One of the RSS videos estimates that you teach about 30 different ways of creating, distortion. This, along with all the other choices in rock vocals gives someone a wide variety of choices to choose from when building that tone and character of the voice they want. Someone whose biggest influences are Ronnie James Dio and Geoff Tate are likely going to make very different choices in what techniques they choose to excel at then someone whose two major influences are Robert Plant and David Coverdale. Someone whose biggest influences are all nu metal vocalists will make yet different choices. It would seem to me that vocalists tend to learn maybe just 2 or 3 types of distortion and really try to master them, rather than trying to get good at many distortion techniques. Just using Ronnie James Dio as an example because of how highly regarded he was by both his fans and his peers, if you were to identify how many of the different techniques for distortion he used throughout his career in Rainbow, Black Sabbath and Dio, would you expect to find more than two or three techniques he employed? I would guess not, but I'd like to know your opinion. My idea is based on Bruce Lee's philosophy that dictated: "I don't fear the man who has practiced a thousand different kicks. I fear the man who has practiced one kick a thousand times."

I'm starting on a two week layoff to try to finally get rid of the persistent hoarseness that led my ENT to tell me he'd like me to get a second opinion. So, I'm going to be doing things to improve my overall musical abilities such as playing guitar and educating myself on how to out a home recording studio together. I've never used a DAW, but I just bought a computer that has Logic Pro installed in it as well as Final Cut for video. I expect there's gonna be quite a learning curve on these things like learning to use a DAW and learning to make videos! None of it will be as challenging as avoiding the temptation to sing, but I'm so tired of not having a clear voice that it should give me an incentive to stay with this two week rest period. There are still a couple places in the Extreme Singing course I hadn't seen yet. I just watched "Head Voice Edging Grit. As soon as I first heard your example, my first thoughts were: "Oh, Axl Rose's technique...or Rob Halford's technique"! Speaking of extreme singing, it occurred to me that one of the great pioneers of raw, gritty singing was Janis Joplin, but she seems to rarely get talked about in those terms because she wasn't a heavy metal vocalist. Her music wasn't even hard rock, but her vocals were more extreme in the late 60s than what Plant or Marriott were doing. Sabbath started heavy metal but Ozzy Osbourne wasn't an extreme vocalist. Janis Joplin's influence would go on to be felt for decades. Her vocals were intense by any standards!

Podcast Chats are where we keep the conversation going and dive deeper into the topics of our podcast episodes with you! 🎧 You can find this episode on our website or by searching for Rock Singing Success on your favorite podcast app! ➡️ 𝗪𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀, 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀! Even if you don’t plan on writing music, learning the ins and outs of songwriting is essential to becoming a better singer and performer. From simplifying your music to overcoming busy schedules and writer’s block, join me in exploring essential songwriting tips that are useful both as a singer and songwriter. In this episode: - The importance of making songs your own - Stupid simple: why simplicity is essential in songwriting - Why writing bad songs is necessary to create good ones - Using experimentation to turn familiar riffs into something unique - How stripping down to simple chords leads to powerful music - Why collaboration is key to creating memorable music - What covers can teach you about songwriting - The value of finding your voice and style through songwriting experimentation - Utilize modern tools and apps to make songwriting accessible - How simplifying the process can make songwriting more productive and fulfilling - Why scheduling and prioritizing songwriting is crucial—from afterthought to habit - Overcome writer’s block with modern tools for inspiration - How the concepts of songwriting benefit you overall as a singer SUBSCRIBE ON YOUR FAVORITE PODCAST PLATFORM: Amazon Music/Audible Apple Deezer iHeartRadio Pandora Spotify

Dave Mustaine has an inspiring story. He’s a world famous musician now and has been since around 1986, when his breakthrough second album came out, but he hasn't always led a life of luxury. Dave Mustaine earned everything he's got. As a child, Dave Mustaine had a tumultuous home life. His father, while a hard working man, was an alcoholic. Dave’s parents divorced when Dave was only four years old. His family was left in poverty and relied on government assistance to get by. Turns out he didn't know that his mom was an alcoholic as well! She was a high functioning enough alcoholic that Dave never even saw it. He only found out about her alcoholism after she passed away. He had three sisters but one was 15 years older than him and the other was 18 years older. Dave says “It was really weird when we would stay with my sisters. We would move. My dad would find where we were because my mom and dad were divorced. As soon as my dad finds us, we move. We moved to a place, temporarily stay with a relative until we could find a new apartment, and it’s almost always my two oldest sisters or my aunt.” It was a chaotic, turbulent childhood. Throughout that time when they were moving from one place to live to another, Dave started getting closer with his younger sister Debby, who played the piano. Dave decided to learn to play the guitar. It would become the one thing that gave Dave’s life some direction and purpose. At fifteen years old, Dave left home to be on his own. He remained on his own and he describes his childhood as “pretty abnormal.” “Pretty abnormal” is an understatement. Mustaine’s teenage years are probably unimaginable to most of today's kids. Even by the standards 70s, a fairly carefree time when youths in general were given considerably more freedom to do what they wanted, a time when, for example, hitchhiking was considered fairly normal behavior, Mustaine's upbringing was exceptionally rough. It left him wide open to all types of experiences...and risks.

The "bridge" is a term I had heard before finding Rock Singing Success. I had been told there is one bridge, also called a passaggio and that learning to navigate the passaggio well (think of Chris Isaak singing Wicked Game) is the key to being able to sing with tonal consistency from low notes to high notes and not have your voice crack while you're doing it. By tonal consistency, I just mean being able to sing throughout your range and not sound like one person in mode one and sound like somebody else in mode 2. Navigating the passagio meant being able to transition from mode one to mode two seamlessly. That may be valid information. I learned it even before I ever met my first vocal coach, so since it didn't come from him, its certainly possible that it's an accurate description of what the "bridge" is: The thing that you use to move back and forth between modes one and two and not have your voice crack, or sound like two different singers. As far as I know, unless you want to count fry as "mode zero", there are just two modes. Mode one is what you typically use to speak, unless you're Mickey Mouse, and then there's mode two, which is also sometimes called head register. The voice breaks if you're not skilled in navigating the passaggio. I had gathered that you could think of the passaggio as the "bridge" that takes you from mode one into mode two. This was my understanding of "bridge" before I found RSS. R.S. found RSS. Imagine that! Good thing too, since the way I was being taught to create grit was pulverizing my larynx. "Just imagine you're lifting something heavy" - No thanks! If I were deliberately setting out to create as much unnecessary muscle tension as possible, then that would have been useful, but otherwise, no. There had to be a better way. "Just use the least amount of constriction necessary." - OK, I'm paraphrasing, but essentially that was what made RSS different from the way I was previously taught to create grit. My first coach encouraged me to constrict until no air at all was coming out and then just release tension ever so slightly until a little air can finally escape and we have "Grrrrrit"! And Reinke's Edema too!