Safe way to sing with rasp

gabrakadabra01

I love that gritty, dirty sound that a lot of singers have and I would love to be able to do that with my own voice. Unfortunately I was "blessed" with a naturally clear voice. I want to know if there is really a way for me to sing with that husky or raspy sound without shredding my chords. Best example is in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkhb1VFdeuY . Pleeeease let me know if it is really possible. Thank you!

sspatrick

We are all born with nice clean voices. Some people push the voice improperly to get that sound and end up wrecking their voice losing range etc. the good news is that you can learn to compress properly to get great distortion. The key is to build up the voice clean first, use string support vowel modifications etc before even trying to distort the voice. Tread lightly and be safe about it. Take your time and this tone can be produced.

Roojam

I used to sing in a loud rock band nearly every weekend. Due to poor technique, I would always temporarily lose my voice at about six songs into the set. Then, after the drummer sang a couple,I could start singing again by using a lower air volume, less belting, more airy sound.  As the set rolled on, my range, control and power would improve. My guys always said that my voice had a very pleasing rock raspiness afterwards, though my throat was sore for a day or so.

Fortunately I never did permanent damage. Looking back, whenever I was coming back from the lost voice I would sing with a softer flow of air, less pressure, and the natural raspiness would begin to come out.

Dumb me, it took me years to realize I should begin the nights by applying less pressure and singing with the lower output, rather than waiting for my voice to seize up, because it wasn't the blowout that brought out the quality, but it was the after-blowout technique that was giving the benefits!