July 7, 2025 • 28 mins
Vocal distortion might sound intense—but done correctly, it’s not about screaming or wrecking your voice. It's about adding texture, edge, and emotion safely.
I sat down with Coach Emily to break down what distortion actually is (and what it isn’t). This isn't a guide for death metal vocals—but it’s perfect if you're a pop, rock, musical theatre, or singer-songwriter looking to explore controlled vocal grit. From safe onset strategies to distortion-adjacent vocal colors, you'll learn how to explore distortion without risking your vocal health.
Whether you're trying to add emotional grit or just a bit of growl, this intro will help you approach distortion with curiosity—and control.
📍Mentioned Resource: Check out the Full You And I Pop Song Exercise here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF3_asv-W9U
👉 Want to make practicing easier? Grab our FREE warm up track here: https://lessons.voxtapestudios.com/free-warm-up-track
👉 Want to know exactly what your voice needs to improve? Get a vocal evaluation from our professional coaches here: https://lessons.voxtapestudios.com/vocal-evaluation
👉 Book a 1:1 session with Coach Lara: https://lessons.voxtapestudios.com/trial-lesson
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Creek is vocal fry up the octave
so if fries down here then Creek's up here
Creek is up here right
and when yeah
was that right yeah
okay it sounds like a squeaky door
when you also
when you isolate distortion or grid of any kind
it sounds crazy yeah
it sounds nuts but if we're like
will you wait for me in my evergreen right
(00:25):
like that's where that creek comes in
hey Vox Star and welcome to from singer to artist
I'm Lara Chapman award winning singer and songwriter
turned viral vocal coach and the host of this show
at VoxTape Studios
(00:46):
we help singers from all over the world
level up their voices
by teaching them the three fundamental skills
all singers need technique
awareness and artistry
whether you're looking to go pro
or just develop your voice for fun
my team and I are here to help
check the link in the description
to book your first session
or grab some of our other resources
Alrighty are you ready
(01:06):
let's get started
welcome to intro to singing with distortion
and in the studio
I have with me Coach Emily from our team
hey hello
hey
we're doing distortion hahaha
so disclaimer
if you are looking to sing death metal and do you know
(01:27):
like the screamo style stuff
this ain't the video for you
please go check out Melissa
what's her name Melissa Cross
not Edwards so you wanna sing rock and roll
yes there are so many
so many people
Chris Lee pay is a good one here on this channel too
like on YouTube so many people are doing the grit thing
haha yes
they're that is their thing
(01:49):
yes um
amongst others of course
uh what I
what we can help you with the
what I say to my students is I can help you
you you find your key in the door
I can help you with the simpler end of it
if you want to
add a little bit more of an edgy sound to your voice
yeah like the
the pop get you there the pop grit yes
you know the pop rock grit exactly
(02:09):
and it's just gonna some people can just
can just do it hmm
and some people have to
concentrate really hard to do it
I'm one of those until I'm
until I have a mic in my hand and an audience
and then I'm like yeah
yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
it's so funny like I could never sing with grit and um
there's like a video where actually
(02:29):
you were coaching me on Benson's Room song and
you know
I'm just like sitting in this chair and just like
just going for it going for these high notes
and the grit comes out perfectly and everybody's like
wow and thank you
thank you I appreciate it
but also I could not do that for probably
the first 12 years of my singing journey yeah
(02:53):
first of all it wasn't really a priority
yeah that was a thing for
I was like I'm in musical theater
I don't need rest yeah
well you know
I felt like I feel like you had like Christina Aguilera
I guess Beyonce has um
she
does a little bit of growls and a little bit of grit
like a rasp style thing um
and same with Christina Aguilera
(03:13):
but other than that
you didn't hear it much in female voices
uh and more in male voices and more in rock
but now it's like it's really trendy yeah
like adding a little bit of that grit yeah
everybody everybody's
not everybody but a lot of singers are doing it
and so I think a lot of um
you know singers that are learning voice uh
(03:35):
they are like how do I do this
this is so cool it sounds so
you know so raw
so impressive and I'm like
yeah yeah yeah
it is cool yeah
it sounds so cool it's fun to do
it's awesome
and you're probably doing it first thing in the morning
anyway you're probably waking up going
hey good morning
yeah yeah and
and the key there is that you're not trying
(03:55):
you're not trying
oh it's almost like
there's a theme to learning how to sing yeah
stop trying stop trying and you will be able to do it
yeah and when we say stop trying
it just means trying to learn
just do it and don't think about yes right
yes but you know
in distortion like when we're singing with distortion
(04:16):
obviously there's different kinds
and we're gonna talk about three
I guess different kinds yeah
um maybe more but um
we're gonna talk about again
like the pop and rock singing styles of distortion
and before we even dig into that I just wanna say
you're gonna try it sometimes
and it ain't gonna feel good
(04:39):
when you're exploring
oh yeah
when you're exploring like I have done that too
where I got like awful scratch in my throat
I'm like that ain't it that is like
nope and you have to start coughing from it right
like that is not what we want
yes duh
but it is okay yeah
it's okay if it happens yes
(04:59):
you're not gonna ruin your voice no
you're not by one time doing something a little wrong
yeah that's oh my God
that doesn't feel good
if I could drill that into everyone and myself right
like uh
that is really true it's like learning harmony
you have to sing something that is so
like when you're first learning
that is just so not even close to being a
(05:21):
a and easy to listen to harmony yeah
to be like I don't like the sound of that
I gotta adjust my pitch a little bit
mm hmm right and I think it it comes with great
you have to you have to try it yeah
you have to try it you have to experiment as we say
don't try but you have to try no
but you have to experiment with your voice see
I mean when we were kids
when I when you're younger
(05:41):
and you discover vocal fry for the first time
and then everyone talks like this all the time
and they go wow wow yes
wow wow
wow you know
and then and the parents are like
oh my God yeah yeah
but it's cause you're just like
oh look at this cool thing I figured out yeah
you know you're not like well
