If you've already watched the video and are just coming back to practice, here are timestamps to the examples for each exercise: This exercise is done on pitch. Don't hold this for more than 3 seconds when starting out. 1:23 -- Smoothly transition from vocal cords only to vocal + false cords while sustaining a tone. e~~~~ 4:04 -- Once you have *mastered* that, practice a very slow transition from vocal to vocal+false.
I have been to many rock and metal vocal coaches and I have watched a billion youtube videos, I have studied CVT, Estil, EVTS, ... And no one on this planet has even made a more clear, step by step, totally making sense, tutorial(s) than you. Everything that I knew all of a sudden makes sense and as a vocal coach myself your exercises are gonna help me so much to help others. You deserve a huge platform or to be seen by everyone in the industry. Thank you for all of this
I cant stop focusing on those gloves...I wanna make them...also really...you are the best teacher ever..I love the zen of screaming ofc, she gives beautiful scientific explanations..but your videos have been sooo sooo helpful..there were so many video tutorials I had watched to find my false cords..but you have been the only helpful one. Thank you so much for making these videos to watch for free. 😢 Also you are so cute and goofy😂 I love it.
This series is brilliant. The way all steps are divided into separate episodes make it hard to skip the necessary steps before advancing to the next one. In other youtube lessons the whole false cord technique might be a professional singer showing it all in a 15 min clip making this illusion of it really being that easy. But everything looks easy when you are good at it. Aliki really knows what mistakes the level 0 vocalists do and its very evident in the part where you recommend trying out the wovels tongue out. I took a full 2 weeks of practicing the 1st episode every now and then and moved to part 2 only after I was confident I got the basics correct. After many years of wrong and harmful attempts to use epiglottis im sure this series makes my journey to learn proper vocals to actually work out and im not just having short practices that end when my throat is hurting and I still didn´t learn a thing.
Yes! Usually is easier to activate the false chords when the vocal folds are compressing a bit more, so keeping the same clean, light, relaxed note and adding false chords to it without messing up the vocal folds coordination is by far the most difficult thing! I'll keep working on it! Thanks
Thank you ^^ Yes, it's really difficult to it but, on the plus side, you don't need to spend hours on it - just try it once or twice a day! Give it 10 seconds of your time systematically and you'll improve :D
Well, there you went and fixed my false fold distortion problem in a single video. Thank you so much for this, I definitely want to do a lesson. It's also exciting that you teach flageolet the way Justin Stoney does. I learned it wrong (extremely breathy) and I think that has caused my upper middle range to fade into nothing anytime I start on a high note and briefly sing on a lower note. Especially when I want to do it with distortion.
Yup ^^ I'm trained by Stoney so it makes sense we'll have a lot of overlap :) Extremely breathy flageolet sounds fascinating, I could see a use for it... The main thing with voice is to keep it moveable and have options :)
@@AlikiKatriou I think extremely breathy flageolet on the AH vowel would help the issue I'm having, which is a tendency for my voice to get stuck in falsetto. Singing A4 is fine, but then around D4, I have no power. Is also really difficult to add distortion that low. Would you be able to fix that in a lesson? I've been scoped, so there's no vocal damage. Also have an issue with dysphagia, which came about when I started messing around with a breathy head voice. That's what I used to think was falsetto, but flageolet seems to be the one that grows and either fixes or causes problems in full voice. Edit: open vowels in flageolet shut down my chest voice and made me crack all over the place. Fixed it with a very breathy OO in flageolet. Still need help with staying chesty on D4 though, hence the desire for a lesson.
I watched your 3 videos and I now feel I really understand how this works. I have always been able to make this sound but never knew what was going on. Now that I understand what the heck is going on I can start improving my control. Thanks
Yes! So many people focus on sensation rather than understanding... I find understanding really elevates your control, awareness and general skill set :D
you got me subbed, I've been trying metal screams for months now, I got the fry scream and I felt like I was doing like a mix, but just false chords had been impossible for me, thanks to your vids I finally felt like I was able to sing a chorus with just false chords, I can now actually here the difference between what I was doing (fry) and actual false chords, and more importantly, I feel like I can identify the feeling now, so really thanks you, I'm actually going to record me a few examples now so I can hear the difference and make clearer mental images of it in my mind, thank you a million times
This exercise was awesome! I see why you like it so much. After practicing it last night i woke up this morning immediately went back to it for perfect false cord activation. Really built the muscle memory for false cord.
Wow the sheer completeness of the information is remarkable. Making every exercise trully in gradual increments. I must commend you; you give us all the tools we need to do your exercises. I am excited to see more! Definitely subscribing. And watching the Fry series as well. Might I inquire if there will be continuity to the series to the point where we learn directly from you how to level up into a full False Chord Scream? Cant wait!
@@Doomerbolic I'll be weird here and say that different people "choke" in different ways... It depends on how you choke. Holding your breath is most likely going to give you vocal fry or squeeze the true vocal folds together...
@@AlikiKatriou I did for a long time like breath distortion so I know where are and what are false cord, even because the sensation is similar but now I can control distortion so I think is good, instead when I try to hold my breath with my true vocal cords as you said I can definitely feel my vocal cord and my scream has a more scratchy sound I don't know how to explain it... Is like if vocal cords and false vocal cords work together 🤔
Hey. Great false folds videos! I'm curious... are false folds used on rock distorted vocals like the Layne Staleys and the Kurt Cobains of the world? Also.. is it normal to feel a little hoarseness (not pain) after starting these exercises for finding false folds? Thank you. You're a great teacher!
