I wrote about this at the end of the mile long thread about cry shape but I feel like the subject is something to discuss on its own. So essentially the question is, does other people have this mucus buildup after doing distortions even though while singing it feels relaxed and good. I think the hardest part in this whole whole distortion stuff is that you have to kind of sound intense and be relaxed at the same time. I feel like after very good warm-ups and like some some kind of simple runs up and down with distortions I can get it pretty relaxed but usually there is some tension before I get to that point. Sometimes the relaxation comes after one or two songs that sing and then it's easy to do after that. Still the biggest issue at the moment is that after I sing two or three songs I get this kind of mucus build up in larynx after half an hour when I've stopped singing and I feel like there are some gaps in the range because of the mucus. I do get it back if I do some extra warm-ups to get rid of the mucus, but I'm not sure if it's because of straining my voice or just being used to the distortion feelings. It just feels a bit concerning when you don't have your full range available, but the voice is always fully recovered in the morning next day. Could the small amount of grinding before finding the relaxed shape be the cause of this irritation or am I just going at it too hard even though it feels really good and not strained while singing? I'm super into singing Avenged Sevenfold songs at the moment which are not easy range wise or distortion wise. So that might be the cause of strain 😅 but still I feel really relaxed when I get the distortion relaxed and there's no strain range wise either except in some songs. It's just so hard to stop after one or two songs when it's so fun and feels good 😁 When thinking of support for me, it feels like higher distortion is much easier and less strenuous and doesn't seem to need that much support. The lower range distortion feels like there's a narrower sweet spot where there is no grinding and there's enough push and support. What I noticed up high is that I need a lot more support to sing quieter. Singing loud is easy but seeing quiet is feels like there has to be much more control so I don't know which one is better.

I understand that maybe if someone lived near Hollywood, there might have been a few rock vocal coaches, but for most of the country, there weren't any vocal coaches in the 80s, as far as I know. So, when you heard someone like Rob Halford sing "You've Got Another Thing Coming" on the radio, or you went to see Ronnie James Dio on tour with Black Sabbath or his own band Dio, how would aspiring rock vocalists have gone about learning rock style gritty, distorted vocals without destroying their voices? How did rock singers react when they heard a song like Miss Misery by Nazareth? It must have seemed almost impossible! It was released in 1975! It must have seemed so futuristic. Even now, I'm not sure that what he was doing in that song was safe! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xfAQ3lrFc4 Dio's grit in this live version of Children of The Sea from 1983 also seems like it would have been almost impossible to figure out all by yourself. Listen what Dio does in this song but especially at 49-50 seconds! Also at 2:34 where he sings "world" from "hiding in our corner of the world." That's a different distortion than at 49 seconds. The one at 2:34 sounds like an epiglottic blues growl or maybe an arytenoid rattle. It is NOT like the grit as 49 to 50 seconds at all! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nmTOykax3Q How do you think singers like Halford. Dio or the singer in Nazareth learn to use. grit sustainable all by themselves? Do you think they could only work on grit for like 15 minutes a day and had to just keep it really brief since they didn't know what they were doing, until they had figured out a way that worked?

When going for the shape, I start feeling this muscle strain in the throat. Am I trying way too hard / doing something wrong, or just having those specific weak muscles 😅. Some background to my singing journey: I've been practicing distortion for the past two years semi regularly. Lately I have finally been able to make all sort of great sounding distorted sounds which feel good while singing. The issue still is that I seem to her a bit hoarse due to thick mucus about half an hour after distorted singing even if the singing feels relaxed and not too pushed. I still feel like I need to somewhat push for the initial distorted coordination but am able to relax once I've found it. I am hoping that this "if you feel like you need to push, cry more instead" approach could solve this!🤘