Customer Reviews

The Zen of Screaming: Vocal Instruction for a New Breed

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Nothing is more frustrating than being in a band, knowing what you want to do, but being unable to get there--either because you're not warmed up, you damaged your throat the night before, or you just don't know what you're doing. This DVD will help you solve all of those problems!

I've fooled around with other kinds of vocal instruction, but they are all too clasically based. Melissa Cross get's it. She gets that rock is not supposed to sound like opera. She has found a way to apply traditional vocal training without altering the intensity and grit essential to rock singing.

She covers everything from breathing and talking to hitting your pitch and screaming without hurting yourself. If you check out the bonus features she even swallows a camera to show you how you can hurt yourself while singing.

When I first got the DVD, I was afraid it would be a bunch of people screaming because they couldn't be musical in their band. But it turns out to be anything but that. Its great to see all of these guys who sing some really heavy stuff challenging themselves to be more musical and more expressive without killing themselves or sacrificing their artistic vision. Only Melissa Cross could get these guys to do this.

If you are a rock singer (you don't even have to be a screamer--though screamers are welcomed) or want to be a rock singer, you need this DVD.

I bought this DVD after hearing a great story about Melissa Cross on NPR a few weeks ago. The value of the DVD is excellent because you can actually see how the exercises need to be performed, as well as hearing them. I also liked watching Melissa because she's very colorful and dynamic, and it makes you feel like you have your own vocal coach. How someone can learn to sing from a book is beyond me. The DVD also features actual footage of vocal chords in action. Melissa apparently swallowed a tiny camera and sang the correct and incorrect ways. It's very interesting to see the theory in action.

The package also comes with an audio CD that features warm-up exercises in different vocal ranges. A very nice addition. The production value of the whole package is excellent. I have seem some obvious "vocal lesson" scams on the internet that look like they were produced in someone's basement in an afternoon. This package is very professional, and contains a lot of content.

The three drawbacks I have to this package (and the only two reasons I gave it four stars instead of five) are as follows: (1) There is too much promotional information on the DVD. Throughout the entire video, various band members interviewed in clubs and back alleys keep singing the praises of Melissa and telling you how great she is. I felt a little like, "Hey, I already bought the DVD, you don't need to sell me on it. Get on with the program!" (2) The video was a little too focused on death metal and hardcore garbage-disposal vocals. I was hoping there would be more discussion of the styles of say Joe Cocker, Bruce Springsteen, or Steven Tyler (Aerosmith). Although I can see that death metal singers are probably the most aggressive, they don't have a monopoly on singing with passion, "fire" and "heat" (as the video calls the techniques). (3) Ironically, The Zen of Screaming didn't cover as much "screaming" as I wanted. It seems like only the last chapter of the DVD really focused on what I bought the video for: How to sing aggressively without hurting your vocal chords. The vast majority of the video was spent on essential fundamentals (which were no doubt important), but I could have used another 10-15 minutes of discussion on how the "heat" and "fire" techniques really works.

Overall, I would highly recommend this program. Hopefully the minor kinks in of the concept presentation will be worked out in future editions.

Well, first of all, I am the lead singer for my band. I am a very good singer, I've had many singing lessons and am in choir. I know how to sing from my diaphram and sing with the correct vowel sounds, have good vibrato, and falsetto. BUT!! I wanted to learn how to SCREAM. I have done a few shows with a hardcore band and screamed for them and just devestated my throat. I wanted to learn how to SCREAM correctly and this dvd will not teach you how to SCREAM. It may say it does, but it does not. Pretty much the first hour of stuff was stuff I already knew about singing. She mentions how to make your voice scratchy in about 3-4 sentences and THATS IT. I need further explanation. I am extremely extremely angry because I just wasted my money on a crappy factless infomertial for Melissa Cross. This dvd sucks!

This DVD has helped me exponentially with my vocals. It covers everything that needs to be done to prevent damage to the vocal cords while using such aggressive techniques. The extra warm up CD is a definite plus.

The biggest issue that I have with it is the same that everyone else had. Too much self-promotion and brown-nosing. It's almost shocking how much time is wasted on this vocalist kissing up and that vocalist kissing up. I'm actually in the process of cutting up the DVD to remove all the excess.

But the tools that are given are worth dodging all the footage. I've reached levels that I never thought possible without constant laryngitis and a mouthful of blood. I've experienced both trying to reach even halfway to what I was doing. But now I can put out loud, long (my longest timed so far is 24 seconds) efficient screams with no pain and next to no damamge on my cords.