As someone reasonably advanced in vocal technique, I find your channel among the most educational on the platform. My question is about something I plan to train in the future. It is about subharmonic series of false chords (or ventricular folds). You probably know that the kargyraa you teach here produces a subharmonic octave directly tied to the root note of the vocal folds. The same thing happens with the so-called fry-subharmonic, where the subharmonic is born from one of the vocal folds reducing its frequency. The point is that this can be done "theoretically" infinitely, producing a lower subharmonic from first and so on. Then, same concept applies to false chord subharmonics. You can do crazy low notes in octaves 1 or 0 with it. My question is... Do you have experience training this technique of sub-sub harmonies with false chord? I've seen examples, but haven't jumped into training it, so maybe you have some advice.
You'd have to send me the examples you have in mind. I've heard a couple but they sounded quite different from each other. I don't have much experience training sub-sub harmonies of false folds. I've watched a lot of subharmonic bass videos and am quite disappointed with the explanations as they are very unsound both physiologically and in terms of actual physics but I'm always happy to experiment and hypothesize...
@@AlikiKatriou Understand. I've been studying sound science and vocal technique for a long time, and I can produce clean C5-D1 subharmonics. The biggest problem I see in the community is that: 1 - They do not understand how a subharmonic works. They believe that it is an extension of fry, when physiologically they are two separate techniques. 2 - Believing that it is "fry" tends to produce subharmonics with a lot of noise, with incomplete placement. In this respect, the use of audio spectral viewers greatly helps to polish any technique. I have also bought an endoscope camera to have another important visual reference. However, I am barely getting better at the many techniques related to ventricular and aryepiglottic folds. (Your channel is very supportive in this regard) That's why I consulted you, since I saw examples like these: th-cam.com/video/M15ke-WVJpA/w-d-xo.html Where the ventricular folds are used to produce the subharmonic series. I find it fascinating, and would eventually like to train, since they are stronger than classic 2nd subharmonics. It would be very helpful if you can get some idea on how to find this connection to the Kargyraa subharmonic series.
@@meybi6272 It's slightly low on the priority list but I'll see if my brain can consider things. I 100% agree with the creator's own pinned comment that he changed the fundamental pitch! I think there is good reason to believe that some singers obtain those tones with fry. Part of the problem is that when we say "fry" we just mean M0. It's similar to saying "head voice" or M2 - it could sound like an operatic singer or like R&B. So the register doesn't actually inform the tonal quality as much as people like to believe.
@@AlikiKatriou 1 - Yes, I expressed myself wrong. Let's put it this way: Subharmonic is a mechanism that can be literally triggered with M0/M1/Mix/M2/M3. The only fundamental difference is that a string vibrates at a lower speed, in whatever mode. The confusion comes because for this to happen the simplest trigger is using fry, and it has been naturalized that a subharmonic is a type of fry, which is false. With proper technique, no distortion is needed to hold the vibration steady, and it can vibrate cleanly along with the fundamental voice. I meant that. 2 - I can happily say that I already dominate Kargyraa to the point of producing it at will and with force at the level of a whisper. Sadly, I still can't find the mechanism to change the subharmonic series. 😭(Help!) 3 - This is very interesting (and difficult). After getting my ventricular muscles used to it, it turns out that by training subharmonics I realized that there is a point where a soft ventricular resonance can be triggered at the same time. This produces a Kargyraa subharmonic one octave lower than the vocal subharmonic. That is, two octaves from the root. (I did A0 from A2, for example) I have not yet mastered the mechanism, but such a curious technique exists.
@@meybi6272 Yup, that all sounds about right to me. No disagreement about subharmonics being independent from mechanism etc :) It might be worth finding Toni Linke's yoututbe channel and reaching out to him about this!
Hey, this is a really great video, thanks a lot for giving us these videos! they're really helpful. I've got one question. Should I be using more air when I'm activating my false cords on top of the vocal cords? It happens to me when I'm trying to do it.
Realistically, you will use more air when activating your false folds. Just remember, the increase of air is not what is primarily responsible for the false folds vibrating. If you didn't engage the false vocal folds, nothing would vibrate. With time, you'll be able to activate your false folds with less and less air and, from then on, the amount of air depends on the tonal quality you like.
Hi Aliki, thanks for the tutorial! I'm really enjoying them so far! I am good at this exercise, e.g. turning my false cords on and off while keeping a sustain note, but I cannot completely isolate my false cords from my vocals folds. I can get a pretty decent distortion on my voice, but not screams. Are you planning to make a video about that in future?
Yes! That's the plan :) However, just because you mentioned isolating false folds from true folds... Just know that it isn't really anatomically possible to 100% isolate the two, so if and when I talk about isolation I mean separate muscular control of each set of folds as much as physiologically possible. All distortions have true vocal fold movement underneath them so bear in mind that there are no distortions that don't use your true vocal folds :D
I did try to exercice, but I have to admit, I'm maybe not that motivate I thought to learn how to sing like you x)... But ! This is an absolute pleasure to see you explaining things... Please, keep going on, make us dream with your exercices ! I hope you going well, and can't wait for your next cover :p
Hello dear False Cord Lady. Im currently trying to learn by your tutorial, BUT im not sure if im doing something wrong. I originally tried to learn throat singing and that worked relatively well and seems to be pretty much the same, but the section with "dont squeeze" (after 3:20) made me a little unsure. At this point my throat usually starts burning like after some heavy coughing after about 15 minutes of exercise. (tho i have to say that i dont speak very often in my everyday life and that happens as well after just speaking for a few hours naturally) And because of this im not sure if i do the sound with the right cords, because i also read several times now that it is meant to be a "relaxed" thing to do, while for me its basically like building up overpressure in my throat and then let the air loose like with a baloon and thats creating the vibrations. Like you basically said as well in part 1 with "clear your throat... violently!" That worked pretty well until now and i could even sing along shorter parts of (throat singing) songs that way and even talk if i want. 🤷 And i basically would like to know if it just needs more training (because im just not used to heavy use of... well... any cords) or if im doing something fundamentally wrong that might actually f' up my chords at some point.