if I enter the pulse register
and then use this much core engagement
and do this thing then this will happen yeah
(06:02):
like those calculations they are studied
and people can look that up on Google Scholar
yeah right
and they can be helpful
and they can absolutely be helpful
especially when you hit that wall of like
all right I feel like I'm checking most of the boxes
what's going on here yeah
but if that is what you're thinking about
the whole time
it's gonna be way harder to actually just do it
(06:23):
oh my gosh yeah
I had Prana King one of your students
yeah in the studio with me in New York
and the biggest thing for her is like
she's such a great singer Prenna
if you're listening you're awesome haha
yes uh
but she's scared sometimes and I was like
just give me a hey but like actually like a hey
(06:44):
and she just like did it in a full on grip on it
without me telling her to do it
but that just came so naturally to her and I'm like
what the fuck what is your problem like
yeah what is your problem
your voice can already do it already
just do it just do it
so let's talk about
so when I talk about the different kinds of distortion
in again
(07:05):
pop rock singing not metal yeah
uh I talk about vocal fry
yeah that's also type of distortion
I talk about um rasp
uh huh
which is that Lewis Capaldi slash Benson boon
that I kind of like here yep
and then you have the growls
which is like the Christina Aguilera kind of like hey
that one yeah exactly
(07:26):
so it's not usually sustained
it's just a quick like little into the yeah
into the note like a roll
yeah yeah
it's like that hey right
yeah hey
but it's not like hey
and you just stay in it forever
it's like mmm yeah
we're not all the way Armstrong
yes exactly exactly
so you know
that's more like a short one
and it's a little more aggressive is the wrong word
(07:48):
a little more intense yeah
maybe yeah
than like a sustained like stay
stay that to me is the
the rasp yeah right
so those are the three and vocal fry is that uh yeah
what you were demonstrating
I would put Creek okay
so in vocal Fry so I like to just think of it as
(08:09):
Creek is vocal fry up the octave
so if Fry's down here then Creek's up here
Creek is up here right
and when yeah
was that right yeah
okay it sounds like a squeaky door
when you also
when you isolate distortion or grid of any kind
it sounds crazy yeah
it sounds nuts but if we're like
(08:31):
for me my evergreen right
like that's where that creek comes in me yeah
you know it goes into that fry land
but it lives in between fry and pitch um
cause we're phonating
and we also don't do grit at the vocal fold level
we do it at the false fold level
right above yeah
yeah OK
(08:51):
so that's something to know
if you're like
you don't have nerve endings in your vocal folds
you won't be able to feel it
but you will experience some sort of sensation
yes um
not directly on your vocal folds
but around that I always say if you are getting
you know I
I don't like to say what you should feel
versus what you shouldn't yeah
other than I hope you don't experience physical pain
(09:12):
when you sing yes right
that's probably not a good sign
yeah but what I'll give you my experience
which is I it feels like a little
like vibration rolling through my throat
hmm when I do really any sort of distortion
because it's air produced
we want it to be air produced
we don't want it to be like muscle tightening
yeah if you think you're getting your air out
(09:33):
uh huh it doesn't mean a ton of air or too
little or any a certain type
but just air forward air I'll say forward OK
cool question yeah
for me when I'm thinking like
using like a lot of air to get the sound out
it feels very much like
and now I'm blowing out my voice right
(09:55):
like it doesn't feel good
so for me I'm thinking more like
holding it back a little bit to get to that stay stay
there's barely any air coming out so by air produced
I'm glad you brought that up
because that's totally like a
I could phrase it differently by air produced
I don't mean it's and by air forward
(10:16):
I mean
that's the leading thing making the distortion happen
yeah not that it is the
the most amount of whatever you're doing
it's not the highest highest cup filled yeah
so it's not ha like that's yeah
that's where we get pushy
that's where you feel like you're
you're working really hard
but if you think
I'm gonna make my voice grab onto this thing
(10:39):
that's where you also get in trouble OK
if you think I'm gonna let my air roll through
the way it normally does yeah
and then other things will happen so yes
so normal amount of air
whatever that means for you normal amount of air
your average amount of speaking air
and maybe it is a little bit less
as you experiment with your voice
like what you need most yeah
(10:59):
it definitely is a lot of experimentation yeah
like oh yeah
for me it was like it's not happening
it's not happening it's not happening
and like I could do it every so often and it felt good
but most of the time it didn't feel good
and then I stopped trying yeah
like I I
I didn't even like make that sound
I instead focused on oh my gosh
(11:21):
this is crazy haha
I instead focused on developing my mixed voice
yeah and it just bringing more balance into my singing
because I'm such a bottom heavy singer
so I was like cause
I initially
went to a voice teacher to learn more about distortion
hmm and like alright
teach me how to do distortion
and then he was like cool cool cool cool
(11:42):
cool also girl hahaha
we need to balance out your voice
I was like alright cool
and then the more we started working together
the more we were just doing like yeah
balancing the voice
and then just like maybe a year or so ago
when everybody was like
how do we sing with the distortion
I was like alright
I guess I gotta get back into that and try again
(12:04):
I was like oh my God
it's so easy now I can now just do it
and I
and I stopped doing and trying it for like a year or so
yeah and now that my voice is more balanced
it's there I just I
I was kind of a
the second half was like a similar experience for me
where one day I was like I bet if I
(12:26):
if I try to feel it this way
it'll happen and I can't explain what that day
what happened that day and then I just like did it yeah
I did it on alone by heart
I was belting that actually it was in a workshop
a teacher at workshop um
the CCM Institute and we were working on distortion and
uh I just like went for it and I was like oh
(12:47):
if I just do a little bit of this yeah
I can do it so it's just with just trying
just going for it yeah
I Learned how to do growls a little bit more there
that's where the air produce part really comes in
cause that's not a pulled back tighten thing
I do think
and maybe I'll have some haters in the comments here
I think growls hahaha
(13:08):
go for it hahaha yeah
