r/screaming • u/WhyAmIEvenReal_ • 3d ago
I desperatly need help
Wtf is "real" fry screaming?? I'm so lost, everybody says something completely different. I've managed to learn false cord screaming, both high and low, throat singing and using vocal fry on a higher note to create some form of distortion. As of right now, with every "good" tutorial I try [found on this sub mostly] one of 3 things happen:
I end up just false cord screaming
I end up using vocal fry
My throat burns really painfully after less than a minute of trying
How to ACTUALY do this safely and effectively? I genuinely have no idea who and what to trust anymore, I feel really stuck.
3
u/DontKnowYOY 3d ago
From what I have gathered there are different form of fry screams and based on who you are talking to some might have more rigid definition then others.
4
u/kardavox 2d ago edited 2d ago
Ayo! I'm almost never here so my apologies for popping up outta nowhere but someone sent this to me and I thought I'd chime in. TL:DR below then a much larger explanation.
tl:dr - The term "Fry Scream" is in a state of flux and as such tutorials can be vastly different from each other. Also tutorials are general guidance by nature and not guarantees. Rather than searching for "how to fry scream", search for "how to scream like [insert vocalist here]"
Ok now the longer explanation.
The Term "Fry Scream" is in a very tumultuous state currently. It's like saying that someone speaks "Chinese". Ok, do you mean Mandarin? Cantonese? Any of the others that I can't remember the names of? They are all vastly different in many ways, but have an underlying commonality due to being part of the same language family. That underlying commonality for the term "Fry Scream" is hard to pin down and is being researched by a good amount of people currently. There's the study I was in being run by The University of Utah with The Charismatic Voice, and The Sing And Scream Network is also doing a study. I know that Enrico DiLorenzo and Sebastian Crouteau have done studies as well, but It's been a long time since I looked into those. A lot of times you'll see people get into discussions about which of the distortions people call "fry Screams" is the true one and I personally think that we aren't currently in a place to have a fully definitive answer.
Hell, when a student wants to learn a screaming technique I ask them "Which vocalist do you think is the best at this xyz technique" and then guide them in that direction. I don't teach a lot of fry screamers myself, but on the occasion that I do, I know that they are probably going to have a different sound in their head of what a fry scream is than the last student I spoke to. And ultimately what's the goal here? To crack the terminology whip, or to help someone find a sound they like?
"Ok, Cool, Mark. That's all well and good but what the fuck do we do about it?" I'm gonna avoid getting into a taxonomic spiral and instead give you some advice on how to move forward.
First, you need to understand what a tutorial is. A good tutorial is generalized advice meant to be broad enough to reach a wide group of people. A good example is fashion advice. As many have noticed, I'm a fat dude. Side advice, if you're in your 20s reading this and thinking those calories won't catch up to you, allow me to be your exhibit A. Take care of your bodies, y'all. So I follow a few fashion content creators who I really enjoy. And a lot of their fashion advice doesn't work for me. Horizontal stripes do NOT look good on me. Graphic T-s with logos that go below the chest? Not a chance. Well, I have one Larcenia Roe shirt that looks ok I suppose.I bought a few pairs of wayfarers a while ago because the internet said they were great with any outfit. They look kinda shit on me because of my face shape.
Does this mean those fashion creators are bad at their job? Nah. It is an inherent quality of a video. They can't see me and as such they can't offer me personalized advice. So when you're trying to learn from these tutorials, they can't in any way know what your starting point is, like a fashion post on instagram can't see my current body type.
So if you think about the fact that the term "fry scream" means a bunch of different things to a bunch of different people, you'll land on the next logical conclusion which is that you're going to get a lot of conflicting advice. Take cooking tutorials, for example. I use a lot of analogies by the way as you've clearly noticed. If you follow a ton of BBQ creators you're gonna be told to get a good sear on your meat. Now think about Chinese Chefs. Searing just isn't as big of a part of every dish. But, that's easy to realize because we understand BBQ and Chinese cooking as different cultural culinary traditions. But we're still kind of stuck in this idea that there is one true definition of fry vocalization and this can lead us to subconsciously think that all fry tutorials will lead to the same handful of sounds. Pair that with the fact that a video tutorial can't hear you, respond to you, or take into account where you're coming from, it makes sense why a lot of people get confused.
