Saturday, September 18, 2010

Guides For Singing In A Heavy Metal Band

By Jacaranda Dalap

Assuming you like to sing heavy metal, you have to first know how to sing with proper technique. Attempting to do the shouting and growling without beneficial approach can cause permanent injury to your voice. And in the future you might want to sing a little other than heavy metal.

The simplest, essential, and valuable thing to learn about singing is breath support and control. Breath control is more important for metal than for any other vogue of singing. You need to learn how to use not only your diaphragm, but even your abdominal, spinal, and intercostal muscles.

Second, learn roughly your vocal registers and determine your natural voice type. Learn how to place a tone at the most desirable part of your voice. Your grunts and death growls will be chest voice, but your screams will be head voice.

At the start of every practice session and before each performance, do a vocal warm up schedule. In the same way that athletes need to warm up before a competition or a game, singers do, too. Keep yourself hydrated also. Drink water or herbal tea.

One way to work on the growls is to try to bark like a dog. Use better deep breath support and drive the sound with your abdominal muscles. Open your throat and try to speak several words in a guttural tone. Start at low volume. Don't try to get louder until you have learned the technique.

For the screams, use your head voice. Get a very nasal tone, not really falsetto. It will take significant practice to get it correct.

Once you have perfected the vocal technique and sound effects, do your overall performance. Heavy metal bands often have very physical acts, with loads of thrashing and jumping around on the stage. You need to be in good physical health to do that without hurting yourself.

Interact with your audience. Lead them to sing along with the chorus of some songs. Figure out your costume or stage attire. Practice ahead of a mirror, or videotape yourself and watch it afterward. Think of what you will say--how you will introduce each song.

Most importantly, practice, practice, practice! It basically takes a lot of work and planning to make a performance look pleasurable and wild. Just like it takes years of work and practice for a baseball player to travel by Little League to Major League, it takes a similar amount of effort for your metal band to go by garage to arena headliner. - 40729

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