um I think growls to require a little bit of
not tongue tension but tongue retraction
huh huh
huh huh
huh huh
yeah
huh huh
I mean huh
yeah you're right
(13:29):
and it's not the full like huh huh
tongue's going all the way back
I can still do it with the tip of my tongue
touching my teeth huh
because it's mostly air coming out
yeah but it's a little a little grabby back there
yeah yeah
in a good way in a good way
it pull it need it just pulls back to make that well
because that sound that earth
that sound here Shakira is um
(13:49):
that wasn't that wasn't a good impression of Shakira
but that sound is the tongue retraction sound
often queuing us as teachers and as singers like oh
there's some tension going on at the root of my tongue
you can totally hear it and Christina's growls
yeah and Christina's voice
yeah yeah yeah
which is also well
that's a whole another conversation like yes
(14:09):
tension will make everything better
I'm there are people out there who are incredibly
successful and singers we love
who have jaw tension tongue tension
tongue retraction this wrong thing
that wrong thing oh yeah
and as long as it's sustainable for them
get over it yeah yeah
let them live their lives
but that's a that's a whole different thing yeah
(14:30):
um but yeah
that little bit of hey hey yeah hey
it goes right for it
and I'm not going to squeeze it out
I'm just letting the air roll
yes yes yes
definitely uses more of that breath for me personally
on that growl compared to a um rasp yeah
yes yes
(14:51):
I agree so
if somebody's starting out with exploring
grit in their voice distortion in their voice um
I would say it's probably fair to say
start with vocal fry first yeah
just start with vocal fry
now there are two ways to do vocal fry
there's one that we like to do
and there's one that we don't like to do
oh okay
(15:11):
as singers right
I know where you're going with this
yeah at first I was like
I don't know where she's going with this haha yeah
so there is uh wow
good morning uh yeah
my voice is so tired I'm just feeling lazy when I talk
yeah yeah
that's fine that's
that's what we're going for
mm hmm but we're not going for is now we're doing fry
and I'm squeezing it out yes right
(15:34):
both are technically fry
but the second one I'm working to do
do this I'm holding
kind of holding my breath
I mean you
I like when you're doing it
I personally am physically tensing up
when I hear you do it the tight way
yeah and when you're doing the relaxed way
I'm relaxed yeah
yeah just listening to you like well
that's a oh
I need to tense something up
and that's another thing when it comes to grip
(15:54):
when it comes to singing in general
like as an audience as a listener
we want things to sound easy
yes we don't want to
we don't want to hear that you are grinding at it
maybe we like cause we get worried for you
yes we get worried and we sit in the audience
yeah we sit in the
we sit in the audience involuntary empathy
yeah we sit in the audience and we're like
(16:14):
oh please don't crack on that note
please don't squeeze out the next one
what's gonna happen yes
yeah yeah yeah
but yeah I start with fry cause you
you're already probably doing it
uh huh um
I use very little air yeah
very little air it's super easy
so just try to sustain uh
and make it as quiet as possible cause we can do this
(16:36):
but it's hard to it's hard to pull it back
yes it actually starts relaxing a little bit
as you pull that back okay cool
um I would start there
and then if fry feels really easy for you
then I would jump into Creek
and fry will fry into a pitch
and then eventually go
(16:57):
where you're sustaining
fry and the pitch at the same time
I think that's an intro to rasp
I could totally see that intro to rasp if like
like for me I'm like heady mixy
yeah well I'm belting but whatever like
you know like
but my default is gonna be a mix so my intro to rasp
(17:19):
it needs to be very light
cause that's what my voice is happy doing yeah
so yeah but also we were just talking about that before
right before we started rolling the cameras
you said it's easy
it was easier for me to do it in head voice first
and I was like interesting
I can really only do it on like a belty kind of tone
but now like thinking about it
(17:39):
like the story that I was just like no
actually it came the the grit came when I was balanced
yeah so
I do think there's something about
having flexibility in your voice yeah
I think it's also
not a lot of pressure at the vocal fold level
yes cause when you're doing that huh
if I sustain huh
it's not huh it's huh ah
(18:01):
yeah right
it's light and then the distortion on top
makes it sound more powerful yeah
but the sound underneath is actually just pretty light
more
cause we're letting we're just letting the air flow yes
we're letting yes letting the body do its thing
so I honestly that did not like
register in my brain until I literally just said that
before that clicked for me honestly
(18:21):
while I was demonstrating for someone I was like
oh every time I demonstrate this
I hear myself and feel myself being more head dominant
but when you mix before mix belt before and after
you can't tell yeah
yeah I love that
so I guess start with fry
start with fry
and make sure that you have a balanced voice
yeah that you're not squeezing
(18:42):
yeah that's the other thing with grit
if you're singing like this
and it's really tight and uncomfortable
grit put
move grit to the bottom of your list
yes of things to work on
of your order of things to work on
because you need if
if grit is not happening for you naturally
because you can be in that it's
(19:03):
it's a challenge as a singer to hold
especially as a new singer
to hold all these different truths of like
this person is not singing with what the people call
perfect technique right
but they're still doing all these cool things
that I want them to do and they have a career in it
yeah
but for my voice when I have that much tongue tension
I can't do anything else you know
(19:26):
and so you need to figure out what works for you
yeah Shakira
and Shakira
Carrie Underwood Christina Aguilera
there are lots of people out there
those are just the top three
yeah have tons of tongue retraction in their sound
and that doesn't make them bad singers
and it doesn't make them unsustainable singers
and it and it might not feel uncomfortable for them
(19:46):
it might not be making them flat
yeah right
like I sing my
I'll say for the first 18 years of my life with
I wouldn't say it's
it wasn't super heavy audible tongue retraction
but it was happening right
it was making things harder
once I Learned that it would
it could be easier yeah right
but I was singing hitting the notes just fine
(20:07):
I was singing astonishing doing whatever
you know I was singing high notes
it wasn't in my way per se
you know um
but things got a lot easier
once I Learned how to release all that
