Singing

I know there are musicians on this board and I'm sure there are folks who sing.

I've got the makings of a new band forming. Gonna have a nifty dual-singer thing going between myself and another guitarist a la Nine Days. Question is: how can I preserve my voice?

I've noticed that on some songs where screaming is involved (see: "Bleed American" by Jimmy Eat World and "Sic Transit Gloria" by Brand new), not only only does my throat get to hurting but my head just pounds afterwards. Obviously, there's gotta be a way to pull off said screaming without killing yourself, seeing as these guys do it on a daily basis and I don't see them passing out on stage.

I've looked around online for tips and found that drinking soda ought to be axed as well as cold drinks altogether when you're getting ready to sing and honey helps keep the vocal chords moist a lot. I've also seen that you should produce the sound from your diaphragm and not your throat; the only problem being I don't quite know how to go about doing this.

And, can I still drink beer? Please tell me I can still drink beer.

-Mike





Go listen to my band. We're awesome.

http://www.myspace.com/rosencrantzny
weallgotwoodandnails

I have a minimal knowledge of this, but I can tell you that in addition to the honey (which is a VERY good preservative for the vocal chords), buy a steamer. If you can't afford it, well...basically, a steamer is a piece of aparatis that essentially does the same thing as putting a towel over your head and inhaling the steam from soup when you're congested. Just inhale the steam, and it does the same thing that a steamer does. It's supposed to help keep your vocal chords moist and in good shape.

In regards to learning how to sing from your diaphrahm...that I'm not sure of, but I know some people who are pursuing singing as a career, so I'll see what I can find out from them, if you want. Unless someone on here can answer that instead.



~lori~

singing from your diaphram takes practice....its not hard to do once you figure it out and it helps maintain vocal strength...to sing from your diaphram you need to stand up straight (at least at first, until you get the hang of it) When you inhale, push your stomach out. This will allow you to more completely fill your lungs. As you exhale, bring your stomach slowly in, using the muscles of your diaphram to control your notes. I don't really know how to explain it other than that... I sang for so many of my school years that its just second nature.
However, for the throat hurting....you probably just need to build up your voice and strengthen your vocal cords. This can be done using a variety of vocal warm ups...the most important thing is that you warm up your voice before you sing so that your cords are 'warm' before you go and start singing. Warm ups can also improve your range and breath control (which in turn will help get rid of the ready to pass out feeling)

Hope this helps a little and good luck

i always wonder the same thing....and of couse u can still drink beer....
im tryin to start up a band too....but i need to learn how to play guitar first....



NINE DAYS!!

That'd probably help. Also i've been takin voice lessons for a bit and using the diaphram like that person was talking about is really important. My guess would be that would help with the screaming some too.



---Anyone perfect must be lying, anything easy has its cost, Anyone plain can be lovely, anyone loved can be lost, What if I lost my direction? What if I lost sense of time? What if I nursed this infection? Maybe the worst is behind---

No clue about the singing, but I can help on the breathing. Basically, you're trying to use 'inter-costal diaphragmatic breathing'. It's just another type of breathing, like how you breathe differently when you sleep, stand, exercise etc. It supports the voice and gives it a more 'whole' tone.

The inter-costals are the muscles between you're ribs, and you use them to let the ribs expand upwards and outwards as you breath in, which fills the base of your lungs with air. You're diaphragm should go down here.

As you breathe out, the diaphragm rises and your ribs relax, which squeezes air out of your lungs from the base. Ultimately, you're trying to fill the whole of your lungs with air, so you're trying to fill them from the bottem.

Once you know what you're actually trying to do, it's not too hard. To practise, stand up straight with your hands by your sides, and as you breathe in, lift your arms till they're perpendicular to your body, but don't let your shoulders lift up, that ruins the whole point. It might help if you push your stomach out or down, but still let your ribs rise.

Hope that helps.



~ Sofi ~

"And so tomorrow there will be another number for the one who had a name."

