False Cord Tutorial V - How to Practice & Tips - Vocal Distortion Tutorials by Aliki Katriou
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- Опубліковано 16 чер 2024
- The fifth and final tutorial in a series about false vocal fold distortion aimed at beginners. This video contains a summary of the previous four tutorials, how to practice developing a false fold distortion and information on other details you might want to know.
0:00 Recap of tutorials I-IV
4:08 How to Practice
5:22 A good target/goal to aim for
5:57 Undertones & progress (influence on technique/reasoning for doing highs before lows)
7:01 Undertones & listening skills
8:05 Pain (muscular engagement)
9:32 Pain (tongue)
10:06 Itching/scratching sensations
10:44 Pain (fear & biofeedback)
If you'd like a lesson please visit my website www.aliki.katriou.com :)
If you'd like to sign up to my ACCs: landing.mailerlite.com/webfor...
If you're interested in exploring distortions, check out my false cord & vocal fry tutorial series!
If you have any questions please leave them in the comments section and I will get back to you ^.^
I'm a metal singer and singing teacher. I specialize in distortions - what people would call false cord, vocal fry, screaming, growling, grunting, grit, rasp, yelling. Basically, vocal texture!
Find me on social media:
Instagram - / aliki.katriou_vocals
Facebook - / alikikatriouvocals
Also, check out my own band and other music projects:
Eight Lives Down - www.eightlivesdown.com/
Desolate Plains
Facebook - / desolateplainsband
UA-cam - / @desolateplainsband
Tattered Pages
Facebook - / tatteredpagesgroup
UA-cam - / @tatteredpages5763
AKKT
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Literally, the best video series about false folds on UA-cam. As well as a goldmine of exercises for throat singers!!! Thank you :-)
Yaaay ^^ Thank you ^^
Agreed, 100%
@@Shallalla
Totally agree!
@@to_boldly_roll XD
I have been struggling so hard to learn harsh vocals (I'm classically trained) and your videos are the first time I've ever been able to use my false chords! 😁
XD I feel your pain; my foundations are classical! In a way, it's the anatomical opposite because classical is about relaxation and lack of constriction and all distortions contain some amount of constriction. Many people don't feel it but, as a classically trained singer, you're more likely to be hyper-aware of any narrowing in the larynx! :D
I wish we could leave voice recordings as comments to demonstrate how effective your videos are : I managed to activate my false chords because of you!!! Thank you so much : I am so happy I managed to develop this beautiful little niche skill that makes me feel absolutely badass.
yaaaaay :D
you deserve way more subscribers than you have, this tutorial series is incredibly clear, logical, and I can't wait to try working through these videos! I think I never really understood what false chord felt like until you talked about kind of the three levels of the throat (in this video), making me realize I was in the wrong place. Now that I've found it, I think I may try and give it a stab. Thank you!
Cool ^^ I had similar issues with false folds initially and it really helped me to learn where they were located and to start thinking of the larynx in levels :)
First video that actually helped me to wrap my head around false cord engagement!!! You're an excellent teacher. I am a kinesthetic learner and your physical cues help a lot when trying to visualize the cords coming together. I wrote a song, "Anger" in which I perform a scream in but the way I recorded it is not sustainable to do live. I never learned how to scream properly, and I desperately want to be able to perform my song live. I'm practicing a little bit every day and I'm slowly getting better at using my instrument! Thank you!
Aww thank you!! You'll get there in no time ^.^ Practice in small chunks of time (5-10min max), and throughout the day if you can in order to speed up your progress :)
after watching so many other peoples guides to false chord over the years, I have found yours to be the most technical and informative, as well as easy to understand!! I can't wait to try out these practise methods. the Falsetto video made so much sense to me and I'm excited to see what I can do! thank you very much ^-^
Thank you so much :)
I appreciate the comment about the sound being an octave lower. There’s a growing group of bass singers and beat boxers that use the subharmonic register activated when vocal folds and chords work together. Not sure I’ve heard this discussed in metal circles, but what you’re teaching is 100% transferable to control of the subharmonic register. 👍
Yaaay. Yes, I find it odd that metal circles don't talk about the octave lower thing more often...
i was just barely picking up on false chords before i found this series and now after just an hour of practice ive got a much better grip on it, these videos helped so much more than any others ive watched
yaaay glad to hear it!
