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Melissa Cross

The Zen of Screaming DVD (2005)
Loud Mouth

Reviewer Rating:

Contributed by: Matt Whelihan
(others by this writer | submit your own)

Published on December 22nd 2005

Melissa Cross is a vocal coach, but she is not showing her students how to crack glasses or generate endless vibrato. Instead, Melissa caters to the crowd that wants to scream their lungs out. Over the course of The Zen of Screaming, Melissa goes through plenty of simple exercises that seem less about becoming a better vocalist, and more about controlling what you already have. Melissa teaches how metal and hardcore singers can keep from damaging their vocal cords or consistently losing their voices.

Her lessons are interspersed with first-hand commentary from singers such as Brian Fair of Shadows Fall, Keith Buckley of Every Time I Die, Phil Labonte of All That Remains, Andrew W.K. and Thursday keyboardist Andrew Everding. You quickly learn why these guys keep coming back to Melissa; she makes them comfortable, is not overly technical, and is not attempting to make them into traditional singers.

If you are not looking to become a front-man anytime soon, this DVD will probably bore you. There is not much info on Melissa herself, and only a few seconds of live footage. The bonus features are merely medical footage of vocal cords, and more commentary from clients labeled as “bloopers” and “what they are saying.”

Still, if you would like some instruction, and a practice CD without having to shell out a ton of dough for lessons, or you just want to see Freddy from Madball doing vocal warm-ups, then I’d suggest checking this out.

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rkl (December 25, 2005)

its not about learning how to scream, dumbshit. its about taking proactive measures so you dont fuck up your voice.
as far as etid, maybe he didnt get worse, maybe you just got better taste in music.

Anonymous (December 25, 2005)

You can't learn how to scream you just do it.... and yeah that everytime I die vocalist got worse after those leasons his scream was that much less intense and so fuckin contained.

skaboom (December 23, 2005)

I would toss another vote into the "ghostmonkey has no clue what he is talking about" side. I have no personal experience, but every interview I've read with singers of hardcore bands talk about the importance of technique, learning warmups from other bands you meet, how not to permanently damage your voice. You ever sing along to a band at a show? I get hoarse from doing that one night a month. Imagine doing that weeks in a row, it would shred your vocal cords.

rkl (December 23, 2005)

Melissa Cross - The Zen of Screaming DVD
Posted by ghostmonkey on 2005-12-23 11:27:44

just fucking scream already. dont need nobody to to teach that.
while i dont know if youve ever done vocals at a show, im inclined to say no.
everytime ive done a gig, ive been hoarse for 24-36h immediately after, and this dvd teaches you how to get rid of that. which sounds really kickass.

Anonymous (December 23, 2005)

as someone that screams in a band and has taken lessons from Melissa Cross, all Ic an say is that there is indeed something creepy about teaching people how to scream. While it's definitely important to learn a little bit about the mechanics of how screaming works so that you don't injure yourself, i wonder if my favorite punk and hardcore vocalists might not have had such character if they'd taken lessons like the ones Melissa offers.

cherrycolarain (December 23, 2005)

Yeah, there might be alot of shitty metalcore bands out there. But this is probably teaching you to scream so you don't sound like them.

Or maybe I'm wrong, either way, this is a pretty neat idea

ghostmonkey (December 23, 2005)

just fucking scream already. dont need nobody to to teach that.

TahoeJeff (December 23, 2005)

Great..as if we dont have enough shitty metalcore bands....

theundergroundscene (December 23, 2005)

actually pretty cool

rkl (December 23, 2005)

nice.