It probably needs a bit more training. It's normal to feel pressure and effort initially. It's a complex question, because different styles and different people do different things. It's very common for throat singing to use way more pressure than any metal vocals ever would, for example...
Aliki the one and only! One thing that seems to elude me is that the higher one goes in pitch the false cord gets harder to isolate. More precisely it turns into a clusterf@£k. Any thoughts on that (that you'd be willing to share publicly, that is...)
I have many thoughts... My first thought is that isolation exercises need to be perfected on a single, comfortable pitch and are better kept there for quite a long period of time before going higher up. My question for you would be at what pitch does it become a "clusterf@£k"? G3, D4, F4? Where are you at?
Wierd question, Is Marge Simpson's voice an example of false chord activation? I guess it's mixed (as you taught in your mixed false and breath distortion video). Your videos are absolutely the best thing I've found online (even including paid courses I've attempted!) Thank you so much!
Thank you. For me, Marge Simpson is a breath distortion with a high larynx and all the breath is exiting the nasal passage, so it's all going out your nose rather than your mouth and, as a result, you can't use as much air ^^
Hi! Forgive being totally off the point but for some reason, I speak with my false and normal vocal folds at the same time. I am looking at videos to learn what they sound like and you helped me understand. How can I implement this so I can stop using the false folds? I imagine I use them because of my severe acid reflux which causes me to rely on them? But I hate the texture it creates. Do you have a Discord server, or anything, where I can join and ask questions? Thank you ever so much!
Hi! Ooooo, so I don't have a Discord server at the moment but feel free to email me via my website or massage me on facebook. There would be two aspects to altering this. First, activate your false folds on purpose, like you see/hear in my videos. Second, you'd probably need to work with some back pressure to see if the false folds pull apart. Ways to do this: 1) are your false folds active on a lip roll? (if not try opening your mouth into any vowel sound and see if your false folds remain inactive), 2) phonate through a straw, 3) fill your cheeks with air so they are literally puffy and make noises. The goal is always to see if you can create a condition that allows you to activate your true vocal folds without your false folds.
I watched your tutorial, very nice and clear, nice collection of gloves, but i really can not do it.. my throat/folds burn and I'm pretty sure I'm doing it wrong because the vibration (when i touch my throat) comes from below the bump..
Maybe... In my experience when people feel vibration below the bump it is often because they are vibrating the epiglottis above the false vocal folds. Why we feel this as a vibration below the true folds sometimes is one of life's mysteries... Is this also the case if you first increase the volume on your true vocal folds?
@@spietato4990 This sounds reasonable to me :) I'll say it a thousand times: keep practice sessions very short and very focused. Aim for 30sec-1min total for now.
Hey Aliki!! You're freaking awesome. I'm going to go back and watch your other FC vids, but I was wondering: I think I remember a couple years ago on the RMS channel, you made a distinction between breath distortion and false cord distortion, and said that the "exasperated sigh" technique is really breath distortion. Do you cover that difference in any of your recent vids?
Hey, thank you for video! About long false cord screams and ghrowls, when I gained relatively decent false chord sound I lost my mind a bit and started to read and speak regularly with false chord in order to train pronunciation. I didn't try to force it or make some kind of screams, but in sum I still sustained it for quite a long time when pronounced words. So, is it better for now to just make exercises, or such a reading-speaking practice is acceptable too?
In theory a reading-speaking practice is great and works well. The only "problem" with the speaking practice is that singing involves different pitches and different pitches affect the vocal folds, false vocal folds and the breath. So, some of your speaking practice might not transfer well into songs. Remember: false cord songs all have proper singing underneath on the vocal folds!
Is it normal tham I seem to use a lot more air when I start doing this exercise? I think I have some control over my diaphragm from singing "normally", and it doesn't hurt my throat when I add the false chords. It's just that I'm out of breath really quickly, which makes me wonder. :D
Typically, we use more air during false fold phonation, especially because we aren't really balanced/coordinated. So, yes, it is normal to use more air & lose more air but it isn't necessary so try not to let your brain think you have to do it like that XD
not sure if i am just adding vocal Fry oder actually false chords. i can geht a brrrrrrrrrrrt sound over my voice sound, but it does not get louder (doesn't change at all, does not get quieter too) and i can add it to my voice separately without any pain or getting breathier or soemthing. and i can try this easily for an hour wihtout fatique but no idea how to be sure if i am doing this right
hmmm, no idea what you might be doing... I wouldn't be surprised if you'd found an arytenoid distortion or you could be doing fry at the same time as false folds. Can you hear a clean tone? If you can hear a clean tone, then it's unlikely that fry has anything to do with it. See if you can remove the brrrttt sound without changing anything else in order to check if your true vocal folds have started vibrating in fry or not...
@@AlikiKatriou guess i should probably schedule some lessons with you. i have the same feelin in the throat which vocal fry has too. but i can like just activate it. clean voice -> clean voice (but less recognizeable) mixed with brrrrrt about same loudness -> removing brrt results in clean voice again. its weird to explain. I'll save upo a bit and schedule an online lesson, makes more sense than texting about it ^^
So I'm just curious. I've had some rather long burps that I can volcalize that sound like that deep metal scream. The way a burp sounds are we essentially replicating the vocal mechanics in a burp through our false chords?
