.
Steps
Step 1. Always start by drinking a glass of lukewarm water, but not alcoholic or acidic drinks (such as lemon tea or fizzy drinks) or even milk before or after shouting
The throat has a protective membrane that breaks when you scream. If you ingest such drinks, you could cause serious and permanent damage to your throat and vocal cords. Warm water and certain types of hot tea help relax and protect the throat.
Step 2. Start by inhaling and exhaling slowly and take gradually longer, heavier breaths
Repeat the alphabet a couple of times, starting with a sigh for the "a" and ending with a loud yell for the "z". These two exercises warm up the vocal cords and prepare them for screams, screams and guttural sounds.
Step 3. Inhale deeply and try to get a hoarse voice (the result should sound like you have an asthma attack)
Then, exhale deeply and try to get the same kind of hoarse voice (imagine your mom just asked you to take out the trash and you respond with a "Ugh!"; Sounds silly, but it works). Repeat the inhalation and exhalation exercises and determine which sound you can make more easily. If you can do a hoarse inhalation, but not a similar exhalation, you should only make guttural sounds as you inhale (step 4). If, on the other hand, you can get a hoarse voice by exhaling, but not inhaling, you should only make guttural sounds as you exhale (step 5). If you can get the hoarse voice both inhaling and exhaling, then you should do either option, possibly the easiest and the one that works best for you (step 4 or 5).
Step 4. (Guttural sounds while inhaling)
Slowly perform the inhalation exercises from Step 3 until it becomes an easy and natural action. Begin the guttural sound by saying the “or” sound aloud. Keep your mouth in the same position you say "or" and simply inhale the same way. The sound will seem silly and underdeveloped at first, but keep breathing in the syllable “or” until you can pronounce it clearly. Keep practicing until you can pronounce the words "or", "oh", "are", and "hour" regularly, at conversation volume (the time for this varies from person to person). When you can pronounce the previous syllables, experiment with new words and practice the sound "i".
Step 5. (Guttural sounds on exhalation)
When you can exhale easily and smoothly, exhale harder and open your mouth to form an "o". As you exhale, blow lightly to add a dull effect to your voice. This should produce the basic exhaled vocal sound (also known as a growl) used in deathcore and modern death metal. Practice exhaling until you can pronounce the sound "oh". When you can say "oh" easily, try other words like "are", "hour", and "or". Then try saying other, everyday words in an exhaled voice, or try to hold a conversation using growl vocal sounds.
Step 6. When you can easily pronounce a good number of words by inhaling and exhaling, open your mouth a little more and strain your voice more
With effort, your voice will reach a low point, which should be the lowest note you can emit from your chest. At this point, strain your voice a little harder as you close your mouth. If done correctly, you will be able to go beyond the voice produced by the chest to access the deep voice (produced by the diaphragm), which is the one used for guttural sounds.
Step 7. Practice with the previous step until your use of the deep voice becomes agile and natural
The words spoken by inhaling and exhaling with the deep voice should come out as a gurgle, an indecipherable mixture.
Step 8. Continue the previous step until you feel comfortable singing and pronouncing words with a distorted voice
Grab some records of your favorite singers using guttural sounds and try to sing over them in your own voice.
Advice
- Practice the guttural sounds of your favorite bands.
- Try not to practice guttural sounds in the presence of other people if possible; many find it irritating and will not appreciate the effort you are making to learn.
- Do not give up!
- Practice for a short time, as prolonged exercise will dry out your vocal cords and make sounds more difficult to play.
- To perform a "pig-squeal" (aka "pig squeal", also known as "bree"), practice guttural sounds and place the tip of the tongue against the upper palate while saying the word "bree" or "wree"”When you inhale and exhale.
- Practice only with the types of sounds that are good for you. If you try your own way and say the sounds you're not good at, it will be easier to get frustrated and let it go. Focus on what works best for you.
Warnings
- While not necessarily a bad thing, cupping your hands around the microphone to produce guttural sounds is generally frowned upon by audiences of any kind of extreme music and you will surely be insulted for it.
- Not everyone understands the difficulty of being a grindcore singer, so be prepared for criticism and insults from death-metal fans, snobs, and those who don't appreciate grindcore in general.
- Don't forget to lubricate your vocal cords with some type of liquid mentioned above. Dry vocal cords can damage your voice and force you to stop for a while or cause permanent throat damage.
- Whenever your throat starts to hurt, stop singing for a while!