but that just goes to say like
not everyone's journey will be the same
especially when it comes to embellishments like grit
(20:28):
mm hmm yeah
mm hmm but if so yeah
cause
something just naturally happened in people's voices
yeah some people just like talk like this all the time
some people grew up singing along to Christina
and learn how to growl I did
but I could never do I could do growls yeah
I could do growls I could never do the sustained rasp
just the quick little growls
but not the sustained rasp
but anyways yeah
(20:49):
yeah the balance thing
I can't believe that that never clocked
it really it didn't
it didn't click for me as a singer
because I was always doing it in a high intensity
oh my gosh on a high intensity note yeah
like even that evergreen wait for me yeah
that's super light yeah
(21:11):
yeah I just
you just have like the craziest mix
it's insane yeah
I've been mixing since I Learned how to talk
that's why yeah
not me not me
oh one little thing
I saw this on a oh
I wish I remembered the channel
like years ago on a YouTube video
I was like let me just see
I like to look I'm
we talked about it
I'm very sciencey and I like to know what's going on
(21:34):
on a technical level and I love a Google Scholar
and I love a journal of voice article
you know um
but I also want to see what other people are saying
who are doing it without the academia of it all
because those opinions are
can be just as as valid and important
and if you can talk to talk but you can't walk to walk
then like
(21:54):
yeah yeah
what's the point um
no let me not say what's the point
but yeah yeah yeah
that's you know
it's important to see
it's very different and I think it's important
for me as a teacher to know to know both
that's how I can help the most amount of people
in the most amount of ways yeah
but I saw someone and I'm gonna be
I guess I'll be off mic for this
but they just sat down they're like
(22:16):
okay just fall back into a chair and go
so they literally messing with the camera angle
just went
huh
and then you feel that first start with it non voice
if it's if you feel like you have to force the voice
yeah um
and just sit back on a couch or a chair
something that's not gonna
not a rolly chair yeah
yeah yeah
right and just feel that
(22:36):
feel your body I mean
it kind of goes back to primal sounds
the video wasn't breaking it down like that
but that's you know
like your body is already doing these sounds
when you lift something you go ugh
yeah right
maybe that's coming from a little
that could be coming from a little squeeze
we can investigate that further
but yeah yeah
yeah and that's exactly what happened with Prana
right when I asked her to do that hey
I didn't demonstrate it with grits
(22:58):
not at all and she did it and the grit came right out
yeah and we weren't even talking about yeah
it wasn't even part of it
yeah that was not part of it
and it just happened naturally in her voice
and that's kind of like primal sound
and what you're doing here is just a more extreme
version of that primal sound
yeah so yeah
yeah just generating it
don't don't try do
don't try do yes
yeah yeah
I would start with those that's your intro to grit
(23:20):
that's your I would say pop grit
pop grit if you fry yeah
goes into Creek
I think Creek was coined by Edri Means Weekly I
she's my voice teacher oh OK
she's hahaha
she's awesome and she's a pedagogue and OK
uh the world's favorite diva
I love her haha
okay hahaha
she gave me a little keychain that has a
like vocal folds a vocal tract
(23:42):
a larynx and like something else on it
oh and it's just awesome
hahaha that is so sweet
yeah but yeah
we have vocal fry creak uh
then growls and rest yes
I feel like that's a great way to start
if you wanna get into further things
there are there are people who do that
yeah there are people who do that
um just go seek them out
I highly recommend Melissa Cross Zen of screaming
(24:04):
I think it's on sale right now too
oh wow
like like a
it's like an hour long video
yeah um
Matt Edwards so you want to sing rock and roll
those are my there's Chris Lipe
there's Matt uh
Johnson from Elite Singer
he's really great uh
he's my voice teacher hahaha
awesome um
and yeah I mean there's
(24:25):
there's a bunch but you know
like we again
we can help with the contemporary styles of like
the pop rock styles but yeah
if it goes deeper than that
then go to a specialist right uh
I think for a voice teacher
it's important when to know to refer out yeah
when a favorite thing I Learned in grad school
when in doubt refer out yeah
cause it's true like when we talked about
(24:46):
at some point we've talked about classical music
like I I studied classical for a semester
it's so fun to sing
I can help you through one classical song yeah
if it's in another language
I say you go go ahead and study that IPA yeah
yeah and I can't really help you with that
I can help you with some of the tonal things um
if you're gonna work on like a full on Aria or
(25:09):
you know there are people who
who do that yeah
and I would be
and I love you and I love working with you
but maybe that's not yeah
that's not what I can help you with yeah
yeah yeah
I actually have a little uh
grit exercise for you to explore the different kinds
and also like
making sure that you can do a clean sound yeah
first and then a gritty sound
(25:31):
cause I do believe it's important to like
if you if grit comes naturally to you
like any sort of distortion comes naturally to you
it's good to figure out how to get a clean sound
so I have a little exercise for you
let's do it together right now
where you can do clean sound and then add all the grit
let's dig into it
(26:35):
you should smoke a pipe
but prepare yourself for the ride
nice
love you blow back the air
(26:57):
hey
I love you
okay really well done
if that was not 100% successful that is okay yeah
if you felt discomfort at any point
that is okay as well
it's just not what we want to keep doing no
that's not the goal you
(27:17):
you gotta know what you don't want before
you know what you do sometimes yes yeah
yes and it again
you're not gonna ruin your voice by trying it and just
you know being like oh oh
that's not it and so
whenever you're feeling that discomfort on like
the beginning of the note yeah
just don't continue to sustain it yeah
don't squeeze
you won't you will not squeeze your way to success no
you that you will not squeeze your way to success
(27:40):
another T-shirt yes
we need a merch line yes we do oh my God
I love it
great anything else about distortion Coach Emily
I think that is all that I can offer love it perfect
same for me yeah
and again balance balance out your voice right
if you're already squeezing
to get the notes out without distortion
(28:02):
move distortion to the bottom of the list yeah
work on bringing balance into your voice first
and then pick up distortion again