Thank you for these videos! I got the fry scream down pretty quick as a singer with melodic background, but false cord screaming had me stuck for 7 brutally frustrating weeks. You just made it click in a matter of minutes. I fucking love you! 😘 Consider yourself shared with all my aspiring friends of metal 🤘🫨🤘
aww thank you!!!
This helps a lot!!
I was waiting for another one of these 😄🤘🏻
^^
THANK YOU ARE THE BEST AND SO COOL
@Aliki Katriou, just one more time want to say - THANK YOU a lot for your series. IMHO, it's the best False Cord Tutorial on youtube! Wish you a great 2021 year and total inspiration in all you do!
Awww, thank you, it means a lot to me! Hope you have a great year!
Thanks for this great series!
Thank you :)
Thank you Aliki for your advices, you're great !
Thank you :)
Fantastic video once again!
Thank you ^^
My english is not very good, so I could say that I understood a 75% of what you said in your 5 videos. Anyway, you definitely helped me to improve my False Chord technique. You're the best. Greetings and blessings from Chile
awww thank you! Greetings from London ^^
I can’t explain how much you have helped me,i have been trying to get my false cord for along time that i felt desperate until i watched your videos,you are a wonderful vocal coach and a wonderful person as well,thanks alot❤️
been watching aliki since the first time with rockyMS. i kept searching for her n now i’m stuck with her tutorial. You’re the best extreme vocal tutor that i’ve discovered so far.
Thank you so much ^^
Aliki big brain! Thanks alot for the series!
Thank you ^^
@@AlikiKatriou in all seriousless, it Just came to my mind that you may be very well be a vital contribuiting factor in boosting local metal bands popping up everywhere around the world, give the effect your videos Will have across time and who they reach.
Great work 👍
@@xavierxavier166 This is what I'm hoping. There are many people who can't afford singing lessons and I don't like the idea of a music scene suffering loss because of that.
Hey Aliki,
those are real great tutorials you gifted the world! Since I'm trying myself and struggeling a little with whether I'm doing it correctly, I'd like to ask:
What sensations are you supposed to feel where when correctly doing false chord vocals (screams, growls and all that stuff)?
I'm a bit puzzled and it always helps me knowing about the sensations since I tend to have a good body feeling.
My answer is going to be a bit of an evasion, I'm afraid. The reason is because I don't teach via using sensations because sensations depend on the shape & size of your vocal tract, vocal folds and skull and how these combine, so they're extremely unique from person to person.
That being said, the primary thing I would expect someone to feel is very strong vibrations, additional vibrations (because we have 2 sources vibrating at the same time instead of just the true vocal folds). If we're going for death and black metal, I might expect things to feel loose, relaxed, with a good deal of air flowing through the system. If we're going for deathcore or even some grindcore sounds, I might expect less air, more tightness, a more narrow sensation both in the larynx and the oral cavity (and possibly stranger tongue positions overall).
The different approaches I've seen for getting this are all neat in their own way, because it seems like the biggest bugbear is separating your vocal folds from your false folds. I know that was my biggest hurdle to overcome, and it took literally like five full lessons with a vocal coach. And even then it wasn't perfect until I tried your falsetto method and things just instantly clicked for reasons I still don't understand. I'll be forever grateful though!
One thing we ended up spending a lot of time on is breath support and resonance placement, because even if you're getting some true fold sounds in there, the more you can get that energy off your throat and into your mouth, the better it feels and the longer you can practice at it before getting fatigued. It means 5-minute sessions instead of 30-seconds, which is a big deal when you're practicing every day and eager to get results.
Another massive value add from yourself though wound up being the vowel practicing. It's not that we wouldn't have done that, but the way you've constructed these lessons makes them feel like actual, scripted lessons. You want to learn how to play the guitar? You practice your scales. You want to learn how to scream? You practice your vowels. I really appreciate the general mindset you've brought to these videos. It's helped a lot. Seriously. Thank you.
