Hi singers!

Has anyone checked out the second part yet?
I was disappointed by the first part to be honest as the part of learning screaming is very short (compared to the running time and I can`t learn from just watching people screaming on stage).
Good general excercises and interesting interviews in it, but I expected more about that screaming thing..

So does the new (2nd) volume cover that more detailed?

Thank you for info..

I agree. The first one sucked. I wouldn't expect much from the second one.

Zen2 is far better than the first. It gets into greater detail.

JV

I'm kind of holding out on Zen2. I liked the first one a lot and use its warmup. The screaming/yelling material was definitely very short, but it still worked.

I bought Zen and was extremely disappointed. Like 90% of the movie is testimonials... Very little on actual rock style vocals. Even then I didn't understand it. The pencil thing went entirely over my head, and I think the method she was using was proven wrong when she went to get it recorded on tape, if I remember correctly.

The 'Above the Pencil' technique is a basic one from many schools of singing. By trying to project your pitch so it flow out of your mouth above a pencil held in the teeth, you have to slightly lower your larynx and raise your soft palette. So it's a visualization that works for a lot of people, but like all visualizations, it's not universal. Think of how long it takes a lot of us here to finally get "zipping" for high notes.

The weirdest visualization exercise I got was from my chorus teacher. He told his classes to imagine we were pinching a dime with our butts. The idea was to improve our posture so we could sing with example lower ribcages (sound familiar?), but man was it creepy.

dude did you go to a catholic school. you know you can have your old teacher put in jail now.he shouldnt be putting anything in your butt

One of my old voice teachers told me that trick, although she only suggested using it if you were going for a high note and you were very tired, or were sick and had to sing.

Nothing creepy about it .

Well, enough about coins where they don't belong.

With help from both RYS and The Zen of Screaming, I was able to scream in a very gutteral manner and intersperse it with lots of clean singing and didn't get the hoarseness or loss of a clean tone nor access to falsetto (which used to happen pre-Zen and pre-RYS).


I want to get Zen2 and know I'll want to get RYV2 when it's out, but can't imagine how they'll outdo the originals.

Zen of screaming wasn't nearly as informative as the laryngiscopy video she took after ZOS 1 pretty much showing us that screaming really only involves squeezing the vocal folds and the entire airway together as hard as possible and changing the configuration of the resonators, and that low screams were just a matter of engaging a falsetto mechanism and blowing a lot of air through. She goes on and on about the false folds and yadda yadda and it turns out that you can squeeze your shit together and access them, but for the most part, you're just using a lot of nasal resonance and squeezing the folds together so hard that they don't vibrate...If you do it right, you don't push so much air through that they get blown apart and in time THAT is what makes for a strong screaming voice; focused air.

Great points, James! The more gutteral scream certainly had a falsetto feel (the more air than a note should normally need feeling). That's too weird and it explains why I didn't lose my ability to use falsetto after barking out lyrics like a lunatic.

what i dint like about the zen of screaming is that it seems she is just showing off yer client list as opposed to just teaching you stuff. having some of that stuff is ok but when the disc is an hour long and 15mins of that is informative it gets a bit annoying

Zen2 is awesome and more involved. RYV II has THE explanation for how you the throatiness occurs and how you can do it wihotu hurting your throat.

JV

Ya, I wasn't a big fan of Zen1, I found it to be more like a commercial ad then an instructional dvd, as a result I will not be buying zen2.

I actually liked the first one better. I just ripped it on my comp and edited out all the infomercials. Zen 2 didn't help me at all. Melissa Cross doesn't teach you how to scream. Youtube videos have helped me the most with screaming. I can't wait to buy RYV II though =D.

is there any dvd like "zen of screaming" but more rock oriented and not too much metal oriented.

Hey Mr Vendera when will you do a dvdv??????

James Lugo has a new DVD set coming out that you could check out on his Vocal Asylum site.

Robert Lunte's program as well would be good for you; its definately rock/classic metal (not growling death metal like a lot of Melissa's clients.

Also, Breck Alan has a new DVD series out that i've been seeing at Sam Ash a lot lately; might want to check into that. http://www.rockhousemethod.com/products/vocals.aspx

they asked Jaime to do the sequel to metal method's vocal power. i hope he does it. even just for a tribute to Jim