throat hurting after singing

[Trauma_Luna]

I normaly play bass and i had a gig last saturday, im not a singer but i sang two songs, in both songs i had to growl, singing like Jason Newstead or Phil Anselmo, something like that, and yeah, the vocals sounded very good, i really liked how they sounded, BUT my throat started hurting a LOT after that, it is not hurting now but it just stopped yesterday, i was planning to sing in the next gigs, but now im afraid of this pain, what do i have to do to stop this? or what could it happen if i keep singing in the next gigs?
thank you

[pirata]

1)drink lots of water
2)don't sing like that




I'm not really a singer I would ask someone else.

[SevenString]

There may not be a "short term" fix for your problem.

There are ways to sing with "grit" or "rasp" that won't hurt your voice, but they can take a long time to develop.

If I were you, I would learn these techniques from a reputable source, such as a professional vocal coach who deeply understands vocal production for rock and metal music.

Otherwise you could do long-term damage to your voice.

[Dr.Innovation]

I normaly play bass and i had a gig last saturday, im not a singer but i sang two songs, in both songs i had to growl, singing like Jason Newstead or Phil Anselmo, something like that, and yeah, the vocals sounded very good, i really liked how they sounded, BUT my throat started hurting a LOT after that, it is not hurting now but it just stopped yesterday, i was planning to sing in the next gigs, but now im afraid of this pain, what do i have to do to stop this? or what could it happen if i keep singing in the next gigs?
thank you
More than likely you aren't doing it correctly...
What that means, I don't know. Generally when it hurts to sing, or pee it means you're forcing your voice to do what it naturally shouldn't.

Talk to a professional vocal coach for a professional answer, they may tell you you're not using your diaphragm, or something.

[isaac42]

"Doctor, it hurts when I do this."

"Then don't do that."

[richardmac]

Ah. The cookie monster vocal syndrome. Here's the deal on that style of singing - it damages the vocal chords. The vocal chords can heal, of course, but if you continue to damage them, it's going to have a long term effect.

Here is my advice, and yes it is both sarcastic AND true. Let someone else in the band do the cookie monster growling vocals. Eventually that style of singing will become extremely dated and no one will want to do it any more, for fear of being made fun of. That may take another 10 years, because trends die hard in metal, but 10 years of growling WILL do serious damage to your vocal chords. So 10 years from now your voice will be shot and no one will want to hear the growl.

I'd also suggest something else - growling words is NOT singing. If there is no pitch variation and the note cannot be distinguished, it's not singing, it's yelling. Rapping is not singing either, though it's a heck of a lot more entertaining than yelling or growling.

I'm hoping that yodeling comes back. It sounds extremely stupid but it always makes me laugh.

[DeadNight Warrior]

Ah. The cookie monster vocal syndrome. Here's the deal on that style of singing - it damages the vocal chords. The vocal chords can heal, of course, but if you continue to damage them, it's going to have a long term effect.

Here is my advice, and yes it is both sarcastic AND true. Let someone else in the band do the cookie monster growling vocals. Eventually that style of singing will become extremely dated and no one will want to do it any more, for fear of being made fun of. That may take another 10 years, because trends die hard in metal, but 10 years of growling WILL do serious damage to your vocal chords. So 10 years from now your voice will be shot and no one will want to hear the growl.

I'd also suggest something else - growling words is NOT singing. If there is no pitch variation and the note cannot be distinguished, it's not singing, it's yelling. Rapping is not singing either, though it's a heck of a lot more entertaining than yelling or growling.

I'm hoping that yodeling comes back. It sounds extremely stupid but it always makes me laugh.

-1

You can do harsh vocals without hurting your throat. More "soulful" singers have been doing it for years, but the context and I guess the degree to which it's done means it doesn't come across as being so aggressive.

That said, I can't really explain how to do it; I just stumbled upon it one day. But I can at least say that it in no way comes from tensing up your throat.

richardmac's right about the damage though. If you keep doing it the way you're doing it, you could be looking at long term damage that could affect your range, control, tone, etc. So whatever you're doing at the moment... stop it! :mad:

[FUBTAG]

From experience...

"growls' take time to be able to do with no after effects... and even then there is always SOME residual effect the next day (that night even) I would never do a song or two like that without ANY sort of warm up. And being onstage adds a little extra stress to your voice as opposed to just trying it at home.

Sing the songs next time and for the forseeable future but add some grit. Problem is that you are not (seemingly) the lead singer.. so your ability to practice as much as you should is probably limited.