and who knows
maybe what happened to me will happen to you
where now it's just coming out now
you don't even have to try anymore
you'll get there yep
you will get there just just trust the process
yes and be patient and be patient
just it's gonna happen yeah
(28:23):
I love it awesome
thanks Emily yeah
thank you thank you for tuning in
if you're interested in working with us
you know where the link to book a session is
it's in the description go check that out
there's also other resources in there too
so be sure to check those out
other than that that's it for today
we'll catch you in the next episode
bye
Creek is vocal fry up the octave
so if fries down here then Creek's up here
Creek is up here right
and when yeah
was that right yeah
okay it sounds like a squeaky door
when you also
when you isolate distortion or grid of any kind
it sounds crazy yeah
it sounds nuts but if we're like
will you wait for me in my evergreen right
(00:25):
like that's where that creek comes in
hey Vox Star and welcome to from singer to artist
I'm Lara Chapman award winning singer and songwriter
turned viral vocal coach and the host of this show
at VoxTape Studios
(00:46):
we help singers from all over the world
level up their voices
by teaching them the three fundamental skills
all singers need technique
awareness and artistry
whether you're looking to go pro
or just develop your voice for fun
my team and I are here to help
check the link in the description
to book your first session
or grab some of our other resources
Alrighty are you ready
(01:06):
let's get started
welcome to intro to singing with distortion
and in the studio
I have with me Coach Emily from our team
hey hello
hey
we're doing distortion hahaha
so disclaimer
if you are looking to sing death metal and do you know
(01:27):
like the screamo style stuff
this ain't the video for you
please go check out Melissa
what's her name Melissa Cross
not Edwards so you wanna sing rock and roll
yes there are so many
so many people
Chris Lee pay is a good one here on this channel too
like on YouTube so many people are doing the grit thing
haha yes
they're that is their thing
(01:49):
yes um
amongst others of course
uh what I
what we can help you with the
what I say to my students is I can help you
you you find your key in the door
I can help you with the simpler end of it
if you want to
add a little bit more of an edgy sound to your voice
yeah like the
the pop get you there the pop grit yes
you know the pop rock grit exactly
(02:09):
and it's just gonna some people can just
can just do it hmm
and some people have to
concentrate really hard to do it
I'm one of those until I'm
until I have a mic in my hand and an audience
and then I'm like yeah
yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
it's so funny like I could never sing with grit and um
there's like a video where actually
(02:29):
you were coaching me on Benson's Room song and
you know
I'm just like sitting in this chair and just like
just going for it going for these high notes
and the grit comes out perfectly and everybody's like
wow and thank you
thank you I appreciate it
but also I could not do that for probably
the first 12 years of my singing journey yeah
(02:53):
first of all it wasn't really a priority
yeah that was a thing for
I was like I'm in musical theater
I don't need rest yeah
well you know
I felt like I feel like you had like Christina Aguilera
I guess Beyonce has um
she
does a little bit of growls and a little bit of grit
like a rasp style thing um
and same with Christina Aguilera
(03:13):
but other than that
you didn't hear it much in female voices
uh and more in male voices and more in rock
but now it's like it's really trendy yeah
like adding a little bit of that grit yeah
everybody everybody's
not everybody but a lot of singers are doing it
and so I think a lot of um
you know singers that are learning voice uh
(03:35):
they are like how do I do this
this is so cool it sounds so
you know so raw
so impressive and I'm like
yeah yeah yeah
it is cool yeah
it sounds so cool it's fun to do
it's awesome
and you're probably doing it first thing in the morning
anyway you're probably waking up going
hey good morning
yeah yeah and
and the key there is that you're not trying
(03:55):
you're not trying
oh it's almost like
there's a theme to learning how to sing yeah
stop trying stop trying and you will be able to do it
yeah and when we say stop trying
it just means trying to learn
just do it and don't think about yes right
yes but you know
in distortion like when we're singing with distortion
(04:16):
obviously there's different kinds
and we're gonna talk about three
I guess different kinds yeah
um maybe more but um
we're gonna talk about again
like the pop and rock singing styles of distortion
and before we even dig into that I just wanna say
you're gonna try it sometimes
and it ain't gonna feel good
(04:39):
when you're exploring
oh yeah
when you're exploring like I have done that too
where I got like awful scratch in my throat
I'm like that ain't it that is like
nope and you have to start coughing from it right
like that is not what we want
yes duh
but it is okay yeah
it's okay if it happens yes
(04:59):
you're not gonna ruin your voice no
you're not by one time doing something a little wrong
yeah that's oh my God
that doesn't feel good
if I could drill that into everyone and myself right
like uh
that is really true it's like learning harmony
you have to sing something that is so
like when you're first learning
that is just so not even close to being a
(05:21):
a and easy to listen to harmony yeah
to be like I don't like the sound of that
I gotta adjust my pitch a little bit
mm hmm right and I think it it comes with great
you have to you have to try it yeah
you have to try it you have to experiment as we say
don't try but you have to try no
but you have to experiment with your voice see
I mean when we were kids
when I when you're younger
(05:41):
and you discover vocal fry for the first time
and then everyone talks like this all the time
and they go wow wow yes
wow wow
wow you know
and then and the parents are like
oh my God yeah yeah
but it's cause you're just like
oh look at this cool thing I figured out yeah
you know you're not like well
if I enter the pulse register
and then use this much core engagement
and do this thing then this will happen yeah
(06:02):
like those calculations they are studied
and people can look that up on Google Scholar
yeah right
and they can be helpful
and they can absolutely be helpful
especially when you hit that wall of like
all right I feel like I'm checking most of the boxes
what's going on here yeah
but if that is what you're thinking about
the whole time
it's gonna be way harder to actually just do it
(06:23):
oh my gosh yeah
I had Prana King one of your students
yeah in the studio with me in New York
and the biggest thing for her is like
