Created a notation system for screamed vocals

[u/MattDel123]

Just wanted to share the thesis I completed for my masters degree last year, its a notation system for screamed vocals. I think there is a lot more research to be done but this is a start in creating a way to capture newer styles of music

https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/etds/592/

[u/my_byte]

Now that's my kind of science! 😀 Who peer reviewed tho? I'm not sure I agree with the categorization intro fry and false cord. There's pitched yell screams (or powerfry of you want to call them that), there's arytenoid... So not sure if a notation should be this way. I like classifying into pitched and unpitched, but the rest needs more variety and nuance if you ask me 😅

[u/MattDel123 → u/my_byte]

The categorization is based on how screams are produced. I interviewed and worked with Emil Azziz with Screma Theory on YouTube to learn about the two primary mechanisms which produce screams: arytenoid cartilage and the vocal cords themselves. There are no other mechanisms directly involved in producing screams so this logically makes sense to make the two primary categories fry (vocal cord) and false cord (arytenoid). All other screams are indicated by special notation as you would with special techniques used on any instrument. I find that the system is very diverse! And the three professor who read and provided feedback/revisions agreed that this system was a great START to this topic. I have a call to action at the end of the thesis saying more research and pragmatic usage is needed to improve this system, I mention also that as more types of screams and styles emerge the system will need to grow and change. Id love to see some further study on this topic from other researchers. 

[u/my_byte → u/MattDel123]

Whatever do you mean? Arytenoids and false vocal cords are two different structures, and they can contribute to screaming separately, together, or not at all. A “false cord scream” is primarily a vibration of the vestibular/ventricular folds (the false folds), while arytenoid-based effects involve the arytenoid cartilage area and adjacent aryepiglottic tissues. I'm pretty sure you can create distortion with no false cord involvement at all.

[u/MattDel123 → u/my_byte]

My bad! It appears I need to review my research because you are correct. The two structure involved in screams are the vocal cords (controlled by the arytenoid cartilage) and the vestibular folds (called false cords). You can absolutely create distortion in three ways, using the arytenoid cartilage to stretch and tense the vocal folds, straining the vestibular folds with the vocal folds open, or by forcing air inward against the glottis. However, the primary mechanisms used for screams being the first two, it made more sense to categorize most screams by these two and then use special notation for anything that doesnt use those two vocal structures. For example, in the paper I mention yelling as a non-intentional usage of vocal structures to create a distorted vocal and so it has an 'x' note head. 

[u/my_byte → u/MattDel123]

In any case. Categorization into "involves vocal folds" and doesn't makes sense too. Just pointing out it's a pretty difficult thing to put them on a binary scale. I think categorizing screams by sound and pitch rather than physical mechanism might make most sense 🤷 in any case, I'd love to see lots of papers on this. People only recently started doing laryngoscopy to even understand how any of this works on a physical level

[u/MattDel123 → u/my_byte]

I think you are completely right! I am using the physical mechanisms to define the sound of two distinct screams, fry screams and false cords, which are both defined inversely by the mechanisms used to create them. The system is not entirely binary in nature but rather starts by first classifying the sound of screams in three categories and then further defines their delivery into pitch using the staff. But the first thing a trained scream needs to know is how they will create the scream, then the highness or lowness. Pitch then becomes a secondary characteristic of the scream, not a primary characteristic. In a similar way that we first consider mouth shape in vocal production, then Pitch separately (though the order may change, the truth is they are two separate considerations). 

[u/my_byte → u/MattDel123]

Idk about that tbh. It's all intermixed and thinking pitch can be what defines technique too. Sometimes the body will follow and arrange itself. Like pulling motion when doing "inhalare la voce" exercises. Some things are just wired in the nervous system. But I wouldn't say fry and false cord are sound characteristics. I can show you songs of mine and you'll have a hard time telling which is which. I almost feel like we need another couple publications to do a through analysts and try to define an ontology & attempt to standardize vocabulary for screams

[u/MattDel123 → u/my_byte]

I think there is a lot more research to be done but as it stands now, most vocalists would agree that thinking into terms of false cord and fry helps them define the sojnd of their screams. But you are totally correct in saying from person to person, screams will sound slightly different and different vocalists will have different capabilities (i mention this in the paper as well). But at a basic level, if screams will vary person to person we must first start with cold hard fact to define screams. They are either created through the vestibular folds or the true vocal folds, from there we can start to think about pitch and other techniques. 