Oooo, I would say we are using the false vocal folds in order to create a tone that could be similar to some burps. Your false folds being easier to control, shape & sustain than a burp...
@@AlikiKatriou thank you for your reply! Ok I have another question. I have been doing your excersises and they have been great for locating my false chords folds. But I'm now in this limbo of getting from the exercise to that quintessential metal scream
@@AlikiKatriou wonderful!!! I'm eagerly awaiting that series! I have watched many tutorials on this topic and your videos by far are the most helpful! If all goes well you will have single Handedly helped me achieve my quarantine goal of learning to false chords scream!
Yes, that's perfectly normal. It's part of the reason why we start slowly, practicing on a few seconds a day, maybe 2 minutes, and we keep doing that for quite some time before eventually moving on to a song.
I do have a preference for the note I'm on for beginners, but you can lower it. I wouldn't go lower than A3 in the beginning though... The reason is largely in order to avoid other distortions from happening and because I find that when people practice false folds too low, they often get stuck and never unlock their highs or even mids. So I aim for a mid, maybe even a high mid. It's harder to do, but it's a more flexible skill...
@@AlikiKatriou I can kind of do it at D4. but, the false folds get really light. after that, my true folds go crazy and my false cords are a mess turning on and off. it kinda got better after I did the exercise for a week. I'll keep going to see if I can get that growl. y'know the freddie mercury growl.
It's common for it to sound "gravely", although some people also describe fry as "gravely" so who knows. If it tickles it usually means that the muscles are working a little bit too much. It might be a case of familiarity/practice (and thus it might go away by itself) or you might be squeezing/compressing/twanging a bit too much for now...
You could also practice changing pitch. Do 4-5 false chord activations on your lowest pitch... Raise your pitch 1/2 step and do 4 or 5 activations... Keep going until you reach your limiting pitch. IDK just an idea 😂
Is it normal that I have to drink a huge amount of water while practicing this? My throat seems to be getting dry and a very little bit painful while doing it
This is normal. The false vocal folds are covered in sacs that drop mucous onto your true vocal folds. If you will, your false vocal folds play an important role in hydrating and keeping the area moist. So vibrating & knocking them around can feel very dry in the beginning...
@@SF-zm2py Heh, anatomy/physiology is a tough one because the books are expensive. That being said, even then, there just isn't a lot of research going into ventricular folds. The best thing you can do is get on scholar.google.com and search for ventricular fold anatomy. Reidenbach's 1998 paper is a "classic" - his focus of course is cancer... For more recent material, look to Moon & Alipour's 2013 "Muscular Anatomy of the Human Ventricular Folds". Not the easiest of reads but definitely digestible :)
I have been able to do this, but I wonder, is it normal then after I feel my voice going everywhere, like too loose? does this have to do with the muscle work or am I doing something wrong?
If you've already watched the video and are just coming back to practice, here are timestamps to the examples for each exercise:
This exercise is done on pitch. Don't hold this for more than 3 seconds when starting out.
1:23 -- Smoothly transition from vocal cords only to vocal + false cords while sustaining a tone. e~~~~
4:04 -- Once you have *mastered* that, practice a very slow transition from vocal to vocal+false.
Thank you!! I love that you put in the effort to summarize these videos!
I have been to many rock and metal vocal coaches and I have watched a billion youtube videos, I have studied CVT, Estil, EVTS, ... And no one on this planet has even made a more clear, step by step, totally making sense, tutorial(s) than you. Everything that I knew all of a sudden makes sense and as a vocal coach myself your exercises are gonna help me so much to help others. You deserve a huge platform or to be seen by everyone in the industry. Thank you for all of this
Thank you so much! This comment means a lot to me :)
Me: *After watching tons of tutorials on TH-cam to figure out this crap*
“Did….Did I just do it right????”
Awesome tutorial, super helpful.
Yaaay thank you :D
Wow ZERO dislikes, congrats I've never seen such a ratio. This video really helped me out, thanks.
It's probably because people who are trying to learn about false cords are usually rockers and rockers are cool people :))
I cant stop focusing on those gloves...I wanna make them...also really...you are the best teacher ever..I love the zen of screaming ofc, she gives beautiful scientific explanations..but your videos have been sooo sooo helpful..there were so many video tutorials I had watched to find my false cords..but you have been the only helpful one. Thank you so much for making these videos to watch for free. 😢 Also you are so cute and goofy😂 I love it.
Yaaay thank you so much!!! I keep meaning to sit down at some point in life and learn how to make my own gloves... I love gloves...
oh that’s really great
Hope you can continue the series I really love it🥹🥹
dude this series is so helpful tysm!! you make it easy to understand and enjoyable to learn
Thank you ^^
This video is just perfect
You're so full of life and enthusiasm and its incredible. Thankyou for being the first tutorial that makes sense and also captivates me
Thank you very much, I'm happy to make sense sometimes :)
4:35 This. Thank you so much for this.
:D
@@AlikiKatriou 🙌
I love your lessons so much!! You not only teach us what we should be doing, but also what we shouldn't to avoid mistakes! Thank you so so much
^.^ thank you!
This series is brilliant. The way all steps are divided into separate episodes make it hard to skip the necessary steps before advancing to the next one. In other youtube lessons the whole false cord technique might be a professional singer showing it all in a 15 min clip making this illusion of it really being that easy. But everything looks easy when you are good at it. Aliki really knows what mistakes the level 0 vocalists do and its very evident in the part where you recommend trying out the wovels tongue out. I took a full 2 weeks of practicing the 1st episode every now and then and moved to part 2 only after I was confident I got the basics correct. After many years of wrong and harmful attempts to use epiglottis im sure this series makes my journey to learn proper vocals to actually work out and im not just having short practices that end when my throat is hurting and I still didn´t learn a thing.