she's such a great singer Prenna
if you're listening you're awesome haha
yes uh
but she's scared sometimes and I was like
just give me a hey but like actually like a hey
(06:44):
and she just like did it in a full on grip on it
without me telling her to do it
but that just came so naturally to her and I'm like
what the fuck what is your problem like
yeah what is your problem
your voice can already do it already
just do it just do it
so let's talk about
so when I talk about the different kinds of distortion
in again
(07:05):
pop rock singing not metal yeah
uh I talk about vocal fry
yeah that's also type of distortion
I talk about um rasp
uh huh
which is that Lewis Capaldi slash Benson boon
that I kind of like here yep
and then you have the growls
which is like the Christina Aguilera kind of like hey
that one yeah exactly
(07:26):
so it's not usually sustained
it's just a quick like little into the yeah
into the note like a roll
yeah yeah
it's like that hey right
yeah hey
but it's not like hey
and you just stay in it forever
it's like mmm yeah
we're not all the way Armstrong
yes exactly exactly
so you know
that's more like a short one
and it's a little more aggressive is the wrong word
(07:48):
a little more intense yeah
maybe yeah
than like a sustained like stay
stay that to me is the
the rasp yeah right
so those are the three and vocal fry is that uh yeah
what you were demonstrating
I would put Creek okay
so in vocal Fry so I like to just think of it as
(08:09):
Creek is vocal fry up the octave
so if Fry's down here then Creek's up here
Creek is up here right
and when yeah
was that right yeah
okay it sounds like a squeaky door
when you also
when you isolate distortion or grid of any kind
it sounds crazy yeah
it sounds nuts but if we're like
(08:31):
for me my evergreen right
like that's where that creek comes in me yeah
you know it goes into that fry land
but it lives in between fry and pitch um
cause we're phonating
and we also don't do grit at the vocal fold level
we do it at the false fold level
right above yeah
yeah OK
(08:51):
so that's something to know
if you're like
you don't have nerve endings in your vocal folds
you won't be able to feel it
but you will experience some sort of sensation
yes um
not directly on your vocal folds
but around that I always say if you are getting
you know I
I don't like to say what you should feel
versus what you shouldn't yeah
other than I hope you don't experience physical pain
(09:12):
when you sing yes right
that's probably not a good sign
yeah but what I'll give you my experience
which is I it feels like a little
like vibration rolling through my throat
hmm when I do really any sort of distortion
because it's air produced
we want it to be air produced
we don't want it to be like muscle tightening
yeah if you think you're getting your air out
(09:33):
uh huh it doesn't mean a ton of air or too
little or any a certain type
but just air forward air I'll say forward OK
cool question yeah
for me when I'm thinking like
using like a lot of air to get the sound out
it feels very much like
and now I'm blowing out my voice right
(09:55):
like it doesn't feel good
so for me I'm thinking more like
holding it back a little bit to get to that stay stay
there's barely any air coming out so by air produced
I'm glad you brought that up
because that's totally like a
I could phrase it differently by air produced
I don't mean it's and by air forward
(10:16):
I mean
that's the leading thing making the distortion happen
yeah not that it is the
the most amount of whatever you're doing
it's not the highest highest cup filled yeah
so it's not ha like that's yeah
that's where we get pushy
that's where you feel like you're
you're working really hard
but if you think
I'm gonna make my voice grab onto this thing
(10:39):
that's where you also get in trouble OK
if you think I'm gonna let my air roll through
the way it normally does yeah
and then other things will happen so yes
so normal amount of air
whatever that means for you normal amount of air
your average amount of speaking air
and maybe it is a little bit less
as you experiment with your voice
like what you need most yeah
(10:59):
it definitely is a lot of experimentation yeah
like oh yeah
for me it was like it's not happening
it's not happening it's not happening
and like I could do it every so often and it felt good
but most of the time it didn't feel good
and then I stopped trying yeah
like I I
I didn't even like make that sound
I instead focused on oh my gosh
(11:21):
this is crazy haha
I instead focused on developing my mixed voice
yeah and it just bringing more balance into my singing
because I'm such a bottom heavy singer
so I was like cause
I initially
went to a voice teacher to learn more about distortion
hmm and like alright
teach me how to do distortion
and then he was like cool cool cool cool
(11:42):
cool also girl hahaha
we need to balance out your voice
I was like alright cool
and then the more we started working together
the more we were just doing like yeah
balancing the voice
and then just like maybe a year or so ago
when everybody was like
how do we sing with the distortion
I was like alright
I guess I gotta get back into that and try again
(12:04):
I was like oh my God
it's so easy now I can now just do it
and I
and I stopped doing and trying it for like a year or so
yeah and now that my voice is more balanced
it's there I just I
I was kind of a
the second half was like a similar experience for me
where one day I was like I bet if I
(12:26):
if I try to feel it this way
it'll happen and I can't explain what that day
what happened that day and then I just like did it yeah
I did it on alone by heart
I was belting that actually it was in a workshop
a teacher at workshop um
the CCM Institute and we were working on distortion and
uh I just like went for it and I was like oh
(12:47):
if I just do a little bit of this yeah
I can do it so it's just with just trying
just going for it yeah
I Learned how to do growls a little bit more there
that's where the air produce part really comes in
cause that's not a pulled back tighten thing
I do think
and maybe I'll have some haters in the comments here
I think growls hahaha
(13:08):
go for it hahaha yeah
um I think growls to require a little bit of
not tongue tension but tongue retraction
huh huh
huh huh
huh huh
yeah
huh huh
I mean huh
yeah you're right
(13:29):
and it's not the full like huh huh
tongue's going all the way back
I can still do it with the tip of my tongue
touching my teeth huh
because it's mostly air coming out
yeah but it's a little a little grabby back there
yeah yeah
in a good way in a good way
it pull it need it just pulls back to make that well
because that sound that earth
that sound here Shakira is um
(13:49):
that wasn't that wasn't a good impression of Shakira
but that sound is the tongue retraction sound
often queuing us as teachers and as singers like oh
