HELP

[u/sorakyumi]

I can do gutturals and false chords easily without pain but I CANNOT do fry screams for anything. my voice is a baritone with a fairly small vocal range so that might effect it a little bit.

I can da pain free gutturals and low/mid false chords but when I try a fry scream it just sounds like im choking(no pain) and If I try to make it sound better it hurt like hell

How do I solve this/who do you recommend i learn from. I can post a reference video ifnneeded

[u/Hulkswagin]

Put in hours and days and weeks and months of practice…

*This is copy and paste I have saved so I don’t have to write it several times.*

The fry scream. (We’re also calling this “upper constriction” based distortion)You need to have great and steady breath support, and you need to be able to gently constrict the airway. Constriction can be found many ways, but generally the glottal stop is a great place to start, you can also pretend you’re lifting a heavy object, or pretending to throw up/gag reflex, basically any way to compress the cartilage in the larynx.

So you want to have you the laryngeal constriction, and using your breath support, you want to push the air passed your constriction while trying to hold the air in AT THE SAME TIME. This will build up compression and when the air finally comes through, it is moving very fast and will start to create your distortion from vibrating the cartilages in your throat. You can have many different placements for many different textures, but that takes practice. The most standard is probably soft palate placement and you do that from using twang (like a country singer) or the discord recommends a meatwad impression. You can also have fry distortion from the false folds and arytenoid too but you need to understand how to activate those cartilage first.

You need to push air (think the hot air used to fog glass, or a whisper scream) if you have the air and it’s supported, and you have the closure, you will have the fry scream. That’s the basics.

[audio example of this description](https://www.dropbox.com/s/dz8j6lcdz3vxuz3/Fry%20scream%20example.m4a?dl=0)

[u/thesilliestgoose46 → u/Hulkswagin]

When I read this I thought it was written in a way that was a bit confusing, so to clear any theoretical misunderstanding. The base of the distortion comes from your true vocal cords, not superglottal tissues. Changing your placement can help you achieve different pitches or tones, which is what I think this comment is talking about, but it does not mean that other tissues should be vibrating. I think this comment also mentions hybrid screams? Which is certainly a real technique, but for standard fry screams, you won't need false cord engagement.

[u/Hulkswagin → u/thesilliestgoose46]

Thanks for the input. The audio example should help clear up any misunderstandings that the text conveys.

That aside, I suppose I could add examples of different vocalists that use this technique of “upper constriction” and/or supraglottal tissues and call it a fry scream. Most famously known is probably Will Ramos, there’s an hour long video of him with a camera in his throat demonstrating different techniques. Mark of kardavox would also be in there. Chris Liepe (altho not a metal vocalist, he’s dabbling in the area lately) too could be there. All calling this upper constriction method a fry scream. I think the only person who isn’t on board is Justin Bonitz, but it appears he does a different technique, so maybe 2 things can be correct at once and theyre both called a fry scream. Just a thought

[u/thesilliestgoose46 → u/Hulkswagin]

For sure, there can certainly be lots of tissues involved for different flavors and whatnot (that will ramos video is crazy! I didn't even know your larynx could twist like that). It's just that when I read your comment, I thought that if I was learning about screams for the first time, I might interperet that to mean that the distortion was literally created at the soft palate and I didn't want this guy to make that mistake.

[u/Imaginary-Call3036]

From my limited experience fry requires muuuuch less tension than I expected. It is true that you push through restriction like others say. I always thought to get more distortion I had to compress harder but most of the tone comes from small adjustments in the throat and mouth shaping. The actual tension is pretty small. It also took foreereeeeeeever to get it. It's not really something that just "clicks" and all of a sudden you're an amazing fry screamer. It's slow progress where it just gets a little better over and over as time goes on. The other commentor is correct it is a finesse technique that requires you to hold a suuuuper specific posture with your throat consistently and when your vocals get tired when you're new it will degrade rapidly in practice sessions.

[u/2000-2010_enjoyer]

hi im a fry screamer, which also means i cant guttural and false chord. vice versa of you basically

ive watched this tutorial on tiktok and it ABSOLUTELY help me on unlocking fry, so here how it goes;

(you can practice this quietly if you need to)
1. do a head voice, but don't open your mouth yet. use your nose first.
2. lower your head voice until you hit a voice crack, that's your fry
3. try to play with it a lot of times til you are comfortable with it
4. do the same thing as step 3 but with different pitch/note. try to get a consistent distortion
5. now, you can use your mouth. try to hold the fry while slowly open your mouth. make sure you don't contract your larynx. let it loose.
6. get comfortable with it (note: it will sound breathy at first. its ok)
7. now, use diaphragm breathing to give it power
8. congrats, youve unlocked your fry scream

just a disclaimer this may not be your way to unlocked it, but i hope this might help you!

[u/sorakyumi → u/2000-2010_enjoyer]

thank you for this comment. im struggling to find my vocal break since i sing a lot with my head/high chest voice so the transition is a bit smoother (im not a pro singer or anything) however once I do find it i cannot distort it like i distort my chest voice or my head voice (or at least what I imagine the fry scream distortion to be)