^.^ Thank you ^.^
Yes! Usually is easier to activate the false chords when the vocal folds are compressing a bit more, so keeping the same clean, light, relaxed note and adding false chords to it without messing up the vocal folds coordination is by far the most difficult thing! I'll keep working on it! Thanks
Thank you ^^ Yes, it's really difficult to it but, on the plus side, you don't need to spend hours on it - just try it once or twice a day! Give it 10 seconds of your time systematically and you'll improve :D
Love your energy. Thanks for the vid!
thank you!
Well, there you went and fixed my false fold distortion problem in a single video. Thank you so much for this, I definitely want to do a lesson.
It's also exciting that you teach flageolet the way Justin Stoney does. I learned it wrong (extremely breathy) and I think that has caused my upper middle range to fade into nothing anytime I start on a high note and briefly sing on a lower note. Especially when I want to do it with distortion.
Yup ^^ I'm trained by Stoney so it makes sense we'll have a lot of overlap :) Extremely breathy flageolet sounds fascinating, I could see a use for it... The main thing with voice is to keep it moveable and have options :)
@@AlikiKatriou I think extremely breathy flageolet on the AH vowel would help the issue I'm having, which is a tendency for my voice to get stuck in falsetto. Singing A4 is fine, but then around D4, I have no power. Is also really difficult to add distortion that low. Would you be able to fix that in a lesson? I've been scoped, so there's no vocal damage. Also have an issue with dysphagia, which came about when I started messing around with a breathy head voice. That's what I used to think was falsetto, but flageolet seems to be the one that grows and either fixes or causes problems in full voice.
Edit: open vowels in flageolet shut down my chest voice and made me crack all over the place. Fixed it with a very breathy OO in flageolet. Still need help with staying chesty on D4 though, hence the desire for a lesson.
I watched your 3 videos and I now feel I really understand how this works. I have always been able to make this sound but never knew what was going on. Now that I understand what the heck is going on I can start improving my control. Thanks
Yes! So many people focus on sensation rather than understanding... I find understanding really elevates your control, awareness and general skill set :D
Oh my god, I immediately felt in love with your personality!
You are so tremendously incredible and helpful! Thank you so much for each of your videos 😎
you got me subbed, I've been trying metal screams for months now, I got the fry scream and I felt like I was doing like a mix, but just false chords had been impossible for me, thanks to your vids I finally felt like I was able to sing a chorus with just false chords, I can now actually here the difference between what I was doing (fry) and actual false chords, and more importantly, I feel like I can identify the feeling now, so really thanks you, I'm actually going to record me a few examples now so I can hear the difference and make clearer mental images of it in my mind, thank you a million times
yaaaaay, this makes me so happy!
This exercise was awesome! I see why you like it so much. After practicing it last night i woke up this morning immediately went back to it for perfect false cord activation. Really built the muscle memory for false cord.
Yes, it does!! :D
How do you not have more views and subs? This is awesome! Thank you!
:D thank you ^^
Wow the sheer completeness of the information is remarkable. Making every exercise trully in gradual increments. I must commend you; you give us all the tools we need to do your exercises.
I am excited to see more! Definitely subscribing. And watching the Fry series as well.
Might I inquire if there will be continuity to the series to the point where we learn directly from you how to level up into a full False Chord Scream? Cant wait!
thank you :) Yes, both false fold and fry tutorials will get to full screams...
This is it. This is the way Codfish does his new routine "Mystic Man"
Yup, sounds about right...
Thanks for the chapter III! Can't wait to see the next!
Thank you ^^ Hope it helps and makes some sense XD
@@AlikiKatriou so basically you are holding your breath like if something is like "choking you" 😅
@@Doomerbolic I'll be weird here and say that different people "choke" in different ways... It depends on how you choke. Holding your breath is most likely going to give you vocal fry or squeeze the true vocal folds together...
@@AlikiKatriou I did for a long time like breath distortion so I know where are and what are false cord, even because the sensation is similar but now I can control distortion so I think is good, instead when I try to hold my breath with my true vocal cords as you said I can definitely feel my vocal cord and my scream has a more scratchy sound I don't know how to explain it... Is like if vocal cords and false vocal cords work together 🤔
Hey. Great false folds videos!
I'm curious... are false folds used on rock distorted vocals like the Layne Staleys and the Kurt Cobains of the world?
Also.. is it normal to feel a little hoarseness (not pain) after starting these exercises for finding false folds?
Thank you.
You're a great teacher!
Very nice tutorial... I think I´m in love with you :D
Amazing tutorials. Thank you so much
Thank you ^^
More false cord tutorials, please
They're coming... :)
5:29 I never heard a girl make that sound before
I needed this thank you !!!!
You're eccentric in a very cute and elegant way. A like from me
Definitely.
As someone reasonably advanced in vocal technique, I find your channel among the most educational on the platform.
My question is about something I plan to train in the future. It is about subharmonic series of false chords (or ventricular folds).
You probably know that the kargyraa you teach here produces a subharmonic octave directly tied to the root note of the vocal folds. The same thing happens with the so-called fry-subharmonic, where the subharmonic is born from one of the vocal folds reducing its frequency.
The point is that this can be done "theoretically" infinitely, producing a lower subharmonic from first and so on. Then, same concept applies to false chord subharmonics. You can do crazy low notes in octaves 1 or 0 with it.
