Hey guys,

I have been successfully experimenting with Vocal Fry in the past few months, and I can get pretty good sounding notes in that area. The thing that inspired me to do this and also helped me in getting there was the "Roll Jordan" video on YouTube, that I'm sure you're all familiar with. I was so happy with my results, that I organized an a capella group for the school's end of term concert to sing "Roll Jordan", with me singing bass. I transcribed the whole song by ear and then taught the lines to them individually. They're now pretty solid, and I'm proud of their results. Especially since one of the guys had never really sung on his own before.

So recently, we've been practicing the whole quartet thing in front of our music teacher. And guess what? The one thing that I thought could NOT go wrong, DID go wrong. I couldn't get good-sounding Vocal Fry notes to save my life. Even though it always worked in the morning, once I got to school and started practicing with the guys, it simply wouldn't work. It felt like my cords were suddenly swollen or something, and everything in my throat closed up. The "openness" that is necessary for making a big sound in Vocal Fry just wasn't there. I could not even look at them, because I was so embarrassed.

We're using mics, which obviously enhances the sound of Vocal Fry, but still, I can feel when it's not working, and when that happens, it doesn't even sound good through a mic.

So...I'm pretty frustrated, as you can imagine. The concert is on Tuesday, and I really hope I don't let everyone down. Does anyone have experience with this? Or can you recommend anything I could do to keep my throat open, or to keep my cords non-swollen? I'm obviously going to practice my ass off in the next few days, and I hope I can come up with something myself.

Thanks in advance.

Too much practice with the vocal fry may be your problem. Try zinc and licorice for the swelling, give your voice a rest, be sure to warm up thoroughly, and above all else, remember that vocal fry is produced by not giving enough air pressure to the cords, thus causing a distorted sound. Theres a reason its called fry. Just take it easy, give your voice some rest, lots of water, and shake those nerves. You've done it before, you can do it again.

Dude, I work on fry so much and I still have an issue with fry on high notes...ONLY WHEN SINGING LIVE for some reason. It's really annoying. I sing a more heavier grit sound but it still applies to a lighter fry.

My recommendation: Go in there, practice fry before you go on stage, hold on to that sensation, and reproduce it to the best of your ability when you finally go on stage.

There are things that you shouldn't do either: don't over tense and squeeze to get the fry, cuz it will lead to tension, if you are having trouble hearing yourself, focus on internal sensations and DONT push...this will lead to tension, and tension leads to not being able to produce fry at all...for the fry on the lower notes, like the dude in Roll Jordan, I think its very very important that you volume remain fairly low.

It's very touch and go if you haven't mastered it, I'm getting there but I still need more time to be able to fry every note, at every show, on every syllable...if I so choose.