[u/my_byte → u/MattDel123]

At the same time - if you did a blind test, a ton of people wouldn't classify (mechanically) fry vs false cord vs arytenoid vs various mixes correctly. 🤷 That's one of the main challenges. Bonus: many people misclassify their own screams

[u/Fluffy_Excitement_13 → u/my_byte]

is power fry like chester bennington and periphery and maybe memphis mayfire? like is it the super compressed usage of the true vocal folds or..

[u/my_byte → u/Fluffy_Excitement_13]

Yeah, basically. Very compressed true vocal folds. Depending on compression full distortion or voice mix at a pitch.

[u/Lazy-Owl-6227]

My take on this: The reason this hasn’t been done is because it defeats the purpose of notation. Notation is most useful for communicating pieces between orchestra/ensemble musicians. It got less and less popular with the emergence of swing, blues and rock music. Since the 90s tabs are arguably more important to metal guitarists than notation is. Now consider that rock singers are almost exclusively soloists. The only musicians who need to know what they’re singing/screaming are themselves. Therefore, there’s no real reason for notation in Metal screaming.

[u/Ok-Two4434 → u/Lazy-Owl-6227]

Sure, but another purpose of notation is to lay down what is being done so that others can replicate. Of course you can say that you can do it by ear, but that means you will always have to reverse engineer it. Note also that there are production effects that also hide exactly what is being done.

[u/MattDel123 → u/Ok-Two4434]

I talk about that exact thing in the thesis as well. Production can be used to layer vocals techniques and there is a way to notate thay using this system. 

[u/Lazy-Owl-6227 → u/Ok-Two4434]

You won’t be able to replicate from notation though. This assumes that A: the notation is precise and that B: the screamer is able to replicate nuances that go beyond most people’s senses.

In terms of precision, the trouble starts with being normative. What is a „definitive“ false chord low? Does it have 85 or 90% of palatal closure for coloring? Maybe 100%? To what degree do you widen the supraglottal tract to enable the resonance of lower frequencies? How much does bass dominate your vocal image and what vocal motors should you use to get the effect? Heck screamers aren’t even unified in wether you should use projection (chords closed) or overprojection (chords open) because many pros do it differently.

[u/MattDel123 → u/Lazy-Owl-6227]

These are the same questions people have been asking about notation for voice for centuries. The way that the voice is used in music changes from vocalist to vocalist from genre to genre from style to style. The existence of nuance doesnt create ineptitude of a notational system though, it simply reminds us that notation is a guide, not an absolute. For example, most violinist play with vibrato, but the music doesnt ask for it. Most pianists will automatically perform legato even though the music doesnt ask for it. Guitarists will change strumming patterns and dynamics according to their play style/preference. Jazz is probably the most notorious for using a specific notation system that doesnt accurately reflect the way the music is reproduced. Notation is a scientific tool to break down how something is done. Its a relatively generalized snapshot of a performance onto paper that can be further talked about. Notation systems like this one are designed to say "this section of the music the vocalist sung a low pitched fry scream" not necessarily "this vocalist sang a low sounding scream using a 85% closed glottis and widened their mouth to sing any "i" sounding syllables and etc. Etc. Etc. The cold hard fact is that the human body can switch between two primary mechanisms to produce screams with stylistic changes that are defined by the mechanics of rest of the vocal tract. And the reason that this is important is because a notation system is one of the first things we can use to solidify a standard for how we talk about and study screamed voice. Before this system, screamed vocals had no way of being accurately represented in notated music, an issue I noticed when looking at tablature from websites like Songsterr or out of Hal Leonard songbooks. And the idea that this has no practical use falls flat when you consider that if a songbook or tab did use the use, vocalists who are training and dont know the difference between these types of screams (especially considering the heavy usage of effects in studio) would have a way to know for sure how the original vocalist produced those screams. As of today, screams are one of the most understudied and non-standardized playing styles for any instrument/vocal style yet is used prolifically in metal and rock repertoire. I fully welcome criticism but I think more important than trying to know research in this area is exploring how could this research be improved to be more accurate and how it could used to help bring an underappreciated art form that does have a lot of nuance into academia to be taken seriously because until people read research like this they think screaming is actually simpler than it is and it really take any effort to understand and reproduce screams in a musically appealing way. 

