Hello all. I'd post this in the VoV thread, but let's face it: it's like trying to have a conversation to a room full of people that are already wrapped up in mini-conversations of their own.

I'm having some issues with gutturals. Right now, my gutturals have a little too much "R" in them (probably from my mouth shape and tongue placement, but I think it might be more of an issue with breathing). They are certainly low, but they aren't as wet/loud/nasty as I want them to be. I know ideally they should be at speaking volume at minimum, and I'm almost there with that, but I think my technique is fucked up. I've watched a bunch of Youtube videos and am finding out what works/doesn't work, but I've been at it for 3 months and I feel like I should be way farther than I currently am.

I try to push from my diaphragm, and I practice at least 5 minutes a day and drink oceans to keep my throat wet. The sound I want is sort of a mix of AJ Magana and Steve from Visceral Disgorge. Obviously I'm not trying to copy these dudes, I want to start adding my own touches after I've got the basic guttural I have in mind sounding good.

I never actually taught myself how to perform the type of vocals that you're talking about, but I think I read somewhere in an interview with a BDM vocalist that it's a good idea to create the sound you want in a sort of whisper to start out, and then amplify it from there. I'm not really sure how to explain it, but I know what this person is saying and I practice it myself to get some different vocals practiced.

Sorry I can't help you more dude, but hopefully that is somehow useful to you.

I picked up gutturals fairly quickly so I'm not sure how specific I can be, but I'll try anyways. Start with a growl. Then, take your tongue and put it on the roof of your mouth, where you place it will change your tone. The sound seems to come from behind the tongue and is controlled a lot by the nasal cavities, although keeping it in the throat gives you a more "traditional" sound. Dropping the tip of the tongue but keeping the rest of it in place gets rid of the "R" and makes it more burpy. I would practice more too, I do at least 30 minutes a day if not closer to an hour.

Damn Ghost, 30 minutes a day will fuck your throat something awful if you're a beginner. Or so I've generally been told. One of my friends picked it up really fast, too, just thought to ask him what he was doing.

I started recording myself just to better diagnose what sucks the most. It seems like I'm pushing too much air or something, sometimes it sounds really forced and frog-ribbit-y in a really bad way. Not a traditional "EEEEEEEEEEEEE ERRRRRRRRRRRR BURRRRRRRRR" sound, like a frog doing gutturals with its last gasp, haha. Sounds sort of childish to me. It was sounding much better than this the other day, but I guess I'm kidding myself or something.

Anyway, I think the best thing I can do is keep drinking a lot of water, and to use less air.

Baldrs, I've heard generally the same thing. I've heard it's supposed to be way more comfortable than forcing it, too. From what I hear, you're really not even supposed to use that much air. I think it's due to the fact that pushing air out faster will make your vocal chords vibrate faster, which obviously results in a higher pitched ER and maybe a lot more resistance.


Does anyone else have anything wise for me?

If you're new to vocals I guess 30 might be too much, but you've been doing them for 3 months. If doing it for longer than 5 minutes results in pain, you need to refine your technique. My gutturals use a lot of air, but yes using less will result in a lower sound. I suggest you record with a mic and see what it sounds like. Gutturals aren't very powerful on their own, especially crazy low ones. A lot of people talk shit about mic cupping but you can't get Molesting the Decapitated type gutturals without cupping.

Five minutes a day is perfect. Like others have said, when you're starting out it's very easy to mess stuff up. As far as tone goes, I've found that blasting your favorite band and just screaming right back into the speakers while trying to match the sound works pretty well (at least for me ).

And some generic advice: if it hurts, don't do it.

Something I discovered when switching from Thrash/Hardcore to OSDM vocals was that pushing my lower jaw down and out helped a lot. Combined with mouth shape and, of course breathing from the guts...