Vocals and Headaches...

dr.colossus

dr.colossus

New member
All of a sudden I find myself in a position where I am staring down the barrell of a 57 at rehearsals and no longer sitting behind the drum kit... This does wonders for my ego, but being made frontman (i won;t say singer) has a down side for me....

I tend to pretty much yell, which was fine during the tracking sessions, as I pretty much got everything in one or two takes, but now that were rehearsing a live set its a pain... I have trained myself to tone the yelling down, so I can get through the set two or three times at rehearsal and my voice isn;t too fatigued, I still have enough energy in my voice to tell the guitarist to play less :D. The problem is I get painful headaches after about three songs, and thats really depressing. My brain says "stop singing and I'll stop hurting". I think I'll probably end up at vocl training of sorts, but I'd like to solve this headache situation before the next rehearsal.

Any tips
 
dr.colossus said:
All of a sudden I find myself in a position where I am staring down the barrell of a 57 at rehearsals and no longer sitting behind the drum kit... This does wonders for my ego, but being made frontman (i won;t say singer) has a down side for me....

I tend to pretty much yell, which was fine during the tracking sessions, as I pretty much got everything in one or two takes, but now that were rehearsing a live set its a pain... I have trained myself to tone the yelling down, so I can get through the set two or three times at rehearsal and my voice isn;t too fatigued, I still have enough energy in my voice to tell the guitarist to play less :D. The problem is I get painful headaches after about three songs, and thats really depressing. My brain says "stop singing and I'll stop hurting". I think I'll probably end up at vocl training of sorts, but I'd like to solve this headache situation before the next rehearsal.

Any tips
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You might try taking Ibuprofen, or whatever you normally would take for headaches, before the session. Drink plenty of water also. See if that helps.
 
Yeah... I thought of the ibuprofen, but I think I'd be better off with some preventiontactics. As for water, I drank a bit over a litre (i think thats quater gallon... two pints... three cans, when will you guys go metric!) in a three hour session.

I generally feel that if something is painful, the i'm probably not doing it right.

to get an idea of what I;m doing heres a link www.myspace.com/thepiratesmusic
 
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Whether you're singing OR yelling, for both you should be using your diapragm. My guess is that's the technique you haven't learned. The headaches are coming because you're straining so much, which is why your voice is going as well.

Find a vocal coach or some lessons online that will teach you how to "sing from your belly". You'll learn to utilize your diaphragm instead of your chest & throat. The results....better sound, less stress on your voice, and more stamina.
 
funkdrmr said:
Whether you're singing OR yelling, for both you should be using your diapragm. My guess is that's the technique you haven't learned. The headaches are coming because you're straining so much, which is why your voice is going as well.

Find a vocal coach or some lessons online that will teach you how to "sing from your belly". You'll learn to utilize your diaphragm instead of your chest & throat. The results....better sound, less stress on your voice, and more stamina.
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Ditto! Also, when drinkin fluids to wet your whistle, drinks that are room temp. are much better than cold ones. And also try to stay away from the caffine and alcohol ,at least til the singin part of the sessiin is over, cuz those will dry out your throat in the long run. :eek:
 
Yelling forces more oxygen out and deprives your brain of this vital element, hence it decides to let you know you are doing something wrong by giving you a headache. Also yelling causes viberations in your nasal cavities and inner ear, this can also cause headaches. Propper breathing will help to aleviate much of your problem. A good vocal coach can help you to develope both your breathing and vocal expression technique. The old saying, "No pain, no gain." does not apply to voice. If it hurts or causes pain afterward you are doing something wrong. Learn how to do it right and the pain will go away.
 
ocnor said:
Well there you go. You are supposed to be singing not yelling. Save the yelling for your wife and kids. :D
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Yeah.. I guess its like saying "I don;t play the drums I just hit the skins". I think i am the Meg White (White Stripes drummer) of vocalists :D.

