Sing Like Gerard Way
Have you ever noticed the distinct brilliance of Gerard Way's voice? Have you ever dreamed of being able to sing like that? This article may come in handy.
Contents
Steps
- Be able to sing well and in tune. Naturally, Gerard has a good singing voice.
- Try to incorporate Gerard's exclamation "Rowww!" which is basically a mixture of the famous "Ow!" exclamation, usually in rock, and a growl. A lot of My Chemical Romance's songs feature this.
- incorporate this exclamation into an actual word, as Gerard does quite often. Listen to a lot of MCR songs, and you will notice this in quite a few of them.
- Blast high notes out of your lungs, resulting in a shout-like note. It shouldn't be growling at all, just a note sung rather loudly. This would be as apposed to singing nasally, or how you would sing quietly to yourself.
- Use "yeah-yeah." It is quite noticeable how Gerard incorporates a "yeah-yeah" into words in the lyrics. (e.g. listen to "Sleep" and notice the "it" in the line "don't feel bad about it". You will know what is meant by this there.)
- Learn to scream; although he doesn't use it much, Gerard can pull off a good scream when he wants to. However, be careful, if you scream wrongly, you could end up permanently damaging your vocal cords.
- Breathe heavily between lines. When the singing is quite frantic in songs, you will find that Gerard breathes heavily between each line.
- Sing behind gritted teeth to match the mood of the song (ex. In Famous Last Words in the line "But where's your-"). Try this, although not too much, otherwise the effect will be lost completely.
- Listen to all the My Chemical Romance songs you can, and listen out for Gerard's trademark 'r'. It is especially distinct in Famous Last Words ('But where's your heart...')
- Use extra words like "well" randomly. He does this a lot!
- On notes that are held for a long time, distort the vowel partway through.
- Allow diphthongs, he uses them a lot. He doesn't usually use pure vowels.
Tips
- What is popular in singing is using an American accent, even if you don't have a natural American accent. It is understandable with Gerard, because he has lived in America all his life (however he is half Scottish and Italian). Whatever accent you have, your singing will sound more like Gerard using an American accent.
- Try not to strain your voice to sound like Gerard. Gerard can sing quite loudly/forcefully.
- When shouting a note, make it tuneful. Never actually growl it or scream it, unless this is part of the song you are singing.
Warnings
- Don't scream obsessively, this will result in possibly damaging your vocal chords permanently.
- Gerard also whispers softly for a stressed effect as well , EXAMPLE: in the song 'I don't love you' when Gerard says 'when you go would you have the guts to say'
- If you breathe too heavily in each line, and do it often, this may result in you retching or choking, so be careful.
- Do not stress out your voice, if your throat hurts then stop and try again later.
- Some people WILL hate on you. Not everybody is absolutely in love with Gerard, so expect criticism.
- Remember, when artists sing screamo, they have a special kind of gel so they do not damage their voice, you just have your common sense.
- You may just lose all creativity because truly creative people do not try to copy someone else. Only follow this how-to article if you don't really care about your artistic integrity and just want to front an MCR tribute band.
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