When you think of classic rock singers like Paul Rodgers, Jim Morrison, Layne Staley and even Chris Cornell - the first thing you think of is the gravel, grit and 'texture' of their vocal tone, right? If you're wondering how to sing with distortion, then go no further - I'm about to explain the 'why' the 'how' and the 'when' with distorted singing.
Range is one thing, but "tone" is really what first comes to mind when we think of our favourite rock singers.
That textured, gritty tone in particular.
If you've tried to sing with grit before, you've probably ended coughing with a sore voice shortly afterwards - yes?
That's because "drive" in your singing voice doesn't come from anything physically rattling in your throat - like bolts rattling in a tin can - but instead, how your resonance becomes distorted with excess harmonics.
Let me explain.
Think about an old 60's guitar amp - guys like Jimmy Page or Paul Kossoff didn't use distortion pedals or fuzz pedals to get that classic heavy rock sound when they played guitar, they simply 'drove' their amp to the point of breakup.
And that's ultimately the key to rock drive too when you sing.
If the speaker cone has so much information it has to 'process' in the form of pumping airflow, then it simply can't resonate/vibrate properly and you get that natural 'breakup' sound that we all love.
Singing is the same.
When you achieve such incredible vocal fold closure that the amount and power of the harmonics your vocal folds are creating are 'too much information' for the resonators and formant spaces of your instrument, then the sound starts to break up as you get inconsistent vibrations that just don't occur evenly enough to create a clear sound.
It's actually much simpler than it sounds.
The key here is compression - and I'm not talking about pushing more air against your vocal folds here, I'm talking about BACK PRESSURE.
Basically, when you engage the 'valves' above the vocal folds, what happens is some of the airflow that exits the folds to create resonance actually bounces BACK to the vocal folds, first pushing the folds back down against the subglottal pressure created by your support - but also turning your vocal tract itself INTO a resonator itself.
When you have two matching waves passing in both directions, it creates what is called a 'complimentary frequency' - just like you would get when you blow air across the top of a bottle.
When the air going "in" to the bottle and the air coming "out" of the bottle match in time/wavelength - then the bottle itself starts to vibrate with this tone and frequency.
And our voices are ultimately the same.
Where there is SO MUCH resonance that your resonators just can't handle that much information, your voice starts to 'break up' just like an old guitar amp.
No pain, no 'rattling' in your throat, no shouting - just powerful resonance that has the classic rock tone we all know and love.
So where to from here? Watch the video below just to see how EASY it is to create grit, gravel and distortion when you sing the right way;