Dani, I figured I was depriving my brain of Oxygen, but I thought it seemed like a voodoo guess on my part, so I'm glad you posted. I do feel as though all the "air" is coming from my chest and not my stomach as I have read its supposed to... I'm finding it realy difficult to use my diapragm, and in fact I'm not all that sure that I have used it yet! My schedule is so busy at the moment I don't know where voice lessons will fit, Are there any resources on-line that might be useful? I know my time would be better spent with a coach... but I'd like to try and make a start.
 
headaches while singing/yelling . . . are these the kindf of headache you get say, after being in the sun toomuch or hungover or something like that, or is it like a circle of pain round your head?

you can give yourself a headache by overstressing your noise making machinery. vocal exercises and training will ehlp this: keeping fit, proper breathing and so on.

it is also possible that you could overstressing your blood machinery: a dilated blood vessel in your head can cause blinding headaches when strained. if the latter, then you need to seek expert advice. actually, i would do this anyway!
 
Yelling

I've found that it helps to sing the songs alone to get a feel for them. Then try to take that feel to a band setting.

That USUALLY prevents the yelling thing. Yes, I've had severely blown blood vessels in my head in the past.
 
Singing

It's funny... I've gotten almost every band I've produced from classic jazz, black metal, and vintage rock reunion bands to start rapping as a vocal warmup. ;) If you're into yoga, look up "the lion pose." That's a good preliminary warmup, it really opens up the blood vessels in and around the airways and throat. It also promotes circulation around the cartoid, which circulates your cranium. It's always good to do an opposing stretch for symmetry.

grn said:
yeah, yelling the whole time makes it not music for me. rap > yelling.
__________________
Escape Velocity
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Some non-yelling singing isn't even music for me :D

I'm really losing my taste for those non-refined singers with cliche' lyrics. What seems to happen with many singers is they stop progressing after they get to a certain level. I think it's an ego thing.

How did Bob Dylan, the Violent Femmes, and the Velvet Underground do it? Good taste and GENIUS lyrics; the likes of which I don't see much anymore. Perhaps the over-polished over-commercialized industry wouldn't be as fertile a bed for such creativity nowadays.

There's a big difference in overall quality when any singer is open minded to new ideas and is eager to learn and be produced.
 
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I have this same problem, and i think it came from the fact that I couldnt hear myself on the shitty PA we were using so i had to yell louder than i would with a good PA. I also found myself taking alot of ibuprofin, but i didnt really like that idea, so we just slowed it down a bit. We'd run the song without vocals, then with, to give my voice a break.
 
thanks guys, I'll look up that yoga move... I definatly understand where you guys are coming from with the distaste for yelling, but I think it works ok for my band, besides I don;t know if its really 'yelling' per se. Thanks again, much appreciated
 
I was talking to your band-mates. They get headaches when you sing too. (hehe...:D)

Just joking...I like the first tune on your page, I can see how you'd run out of breath singing that though.
 
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Dude. Pain and singing is bad. You can and will fuck up your voice.
Check it out.

Pitch changes in your voice are made by a small muscle in your larnyx called the cricothyroid. When this muscle moves it stretches your vocal folds.. That stretch changes the pitch... Like a guitar string.. as the folds get tighter and tighter the pitch gets higher and higher.. Once they get to a pitch where they are so tight that they will snap, they get thinner. No different than switching strings on a guitar. The thinning of the vocal folds is what we call changing registers.

Now.. I'm saying all this because this is how it was explained to me... and it has made me a better singer.

All that, in the first paragraph, the cricothyroid, vocal folds, register changing.. These actions cover just about everything involved in changing pitch and they require almost NO effort on our part. Amplitude is controlled by airflow.. which should be controlled by your diaphram. This is all reflexive.

We as humans think that singing is difficult and thus make it that way. We see someone on tv straining to hit a high note and we percieve that it must be difficult.. and it isnt. We fool ourselves into thinking that this is hard, or that we're not good at it... and its just not true... and since we're afraid of fucking up, we're afraid of sounding bad... we pile tons and tons of muscles around to "control" the muscles that do a perfectly good job on their own.. Thats where headaches come in. Come pain, knots, tenseness and limitation.

My problem was, and still is in my jaw and tongue.
The tongue is a badass muscle. We don't think of it that way but its long and strong. I didn't realize that my tongue was clenched .. pretty much all the time. Tongue, Neck, and Jaw... all those muscles in there are related, and when we try and force ourselves to sing well.. they activate. They try to protect, they try to stop our voices from fucking up.. because we're afraid that thats going to happen. We want to be in the spotlight, we want to be great... and we're afraid that we arent.. so instinctivly we try ensure that we stay ..... safe. And that keeps us mediocre. We cant be tense and relaxed at the same time... and we cant have an open jaw cavity and sing at our best unless these muscles are off.

