Rev Your Voice Like An Engine: Question About Your Technique (New Concise Version)

Hi, it seems I misinterpreted your 4th of July post. I took it to mean that when you were writing about how after July you'd finally have control of your business, that you had temporarily lost the ability to write about singing here (until August).

After all, I wrote a question 22 days ago and when you wrote your post, it had been six days or so since I asked it and I thought the non-response was atypical, but I figured you were just ultra-busy and would get around to it.

Then I saw your July 4th post and thought: "Oh this makes sense. No wonder there has been no reply to my question. Draevn can't write about music here until August."

Further confirming this idea, the board shut down more than I'd ever seen it shut down before to where there was literally nobody on the 7 day scoreboard at one point. So that confirmed my idea that you simply could not post about music here until August and (almost) nobody was posting because they knew you wouldn't be here to reply.

So, imagine my surprise when today (day 22 since my original question abouut "rev") I saw Shijie get a reply only 3 days after posting a question.

I guess I just worded my original "rev" question poorly and should have written it more tersely. Looking back on it n Now, it is pretty long. Ha ha! Sorry it was so long.

I'm gonna try to condense it into the most concise form possible because I truly am interested in the "Rev Your Voice Like An Engine" technique and the specific problem I've always had whenever I tried it.

I have tried this many, many times, especially when I was trying to get a Rob Zombie Dragula type distortion. In case you haven't heard that song here's a link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqQuihD0hoI

My thing with using this type of distortion is that while it's great for bringing out the bassy sub harmonics (almost making it sound like it's sung an octave lower except it still has the sharpness or edge of the octave it's in, despite having those subharmonics, but I could never get the full amount of distortion above about a D4.

Past around D4, I stop feeling the vibrations in my soft palate because while there is distortion there is no more "rev" sound.. As you showed, it is possible to take this technique higher, but the really chunky or rumbly, "motorcycle engine" type quality of the grit vanishes every time past a certain pitch. Even when you do it! The thing that made it so cool, that it sounded like an engine revving, always goes away past a certain pitch.

After that certain pitch the distortion loses that engine type quality and starts to sound more airy. I did not want that. I wan ted to maintain the motorcycle engine type sound up to A4 or so.

Now, you're saying, as you increase in pitch, left the resonance or lift the placement (I'm not which you said to lift). I have heard you say that this becomes necessary because the cords are looser when they're around middle C or D4 but they get tighter the higher you go.

Why is it not possible to get rev type grit like this without having to settle for less distortion and/or airiness in the higher pitches?

The following is the crux of my question:

We're not trying to create distortion by trying to in the true folds, so why should it matter if the true folds are loose or tight at any given pitch? The grit comes from the false folds and they're not tighter as you go up in pitch, right? Or are they? If the false folds get tighter as you go up in pitch that would be news to me.

As long as the false folds don't get tighter as you increase pitch (and we are getting grit from the false folds) why does it matter whether we're are at C4 where the true fold are relatively loose or at G4 or A4 where they are considerably tighter? The "rev" isn't made by the true folds; it's made by the false folds!

How would the false folds know or care whether the true folds are tight or loose? All they need is air and some constriction to make them engage. You can even engage them with no true fold activation.

Why then, does the "rev" go away around D4 or around that area (give or take a minor third)? ot only does that motorcycle engine sound go away, but I stop feeling those very vibratory feelings in my soft palate past a D4 when "revving."

This has mystified my forever, so an answer to this question that has bothered me since pretty much ever since I started experimenting with grit would be amazingly helpful!

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Rev Your Voice Like An Engine: Question About Your Technique (New Concise Version)