this BOOK helped me unlock my METAL SCREAMS ("The Dip")

I spent 10 years wishing I could scream and five years trying with teachers. But now, as someone who gave up multiple times and finally broke through and has gone on to help over 2,000 students, I want to share the barriers that make most people quit and show you how to get over it.

So for me, the biggest thing that prevented me from unlocking my scream was not knowing about the dip. The dip, which was first written about by author Seth Godin, explains the pathway of mastery to anything. When starting anything, a person will see some quick wins.

For me, I watched tutorials that said, do the deep sigh or create the sound of vocal fry ah. And push from your stomach. And at first I was excited because I was like, nice. I think I feel improvement. This is going to be a cakewalk.

But even with good information, they'll notice that as they continue to practice, they'll eventually hit a point where they aren't seeing any improvement, even though they're still practicing.

For me, I hit that point after about a month practicing every day when I realized, wait, I actually don't sound good. I'm running out of air, and I don't have as much distortion as I want. Also, I haven't improved at all since that first quick win.

This is the point where most people give up.

This is called the diplomatic. What's interesting is that you'll see this dip on a macro level, but also on a micro level multiple times over in different places. I felt this dip when learning my low place. Chest fry. Upper chest fry. Head fry. Arytenoids, Head voice, false chords. Low chest voice, false chords. And even when learning to scream, words get volume, everything. Now, the thing is that each person stays in this dip for different amounts of time. For me, I stayed in the stage for my false quartz for four to five years each, even with going to multiple different screaming teachers. And although each scream has its own nuances and rules, I'm going to go over a few barriers that keep people in the dip that apply to all these different screams. And in the process, I'll show you how I got through this. Stage number one.

It's easy to listen to Oli Sykes, Phil Boseman, and Alex Terrible and think, man, they're inhuman. I'll never be able to do that. I've even had students say that they only thought white dudes can scream. However, all of this is simply not true. All of your favorite screamers have the exact same instrument that you have. So as long as you can breathe.

And talk, then you have everything you.

Need in order to scream.

The Most common version of this myth that most people have is thinking that their voice is too low or too high to do certain screams. But it's more of a matter of technique. For example, let's say that you feel that all your scream attempts are too low. Now, can you make a baby voice noise like this? Hey, 1, 2, 3. Okay, now what if I told you that you could scream from this higher range? Can you see the vision on how this would allow you to go much higher than screaming in your regular talking or yelling voice? And this is just one example. Here's the truth. All you gotta do is learn how to use your instrument.

2. The fear of hurting your voice. Although I agree with the consensus that bad technique can damage your vocal cords, what I don't agree with is how YouTube tutorials will often make it seem like if you feel pain once, then your voice is instantly going to need surgery.

I've blown out my voice multiple times on the journey of learning this scream. In fact, due to some misinformation, I learned early on, I thought you had to develop scar tissue on your throat to scream. And in addition to that, I freaked myself out so much. But when I went to the ENT years later after learning to scream, well, they reported zero damage. Yes, don't be grossly negligent with your vocal safety. And if you wake up without a voice after yelling at the top of your lungs, rest your voice a bit. But you likely have a much bigger margin for error than you think. And I kind of think that fear of vocal damage is like airplane crashes. Hear me out. So whenever I'm on an airplane and feel a little bit of turbulence, I convince myself that the plane is going to crash and I start mentally freaking out. When in reality the likelihood of a plane crashing is so small. That's why the media makes a big deal about it when it happens. So generally it's a lot less likely to hurt your voice in the ways that we're scared of than we think. And I could go on about this point, but that's for another video.

3. Fear of screaming around others. Believe it or not, a lot of people won't even start practicing because they are too embarrassed by the thought of their roommates or family members hearing them.

Now I want to tell you a true story. After I unlocked my first scream, I tried to scream in a live setting. I was so nervous that all my screaming technique went out the window. I wasn't used to being watched while I screamed, so my throat felt dry, I over pushed and my tone Sounded terrible. I felt betrayed because I knew I could scream, but I couldn't do it now and felt like people were judging me. And this happens when we're not used to screaming in front of people, then that puts us in a weird paradox because if we can't scream when there's people around and we can scream, then nobody's around. Then what do we do? The answer is that we want to slowly start screaming in front of others. We want to slowly start pushing our comfort zones. For me, when I lived with others, I'd tell them that I'd be practicing screaming and I'd let them know that, hey, I'm gonna try and be respectful of, you know, keeping the peace with noise and all that, but don't freak out if you hear me practicing. And over time, little bits of exposing my screams to people built my comfort.

Bad little information.

This is my student, Valera. They were a guitar player for their demonic black metal band, and they always wanted to be able to do evil, satanic sounding screams, but could never figure out distortion. For them it was more of an information barrier. In fact, they already had teachers try and unlock their scream, but their past teachers had singing teaching experience, but not screaming teaching experience. They'd have Valeera try to do vocal fry and push that out to become a scream. But when it didn't work, they didn't know what to do from there. But after Valeera and I worked together and found an approach that worked for them, over the next three weeks, they unlocked the black metal screams that Valeera was looking for. Be Nightster. This is good.

Without knowing the anatomy of screaming and having a good framework for systematically unlocking your scream, people don't know what direction to practice in. And with no clear pathway to success besides people just saying, oh, just practice, then of course you're gonna get discouraged and give up.

And as a reminder, if you want good technical exercises and information, don't forget to check out the free training in the description. So remember how at the beginning of the video I spoke about the dip and how the journey to mastering anything has a period where you're gonna feel like it's hard to break through. These different barriers can keep you in the dip stage for years. And some people never find their way out and give up on their screaming dreams completely. And that was me right here for many years. But I kept at it and kept tweaking my approach and challenged these mental barriers I spoke about. I practiced six hours a day, not necessarily recommended, even though I didn't see obvious improvement. And eventually I hit a point where I broke through and saw massive results, and that's how I got over the dip. And in your own way, this is how you'll overcome the dip, too. And the truth is, few people have the grit and perseverance to get here. But that's what makes screaming so special. And head turning. It's special because it can be hard because other people have these mental barriers. But because you are here on YouTube right now, watching this video, staying committed, just trying things and trying different approaches until it works, you're on the right track. So remain resourceful and you'll achieve your dreams. Now you know some of the common mental barriers holding you back from unlocking your screams. Watch this video to overcome the most common technique, barriers that stop you from unlocking your screams.