Our tongue, and lips are baffles. All they do is shape the sound once its already been made between your diphram and vocal folds. The tongue is used in different positions to make different consonant sounds... "l" sounds use the tip of the tongue and "g" sounds use the back of the tongue... why the hell was my tongue curled up when I was singing an open "ahhhhh" sound... because I didnt know it wasn't supposed to be. I didn't even know it wasn't relaxed.

Anyway, I've taken this on a rant.. but what I'm trying to say is this:

Relax. Tenseness in the Jaw, Face, Neck and Tongue cause huge problems.. including headaches.

The more relaxed you become the easier it is to sing.. It might not sound good.. and why should it? When we start out we're not "bad" singers.. we're uncoordinated. The air from the diaphram has to be proportionate to the thickness of the vocal folds or our voices will crack changing registers.. thats normal... thats the kind of stuff thats supposed to happen while we find our voices... we just for some reason think that once we decide to sing that we should be good right away... and thats not the case.. It is absolutly no different than learning to ride a bike. Training wheels (external muscles) keep you from falling for a little while, but they also keep you from learning how to hold yourself up on your own.. once the training wheels come off (you relax).. your going to fall.. your voice is going to crack, and your going to sound like shit.. and that is perfectly normal... and then once your through that period of coordination you'll be able to sing as loud as you want, as long as you want, a whole pallate of different sounds, and you wont feel any pain or discomfort.... its all about not being afraid to fall.

-Peace.
 
RAMI - hehehehehe. The guitarist actually does some of the lines in that song (Robot), we have very similar voices...

demensia - Thanks very very much !

The problem.... I don't want to sound like an idiot, but this whole breathing from the diaphragm is something i am finding very difficult. I have tried "singing from my stomach" as well, but that all just makes no physiological sense... everything appears to come from the lungs, what am I missing here?
 
This may sound dumb, but strengthening your core will help you with your singing. Doing exercises that work your abs and lower back will strengthen and, more importantly, help you become more aware mentally as to where your voice should be coming from. A good simple exercise is to simply try to conciously hold in your stomach or at least have good posture while you sing. I'm sure you can Google something like "vocal technique" and get some good exercises. Like anything else, it's practice.
 
Yeah, its weird if you dont actually see a how the diapram works.
Think like a balloon...
inhale and the baloon fills up.
exhale... and the air leaks out of the balloon.
The end of the balloon that you pinch (or tie) to keep the air in is the diaphram.
You can control with the diaphram how much air to let in, and how much to let out.. You can control the air pressure.. volume, length of notes... everything air related with that muscle.

A standard vocal practice is to lie on the floor and put a book on your stomach.. When you breathe in the book should rise.. when you exhale it should drop. Its as simple as that.

By breathing through our chests.. which just kinda happens as we get older .. stress and such... our bodies get so used to breathing that way it becomes a habbit.. all it takes is to mindfully fix it durring the day when you notice your breathing from your chest...

I'm not positive.. but I would guess that if you were panting... like.. .running, the reflex would have to revert back to the diaphram for you to feel it working.

Just don't try so hard to do it right. Be mindful, but don't force you body to do anything... Just allow it.

It would be worth it to seek out a vocal coach... A real vocal coach.. not some asshole in a music store thats getting paid to sit you in a booth with a piano and tell you what a great singer you are.. If you really want to be a singer, if you really want to hit the notes you want when you want, and to trust your voice.. you can be great... But you need to learn to be coordinated, and you can do that on your own, but its safer and easier to have a coach you trust that can tell you when your doing something stupid. Theres so much information on the internet, that to try and learn this stuff myself.. I was just running in circles. Just a few lessons with an actual respectable coach gave me the understanding I need to work on coordinating my voice. Blah blah blah.

My brother screams death metal.. I remember when he started all the veins popping out of his head and stuff.. and now... years later, the kid can get unhuman sounds.. with no effort at all.. He just found that spot where is comfortable.. The air is balanced, he knows how his mouth should be shaped.. and it works for him..No lessons at all.. Ask him to sing... all of a sudden he gets quiet, shy, airy... just because when we sing we're out there.. people are watching us... when he's screaming.. Yeah its cool sounding I got to say.... but honestly, its a cop out. Let your voice be your voice.

By the way, I should mention... don't listen to me, I am in no way qualified to give instructions... just my opinion and my experience.
 
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