there's some tension going on at the root of my tongue
you can totally hear it and Christina's growls
yeah and Christina's voice
yeah yeah yeah
which is also well
that's a whole another conversation like yes
(14:09):
tension will make everything better
I'm there are people out there who are incredibly
successful and singers we love
who have jaw tension tongue tension
tongue retraction this wrong thing
that wrong thing oh yeah
and as long as it's sustainable for them
get over it yeah yeah
let them live their lives
but that's a that's a whole different thing yeah
(14:30):
um but yeah
that little bit of hey hey yeah hey
it goes right for it
and I'm not going to squeeze it out
I'm just letting the air roll
yes yes yes
definitely uses more of that breath for me personally
on that growl compared to a um rasp yeah
yes yes
(14:51):
I agree so
if somebody's starting out with exploring
grit in their voice distortion in their voice um
I would say it's probably fair to say
start with vocal fry first yeah
just start with vocal fry
now there are two ways to do vocal fry
there's one that we like to do
and there's one that we don't like to do
oh okay
(15:11):
as singers right
I know where you're going with this
yeah at first I was like
I don't know where she's going with this haha yeah
so there is uh wow
good morning uh yeah
my voice is so tired I'm just feeling lazy when I talk
yeah yeah
that's fine that's
that's what we're going for
mm hmm but we're not going for is now we're doing fry
and I'm squeezing it out yes right
(15:34):
both are technically fry
but the second one I'm working to do
do this I'm holding
kind of holding my breath
I mean you
I like when you're doing it
I personally am physically tensing up
when I hear you do it the tight way
yeah and when you're doing the relaxed way
I'm relaxed yeah
yeah just listening to you like well
that's a oh
I need to tense something up
and that's another thing when it comes to grip
(15:54):
when it comes to singing in general
like as an audience as a listener
we want things to sound easy
yes we don't want to
we don't want to hear that you are grinding at it
maybe we like cause we get worried for you
yes we get worried and we sit in the audience
yeah we sit in the
we sit in the audience involuntary empathy
yeah we sit in the audience and we're like
(16:14):
oh please don't crack on that note
please don't squeeze out the next one
what's gonna happen yes
yeah yeah yeah
but yeah I start with fry cause you
you're already probably doing it
uh huh um
I use very little air yeah
very little air it's super easy
so just try to sustain uh
and make it as quiet as possible cause we can do this
(16:36):
but it's hard to it's hard to pull it back
yes it actually starts relaxing a little bit
as you pull that back okay cool
um I would start there
and then if fry feels really easy for you
then I would jump into Creek
and fry will fry into a pitch
and then eventually go
(16:57):
where you're sustaining
fry and the pitch at the same time
I think that's an intro to rasp
I could totally see that intro to rasp if like
like for me I'm like heady mixy
yeah well I'm belting but whatever like
you know like
but my default is gonna be a mix so my intro to rasp
(17:19):
it needs to be very light
cause that's what my voice is happy doing yeah
so yeah but also we were just talking about that before
right before we started rolling the cameras
you said it's easy
it was easier for me to do it in head voice first
and I was like interesting
I can really only do it on like a belty kind of tone
but now like thinking about it
(17:39):
like the story that I was just like no
actually it came the the grit came when I was balanced
yeah so
I do think there's something about
having flexibility in your voice yeah
I think it's also
not a lot of pressure at the vocal fold level
yes cause when you're doing that huh
if I sustain huh
it's not huh it's huh ah
(18:01):
yeah right
it's light and then the distortion on top
makes it sound more powerful yeah
but the sound underneath is actually just pretty light
more
cause we're letting we're just letting the air flow yes
we're letting yes letting the body do its thing
so I honestly that did not like
register in my brain until I literally just said that
before that clicked for me honestly
(18:21):
while I was demonstrating for someone I was like
oh every time I demonstrate this
I hear myself and feel myself being more head dominant
but when you mix before mix belt before and after
you can't tell yeah
yeah I love that
so I guess start with fry
start with fry
and make sure that you have a balanced voice
yeah that you're not squeezing
(18:42):
yeah that's the other thing with grit
if you're singing like this
and it's really tight and uncomfortable
grit put
move grit to the bottom of your list
yes of things to work on
of your order of things to work on
because you need if
if grit is not happening for you naturally
because you can be in that it's
(19:03):
it's a challenge as a singer to hold
especially as a new singer
to hold all these different truths of like
this person is not singing with what the people call
perfect technique right
but they're still doing all these cool things
that I want them to do and they have a career in it
yeah
but for my voice when I have that much tongue tension
I can't do anything else you know
(19:26):
and so you need to figure out what works for you
yeah Shakira
and Shakira
Carrie Underwood Christina Aguilera
there are lots of people out there
those are just the top three
yeah have tons of tongue retraction in their sound
and that doesn't make them bad singers
and it doesn't make them unsustainable singers
and it and it might not feel uncomfortable for them
(19:46):
it might not be making them flat
yeah right
like I sing my
I'll say for the first 18 years of my life with
I wouldn't say it's
it wasn't super heavy audible tongue retraction
but it was happening right
it was making things harder
once I Learned that it would
it could be easier yeah right
but I was singing hitting the notes just fine
(20:07):
I was singing astonishing doing whatever
you know I was singing high notes
it wasn't in my way per se
you know um
but things got a lot easier
once I Learned how to release all that
but that just goes to say like
not everyone's journey will be the same
especially when it comes to embellishments like grit
(20:28):
mm hmm yeah
mm hmm but if so yeah
cause
something just naturally happened in people's voices
yeah some people just like talk like this all the time
some people grew up singing along to Christina
and learn how to growl I did
but I could never do I could do growls yeah
I could do growls I could never do the sustained rasp
just the quick little growls
but not the sustained rasp
but anyways yeah
(20:49):
yeah the balance thing
I can't believe that that never clocked
it really it didn't
it didn't click for me as a singer