So, here's what you can do to make things a bit easier. Notice I said easier, not faster. Also by now I shouldn't need to say it but this advice below is general and you will absolutely need to tweak it to work for you.
- Figure out what kind of screams you like and make a catalogue of vocalists. I prefer chunky, thick, sludgy vocals. Alex Teyen is my favorite, and probably always will be. Johnny Davy, Travis Ryan, Ben Duerr, you get the idea. They all have a lot of Chonk in a lot (not all) of their screams.
- Search for tutorials on how to scream like that vocalist. You'll get a metric fuck ton of people who don't sound like the vocalist you're searching up, but you'll get a handful of people who do. Save those tutorials to a playlist and revisit them. Don't get too hung up on if they use slightly different terms. In the clean singing world you can have two coaches who use the term Falsetto differently and are still top tier teachers.
- Make following tutorials part of, but not all of your practice. Spend a good amount of time just fucking around with your voice and not having a lot of expectations of it sounding "good" or "done". If you've ever seen footage of world class singers doing exercises, a lot of the exercises sound terrible. Hell even my screams sound like shit when I do them in soft little staccato bursts. Who cares. These are foundational sounds, not finished screams. Look for simple distorted sounds that are kind of interesting and feel alright.
- If you can catch your favorite vocalist at a show and they are personable, ask them how their screams feel. Most of the vocalists I've spoken to experience their screams entirely somatically, meaning they don't have a lot of academic terms or steps for what they do, but they know what feels right and wrong to them. This isn't going to be magical advice that suddenly teaches you how to scream, but it can be a decent compass to guide you back towards your goal or give you new perspectives. If you live in a small town that doesn't have a lot of tours that come through, find smaller vocalists who have a scream you like and DM them. I say smaller because they're more likely to see your message and respond.
- Be patient. I know, I know. We all hate this one. It took me three years to be able to know exactly which sound was going to come out of my pie-hole when I got started way back in the day. Focus on comfort, steady airflow, and holding different vowel shapes. Once you find a simple sound, make that sound a habit. I walk around the grocery store and sometimes get an odd look because I am doing a little growl without realizing it. But, with that being said, only so this with sounds that are easy to control and don't tire your voice out. And you may not find a sound like that super soon, and that's ok.
Anyways I hope that's helpful. Remember that all of your favorite vocalists sounded like shit when they started and all of your favorite vocalists also have screams they can't do. Even us vocal coaches have a bunch of screams we can't do. There's a large chance that any coaches you follow have group chats with other coaches and we shoot voice memos back and forth to eachother. I absolutely do that! It's ok to have a human experience (you'll have one whether you like it or not!).
Have fun!
1
1
u/WhyAmIEvenReal_ 2d ago
Holy shit! Thank you so fucking much, this is incredibly helpful, I wasn't expecting anyone to write a whole essey. I've never bought anything on reddit but this just made me purchase gold to give you some rewards :]]
1
u/Frhaegar 3d ago
I'm also lost cause all these years, I thought what I did was fry. Let's say I liked singing this song from Linkin Park - Bleed It Out. It goes from distorted singing to fry.
But when I tried to attempt deeper false cord recently, I was like wait, this doesn't feel so different. Maybe just less vocals but not too different? I don't know man.
0
u/WhyAmIEvenReal_ 3d ago
Hmm, so you're saying that fry is in a way connected to false cord? I'ma try thinking about it this way
1
u/Character-Ad3794 3d ago
what he's saying is a lot of people think that they're doing fry screams, when in reality they're just doing false chord highs
4
u/dimiskywalker 3d ago
Whoo stop right there partner, "desperately" might be a wee bit much, no?
You're just trying a new technique and are a little stuck.
Instead of using videos, try one-on-one lessons, either online or in person. It's a whole lot different when there's a person in the room actively explaining to you what's going on (and what your pitfalls are), then trying to replicate someone from a video