My question is... Do you have experience training this technique of sub-sub harmonies with false chord? I've seen examples, but haven't jumped into training it, so maybe you have some advice.
You'd have to send me the examples you have in mind. I've heard a couple but they sounded quite different from each other.
I don't have much experience training sub-sub harmonies of false folds. I've watched a lot of subharmonic bass videos and am quite disappointed with the explanations as they are very unsound both physiologically and in terms of actual physics but I'm always happy to experiment and hypothesize...
@@AlikiKatriou Understand. I've been studying sound science and vocal technique for a long time, and I can produce clean C5-D1 subharmonics. The biggest problem I see in the community is that:
1 - They do not understand how a subharmonic works. They believe that it is an extension of fry, when physiologically they are two separate techniques.
2 - Believing that it is "fry" tends to produce subharmonics with a lot of noise, with incomplete placement.
In this respect, the use of audio spectral viewers greatly helps to polish any technique. I have also bought an endoscope camera to have another important visual reference.
However, I am barely getting better at the many techniques related to ventricular and aryepiglottic folds. (Your channel is very supportive in this regard)
That's why I consulted you, since I saw examples like these: th-cam.com/video/M15ke-WVJpA/w-d-xo.html
Where the ventricular folds are used to produce the subharmonic series. I find it fascinating, and would eventually like to train, since they are stronger than classic 2nd subharmonics.
It would be very helpful if you can get some idea on how to find this connection to the Kargyraa subharmonic series.
@@meybi6272 It's slightly low on the priority list but I'll see if my brain can consider things. I 100% agree with the creator's own pinned comment that he changed the fundamental pitch! I think there is good reason to believe that some singers obtain those tones with fry. Part of the problem is that when we say "fry" we just mean M0. It's similar to saying "head voice" or M2 - it could sound like an operatic singer or like R&B. So the register doesn't actually inform the tonal quality as much as people like to believe.
@@AlikiKatriou 1 - Yes, I expressed myself wrong. Let's put it this way: Subharmonic is a mechanism that can be literally triggered with M0/M1/Mix/M2/M3. The only fundamental difference is that a string vibrates at a lower speed, in whatever mode.
The confusion comes because for this to happen the simplest trigger is using fry, and it has been naturalized that a subharmonic is a type of fry, which is false. With proper technique, no distortion is needed to hold the vibration steady, and it can vibrate cleanly along with the fundamental voice. I meant that.
2 - I can happily say that I already dominate Kargyraa to the point of producing it at will and with force at the level of a whisper. Sadly, I still can't find the mechanism to change the subharmonic series. 😭(Help!)
3 - This is very interesting (and difficult). After getting my ventricular muscles used to it, it turns out that by training subharmonics I realized that there is a point where a soft ventricular resonance can be triggered at the same time. This produces a Kargyraa subharmonic one octave lower than the vocal subharmonic. That is, two octaves from the root. (I did A0 from A2, for example) I have not yet mastered the mechanism, but such a curious technique exists.
@@meybi6272 Yup, that all sounds about right to me. No disagreement about subharmonics being independent from mechanism etc :) It might be worth finding Toni Linke's yoututbe channel and reaching out to him about this!
Wow this one's so tricky XD I am definitely doing those things you said not to do haha but I'll keep trying and hopefully my brain will figure it out!
Yup, just give it time. 10-30 seconds a day is more than enough!
I love how doable that is, no excuses for me to slack off! :D
Hey, this is a really great video, thanks a lot for giving us these videos! they're really helpful. I've got one question. Should I be using more air when I'm activating my false cords on top of the vocal cords? It happens to me when I'm trying to do it.
Realistically, you will use more air when activating your false folds. Just remember, the increase of air is not what is primarily responsible for the false folds vibrating. If you didn't engage the false vocal folds, nothing would vibrate. With time, you'll be able to activate your false folds with less and less air and, from then on, the amount of air depends on the tonal quality you like.
Hi Aliki, thanks for the tutorial! I'm really enjoying them so far! I am good at this exercise, e.g. turning my false cords on and off while keeping a sustain note, but I cannot completely isolate my false cords from my vocals folds. I can get a pretty decent distortion on my voice, but not screams. Are you planning to make a video about that in future?
Yes! That's the plan :) However, just because you mentioned isolating false folds from true folds... Just know that it isn't really anatomically possible to 100% isolate the two, so if and when I talk about isolation I mean separate muscular control of each set of folds as much as physiologically possible. All distortions have true vocal fold movement underneath them so bear in mind that there are no distortions that don't use your true vocal folds :D
@@AlikiKatriou Yes, that's right and I completely agree with you:) I meant that I have too much voice to be able to call it scream :D
@@Morphide Good, that's good foundation then XD
I did try to exercice, but I have to admit, I'm maybe not that motivate I thought to learn how to sing like you x)... But ! This is an absolute pleasure to see you explaining things... Please, keep going on, make us dream with your exercices ! I hope you going well, and can't wait for your next cover :p
XD Hehehe, well little by little is the best way to practise :)
Hello dear False Cord Lady.
Im currently trying to learn by your tutorial, BUT im not sure if im doing something wrong. I originally tried to learn throat singing and that worked relatively well and seems to be pretty much the same, but the section with "dont squeeze" (after 3:20) made me a little unsure. At this point my throat usually starts burning like after some heavy coughing after about 15 minutes of exercise. (tho i have to say that i dont speak very often in my everyday life and that happens as well after just speaking for a few hours naturally)
And because of this im not sure if i do the sound with the right cords, because i also read several times now that it is meant to be a "relaxed" thing to do, while for me its basically like building up overpressure in my throat and then let the air loose like with a baloon and thats creating the vibrations. Like you basically said as well in part 1 with "clear your throat... violently!"
