help with vocals

[pie_man_25]

yeah, I'm doing some vocals in my band, and I CAN NOT sing. Mostly I just try to stay in pitch and sing loud enough to hear myself. The problem is that by the end of our shows my voice is completely worn out and hoarse, and the depth of my voice can't be heard for the last saskatchewan pirate (our closer because of its popularity), which I do all the vocals for. Are there any vocal excercises/tips that I can do to make singing in key easier, as well as to sing with a little raunchiness without putting too much stress on my voice. Singing in general is completely lost on me, so any advice on singing in general would be greatly appreciated.

[deeaa*]

Don't 'try' to sing, just yell out with your natural voice. Don't scream like you are desperately making a note but YELL to a note low enough; a note you KNOW to start with. Start with like...'Hey!' Notice you can do it quite loudly and not strain. Then just try that hey for different pitches and find out your range. Just go Hey Hey Hey Hey Hey to Old McDonald tune or whatever. Then do stuff like Halford does on live EP starting with Green Manalishi; long legatos yelling to simple pitch, rise-fall again. Always start low, make 'bows' low-high-low' and then sometime leave it higher...see how it goes. Keep 'not singing' just let it come out as a yell.

Then for instance, the way you do higher notes/screams...ever wonder how a child can cry and scream for hours and never get tired?

Try making a sound like a cat, you know, tight high Meeeowwwrrr, and note how you need to tense your chin and a lot of muscles of the throat area...now try NOT to use those muscles and try and imitate a baby crying...notice how it still sounds higher and screamy, but if you get what I'm aiming at, i.e. sound like a baby, you'll notice there is almost NO strain on the throat. Then it's just working to make it sound useable for singing :-)

There are a zillion tricks...I never have time to practice 'em myself but I've sang for 20 yrs....

[sumitomo]

A cattle prod on the rear help's for the high notes.Sumi:S

[pes_laul]

What I do for a warm up before I sing for shows (or choir) is just some simple scales (do re mi fa sol la ti do) etc.

Also you want to project your voice as much as you can (that is if it's a louder song) but make sure to not sing through your throat and through your diaphragm

[ibanezjunkie]

spelling -> Diaphragm

and thats good advice there from Pes and deeaa.