General Chat 14

1) Will the vocal fry exercises give me the desired “grit” that I want over time? I’m talking about where it sounds like your yelling on pitch. I can distort my voice in head fairly easily, but it seems like more work trying to get the same effect in chest. To give you an example, I consider Layne Staley (Alice n Chains) one of my biggest influences and I don’t want to mimic him, but I do want to get that deep chesty “growl”.

Question 1 – grit and raps is subjective to each singer. How you want to sound will different from each person. Grit and Rasp are also hard to control if you can’t do it naturally. Find the right amount of grit in chest voice starts with the sound you make when you clear your throat with your mouth closed. Not a cough thing but that internal little “ehm ehm” we do to clear the voice of phlegm. Get that little internal “ehm ehm” sound going and stretch it out for 1-2 seconds. Now open your mouth and keep doing the “ehhm” sound. You should hear a raspy/gritty sound. The vibration should sit above your vocal cords right in the back of the throat – not down low in your throat. Experiment with this sound and feeling. Don’t let the growl sink down into your throat – try to keep it high in the throat near the back of the tongue. This is vibrating the false cords which are little blobs of flesh above your actual vocal cords. It’s safe to vibrate these blobs of flesh and not blow your voice. It should NOT hurt to do this. If it hurts you’re too low.