That worked pretty well until now and i could even sing along shorter parts of (throat singing) songs that way and even talk if i want. 🤷
And i basically would like to know if it just needs more training (because im just not used to heavy use of... well... any cords) or if im doing something fundamentally wrong that might actually f' up my chords at some point.
It probably needs a bit more training. It's normal to feel pressure and effort initially. It's a complex question, because different styles and different people do different things. It's very common for throat singing to use way more pressure than any metal vocals ever would, for example...
omg shes so weird i love it 😂 great vid!
Aliki the one and only!
One thing that seems to elude me is that the higher one goes in pitch the false cord gets harder to isolate. More precisely it turns into a clusterf@£k. Any thoughts on that (that you'd be willing to share publicly, that is...)
I have many thoughts... My first thought is that isolation exercises need to be perfected on a single, comfortable pitch and are better kept there for quite a long period of time before going higher up. My question for you would be at what pitch does it become a "clusterf@£k"? G3, D4, F4? Where are you at?
Wierd question, Is Marge Simpson's voice an example of false chord activation? I guess it's mixed (as you taught in your mixed false and breath distortion video).
Your videos are absolutely the best thing I've found online (even including paid courses I've attempted!)
Thank you so much!
Thank you. For me, Marge Simpson is a breath distortion with a high larynx and all the breath is exiting the nasal passage, so it's all going out your nose rather than your mouth and, as a result, you can't use as much air ^^
Hi! Forgive being totally off the point but for some reason, I speak with my false and normal vocal folds at the same time. I am looking at videos to learn what they sound like and you helped me understand. How can I implement this so I can stop using the false folds? I imagine I use them because of my severe acid reflux which causes me to rely on them? But I hate the texture it creates. Do you have a Discord server, or anything, where I can join and ask questions? Thank you ever so much!
Hi! Ooooo, so I don't have a Discord server at the moment but feel free to email me via my website or massage me on facebook.
There would be two aspects to altering this. First, activate your false folds on purpose, like you see/hear in my videos. Second, you'd probably need to work with some back pressure to see if the false folds pull apart. Ways to do this: 1) are your false folds active on a lip roll? (if not try opening your mouth into any vowel sound and see if your false folds remain inactive), 2) phonate through a straw, 3) fill your cheeks with air so they are literally puffy and make noises. The goal is always to see if you can create a condition that allows you to activate your true vocal folds without your false folds.
I watched your tutorial, very nice and clear, nice collection of gloves, but i really can not do it.. my throat/folds burn and I'm pretty sure I'm doing it wrong because the vibration (when i touch my throat) comes from below the bump..
Maybe... In my experience when people feel vibration below the bump it is often because they are vibrating the epiglottis above the false vocal folds. Why we feel this as a vibration below the true folds sometimes is one of life's mysteries... Is this also the case if you first increase the volume on your true vocal folds?
@@AlikiKatriou i think i just need a lot of practice, sometimes the vibration is above, sometimes it is below, sometimes too much air ecc ecc.
@@spietato4990 This sounds reasonable to me :) I'll say it a thousand times: keep practice sessions very short and very focused. Aim for 30sec-1min total for now.
Hey Aliki!! You're freaking awesome. I'm going to go back and watch your other FC vids, but I was wondering: I think I remember a couple years ago on the RMS channel, you made a distinction between breath distortion and false cord distortion, and said that the "exasperated sigh" technique is really breath distortion. Do you cover that difference in any of your recent vids?
Hi! I haven't covered the difference in any videos on this channel yet but it's in the pipeline - I will get round to making that too :)
Oh my gosh, please do, I feel like that'll explain one of the weirdest things I've noticed about doing my false cord type stuff! XD
@@DestroyerMariko ok, will prioritise that then.
Hey, thank you for video! About long false cord screams and ghrowls, when I gained relatively decent false chord sound I lost my mind a bit and started to read and speak regularly with false chord in order to train pronunciation. I didn't try to force it or make some kind of screams, but in sum I still sustained it for quite a long time when pronounced words. So, is it better for now to just make exercises, or such a reading-speaking practice is acceptable too?
In theory a reading-speaking practice is great and works well. The only "problem" with the speaking practice is that singing involves different pitches and different pitches affect the vocal folds, false vocal folds and the breath. So, some of your speaking practice might not transfer well into songs. Remember: false cord songs all have proper singing underneath on the vocal folds!
@@AlikiKatriou thank you for the answer! You're the best! :>
Is it normal tham I seem to use a lot more air when I start doing this exercise?
I think I have some control over my diaphragm from singing "normally", and it doesn't hurt my throat when I add the false chords. It's just that I'm out of breath really quickly, which makes me wonder. :D
Typically, we use more air during false fold phonation, especially because we aren't really balanced/coordinated. So, yes, it is normal to use more air & lose more air but it isn't necessary so try not to let your brain think you have to do it like that XD
not sure if i am just adding vocal Fry oder actually false chords.
i can geht a brrrrrrrrrrrt sound over my voice sound, but it does not get louder (doesn't change at all, does not get quieter too) and i can add it to my voice separately without any pain or getting breathier or soemthing. and i can try this easily for an hour wihtout fatique
but no idea how to be sure if i am doing this right
hmmm, no idea what you might be doing... I wouldn't be surprised if you'd found an arytenoid distortion or you could be doing fry at the same time as false folds. Can you hear a clean tone? If you can hear a clean tone, then it's unlikely that fry has anything to do with it. See if you can remove the brrrttt sound without changing anything else in order to check if your true vocal folds have started vibrating in fry or not...
