As it turns out, all of Mendonca's vocals are exhaled. I found a place on the Akercocke forum where he said that.

I think you're right about them being some sort of gutteral.

Speaking of gutterals, I sure am having trouble doing those. I hold my throat as open as I can, and I keep my mouth in the "O" shape, but it always comes out sounding like a low growl instead of a gutteral. You know, with a little bit of gurgle and rasp instead of that smooth, airy gutteral sound.

Apparently I'm just not grasping the concept of how to do them I guess.

push more air out then you would a growl.

or try with less air.

you're still going to have an ooooowoooowooo sort of sound because the guttural and low growl techniques still make thier tone through the resonation of your mouth rather then your throat.

where as higher vocals, hardcore, growls, highs, screammms.

they all come from the throat and that's where they get thier rasp sound.

just keep in mind:

The more open your throat is and more closed your mouth is the lower the vocal.

the more closed your throat it and open your mouth is the higher the vocal.

I just read the instructions on the first page of the thread, and I must say they are very well written out and easy to follow.

thank you.

i'm always here to help =]

feel free to ask any questions here aswell.

Great replies on this thread. Just found the site. I am glass shattering vocal coach Jaime Vendera and I teach people all the time how to scream regardless of whether it's black or deth metal, 80's metal or 90's grunge. There are definite techniques you can follow that will allow you to scream your brains out and never hurt your throat. I explain it all in my book Raise Your Voice, which is a 460+ page instruction manual with 9+ hours of instructional video and audio. Check it out at raiseyourvoicebook.com and for other products or virtual lessons with me, go to the store at www.thevoiceconnection.com;) Any general questions, I will be glad to answer on here or www.voicecouncil.com;)

Peace,

JV

Quick question:

How do you get so low like the guy from Ahab?

What style is it?

Are you refering to the DOOM-Metal band AHAB?
as far as I could hear of thiers, thier music, the vocals i heard (off a youtube video portraying a song by them) it sounded like regular screams and growls but long and drawn out with effects on them.

just practice growls and gutturals I guess?

some of you guys dont realize that everyone has a different shaped vocal box. Which means that some people can do certain tones and pitches and others cant. If your trying to do gutturals and it just isnt getting better it might be a good idea to stop and work on something your better at. I've found that people who naturally arent guttural vocalists can do gutturals but theyre just not as good and usually not worth using on stage. Im not trying to spread any hate im just saying ive heard a million people say they want to sound like dani filth or mikael akerfeldt when they dont realize they should be sounding like themselves instead.

Well I know that I sound like myself.

I can imitate plenty of vocallists but I tend to have my own sound.

everyone DOES sound different,

however if you set yourself to it there is no vocal style you cannot do.

I have a higher-ranged voice and I can still do gutturals and growls,

it's all about positions and airflow and whatnot, as I said in this guide.

im not sure if im doin growls correctly or if it even a growl...i read sumwhere when u clear ur throat..ahemm kinda sound...and u use that 2 growl is this true and if so how to u get it lower.....if not can u explain how to a growl a little differently cause i cant quite get how u do it

I like this guide alot. It's really helpful. Taught me stuff I didn't know, like how soda affects your vocals.

I've just got a few questions;

1. I do drink water, too, when practicing, But my throat still feels a little sore. I've only been doing vocals for a few months, but not very frequently (need to practice more). Will this pain diminish in time; and is this pain a symptom of any damage to my throat or vocal chords I may be doing?

2. I also used to use cough drops when practicing to help soothe my throat. Is that counterproductive in any way that I'm not realizing?

3. I'm a smoker, and I do plan on quitting my September this year. This probably a REALLY dumb question, but does smoking cause any long-term damage to my throat that may hinder my vocal ability in the long run? I don't smoke before practice, of course. Just FYI.

4. How would you do Pig Vocals? Are they the same as Inhaled Vocals?

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Suspended, a question just occurred to me.

When you say that the throat should be completely open for the gutterals, do you mean "open" as in having the larynx pushed down, or "open" as in having the glottis itself open and the vocal cords apart?

i, aswell as many other people have found that having your throat more open and your mouth more closed deepens the growl, however if your throat is too open and your mouth too closed it will start to form into a guttural.

remember to use your diaphragm and push air out with your chest not your head.

and yeah when you clear your throat you know how you sort of push air out hard, or when you cough, and you feel it on the back of your throat, it's because it's bypassing the vocals chords.

and a cough is very similar to a growl.

1.pain is pain, despite what melissa cross and all these "vocal" coaches say, if you want to do metal vocals properly it will strain and possibly damage your chords over a long period of time.

you will get pain with bad tecnique, however the more you practice and take advice the more prone you will be to learning proper ways to do vocals, eventually you will lean subconciously the way to do vocals without hurting yourself.

2: i dont use cough drops, they tend to add unwanted phlegm, i prefer tea, expecially tea with honey. I don't know if they are just adding to the harm, they might be a good thing, Im not a doctor, so i would'nt know. but dont take pain killers to mask the pain of doing vocals, i used to do that when i only knew how to do inhaled vocals, and it lead to bad bad things.

3: unfortunatly, I smoke, bad habit yes, i also smoke menthols, i feel they tend to relax my throat maybe 30 or so minutes before I perform, and of course after to make my throat feel better. the only long-term effect i could see is having throat cancer and screwing you over, giving you a stoma and making you have robot vocals. or just decreasing the amount of air your lungs can take in.

4: there's two different ways to do "pig vocals" Inhaled vocals will almost ALWAYS produce that "pig" noise you want, or sometimes (if you don't practice well enough) "frog" vocals. However a better sounding vocal technique for "pig vocals" is an exhaled tecnique that is still sort of a mystery to me, bands that use this tecnique are (newer) With Blood Comes Cleansing and you can hear it in some of Whitechapel's congs.

open as in not tensed, scream randomly at a mid/high range, you'll feel your throat clench up like clenching your fist.

however by open i meen with no tension on the throat.

Could you please give me some tips for Death Metal / Deathcore growls and vocals?? Just basicly everything I need to know about them, if it's too long to post, could you please PM it to me then?

bro, read the guide, and if you need help with anything SPECIFICALLY then ask away

I have a question regarding the larynx.

I know that when doing normal singing it's important to keep the larynx in a basically neutral position and let the pitch change independently, but is it the same way with things like gutterals, growls, and screams?

The reason I ask is because when doing extreme vocals I tend to push the larynx down to lower the pitch, and push it higher in the throat to raise pitch and wondered if this was the correct thing to do.

i need help with pitch changing 2 cause i do it the same way

Alright, I found my question.

I was doing some Death Metal / Grindcore vocals, and I was getting tired rather fast, and I couldn't keep up with the first 2 songs (Cannibal Corpse songs)

Is that normal? Also, what bands should I practice DM Vocals to??