Oh yes, defintely. Grit, like the clean tone, is still about minimal breath. If you feel a lot of breath coming through your nose, you're losing vocal energy.

I know it's off topic, but I read the Myles Kennedy interview, and I noticed he said he has to think about letting air flow through his nose, and in RYV (and here) you say that it's incorrect to do so, and Myles does have a bit nasal sound especially lately, am I missing something?

Every artist is different and that is Myles approach. I refrain from it simply because I don't want singers forcing too much air through the nose, as the nasal resonance mixture will occur naturally with correct placement. Some singers focus on what is called the mask, or cheeks, nose, etc. So this may just be Myles way of feeling the resonance. BTW- Myles keeps his copy of RYV on the road with him---which is why I sent him a new copy recently because he's wearing out the old one;)

Update :D 3 weeks ago, I went to vocal coach and he taught me how to breath ( I guess I was missing that). It's funny how breathing can change volume and range. The important part - Yesterday I was singing and doing some exercises and for 3 seconds (I recorded myself so I know for a fact) I got that Dave Grohl rasp. I was in tears man. When I put my headphones on I could feel the same thing I feel when I listen to foo fighters, but unfortunately I don't know how I did it and I can't repeat it again. It sounds ridiculous but it's true. So I learnt how to breathe, I guess I have enough compression but I think my placement is wrong. Question - In your extreme screams series, you said that when you breath properly and when you have enough compression, placement will come naturally. Is this true or I misunderstood it? If it's true, than my compression is failing. Sometimes I try to squeeze my belly by tightening the abs but then I strain, other times I breath out like I breath in (I can't explain it diffrently) for normal breathing, but for my version of comression I try to expand my belly even more when breathing out. What am I doing wrong and can you give me some tips how to achieve compression (please don't say "just squeeze your belly", that won't help :D ). Thank you.

Hi Orsa!
Maybe you can provide some examples of you trying to make that grit?
Last week I accidently produced 'grit' and I still can do it, but I dont know if its good, cause sometimes Im loosing my clean headvoice sound (theres another topic for that). Maybe Im doing it too hard for now. I don't know why, but it seems that some pharyngeal exercises helped me with producing grit.

First one is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDpQXNXKu-0
The others will be Lugo's exercises found in RYV.

Cheers

Maybe I can help Orsa.

These screaming effects/grit require some kind of breathiness and pallet play.

The variety and changes to these create the grit. Can you do other types of grit?

Can you do the Chewbaca sound??

When I was learning grit I couldn't do the soft pallet Chewbaca/dry gargle sound at all no matter much I tried for months.

One day, after I get some vibration in the roof of my mouth (like many days), I thought "What the hell" and tried to do some high screams and grit while applying the techniques as I imagined and it just worked.

Then after that I tried the death metal and got it instantly.

Then afterwards an hour of some screams and a variety grit play I tried doing the Chewbaca and magically I could do it--all in the same day.

But then later in the day I tried to do the Chewbaca and it was freakin' hard. Then the next day I tried doing Chewbaca and I COULDN'T DO IT AGAIN until after I did the death metal and high scream like grit again.

So long story short: you need to keep practicing different types of grit to develop the right 'muscle memory' and flexbility or workability of the pallet vibration and breath. Don't just focus on one kind of grit/scream/sound.

Experiment and most of all--have fun!

Hey Christopher! Thanks for your help. I can do the chewbacca sound, but it's hard to apply that tecnique when singing, I have tried but I can't do it, I just can't. It helped me feel the sensation of "gargling" but I can't apply it to singing.

Hey Orsa,

That's great to hear. I don't think you actually need to 'apply' Chewbaca so much.

The point I meant is that the Chewbaca is like another grit exercise. Or...


Do lots of different grit/scream types = gain lots of grit skill = can do lots of grit

Strive for one or a few grit/scream types = gain little grit skill = can do little to no grit


See what I'm saying?

Yeah, I hear you. Thanks for your help :)

Christopher_JC, I really started working on different kinds of grit and I think it will make me understand the technique better. I'm doing a little bit of fry screaming and I'm just wondering can you sing normally with fry vocal technique without stopping the air coming through the nose?

I wish I knew how to do the vocal fry grit, but I don't have Extreme Scream :p

From what I understand it's just a loud fry or an amplified fry so it shouldn't come out your nose. I think the only sung sound required to come out your nose is a hum.

There's always the plug/unplug the nose trick. That and training and practicing your witchy/pharyngeal and Teepee or raising your soft pallete or what Alan Greene calls 'gripping'.

I was preacticing today and again I was able to produce some grit just fo a few seconds, but this time I knew what I was doing. I tightened my diaphragm but that seems so hard to do :D When I was recording, I don't recall doing anything that was so difficult (I didn't push like a maniac). I tried it again after that and I couldn't do it. I think the moment I tighten my diaphragm I start singing from my throat so I guess when I can produce this grit, everything comes together (open thorat and support). Do you have any tips how to achieve it on regular basis? Thank you.

I may be wrong, but I don't think you need the power push or diaphragm to do grit. That's to make the grit louder.

Lots of beginners have trouble tensing the throat when they push so grit and the push should be trained separately until you can control the two and do it without strain.

I would just start with the soft pallet and breath pressure.

I have finally found my grit and I can't be happier. Now the goal is to perfect it and really sing with it. At this point, I can use it but I can't really sing with it (grit notes don't sound that great like my clean notes). I'll work on it and I just wanted to thank you all for helping me! Thank you!
Orsa