@@AlikiKatriou guess i should probably schedule some lessons with you.
i have the same feelin in the throat which vocal fry has too. but i can like just activate it.
clean voice -> clean voice (but less recognizeable) mixed with brrrrrt about same loudness -> removing brrt results in clean voice again.
its weird to explain.
I'll save upo a bit and schedule an online lesson, makes more sense than texting about it ^^
thx a lot for responding tho
@@massivHE1 Makes sense. Sometimes it's really difficult to write about voice accurately and figure things out from a distance...
So I'm just curious. I've had some rather long burps that I can volcalize that sound like that deep metal scream. The way a burp sounds are we essentially replicating the vocal mechanics in a burp through our false chords?
Oooo, I would say we are using the false vocal folds in order to create a tone that could be similar to some burps. Your false folds being easier to control, shape & sustain than a burp...
@@AlikiKatriou thank you for your reply! Ok I have another question. I have been doing your excersises and they have been great for locating my false chords folds. But I'm now in this limbo of getting from the exercise to that quintessential metal scream
@@kadeshswanson3991 Yup, that's what the next set of false fold tutorials will be focused on :)
@@AlikiKatriou wonderful!!! I'm eagerly awaiting that series! I have watched many tutorials on this topic and your videos by far are the most helpful! If all goes well you will have single Handedly helped me achieve my quarantine goal of learning to false chords scream!
Is it normal to have just a little discomfort? I feel it a bit above my Adam’s Apple but it doesn’t really hurt. I just feel it afterwards for a bit
Yes, that's perfectly normal. It's part of the reason why we start slowly, practicing on a few seconds a day, maybe 2 minutes, and we keep doing that for quite some time before eventually moving on to a song.
If Anne Hathaway was a vocal coach… said as compliment 😊
can I lower the note? or, should I stay on the same note as you? it's really hard.
I do have a preference for the note I'm on for beginners, but you can lower it. I wouldn't go lower than A3 in the beginning though... The reason is largely in order to avoid other distortions from happening and because I find that when people practice false folds too low, they often get stuck and never unlock their highs or even mids. So I aim for a mid, maybe even a high mid. It's harder to do, but it's a more flexible skill...
@@AlikiKatriou I can kind of do it at D4. but, the false folds get really light. after that, my true folds go crazy and my false cords are a mess turning on and off. it kinda got better after I did the exercise for a week. I'll keep going to see if I can get that growl. y'know the freddie mercury growl.
Is it normal for my false cord to sound gravely. Also normal for it to be tickly after
It's common for it to sound "gravely", although some people also describe fry as "gravely" so who knows. If it tickles it usually means that the muscles are working a little bit too much. It might be a case of familiarity/practice (and thus it might go away by itself) or you might be squeezing/compressing/twanging a bit too much for now...
why do you remind me so much of dave grohl
You could also practice changing pitch. Do 4-5 false chord activations on your lowest pitch... Raise your pitch 1/2 step and do 4 or 5 activations... Keep going until you reach your limiting pitch. IDK just an idea 😂
True, it all depends on how much time you want to spend on it and what you enjoy to practice :)
The exercise 1:32
Is it normal that I have to drink a huge amount of water while practicing this? My throat seems to be getting dry and a very little bit painful while doing it
This is normal. The false vocal folds are covered in sacs that drop mucous onto your true vocal folds. If you will, your false vocal folds play an important role in hydrating and keeping the area moist. So vibrating & knocking them around can feel very dry in the beginning...
you have angus youngs accent
My mother's a kiwi, that might be it...
@@AlikiKatriou yes for sure
I thought I nailed it.. Then 3:30.
4:35 Oh... So THAT's why I can only sound like Rick Sanchez, and not a Mongolian... @Aliki Do you have any more information on that point, perhaps?
Are you wanting info on what to do about it or just nerdy info on anatomy/physiology? XD
@@AlikiKatriou Perhaps both, lol, but anatomy/physiology is most important to me right now, thanks!
@@SF-zm2py Heh, anatomy/physiology is a tough one because the books are expensive. That being said, even then, there just isn't a lot of research going into ventricular folds. The best thing you can do is get on scholar.google.com and search for ventricular fold anatomy. Reidenbach's 1998 paper is a "classic" - his focus of course is cancer... For more recent material, look to Moon & Alipour's 2013 "Muscular Anatomy of the Human Ventricular Folds". Not the easiest of reads but definitely digestible :)
@@AlikiKatriou Great! Thanks!
Freddie Mercury used false cord distortion right?
Oooo, it depends... sometimes he does fry too... are you looking at a specific song?
I learned fry screams first and now everytime i try to do this i accidently activate fry distortion😂
I know!! It's the same for the false fold singers too - every time they try to go into fry they activate their false folds by mistake XD
@@AlikiKatriou I'm much better now atleast thank you this video helped a lot :)
@@bruhhh9417 glad to hear ^^
I just tried recording on my death metal song. My vocal sounds like a demonic Marge Simpson.
Is there always a little tickle in the throat? Ive got to where it doesnt hurt my throat anymore but it tickles ya know? 😂
It can tickle for quite some time. Tickling can often go away if you use a fraction less air...
she looks like shes both in her 20s and 50s lmao, great tutorial tho
As long as the content works, I'm happy XD
I would love a vocal lesson with you but they're so out of my budget!! :(
I have been able to do this, but I wonder, is it normal then after I feel my voice going everywhere, like too loose? does this have to do with the muscle work or am I doing something wrong?
Oh, I love that. That's great. If your voice feels floppy and loose afterwards you're probably doing it really well. Loose is good :)
@@AlikiKatriou 😁