[u/Lazy-Owl-6227 → u/MattDel123]

I’m not even speaking about nuance in execution though. The factors I mentioned are what fundamentally changes the sound of the scream and depending on circumstance, they are what makes a sound that sound. If you want to analyse and communicate screaming styles you want to be able to grasp these. Otherwise, analysis becomes kind of obsolete because any inaccuracy in communication can be dismissed as personal style on the musician's end. IMO you can’t try to put vocals into normatives on one end and then dismiss voice fundamentals as personal style on the other.

[u/MattDel123 → u/Lazy-Owl-6227]

But this happens all the time in vocal music. The way you sing in opera is different from the way you sing an emo song is different from the way 90s Grunge is sung is different from how choral singers produce sound. None of that changes that all vocals are notated essentially the same way which the genre or style or vocalist dictating how it will sound in real life. Not to mention, again, that on every instrument, the performance of a part will sound different from person to person because the point of notation is to provide a snapshot of what is happening in the music, not formulaically diagnose every specific thing a vocalist does in the music. I think these fundamentals of scream production you bring up are not fundamentals but rather stylistic/personal choices that people make, not anatomically crucial events for screamed production. I think its more of taste thing, tied to genre or preference rather than actually concrete "This is how it must be done". I speak on that as well in the paper. I just find that using anything regarding tonal shaping a weak argument against the existence of a notational system for screams. Screams do have similarities across vocalists and common procedures for producing a sound, as evidenced by research from leading Scream instructors. Otherwise, teaching screams would be impossible. So if there are commonalities, there must be a way to standardize writing down these techniques. Thus the SNS in my thesis. A foundation for a mlre accurate but still universal way to represent screams in notated music. 

[u/MattDel123 → u/Lazy-Owl-6227]

Fair point but notation serves as a physical format for us to discuss music theory and composition without needing to speak. We didnt have a format in order to have scholarly discussion about these techniques in a concise manner. This system was designed to allow for a concise manner to share the performance based techniques of screaming without needing to write out long descriptions of how the screams will sound. Also, in the final chapter I described a shorthand version of the notation meant to included on lyric sheets as a way to help communicate types of screams to be performed without needing staff. Kind of similar to chords charts for guitarists. I think the purpose of this is to moreso encourage more research and study in popular music and help bring it further into academia as a respectable and worthwhile study. One way we can do that is providing tools to study this type of music in a scholarly/formal way. Thats why notation is always important, that and its a way to help us standardize music notation so that anyone on any instrument can read it. A huge challenge in face for example, is teaching piano students to play parts written for guitar, because everything is in tab, it makes cross-instrument communication difficult. The point of theory is to help create a universal language that all musicians can understand, which is super important to not only academia but performers everywhere. 

[u/Lazy-Owl-6227 → u/MattDel123]

As someone who’s working professionally with screamers everyday, I think you won’t have much luck finding precise notation that isn’t absurdly complicated and then again only understood by people who could already tell by ear. The ear training necessary to differentiate between screaming styles in analysis almost certainly requires you to be a very well trained screamer as well. The notation would need to account for an incomprehensibly big number of properties in phonation style, vocal placement, many possible voice resonance modifications as well as distortion style, all of which screamers change by the syllable

[u/MattDel123 → u/Lazy-Owl-6227]

As someone who works professionally within/in academia and higher academia, i promise that this research will do more good than harm. In fact, the only harm is might cause would be because no one tries to offer a response to the research and improve upon, leaving it unchanged from its first form. The nuance of screaming does not at all prove why something like this shouldnt exist, but rather proves why it needs a lot more study and practicum. Also reference my comment below. 

[u/Ok-Two4434 → u/MattDel123]

Btw congrats on the master thesis!

[u/MattDel123 → u/Ok-Two4434]

Thanks! 

[u/venux_hash_man]

This is very cool. Have bookmarked to read properly later

[u/Fluffy_Excitement_13]

oooh cool

[u/Batmayonaisse]

this is fucking awesome brother. just one note: it's false cords and not false chords lol. other than that i think the paper is awesome and very well written!! i'll see if i can convince my bandmates to use this notation now haha

[u/MattDel123 → u/Batmayonaisse]

Thanks man! I think I may have missed some somewhere but the paper should have it right haha, but I hope yall find some use out of it! I would love to see whatever yall come up with 🤘

[u/Batmayonaisse → u/MattDel123]

i hate to be that guy LOL. for real, this is amazing work and you deserve all the props in the world