What is vocal placement and why is it important? How can you improve yours? Here’s my experience as a clean singer and extreme metal vocalist.
About me – deathdoom.com, music and more
- Stefan Nordström
- Musician, songwriter, content creator, digital freelancer
- Stockholm, Sweden
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Vocal placement basics
Vocal placement can seem like some weird black magic, at least it did for me when I first encountered it. Professional vocal lessons quickly caught me with my pants down and I had no choice but to work hard.
Vocal placement centers around resonance, focus and projection. The common tips are to place the tone forward and sing into the mask. The mask has nothing to with Jim Carrey or being autistic in the workplace, by the way; it means using the frontal cavities in your face to amplify your voice and project the sound forward in a relaxed way. There should be a buzzing or vibrating sensation around there when you get it right.
You want to feel the resonance in your face to project well and have a rich tone. There are several mistakes that can contribute: nasal singing, throaty singing, breathy singing and strained singing. I was guilty of all four, and I still am to some extent (more on that soon).
Vocal placement and confidence
Vocal advancement describes it well in their guide: vocal placement is a lot about knowing your voice and knowing the effects of your technique before you even make the sound. They compare it to the basketball player hitting a flawless hoop; it’s not the throw itself – it’s the coordination of the body and mind leading up to it.
This comparison rings incredibly true for vocal placement, and also explains why I keep having so much trouble with it. I’m a tensed up person with plenty of physical and mental up and downs. Trusting my body to deliver consistency isn’t exactly something I can do. My vocal coach immediately detected this, and did her best to direct my to a better mindset.
My vocal placement evolution
When I received vocal lessons, vocal placement immediately became the main focus. I always thought my issues were pitch issues, but that wasn’t the case. My coach spotted it and we started doing various exercises to correct it.
Two years or so later, I think I have improved, but it’s far from perfect. It’s my clean vocal nemesis, and I think it will always remain so. When it comes to screams, I can easily find my placement and do it in the mask when necessary. Quite frustrating since it’s so infrequent with my clean singing. Good vocal placement comes and goes, and I don’t feel like I’m in control.
How can you improve vocal placement?
My vocal teacher explained the basics of vocal placement somewhat like this: it’s a mix between posture, breath and resonance.
Posture
Personally, posture was the thing we worked the least on. Maybe all those hours at the gym actually made a difference? Who knows? Anyway, the experts at Caveness Voice who know more way more than I do recommend this to find the ultimate posture:
- Have your feet hip-width apart
- Knees should be soft and unlocked
- Slightly lifted chest
- Shoulders rolled back and down
Breath
Now we’re getting closer to my problem areas with vocal placement. Vocal experts, including my teacher, recommends breathing deep into the lower ribs, minimizing tension in the neck or throat. This just not how I breathe or well… live. I’m a tense person in near-constant fight or flight.
Exercises like the “ng” sound (hum an “ng” sound – e.g. the word “sing” – to direct the vibration and air straight to the front of your face) and lip trills help a lot here, and they’ve been a major part of the progress I’ve managed to achieve during the last few years. I had also developed a habit of singing with full lungs, which is rarely a good idea if you want to sustain your breath and tone stability.
Resonance
Resonance (singing in the mask) has been the bane of my clean vocal evolution. I’ve often had a thin, sharp tone that is the opposite of what many people like to hear. The “ng” exercise helps here as well, and I’ve also used this process: transition from a closed “m” sound to an open “ma” sound to release the voice forward out of your mouth.
On a good day, these exercises open up my resonance and helps me find the mask. Another tip is to hold the “ng” sound, while slowly opening your mouth into an “ah” vowel. This fools my brain into finding the right resonance sometimes.
Placement for extreme metal vocalists
But what if you’re a screamer using false chord, fry screams, or similar techniques? Does placement really matter then? Well, it’s far from the same process as finding placement for melodic singing.
It’s not a good idea to tense up and direct your growls or screams into the mask, at least as far as I know. Relaxation and support becomes so much more important when performing extreme metal vocals.
In my experience, false-chord growls and other low gurgling sounds don’t really resonate in the “mask.” I know when they feel right, but that isn’t linked to that specific sensation. High-pitched screams are a different story, though: I can definitely feel them resonating in the upper part of my mask—much like when I’m belting out falsetto at karaoke.
Take this with a grain of salt, however; I have a very high voice type with a natural aptitude for fry screams and falsettoes, so I’m not sure if this holds true for a lower voice.
Final words on vocal placement
So there you have it: my personal struggle with vocal placement and what the experts say about improving it. I hope you’ve learned something new, and that you’ll have an easier time mastering this aspect of singing than I have — it’s been tough, and I’m nowhere near having it down yet.
Curious how I sound like?
Since I’m not a vocal teacher, I’ve mainly gone through this to give my personal take on vocal placement. The results of my slow evolution are in my band Soliloquium’s music. “Time Stands Still” from 2026 features several styles of extreme vocals, as well as a clean vocal section in the end. Hope you dig it! Cheers!
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