Message deleted on 2015-09-05 06:30:16 PDT

hi! i just saw this post and figured i could help out a bit... i'm a music education major and i sing year round. you should really stay away from caffeine altogether. that includes tea, coffee and soda, but other culprits that you might not think about are chocolate (yeah, i know! darn right? lol) and dairy products. i used to be a huge drinker of milk but like any dairy product is not great for your vocal cords, so i stopped. a great alternative for tea is good ol' water. drink more water than is reccommended (more than the 8 glasses a day, etc). warm water is excellent for your voice if it is tired. water is the only thing ever reccommended to me to intake before a concert or show. stay away from alcohol. and if you do drink it, drink extra water to replenish the hydration level of your body.

don't stay up late and wake up early. get rest. this is obvious, but SOOO many people overlook it. not getting enough sleep creates stress, and you are more likely to get sick. stress affects your ability to sing as well as what you eat or don't eat.

clearing your throat a lot, and whispering a lot are not great for your voice. instead of clearing your throat, try sighing. when you clear your throat, your cords rub together to try to shake off whatever phlegm is on them. when you sigh, they flap free of one another. kinda like clothes on a clothesline, lol.

most popular musicians in any genre, or musicians that do a lot of shows have vocal coaches. or at least make a trip to the ENT (ear nose and throat doctor) every few months. thats the doctor who can put a little camera down and check out your cords, and make sure that you are not developing vocal nodes, polyps, or hemmoraged vocal cords, all of which you would never know you had unless you got checked. and both can develop quite quickly for artists who "scream" and yell a lot.

i had vocal nodes in high school, and its hard keeping everything in balance so they don't re-develop. my voice has never been the same, so thats the only reason i really tell everyone this when they ask. its really important even if you're just in a band with some friends.

so if you can't get a vocal lesson or two, to explain the diaphragm and projection stuff (because its hard to really explain that unless you have someone actually listening to you) make sure you look up an ENT before you start singing a lot. (the ENT is also really really fun, hehe cause you get to make funny sounds and see your cords moving).

other than that, practical things you can do to limit over use of your voice are simple things like...

-turning down the tv or sterio volume, so you don't end up speaking over it when talking to someone
-staying away from menthol or eucalyptis throat drops
-doing warm ups
-limiting the use of perfume/cologne, ESPECIALLY during shows. and asking your fellow singers/musicians to do the same. you never know what may irritate your voice. a personal story of mine accompanies this... during my freshman year vocal concert at my university, i wore some all-natural raspberry perfume stuff, and the girl next to me had a reaction to it and had to get off the risers half way through because she had trouble breathing. i felt so horrible, lol.

hopefully that helps some. peace out, nine days fans!



Post Edited (08-12-04 13:49)

Wow, thanks for all the help here, guys and girls.

I think I'm getting the hang of the diaphragm thing but I've gotta think about it to do it otherwise I just go back to normal, but practice will take care of that. I didn't know so much actually went into singing. A bit of a bummer, but if it'll wind up helping than it's good.

-Mike





Go listen to my band. We're awesome.

http://www.myspace.com/rosencrantzny
weallgotwoodandnails

I sung and took lessons from kindergarten all the way up to 6th grade when my voice cracked. It was shaky going back into singing once my voice was settled again, and then about a year later my voice actually cracked again and I wasn't able to get back into singing for awhile. When I finally did however for some reason all the lessons and techniques no longer helped and my voice sounds consistently hollow and out of tune.

It seems like since my voice dropped so much (I went from a relatively high voice for a boy, to a very low deep voice) I just cant get into the habit of adjusting to it. This has been a pretty big problem for me because music and such has always been a big part of my life, yet lately I've only been able to sing when I catch myself on a "good day."

I've actually been working on recording material since November, but I havent been happy with any vocal takes except for one (Out of probably 50-60.) Anyone have any advice to get my singing back on track?

The way I was taught to sing from my diaphragm is to imagine there is someone pulling your hair right from the middle of your head. If you imagine it, your shoulders would come back a little and you open up your chest. I don't know, the image worked for me.



~MeLiSsA