I'm about six months into this and am getting some really fun noises. I did jump from mids to lows right away, but I've got someone helping guide me and things feel really quite good. I can go for a good 40 minutes without feeling sore or fatigued. And I can almost get that Phil Boseman tone! I'm so damn close
Yay! I love that ^^ Phil Bozeman has a lovely tone and it's one that is solidly rooted in an underlying chest voice coordination (not always, but his "usual" tone is). I like opting for highs because it gives me a lot of information as a teacher about the degree of vocal tension the student is holding during their false fold distortion. That being said, different strokes for different folks; nothing is one size fits all :) I'm glad to hear you're working with a teacher ^^
@@AlikiKatriou The chest voice thing is interesting, because I don't feel like I'm naturally going there, but I probably am. I try and start it all with that falsetto thing for placement then slowly work my way lower. A lot of it is mouth shape and tongue placement though. And trying to get more sound with less air. It's been super fun to experiment with.
@@dualwieldsoftware If you're not sure whether you're dropping down, start clean, add the distortion and drop down during the distortion to the pitch you're hearing. It could just be the fact that false folds are a subharmonic technique and it's throwing you off :)
Hi I really enjoyed your tutorials! I was wondering if you gave lessons for more advanced techniques, or could point to resources I could pursue? I've been practicing my false chords without training for years so I would love to learn more. Thank you.
well, you're clearly ahead of me: see you soon! :P
Wohoo 🤘🤘🤘
:D
Hello! I'm not really a singer but I've been thinking I'm genderfluid for a while (afab) , and I've been looking through a bunch of tutorials on how to thicken my vocal folds without t, when I stumbled upon this series. I don't think I've ever come across a more helpful channel, like seriously, the tip about sssszzzzzssssszzzz being the difference between activating your vocal folds and not, literally changed everything. I don't know if it's too much to ask, but a video on how to get the more masc sound with vocal folds would be amazing, or just any tips at all that you could give? I'm literally so glad I found your channel, you deserve so many more subs, thank you so so so much!!
Hey, thank you :) So, just speaking strictly in terms of anatomy, you won't be able to thicken your vocal folds more than they already can. That being said, there are many things you can do to alter your sound! If I had to give you some quick tips I would say a "masculine" sound is characterised by relaxation, so whatever you do don't tense/push into it. There is a difference in the way men and women use vowels. So most males will have slightly different sounding vowels to most females. Focus on vowels! Focus on changing the way your tongue moves rather than your vocal folds :)
Awesome video! Btw, it is best to do that exercise you said (the 30s daily one) just daily or it its fine to do it after a couple hours (Let's say, at least 3 times) a day every day? :)
It's fine to do it multiple times a day with rests in between. I would leave a minimum 2 hour rest in between so that you "forget" what it feels like. This will make the learning process stronger.
@@AlikiKatriou Thank you!!
Are we gonna get a tutorial on how to add this into our singing?! :D So far you’ve said nothing is a final product and singing with distortion is my ultimate goal so I’m curious
Yes, but I wanted to build the skillset first. Plus, depending on the sound that you want you'll need a different setup, different underlying vocal fold coordinations, different degrees of false fold engagement etc :)
Great tutorial!
When will the next episode come out?
No idea. Life and work are too chaotic... It'll probably be longer than usual as Feb is looking really busy.
Thank you:)
❤️❤️❤️❤️
your videos are very awesome and helpful, so thanks. I have a question. When i started trying to scream using false folds, all ive found was people explaining very poorly each concept about the process of screaming. So all i got in my mind was that to scream, i just had to blow air and add some voice, just managing the amount of voice to not get hurt. And when i tried that way, i thought i did pretty descent. wasn´t cappable to reach a high pitched scream, but i was doing fine with mid and lows. Didn´t feel i was hurting my throath or anything. So, the question is, it is possible to hurt myself without me realizing it? all the tutorials ive seen before yours, say that the only thing i need to avoid its the pain, but i dont know if its that simple. For example, there is the case of Oli Sykes that damaged his voice terribly because he didn´t have a good technique (or that ive heard), and i find strange that if the only way to know you are hurting your throat its to feel pain, then its impossible that a vocalist didn´t care that much about himself and looked for a proper technique. Well, as you can see my english its pretty bad, but i hope its intelligible. Thanks for your vids anyway
Ahhh... This is such an issue and I love this question. Yes, it is 100% possible to hurt yourself without realizing it and without feeling any pain. I will make a video about this... Always check in with your clean singing - specifically your high notes. There should be no loss of range, no change in sound or sensation.
