Compression and open throat singing. Need help.
Blueman
Member Posts: 6
Hi,
I have spent the past year expanding my vocal range to a point where I feel comfortable to start singing with compression, and I have been trying with vocal fry to minor succes but not slightly to where I want tge sound to be. After watching Ken's video I saw that it is smart to start with open throat singing and larynx positions first. He talks about starting at a low larynx position and to hold it down which is to me quite easy with an 'a' or 'ya' vowel. But vowels like 'ee' seems impossible without moving the larynx up while going up the scale.
Ultimately I would like to learn these position as a basis for compression. Is vocal fry really how to do it? If I ever want to start screaming am I practicing the right thing?
I'll have to sing rock n roll soon and I'd like it to sound a bit in between elvis and little richard. Not that I want to achieve this in a month or something.
To you who have learned these positions and compression, how did you do it? What did you practice and how often? How long did it take from a certain point?
Thanks for your time,
Yuri
I have spent the past year expanding my vocal range to a point where I feel comfortable to start singing with compression, and I have been trying with vocal fry to minor succes but not slightly to where I want tge sound to be. After watching Ken's video I saw that it is smart to start with open throat singing and larynx positions first. He talks about starting at a low larynx position and to hold it down which is to me quite easy with an 'a' or 'ya' vowel. But vowels like 'ee' seems impossible without moving the larynx up while going up the scale.
Ultimately I would like to learn these position as a basis for compression. Is vocal fry really how to do it? If I ever want to start screaming am I practicing the right thing?
I'll have to sing rock n roll soon and I'd like it to sound a bit in between elvis and little richard. Not that I want to achieve this in a month or something.
To you who have learned these positions and compression, how did you do it? What did you practice and how often? How long did it take from a certain point?
Thanks for your time,
Yuri
Comments
Here are some videos that I think could be helpful and are relevant:
so, if you feel clueless, imagine the whole thing not being an answer and then you know it. think of it as a journey, where you collect bits and pieces and this is the whole story. some of the analogies you hear, you won't understand them right when you hear them. they will become clear later. so some info seems useless now but you will remember it for later. that's the process. it works just the same on the free videos... if you get to a point where you can't learn from them anymore, you can always consider the course.
I REALLY suggest that you fully watch the videos that I linked. You are taking pieces from all over the place and trying to fuse them into something useful, this will not provide you with any good results. Start your work with the first video. You need to let go of distortion, until you have FULLY mastered the basics just like @Klaus_T suggested. You can't even understand distortion unless you understand the basics.
So without talking about compression for a moment; One of the questions I have been asking that I feel I still have no answer for is how to learn these laryngeal positions the best. Especially the 'ee' vowel.
If you have seen most of the videos then you know what the basics are because Ken calls them that and he reiterates them over and over again.
Plus I know *that* I have to learn the laryngeal positions, I'm asking for advice on *how* to.
good posture
correct breathing
good support
having established an open throat, or at least an idea of it
"ping is king" & "it's the LAH"
from your question it is unclear whether you want to use vocal fry, or get rid of it?
I have Ken's course and I watch the videos over and over again. I will practice for weeks and struggle with something and then I remember that Ken talked about it in a video. I go to that video and watch it, and watch it, and watch it. I copy, I imitate, I experiment. I keep trying. Eventually I start to grasp what Ken is doing and I feel what he is feeling only personally to me with my muscles. When this happens my understanding gets better and when my understanding gets better my singing gets better. I often say, I can't reach inside your throat and manipulate the muscles so that you can understand how to do something.
Don't fall into the trap of thinking that singing is easy. It isn't. There are very few good singers out there, and they have to work very hard to be good at it. It isn't easy. Very few people see the hard work that goes into the craft of singing we just see the result. If you are really curious about how much it takes well do some background research on Michael Jackson.
This is my last post on this. You have no understanding of how difficult it is to do proper compression. You want it to be easy. I am sorry it is not. You seem very unwilling to do the necessary work that you need to do to build the basics to get where you want to go. I will say that KTVA WILL chart out the path for doing that but you need to do the work. And yes the free YouTube videos can provide you that information but you will need to do a lot of work to put it together. Ultimately it is up to you. If you are looking for the easy path then you will give up. If you really want to know then you will start the hard work of learning, and trust me even with the course you will work.
I sing probably once a week with a mate of mine, live, unplugged, in a local bar in my area, after quiz night, just for fun. Literally just messing around, we bring a guitar and we jam and people come join our table and sing along... no mics or amps so the tendency to oversing is large.
It takes me one second (or less) of "distortion" or "fry" (stupid decisions trying to cover say Dave Grohl growling, instead of just singing the lyrics clean) and my voice is wiped out. One second. Then my notes are gone, and the rest of the evening just descends into vocal damage, force, and pain the next day.
Last week i just sang clean, gentle, and controlled and no issues, the whole evening.
Damaging your voice is not smart, take it from me.
Listen to the guys and girls here, they know their stuff.
I think a good student knows how to revise on what they learnt before. Surely you can remember something that put you in the right direction? What's a skill if you can't explain how you do it?
Even if I was teaching someone to walk I could still explain what I did to learn to walk.
The second part, about the proper compression technique, isn't taught until a late stage of his paid course, at a point where students have got those basics down, and have developed strength and stamina. We can't explain that part to you. Even if someone here was inclined to disrespect Ken enough to pirate the information that he asks payment for (because he gained it through decades of work, learning, and experience, and that has value), it would be removed.