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odontophobia wrote: Now I mostly yell jibberish over our music until I find patterns that I like and I start there. It's working so far.

Another vote for rhythm/pitch patterns over here. Very seldom do I have any lyrical inspiration. I'm almost always building words over the top of music.
One of the most helpful things is getting a recording of the instrumental parts, and just keeping that on repeat in my headphones. That way I'm always working on it a little bit.
Now, making the words GOOD is another matter altogether. I just try to be honest, and not too specific. And keep in mind that I will often have to fight the rest of the band to be heard, so stuff that you can punch up to a roar is pretty helpful. HA!

aen wrote:

odontophobia wrote: Now I mostly yell jibberish over our music until I find patterns that I like and I start there. It's working so far.

Another vote for rhythm/pitch patterns over here. Very seldom do I have any lyrical inspiration. I'm almost always building words over the top of music.
One of the most helpful things is getting a recording of the instrumental parts, and just keeping that on repeat in my headphones. That way I'm always working on it a little bit.
Now, making the words GOOD is another matter altogether. I just try to be honest, and not too specific. And keep in mind that I will often have to fight the rest of the band to be heard, so stuff that you can punch up to a roar is pretty helpful. HA!

this is exactly how i do it -- once i've developed patterns i'm pretty happy with i write my lyrics. after a few practices i like to do live takes and record vocals directly. then i can listen back. i keep forgetting to send you those, vincent, mostly because i haven't chopped them up the way i've been meaning to.

There's a lot of good advice in this thread already, but here are the specific things I've found that have helped me over the years.

1) Come up with a vocal cadence and/or melody while playing the corresponding guitar part to make sure you're capable of it. Then write down that cadence as a series of syllables: one one-two one-two one one-two-three, etc. Either write lyrics to that schematic, or choose from among pre-written lyrics to see what fits, or adapt lyrics to fit it.

2) Don't overthink a vocal cadence or melody. Just run with what comes naturally to you. Eventually what comes naturally to you will be more complex and interesting than it is now, but don't worry about whether you're ripping off another artist or coming up with a good part. A relaxed, natural vocal part will always sound better than a forced, overwritten one.

3) Especially with screaming, but really with any vocal work, don't try to emulate anything. I've screamed in a lot of bands. In some of them, I went out of my way to scream a particular way that matched my preconceptions of the genre. In others, I didn't. I always spent less time and money in the studio and walked away happier with the finished result when I just let my voice do its thing.

4) Just experiment with your voice until you find a way to scream in ways that don't hurt or cause your voice to give out. Then, see #3. Embrace the way your voice sounds when you do that and don't try to force it to sound other ways. People always say things like "sing from your diaphragm", which has never meant a fucking thing to me. Just use trial and error and you'll work it out.

5) Sugar, booze, cigarettes, and dairy are all awful for your voice. This is probably easier for me than most people because I already don't eat dairy, drink, or smoke, but I always give up sugar for a month or two before recording and it does wonders for the longevity and flexibility of my voice.

6) If you lose your voice, gargle salt water.

I usually just write short one liners to compile into lyrics and then fuck with them until they fit. As far as technique and stuff goes, zen of screaming is lame but great, also don't do anything that actually hurts.

As far as recordings vocals I usually just get really anxious and chain smoke until it sounds like I'm dying while I record.

I swear after a couple of bongs I should get paid to voice anime villains.

Iommic Pope wrote:I swear after a couple of bongs I should get paid to voice anime villains.

Bong rips are the key to a good vocal take, anime or music.

Better singing though wizardry.

Always high when I play or do vocals. I do screaming mostly, sometimes a melody will pop into my head and I will sing it, but we play loud improvised sludgy shit so it's hard to hear oneself. As such, if I sing I keep the melody simple and loose and try to find a middle ground where I can play ok and sing/scream/speak some lines that have at least perfunctory meaning. I find it helps to kinda visualize what I'm singing about like a scene in a movie, it seems to free up some brain space and just make it all flow better. I don't know, it's rare that I have a set idea about how/what I'd like to sing at any given rehearsal/jam, I just know that I prefer heavy music with screaming and I can do that well enough. The songs I've made that have strong vocal melodies I get sick of very fast, with few exceptions. I ain't no Elliott Smith for damn sure.

No good advice except for fuck it, do your own thing, tell stories you care about/make noise with yr voice.

Any tips on prolonging your voice when you scream? Tracked vocals last night and doing more today and shit hurts

I'm not sure how to explain my technique, but depending on the type/pitch of the scream (mine are usually high) you're going for I guess focus on breathing and pushing an even/adequate amount of air into the scream. Flex those abs. I like to imagine myself as a vacuum cleaner in reverse with some metal junk stuck in the hose. Don't know if that helps. And I've heard Extant Deth, it's excellent! If that's your vocal style/band still, whichever voice there is u, I salute it. I would struggle keeping that up on account of the lower throat strain I guess? ..but I love listening to it. Resigned to the fact that low- to mid range menace is not in my wheelhouse. It's been a long while anyway since I tracked vocals for a real song.. any way you cut it, gets rough after a surprisingly short while.

frodog wrote:I'm not sure how to explain my technique, but depending on the type/pitch of the scream (mine are usually high) you're going for I guess focus on breathing and pushing an even/adequate amount of air into the scream. Flex those abs. I like to imagine myself as a vacuum cleaner in reverse with some metal junk stuck in the hose. Don't know if that helps. And I've heard Extant Deth, it's excellent! If that's your vocal style/band still, whichever voice there is u, I salute it. I would struggle keeping that up on account of the lower throat strain I guess? ..but I love listening to it. Resigned to the fact that low- to mid range menace is not in my wheelhouse. It's been a long while anyway since I tracked vocals for a real song.. any way you cut it, gets rough after a surprisingly short while.

Dude this is actually super helpful!! And yeah Extant Deth is still my main project, the lower/mid range screams are me. It's definitely a strain at times, but it's kinda just where my voice sits.