because I was always doing it in a high intensity
oh my gosh on a high intensity note yeah
like even that evergreen wait for me yeah
that's super light yeah
(21:11):
yeah I just
you just have like the craziest mix
it's insane yeah
I've been mixing since I Learned how to talk
that's why yeah
not me not me
oh one little thing
I saw this on a oh
I wish I remembered the channel
like years ago on a YouTube video
I was like let me just see
I like to look I'm
we talked about it
I'm very sciencey and I like to know what's going on
(21:34):
on a technical level and I love a Google Scholar
and I love a journal of voice article
you know um
but I also want to see what other people are saying
who are doing it without the academia of it all
because those opinions are
can be just as as valid and important
and if you can talk to talk but you can't walk to walk
then like
(21:54):
yeah yeah
what's the point um
no let me not say what's the point
but yeah yeah yeah
that's you know
it's important to see
it's very different and I think it's important
for me as a teacher to know to know both
that's how I can help the most amount of people
in the most amount of ways yeah
but I saw someone and I'm gonna be
I guess I'll be off mic for this
but they just sat down they're like
(22:16):
okay just fall back into a chair and go
so they literally messing with the camera angle
just went
huh
and then you feel that first start with it non voice
if it's if you feel like you have to force the voice
yeah um
and just sit back on a couch or a chair
something that's not gonna
not a rolly chair yeah
yeah yeah
right and just feel that
(22:36):
feel your body I mean
it kind of goes back to primal sounds
the video wasn't breaking it down like that
but that's you know
like your body is already doing these sounds
when you lift something you go ugh
yeah right
maybe that's coming from a little
that could be coming from a little squeeze
we can investigate that further
but yeah yeah
yeah and that's exactly what happened with Prana
right when I asked her to do that hey
I didn't demonstrate it with grits
(22:58):
not at all and she did it and the grit came right out
yeah and we weren't even talking about yeah
it wasn't even part of it
yeah that was not part of it
and it just happened naturally in her voice
and that's kind of like primal sound
and what you're doing here is just a more extreme
version of that primal sound
yeah so yeah
yeah just generating it
don't don't try do
don't try do yes
yeah yeah
I would start with those that's your intro to grit
(23:20):
that's your I would say pop grit
pop grit if you fry yeah
goes into Creek
I think Creek was coined by Edri Means Weekly I
she's my voice teacher oh OK
she's hahaha
she's awesome and she's a pedagogue and OK
uh the world's favorite diva
I love her haha
okay hahaha
she gave me a little keychain that has a
like vocal folds a vocal tract
(23:42):
a larynx and like something else on it
oh and it's just awesome
hahaha that is so sweet
yeah but yeah
we have vocal fry creak uh
then growls and rest yes
I feel like that's a great way to start
if you wanna get into further things
there are there are people who do that
yeah there are people who do that
um just go seek them out
I highly recommend Melissa Cross Zen of screaming
(24:04):
I think it's on sale right now too
oh wow
like like a
it's like an hour long video
yeah um
Matt Edwards so you want to sing rock and roll
those are my there's Chris Lipe
there's Matt uh
Johnson from Elite Singer
he's really great uh
he's my voice teacher hahaha
awesome um
and yeah I mean there's
(24:25):
there's a bunch but you know
like we again
we can help with the contemporary styles of like
the pop rock styles but yeah
if it goes deeper than that
then go to a specialist right uh
I think for a voice teacher
it's important when to know to refer out yeah
when a favorite thing I Learned in grad school
when in doubt refer out yeah
cause it's true like when we talked about
(24:46):
at some point we've talked about classical music
like I I studied classical for a semester
it's so fun to sing
I can help you through one classical song yeah
if it's in another language
I say you go go ahead and study that IPA yeah
yeah and I can't really help you with that
I can help you with some of the tonal things um
if you're gonna work on like a full on Aria or
(25:09):
you know there are people who
who do that yeah
and I would be
and I love you and I love working with you
but maybe that's not yeah
that's not what I can help you with yeah
yeah yeah
I actually have a little uh
grit exercise for you to explore the different kinds
and also like
making sure that you can do a clean sound yeah
first and then a gritty sound
(25:31):
cause I do believe it's important to like
if you if grit comes naturally to you
like any sort of distortion comes naturally to you
it's good to figure out how to get a clean sound
so I have a little exercise for you
let's do it together right now
where you can do clean sound and then add all the grit
let's dig into it
(26:35):
you should smoke a pipe
but prepare yourself for the ride
nice
love you blow back the air
(26:57):
hey
I love you
okay really well done
if that was not 100% successful that is okay yeah
if you felt discomfort at any point
that is okay as well
it's just not what we want to keep doing no
that's not the goal you
(27:17):
you gotta know what you don't want before
you know what you do sometimes yes yeah
yes and it again
you're not gonna ruin your voice by trying it and just
you know being like oh oh
that's not it and so
whenever you're feeling that discomfort on like
the beginning of the note yeah
just don't continue to sustain it yeah
don't squeeze
you won't you will not squeeze your way to success no
you that you will not squeeze your way to success
(27:40):
another T-shirt yes
we need a merch line yes we do oh my God
I love it
great anything else about distortion Coach Emily
I think that is all that I can offer love it perfect
same for me yeah
and again balance balance out your voice right
if you're already squeezing
to get the notes out without distortion
(28:02):
move distortion to the bottom of the list yeah
work on bringing balance into your voice first
and then pick up distortion again
and who knows
maybe what happened to me will happen to you
where now it's just coming out now
you don't even have to try anymore
you'll get there yep
you will get there just just trust the process
yes and be patient and be patient
just it's gonna happen yeah
(28:23):
I love it awesome
thanks Emily yeah
thank you thank you for tuning in
if you're interested in working with us
you know where the link to book a session is
it's in the description go check that out
there's also other resources in there too
so be sure to check those out
other than that that's it for today
we'll catch you in the next episode
bye
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