Hello! I recently purchased Raise Your Voice and have been avidly working through as much as possible since and I've come up with a question concerning the tone of my grit. Between the exercises available within the program and mimicking Jaime's basic examples of grit I can now achieve a very similar grit tonally in a basic exercise context. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7dHoEmUtIs This is an example of one of the other "grit tones" I'm pursuing. To my ears it's not quite the same grit that I can do so far or that of others who have learned grit through Raise Your Voice. Given the stamina he has singing this tune I'm assuming that what is going on is still happening in the soft palate. If anyone with more experience could take a listen and maybe compare the tone to the grit that you initially learn through the Raise Your Voice exercises I would really appreciate the help. Even if this particular example doesn't suit you I'm interested in the idea of manipulating grit tone so if you've had a similar experience I'd love to hear it. Thanks!

It just sounds like a blues tone with a little grit done with a med-high voice.

Just focus on getting the tone and grit separately and then combine them.

Trying to sound EXACTLY like someone else can be difficult, but the general technique is not.

Practice in a light falsetto and record till you get coordinated.

BUT you must be able to do grit and tones easily before doing this because adding a little grit can be challenge (as opposed to just staying in it).

Also, if you don't can't do the tone you'll just distort your throat and hurt yourself 'reaching' for it, especially when applying grit.

Hope that helps

Right, this is just one example of another direction of grit. I don't mean to say this is the tone for me I'm just curious about being able to control the tone more. If I'm understanding you correctly are you saying to find the desired tone sans grit and then add the grit as needed? essentially blending your clean tone with x amount of grit? Also I recently checked out your high scream post, nicely done!

Yes. But you should practice all screams and tones in like a breathy falsetto first. This is how most people imitate screams and tones who even have no vocal training.

Grit should also be practiced separately.

Then when you have enough muscle memory you can commit to doing the tone in full/mixed voice and then after feeling good about that, add some grit.

When first doing screaming my soft pallet felt sort of like stiff cardboard. And I actually got a little sharp pain a few times because it was like the first time it ever really moved. BUT I was very cautious and slowed down and kept rethinking the pain to make sure I wasn't damaging myself. Basically after the first day I never had it again and there was no soreness.

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As for learning different tones, screams, and grits you should check out Jaime's ScreamingLessons.com

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Thanks about the high screams but they aren't that good. That was my first time screaming and I maxed at A#5 a couple of times there, but didn't have many tones or good mask/head resonance.

Now my max is easily at D#6 when screaming and I have more tones and resonance.

The important thing is I had fun and you should too or practicing gets boring.

Great, thanks!