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Re: Axl Rose: After all, what's wrong with your voice?
Translated from Brazilian, original here.
By Danilo F. Birth
This paper has as aim to demystify something that afflicts many fans of Guns N 'Roses. After all, what would have happened to the vocalist Axl Rose?
While Axl has a good tone (2nd baritone), it can be stated that most of the time he sang out of his vocal range, often accompanied by the use of a very dangerous vocal technique for those who do not have total control of it, the rasp. Perhaps the biggest mistake of his career was to have used excessive rasp without first studying the technique.
Many singing teachers refuse to teach rasp, because the probability of the student doing incorrectly is very large. The truth is, of course, singing tends to use the rasp through the canyon, when in fact it should be carried through the soft palate - sing with the rasp through the canyon is suicide - but it is very difficult to do it properly, it is difficult to perform the technique by means of the soft palate, so much that most of the singers who used to rasp impaired voice long term.
You can name a few rock singers who have total mastery of this technique, singers like Ronnie James Dio, for example, dominated masterfully.
At first, the rasp train is through audiology exercise called fry, which besides correcting the posture of the vocal fold, allows the practitioner gradually bring the rasp to get the soft palate, taking it out of the throat and preventing damage future ace vocal cords. Besides the fry, there are other important for those who want to learn to sing rasp sustainably exercises. Just look for a competent singing teacher and he will demystify the technique to the student.
The fact is that, to use the rasp without prior study of technique, Axl severely damaged his vocal chords. Even in 1993 shows, we could already see Axl with a much weaker than in previous years' voice.
The rasp resulted in nodules (calluses) on the vocal chords of Axl. Possibly, this was the main reason for having so many years without Axl sing live, between 1994 and 2001.
Between 1997 and 1999, he recorded most of the vocals on the live album Live Era in the studio and it was a noticeable change in his voice, but was still recognizable and the rasp was still there, overdosed, it is true, but it was there.
In 2000, he played Dead Flowers with Gilby Clarke and his voice was still recognizable, he was still enjoying the rasp.
Anyway, after this presentation with Gilby, Axl decided to undergo a surgery for the removal of these nodules. This type of surgery have as a repair, and calluses of the vocal chords leave the cleaner voice, and the rasp (strident, hoarseness) voice is dissipated briefly.
Exactly for this reason that in 2001, just one year after singing with Gilby and after the infamous surgical procedure, Axl showed up at the House of Blues and Rock in Rio, as well as throughout 2002 tour, singing with a cleaner voice, having been forbidden by doctors to use rasp, otherwise you could incur irreparable damage to your voice.
As no longer had the power the rasp gave him, Axl is forced to enhance other features such as the head voice, which has never been as consistent as the chest voice, moreover, also enhanced the use of belting.
Technically, Axl had improved, but the rasp was and is very much needed for several Guns songs since Axl dwelt fans of Guns N 'Roses to hear him sing with him.
About that time followed closely resembles that Axl was bombarded by criticism by the new way of singing, and perhaps this was the main reason for the cancellation of the 2002 tour.
Tired from criticism of his voice on tour 2001/2002, in 2004, he did another surgery, this time to give greater depth to his voice, after this procedure, its got a little more treble and deep bass, giving the false impression that his voice would have recovered the stridency of previous years.
Contrary medical advice, Axl went back to using rasp in 2006, but his voice did not externava more natural stridency as in the past. Many times, he sounded hoarse, stressed, superficial and without the scope of yore.
Many people define as Axl sang well or not because he has used rasp or not, but singing is not only used rasp. Several factors have to be analyzed, extent, projection, depth, vibrato, head voice, chest voice, belting, etc..
Returning to use rasp, it was clearly noticeable that he suffered at the shows, you could see his veins pop out of the canyon and some feared for his health, but adored the sound that his voice was producing, recalling again, vaguely true, the past. But it was not healthy, Axl never sang in a sustainable manner.
In 2010, he sang many sets well because he started to abuse the rasp, using it on every song, but I repeat, singing is not only rasp. Even with the rasp, Axl found himself out of tune even more than in 2002, when he did not use the rasp, but it remained tuned in good part, as can be seen in songs such as The Blues and Madagascar.
But truth be told, although not healthy for him, it was spectacular for the fans, the voice that echoed Axl in 2010, because maybe it was the year in which his voice was closer to the heydays. This does not mean that it was very good as such. Importantly, even in its heyday, Axl's voice has never been characterized by technology, but by the power the rasp gave him, it was by that feeling that Axl conquered fans.
