• Smoking and vocals; A dilemma
    16 replies, posted
Hey guys. I've been training myself to sing for about a year or so now. I do a few different genres, but the vocal style I'm most interested in is industrial/hard rock vocals such as Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson. I just recently got to a point where I'm fairly happy with my voice. On a good day I can hit most, if not all of the notes I attempt. Certain days though, I can't do any hard vocals at all or my voice will just crack and fade out. The problem is, when teaching myself how to sing I was a fairly heavy smoker. I learned how to control my breathing and my vocal chords only after having a few cigarettes about an hour before i'd sing. I didn't think too much of it at first, but now that I'm trying to quit, I've discovered I don't know how to sing without smoking first. When I don't smoke, my hard vocals literally sound like I'm screaming in a high pitched voice. This is pretty upsetting to me, because not only do I want to be more healthy, but I'm also in the writing stage of a project I'm involved in with one of my friends. Has anyone else been through the same thing? If so, how did you adjust? Does anyone know why this could be happening or any techniques to help me control my voice without cigarettes? I'd really appreciate it. I don't want to lose all my progress, but I also don't want to keep smoking.
You sure this isn't some weird placebo effect going on?
My friend brought that up to me, but I can assure you it's not. There's a definite change in my voice with the cigarettes.
Do two recordings (one when you've smoked and one when you haven't) and see if there's any difference, have your friends listen to it aswell.
as a heavy smoker myself i'd just like to say that i do indeed sing better after i've smoked. and I usually sing r&b-ish stuff. :downs:
Whilst smoking immediately before singing may help you as you're used to it, singing in general is horrible for your voice and does huge amounts of damage, by quitting you'll find you become a much more capable vocalist. EDIT: Ah fuck.
Well, I guess all I can do at this point is quit and attempt to retrain myself. The one thing I'm looking forward to is having more lung capacity. It's hard for me to hold out notes for a long amount of time. After looking online it appears that the reason smoking may be helping me is because it relaxes the vocal cords. I think I just need to find an appropriate vocal warmup to help me achieve the same effect. Are there any other singers here who do heavier vocals? If so how do you warm up your voice?
[quote]Well, I guess all I can do at this point is quit and attempt to retrain myself. The one thing I'm looking forward to is having more lung capacity. It's hard for me to hold out notes for a long amount of time. After looking online it appears that the reason smoking may be helping me is because it relaxes the vocal cords. I think I just need to find an appropriate vocal warmup to help me achieve the same effect. Are there any other singers here who do heavier vocals? If so how do you warm up your voice? [/quote] Yep, you'll find it much better in the long run.
[QUOTE=deggie;34588319]Do two recordings (one when you've smoked and one when you haven't) and see if there's any difference, have your friends listen to it aswell.[/QUOTE] This is a great idea, especially if you are going to retrain. You could listen to your 'smoked' recording (if there really is significant difference) and just practice trying to sound like that without smoking.
ozzy osbournes normal voice is a bit messed up but he can sound ok at times, as an extreme example [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4uCJ9bAB_I[/media] it could all be placebo or i could be wrong. i have no idea really lol
[QUOTE=deggie;34588319]Do two recordings (one when you've smoked and one when you haven't) and see if there's any difference, have your friends listen to it aswell.[/QUOTE] That is a really good idea actually. Since I don't have any music written at the moment I might just do a vocal cover. Should I post it here so you guys can help me see If I'm just crazy?
If you want to!
smoking does help singing, but it's not good in general, however it has a lot to do with genetics, I mean look at paul mccartney or Mick Jagger can still hit their high notes and they've been smoking forever Good that you're quitting though, that shit'll kill ya
Lets just say there's a reason why cigarrettes are called 'fags' in Britain.
i assume by "being able to hit the notes i want" you improved your range. would you mind going over your practice routine? i would like to improve my vocal range, because right now i do whatever i sing at a lower pitch than what it actually is
[QUOTE=deggie;34588319]Do two recordings (one when you've smoked and one when you haven't) and see if there's any difference, have your friends listen to it aswell.[/QUOTE] And don't say which one is the with cigarettes and which is without. [QUOTE=cheeseballxm;34657258]Lets just say there's a reason why cigarrettes are called 'fags' in Britain.[/QUOTE] What a bad post
Sorry to bump this.. but I completely forgot about this thread and am just updating, with a video! I have not quit yet, and I'm really beating myself up about it. We're in the midst of recording and I NEED my voice to stay consistent until we're done. My buddy and I got together tonight to just jam with an acoustic a little bit, and didn't think we were going to end up recording. We brought up the webcam and just started fucking around and this came up. My voice was pretty off tonight, but you guys wanted an example of what I sound like with cigarettes. Will update (hopefully) in a couple of weeks, smoke-free. I'm honestly pretty embarrassed to put this on the internet, but I really want some confirmation that this is an actual occurring thing and not just my mind playing tricks. Excuse the fucking around as well, we were not planning on putting this online haha. Shitty webcam quality as well. Oh well, here you go. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWWtnQUbUO0[/media] Edit: okay, did the media tags change? Edit: Nevermind LULZ
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.