I like talking and now I don't have to worry about sounding like I've been smoking for 50 years in the future.

About a year ago, I had started a band with the intent of being the lead singer. After a few weeks, I discovered that I had a decent screaming voice, but then I got to thinking, "If I keep this up for more than a few years, will I begin to lose my voice? Permanently?" I started to look for things that might've helped me and this definitely helped.
The most important part of this DVD was Melissa Cross and her approach to all these different techniques, whether it be harsh singing or grunting/growling ("heat and fire"). With heavy metal and various types of music like it, the singing isn't always the most peaceful and delicate and as such, the approach most people would take to doing it would just be to scream their lungs out. But in this DVD, Melissa will take the most unusual ways of explaining how to do these different things that make it a whole lot easier.
The thing I liked alot about this DVD was how she emphasized the importance of the method you should take when breathing, pronouncing words and how to let air out when performing. The only drawback I found with this was that, when she explained how to do a death-metal growl/grunt/shriek, she only did it for a little bit at the end of the DVD.
All in all, I found this DVD to be a great help when learning to a scream without hurting my voice. The thing you need to remember is that it takes along time, repeating the exercises over and over, and not all at once. As long as you listen to what Melissa Cross says and you take your time, then you'll be able to get a pretty good screaming voice.

This DVD is titled The Zen of "Screaming". However, it seems to have very little to do with screaming. Melissa Cross explains in detail various "singing" exercises and warm-ups. I do not deny that the tips and hints that she gives in this DVD will help a vocalist. I was just expecting that the DVD would cover, in more detail, the ins and outs of actual non-pitched scream. Overall, I would say that this DVD provides a few helpful points of knowledge. However, I do not beleive that it will drastically help the development of a metal vocalist.

For most metal singers taking singing lessons is not an option; first of all, nobody likes to teach how to rip your vocal cords and second, the mayotiry of the teachers just dont get extreme metal.


Melissa Cross is an amazing teacher, she is the only one teaching you this in terms that you can actually understand, with simple examples that you can do to improve your performance. She made me understand for the first time what the hell is my diafragm, how i can control it and how i can use it to improve my breathing.

still...


i was expecting a little more teaching. i felt like i was watching an infomercial for a product that i already bought. most of the dvd it's about musicians telling you how cool melissa is and how much they've improved since taking lessons with her... but if you bought this you already knew that. I felt like buying a movie and all i see is people telling you how great this movie is, instead of showing you the movie.

the teaching and excercises in this dvd are a very small percentage of the content but very effective.



it is a great product if you want to learn to sing, it has easy to understand terms and great breathing excersices, but is not very good if you want to learn to scream or growl. if you want that you will have to buy the SCREAM EXTRA CD for another 20 dollars.


all and all i have to give this product 4 stars because of it uniqueness. i just missed it didnt teach more screaming.

Don't get me wrong the DVD does show some of the dynamics of how to get your breathing right, and has some really good exercises.
But only slightly touches on the screaming side of things (for that you'll need to buy the scream extra cd) - a bit of a rip off for a 'copied' cd which is just one long track... although this is helpful & also only kind of shows you the way to scream.

I would have prefered the DVD to show more on the screaming/singing side then to have a whole bunch of big bands talking bout how good she is.
I just feel the bands talking is wasted time that could have been filled with important exercises. And no, you can't practice with this DVD (unless you use a program to extract audio from DVD) so for the lessons, you'll have to buy the The Zen of Screaming Warm-up cd.
I'm hoping THE ZEN OF SCREAMING 2 DVD is better, but I still recommend this product to anyone who is thinking of starting a hardcore band.

Get your head around the RIGHT techniques BEFORE you damage your voice!

My answer is a clear NO. Melissa shows you a lot of helpful exercises how to sing (scream) properly but not exactly how to scream. But nevertheless it is a very good DVD and it helped me a lot to improve my "normal" singing. I really like her way of explaining the exercises. Very easy to learn. There is also a second part of the "Zen of screaming". Perhaps this one is more about screaming itself. But as I said, nevertheless a good choice.

I liked the DVD. It helped me learn to breath properly, that was the biggest thing. I was some what dissapointed because I was hoping it would focus a lot more on screaming and aggressive singing. And I didnt much like all the band interviews through out the whole DVD. But overall, I would definently recommend it, because it does help.