@@AlikiKatriou thank you so much for taking of your time to answering. Another questions. Its possible to know what kind of sound is healthy and what isn't? There are live concerts with people screaming without a proper technique that works to use as an example of what a novice want to avoid? And last question (sorry for asking so much xD) what kind of sensations can a person perceive while using the different techniques you were teaching in your channel? Like, the idea is to feel some kind of vibration in a specific place or, its healthier not to feel anything at all. I ask this because at the beggining i tried the throat singing and i recently noticed that i was doing it wrong. So now im kinda uncertain about what is the right way to do it correctly. Thats all xD
Will you be releasing a video on how to turn the false chord activation into a full on scream or did I miss it?
I will, step by step :D
@@AlikiKatriou Thank you! Your other tutorials were very helpful! You’re easily the nicest creator I’ve interacted with on here :)
I wanna get started with distorted vocals using false chords, then move on to vocal fry. I have watched many videos but I am still unsure of what exact excercises to start with. Should the excercises you mentioned in this video be what I do every day for now?
Yes, start with these exercises making sure you only practise in short chunks at a time (don't do more than 5 minutes in the beginning no matter what).
Hi!
Thanks for the tutorials.
I have a quick question, how long should it take to get from beginner to intermediate? Should I practice everyday?
Thanks I. Advance.
Hi! So, it can vary massively... I usually expect that someone will get from beginner to intermediate within 2 months roughly. That being said, I always tell people to watch all the tutorials and try everything because everyone's body & brain is different and you never know what might click or just work. There's no reason to follow a linear process of development.
I like practicing 4-5 times a week, never more. Think of it as a discipline exercise. We want to develop the discipline to practice but we also want to develop the discipline to rest. Practice sessions are most effective when you're focused. So I'd do 5 minutes of practice 4-5 times a week. If I wanted to do more, I would do more 5-10min practice sessions during the day, but never a long session (unless I am practicing performance skills or skills I'm already very good at). Less is more :)
@@AlikiKatriou Thank you for the reply!
Ohh! So 5 min is enough. And I thought id take hour sessions of small exercises.
Good to know! =D
👍
Hey question for you. Your comments about aiming for a falsetto placement for mid false chord tones was a game changer for me. I'm struggling with highs and wondering if you have anything similar. The current strategy is to take the basic grunt of sorts and channel it through a very nasally placement to achieve a crispy, deathcore style high. I can hit the nasal bit, but my vocal chords are really eager to jump into the fray and it's quite uncomfortable. Makes long form practicing difficult.
I feel like I'm missing something really fundamental yet right in front of my face that I cannot see.
If you feel like this is a bit too "jumping ahead" then no worries. Just thought I'd ask :P
What kind of tone do you want as the end result?
@@AlikiKatriou Honestly, nothing extreme right now. Just trying to break into the high-end register. I'm a big fan of black metal though, so I guess that's the end result I'm hoping for. Otherwise, Mark from Kardashev has gorgeous high screams and I'd be down for those, too. But they're also on the cusp of black metal sounding.
@@dualwieldsoftware For black metal, you'll probably want a falsetto-based scream around A4 maybe - hopefully the next set of false fold tutorials will be really helpful for that! I haven't listened to Kardashev extensively but, from what I've skimmed through, his highs are fry... If you like European black metal, you'll want false fold. If you like US sounding bands you might want fry... Have you looked at Mark's channel (Kardavox Academy)? Sometimes if you hear a singer speaking/singing clean and you just do that with false fold, you get their tone...
@@AlikiKatriou Color me very excited for the next few false fold tutorials then :)
Mark has described his highs as false chord but with a much higher placement than what one would expect from a normal false chord grunt. Like shifting it up into his tonsils and nasal passageway.