Yes, it is true that many songs from Guns are, say, different and strange without rasp. But this is because Axl fans have accustomed to it, while he did not think long term.
He worked hard in 2010 to keep up the entire tour using the rasp, but as stated earlier, did not sing in a sustainable way, and it was noticeable that he used the rasp through the canyon and not the soft palate, which proves that perhaps he has not found a teacher who had the courage to teach him the rasp properly after their surgeries, for which he was subjected.
There is also evidence that, in addition to vocal chord nodules, throughout his career, Axl has also had laryngopharyngeal reflux, same problem which affected numerous vocalists such as Edu Falaschi, for example.
It is possible that with every effort made between 2006 and 2010, Axl has acquired new nodules on his vocal chords, and that because of this, it has drastically reduced the use of the rasp since 2011, having its apex in 2014, where his voice is clean most of the time during shows.
But unlike 2002, today Axl no longer have the breath that had at that time, so he can not support and sustain the notes, as he could in 2002, therefore, today his voice sounds worse than in 2002, it sounds wound up and without support.
As a result, the tendency is that the set list for the coming years brings up only songs that are his original fabric, ie, songs that have him sing only with the chest voice, songs like You Ain't The First, Mr Bronwstone, Bad Obsession, Knockin 'On Heavens Door, Don't Cry, Doule Talkin Jive, Down On The Farm, It's So Easy, So Fine, etc..
In the studio, you can see him struggling through the rasp to present a result to remember its heyday on the next albums, but even on Chinese Democracy, it is noticeable that he drastically reduced the use of the rasp. In proportion, as his voice sounds more technical, it does not sound as powerful anymore.
Axl himself acknowledged in an interview on That Metal Show, which exaggerated the recording some songs in the studio, as You Could Be Mine, for example. He said he thought: "And now? How will I sing it live without damaging my voice?" He did not think the long term, but in general it was worth it, because using his voice under the effect of rasp, even without the necessary technique to use it, the guy has spectacular songs.
But here the question begs: What Axl could do to re-submit satisfactory results in stages?
Well, first, he could slim down, giving himself more breathing space for live performances. Losing weight would mean more endurance, ie, he could improve his live performance, which would help for him to keep a good support at times when needed to achieve higher grades.
Secondly, he could study in depth the technical rasp with an expert teacher, and use it correctly and sustainably. He'd need to find a balance between all the vocal techniques, a balance between the head voice, the chest voice and rasp, and not to compromise its future. There's no need to sing with or without rasp all the time, but he needs to find a balance.
Thirdly, he could undergo a surgical procedure called Voicelift, which is responsible for the rejuvenation of the vocal chords procedure. Singers like Steven Tyler and David Coverdale have already undergone this procedure a few years ago.
So if you're rock vocalist or intend to be, and intend to use rasp while singing, study the technique carefully, take good care of your voice, avoid the cliche of drinking and smoking, be disciplined and keep up to date about human anatomy, especially in regard to the muscles of the vocal chords.
Re: Axl Rose: After all, what's wrong with your voice?
Good read but what he says is the rasp in 2000 with Gilby is actually the bootleg from Guns in Argentina, in 1993, playing Dead Horses 
And also a lot, and I do mean A LOT, of speculation... These surgeries and procedures are all but rumors. We don't have any confirmation of that.
Re: Axl Rose: After all, what's wrong with your voice?
I used to think that singers just opened their mouth and these beautiful sounds came out. But after doing a little bit of karaoke singing, I can appreciate that there's a lot more technique to being a professional singer. You really have to train your voice, and practice like you would with any other instrument. And yeah, some nights Axl is spot on and other nights he sounds like someone is sodomizing an alley cat, but I at least have a better understanding as to why.
Re: Axl Rose: After all, what's wrong with your voice?
Great article, but I agree with Olorin, seems like pure fan speculation. I will agree that vocally Axl does sound like he has calluses on his vocal chords, and just like the Golden Gods show, when Axl uses rasp, he very easily seizes up vocally, and just seems to be pushing air out, thus the Mickey with no power voice he has most of the time lately.
I definitely wonder if surgery and some extended rehab, if Axl's vocals can be saved, barring just quitting as a live act and becoming an exclusive studio act.
