Some points that have helped me, especially with grit in the tenor range and above, which I've found much more difficult than putting rasp to middle range notes:

- The underlying tone, i.e. the clean tone behind the distorted tone, has to be very "centered". By that I mean as relaxed a throat as possible, as little air as possible (which means adding either a "cry" sound or/and a "twang" sound) and keeping the volume from getting too loud. It will be pretty loud but you should feel that it COULD be louder, especially when you're not yet experienced with this, so you don't blow out your voice.

- You must understand the difference between your voice being hurt (in pain) and tired.

- Jamie's points about keeping the focus in the palate and increasing the support are spot on! It's SO helpful for high grit and actually singing in general.

- When moving up in pitch, especially with grit, increase your twang, as it will protect your voice. Like I said, it's one of the two ways that I know of to REDUCE AIRFLOW, the other one being the "cry"/"hold"/"restrained" sensation/sound. And in the G4-C5 range or so, I personally use both of them together. When I get past C5, I start to let go of the cry/hold and increase the twang even more. I also reduce my vocal fold thickness, which means that if I didn't have the twang on, the volume would get lower and lower.

- I'll say it again. Too much air is the main enemy of high grit! And too too thick vocal folds for high notes is his evil partner!

- After having established a "centered" clean, high note and you want to change from clean to gritty, I've found it helpful to keep my throat as relaxed as I can and rather think of the sound I want, more than actually what to DO to make that sound, as Mark Baxter always talks about (Steven Tyler's vocal coach). And I TRY to NOT increase the volume as I do so. Otherwise I'd just get louder and louder until the sound distorts and then I risk blowing out my voice. I'll feel more energy in my body, but I do my best not to clench or constrict my throat. But if that doesn't work well for you, you might want to go the other route and specifically try to narrow your epiglottis funnel above your vocal folds, i.e. twang so much that your false folds are brought into play and the sounds distorts. It may help to imagine moving the back of your tongue as high up as possible and thinking more "intense". And feel that your support effort increases.

- Whether you use CVT's or RVY's approach to support, make sure that when you increase support, you don't constrict your throat. You should feel the energy of the air blasting your soft palate while having lots of twang and you can put your hand in front of your mouth and should feel HEAT, more so than WIND. That means you're not blowing too much air.

- I've found that Jamie's first version of his SIRENS exercise is one of the most helpful ways to learn high grit, even though it's not a grit exercise. It's because you're so close to that grit sound, even though you might not realize it! I just stumbled onto this once. I slide up in pitch and then I tried putting grit onto the top note and suddenly it felt that I had to do SO little extra effort to add the grit. That's because Jamie's siren exercise teaches you to have a centered, powerful tone in the high part of your voice!

Cheers!

Awesome!!! Keep it coming:)

Jens, those demonstrations are nuts! You sound wicked.

I don't have much to share, as I am still learning how to add grit, so I'm having a hard time with it.

But I learned to add some rasp to my voice though I can't really explain how I do it. I think it's just acid reflux, lol.

Awesome posts!

Here ya go.
http://www.speedyshare.com/files/23217747/OOUA_Grit_feeling.mp3

I was going to record more but I'm having some unwanted acid reflux.

Holy crap! Insane scream at the end, John. Awesome!

I tried the "ooowah" thing, but when I intensify it with grit, I feel a slight "burn" or soreness feeling in my throat. Do you feel anything in the throat when you do it? I am adding support, so part of the grit is up in the palate and part of it feels down in the throat because of that "rug-burn" type feeling in the cords.

Thank you Sir.



I used to get that burning feeling all the time when I would do grit. I don't any more, it just sort of clicked for me. Much like head voice just "clicked". One day I'm doing nothing but pulling chest then BAM I access headvoice.

Umm I use a lot of vocal fry when training, I think that is a huge part of it. Vocal fry is great for getting that grit sound/feel while being relaxed. I also power push much more than I would when clean singing. If I am adding a small amount of grit it isn't that much more pressure, but if I am going for the pantera/opeth sound, it's locked down hard.

I'll think about it further and maybe I'll have more insight for ya.

YES!This was the purpose this thread was created! Great example John King, thats an approach ive never tried and it works! :D Keep it up ;)

Hi Jens and everyone,

What a great thread.

I was wondering if one of the folks that is expert in both CVT and RYV might be willing to explain what CVT distortion and creaking are in RYV terms?

Thanks for any pointers (I am re-reading that section of Jamie's book now!).

Doug