@@dualwieldsoftware Shifting sensations of placement up is a common strategy for higher pitches so that makes sense. Maybe I listened to the wrong songs... XD
4:15 so 10-30 secods at a time?😮 what if it takes me a couple of minutes to "remember" how to produce the sound, is it still ok or am I trying to produce the sound right away from the get-go and if it doesn't happen, try again tomorrow? Thank you for what you are doing here 🙏❤️
You're trying to produce the sound right away. I say give yourself 3 attempts (absolute maximum 5) and if it doesn't work, walk away and try again the next day. The goal is to get the sound on attempt number 1. Exactly because it takes us time to "remember" things. So what we want to practice is the speed and accuracy of information retrieval and the best way to do that is small/short sessions and long gaps between the sessions. If you can find it on the first attempt, it's more likely to be a stable, reliable skill and you can go on long holidays, take months off etc and it will be there when you come back :)
is it ok to be louder when reaching higher notes? like a4-b4. the goal would be belting-mix voice with distortion
Do you mean a louder distortion/overall effect or louder on your true vocal folds. In principle, yes, it's fine to be louder. In practice, just check in with your clean falsetto and make sure it isn't getting breathy or odd sounding after you make whatever sound you're going for :)
@@AlikiKatriou louder with the true vocal folds, lately I tryied being as light as possible (without being breathy) with my vocal folds when warming up false chord distortion so I can isolate them easily without pushing. Last question, do you have a specific thing in mind when you try to do distortion so it happens or just turn them on and off by command?
Mongolian throat singing tutorial!
It's been done in Tuva, Sardinia, Africa... AND in Mongolia of course :-)
@@giovannibortoluzzi1384 I know.
@@fredriklilledahl850 I'd say "throat singing" could've been more than enough...
Just trying to learn how to sing Dylan’s version of House of the Rising Sun. What would you call the grit he sings with?
Good question! He goes a bit all over the place, there's vocal fry in there, sometimes he does an epiglottic distortion but mostly I'd say it's false vocal fold stuff...
Goddess, here I am
Hello! So if false and true cords are independent, do we use them both in the final product/sound, or do we keep true cords "locked" in falsetto position without using them to make a sound and produce all the audible noise with false folds? Or is this a stylistic choice? i'm so confused :(
Hi! Let's break it down ^^ Your false vocal folds and your true vocal folds will never be 100% isolated. However, they can be relatively independent from each other. This means that you can choose to be more or less tense with your vocal folds and it won't necessarily affect the tension/proximity of your false folds and vice versa.
From then on, it depends on the tone that you want. If you want a typical death or black metal sound, you'll want your vocal folds to be in falsetto. If you want a more deathcore or new wave of American heavy metal you'll often want to be in chest voice. So, different coordinations will change the tonal quality of your distortion. In all cases your vocal folds will always vibrate at the same time as your false vocal folds. Unvoiced distortions are extremely uncommon.
@@AlikiKatriou Oh, so THAT'S the difference! Thank you!
@@AlikiKatriou I remember you once mentioning "breath distortion", where someone would just push a ton of air though the throat and just hope and pray something would move. Could this be what they're doing? Because, honestly, you're the first and only person whom I've heard talking about layering false folks with falsetto, and I tried it and not only it's the first time I could actually do it and make some fun noises, but also my throat wasn't on fire for the next few days and didn't got a headache. Every other tutorial could be summed up with "you won't hurt your voice with false cord, because you don't use your voice! Not like with those pesky fry screams. Trust me, I'm a vocalist".
So, now I know why, when I tried to " open throat and remove voice", everything sounded so weak and pitiful.
I'm gonna stick with and keep practicing what works, now that I've found it. Aliki, you're a treasure!
@@finnhindley Yup, that makes sense. Calling any distortion voiceless or pitchless creates confusion and some very interesting assumptions...
@@finnhindley "power" often comes from your true vocal folds. If you go for quiet on a vocal fold level, your distortion will be quiet. This can work if you're looking at more modern styles of metal or even more US-based sounds... but if you're going for European bands... those guys tend to be loud.
