My cousin's dad is in a Black Sabbath tribute band that have been playing for nearly 15 years now, and their vocalist just left, and I've been asked to join for the few gigs they have booked (and maybe permanentely after that aswell). Mostly because I'm an enthusiastic Sabbath fan, know all of the songs they'll be playing (a really cool 16-song set including Megalomania, Snowblind, Sympton, National Acrobat...) and I could probably pass as a young Ozzy (I'm 19). I don't actually have any experience in singing at all, although I am capable of pulling it off. I have a month to practice at home before our first show, and was wondering if anyone has any tips.

I'm supposed to imitate Ozzy, which isn't too hard, but some notes are just hard to hit for seemingly no apparent reason. Just random parts, like for instance in 'Behind the Wall of Sleep' - "precious cups within the flower" - that flower part is hard to get spot on for some reason, then the next line is fine "deadly petals with strange power", then "faces shine a deadly smile" - the smile part is a bit awkard to hit.

If anyone has any tips it will be greatly appreciated, I'm fine with confidence and such but I'm a complete amateur with a capable/passable voice but if there's anything I should know about breathing, pacing, exercises, clearing your throat etc I just have no fucking clue.

All help appreciated, thanks
-- Colum

Setlist
War Pigs
Behind the Wall of Sleep
Electric Funeral
Hand of Doom
Iron Man
N.I.B.
Fairies Wear Boots
Black Sabbath
Paranoid
A National Acrobat
Into the Void
Snowblind
Sabra Cadabra
Lord of This World
Sweet Leaf
Megalomania
Children of the Grave

Possible inclusions
After Forever
Symptom of the Universe
Cornucopia
Killing Yourself to Live
Spiral Architect
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Dirty Woman

Does the problem lie in finding what the note is, or being able to reach it?

I'm a bit of a newbie at singing myself (Been doing it for about 2 years or so in garage bands, but only just now taking it seriously.), but I know that I always sing better if I have been drinking warm tea and water. Boil yourself a jug and drink from it before and whilst practicing, it really helps open up your throat. Also, and this might be obvious, but don't sing on an empty stomach, I've always found mine and people I have sung with have had weaker voices when hungry.

Karny: Musicians Forum! It includes, among other things, usage of the throat for the purposes of forming sounds that are appealing (or not!) to the human ear.

TheUglySoldier: I have a great ear for music, so finding the right note is easy as shit, but hitting it I struggle in certain areas.

Bezerko: I completely missed that whole board
Thanks - any chance a mod could shift this for me?

Oh yeah, if anyone knows where I can find accurate lyrics that would be good, as the cd booklets completely fuck it up.

"You want me to claim this child you bore" becomes "You want me to claim and change you". The fuck.

Basically, there are a couple of things that I can tell you that are pretty standard:

(1) Do some vocal warm-ups. You'd be surprised how much you can improve over a month with a warm-up routine. I can't really offer much insight into how to warm up on a forum, so just look for videos, how-to's, or ask somebody you know who's in choir or musical theater.

(2) Take care of you vocal cords. If you're concerned about your vocal performance, avoid chocolate, dairy, coffee, or soda. Drinking tea is strongly encouraged. Also, don't scream or growl too much; keep any 'harshness' in your vocals controlled (which just means that it shouldn't hurt when you sing). I imagine this shouldn't be a problem if you're only trying to sing Ozzy.

(3) A quick tip (that I'm sure you've noticed) about Ozzy's singing is that he sticks very close to the guitar part most of the time. You can go a long way towards singing Ozzy if you can just hum the guitar parts.

If you absolutely can't hit something, just transpose it or make up your own part. If you're not doing this too much, nobody will notice and, even if they do, it'll sound better than butchering the song.

I had some performing arts classes when I was younger (theatre, mainly) and I learned a warm-up that is still very useful to me. Just try huming very loudly while relaxing the lips. If it tickles, you're doing it right. Just do this from 5 to 10 mins. That's the easiest one I remember, and I still use it today. Good luck on the gigs.