Any and all distortions contain a risk factor. False fold is about as risky as fry, give or take. Clean singing, same as speaking, also has a risk factor. It just tends to be lower and we have more practice at speaking/singing XD
dear Aliki,
could you recommend some singers to listen as examples оф false cord use?
I'm not interested in those growling but if there's any singer kinda putting their false cords into the song's melody I would be grateful!
It would be nice to have both male and female examples!
Thank you in advance!
And yes! You know, when you show the false cord's work in m1 it seems a bit alike fry's work in the same regisster for me (as in Alicia Keys's song «Halelujah» that I have asked questions on the forum about). How do we distinhuish these things and- the more important thing- how can it be that the true folds kinda give two sounds? or is it so that the higher compression makes that illusion and then the fry sound gets similar to the false cord sound to those who is not so accustumed to it?..
Thank you for your explanation! :)
For false fold: Tom Walker - Leave A Light On, Christina Aguilera - Fighter are probably good examples.
For fry VS false fold: first, listen to the underlying volume. If it's normal-loud it's more likely going to be false fold. If it's quiet it's more likely going to be fry. Then, also listen to the texture of the distortion. If it sounds like something is "knocking", false fold. If it sounds like a vocal fold event, fry.
About the true folds giving 2 sounds. The medical term is diplophonia. Basically 1 vocal fold vibrates at a different speed/way to the other vocal fold. Best clean example of that is Snarky Puppy ft Lalah Hathaway - Something (go to 6:10). This would be 1 option. So a diplophonic event, with 1 vocal fold in fry & 1 clean. Another option would be the vibratory pattern changing so quickly that it's difficult to hear, so jumping between M1 & M0. Another option is that it is still fry, because M0 contains periodic and aperiodic vibrations and somehow the periodic vibrations are a bit clearer (think subharmonic bass singing rather than the way screamers use fry).
@@AlikiKatriou Thank you so much for the explanations!!!
Ive found false very difficult to find.
I think I finally found it these last few days tho I notice afterwards a mucus buildup in my throat. I can still sing tho no problem. It doesnt happen with fry only false.
Is this a normal thing that happens?
Yup that's within normal parameters. The bottom of your false vocal folds are covered in mucous sacs and they drip mucous onto your true vocal folds, so in a way your false vocal folds "hydrate/lubricate" your true vocal folds. When you first start knocking them around, some of that mucous comes up instead of dripping down onto the vocal folds :)
@@AlikiKatriou ahhh that is interesting. thank u for breaking that down! 🦾
Next time increase video's volume plz..
what if it slips to demon's voice and stops sounding like a monk....I struggle going back to the mongolian sound...should I keep trying to go back or stick to the distortion?
I would play around and try to obtain both... The more you can do, the better ^^
Hey! Can someone put subtitles? Im not english and i cant understand clearly :(
I making some weird noices but I think Im getting it?
XD That sounds about right XD
Are you aware that this fifth video isn't included on the intermediate false fold playlist?
Yup, it's on the beginner's playlist :)
Comment for the algorithm
XD
+1 on that! ;)
You look beautiful 🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡
Mongolian throat singing sounds a bit like a dijeridoo
Indeed, not only mongolian but also Tuvan and Sardinian throat singing
and also when you're gettin better at false chords screams you lose your clean range and tone D:
If you mean in general, in life, it depends on your effort levels. If you mean during the distortion, it depends on the coordination & type of distortion you choose :) You can hide the clean tone a lot!
@@AlikiKatriou I meant when you alternate them at same session
@@TheShmrsh So during a practice session or a band rehearsal? You lose range?
@@AlikiKatriou yep, just practice
@@TheShmrsh I find this concerning. Have you had singing lessons before? Do you warm up? Do you ever cool down? What level of range loss are we talking about?
I like turtles!
Turtles are awesome!
@@AlikiKatriou hehehe you are too. I can feel your personality in your videos. You are da best. Keep on the good work. Your channel is great. 🐰🍾🚣☮️
Waste of time.
Your comment? I guess we all agree.
F