[NeverTheMachine]

THere are two things you need to do:

1) Try to sing in the same chest reference as if you were talking. Basically, sing from your chest voice and not from your throat. In the short term you may like how your voice is when your coloring it with that throat style of singing. But if you learn to sing properly without killing your voice your voice will adjust into it's own style (with growling included), notes will be easier and you won't feel any pain.

2) When you sing in live situations where there is "stress", there will be physical stress on your voice. You have to put yourself in the same mental frame of mind that you would have if you were singing in your car or shower. Basically just relax.

- there are many factors that add to stress when singing in live situations. P.A is not loud enough, can;t hear yourself, bass player drowning you out, your own instrument interrupting your coordination. You just got to relax and practice and practice relaxing.

[Bajazz]

Today I sang Metallica, Judas Priest, Iron maiden, Motorhead and AC/DC for over 2 hours with no after effects. Some months ago I had to save grit songs to the end cause it would kill my voice:
Tips:
- Give it time, sing your songs daily and after a while it will become easier. If you start to get hoarse, take a break and let the cords catch up
- Lots of water
- Seek out knowledge, books, DVDs etc...
- Start singing at lower volume and gradually increase. At a scale of 1-10 start at 1 or 2 and kick it up one notch every week.
- If you practice loud, get earplugs or IEM

About 'not straining' this is difficult, cause it's a fine line from singing with power and strain. Be too careful, and you won't improve. Too tough and you blow out your voice and need days to recover. Anyone doing sports have experienced this, and you'll know your voice better after some try-failes. At least you know you growled too hard last time. So ease up next time, and gradually increase the intensity. A golden rule is that your voice should be ready for action the next day after a rough practice.

[Cool Hand Luke]

You can growl in a healthy fashion that won't damage your voice. However, if it hurts or tickles when you growl you are doing it unhealthily.

It's not just a matter of practicing or "conditioning" your voice. If you're doing it wrong you're damaging your voice. Period. If you keep doing that you might look at long term damage as well.

It's true that you will need to use support (sing from the diaphragm) but that's just a part of it. You have to understand that the distortion must NOT be produced by your vocal chords themselves. There are other ways to distort your voice but it's difficult and requires lots of practice. And you will most likely need to get a vocal coach who understands this in order to not practice it wrong. It's very difficult to explain how to do it so I won't even try...

Good luck.

[Silverfox]

"Distorted Vocals" as I like to refer to it takes time to develop. Basically, it is finding other places than straight at your vocals chords to distort the voice. There are different types of distorted vocals, but the main types are: Fry, Death chord and false chord. Fry vocals is basically the sound of someone blowing their lungs out in a high pitched scream, false chord is a little lower but it still ain't that horrendously brutal death chord screaming (which may hurt a bit actually, even if you are doing it right.)

I can give some examples on these:

Fry:
wDxf-LfHZqo

False Chord:
UcfLkrDXdn8

Death Chord: (I personally don't like Arch Enemy, but it's Death Chord
n9AcG0glVu4&feature=related

However, to get back on topic. You want to be able to sing vocals with a distorted voice right? Like Phil Anselmo and stuff :) The key is to sing while doing the same as you would while screaming, but in a smaller degree, so your singing voice sort of just barely flows through but the grain(distortion) is a factor in the singing. This is hard to explain, but once you get it you get it.

Some people say that to learn to sing with grain in your voice you should learn how to fully scream to get the distortion technique down, I fully support this, because I know how much it hurts if you do it wrong. :cry:

In the beginning you will probably get many funny noises, everything from a cat growl to Marge Simpson. In the beginning I started to try and distort the voice at the back of my throat, I dunno what effect this had, but I somehow manage it now. In the start it WILL HURT, trust me, you will do it wrong and that hurts. Once you get that first growl that doesn't hurt you are on your way. The beginning is always the toughest mountain to climb, trust me. I recommend you to check out this channel on youtube as this guy knows what he's talking about. (Only pure screaming though, no singing with grain unfortunately.)

HowToScream's Youtube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/HowToScream

For me it was fail and learn, talking with a vocal coach will probably make your yourney WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY shorter than mine, because it has been a long, long yourney and I feel like still don't master the highest fry screams and the lowest death chord screams, but false chord is going better and better. :)

If you want to have any questions, feel free to ask and I'll answer the best I can.

And finally: If it hurts in the middle of scream, or a word while singing with grain, STOP and think about what you did wrong and go over again. Water will help to minor the damages on your throat and also enhances the healing process. Some believe that not warm-not cold tea an hour before a gig will make it easier, but I haven't tried so I don't know about that.

Hope that helped a little bit.

[WowieZowie]

This actually is a pretty cool question.

Some people can growl. Some people really can't. You could get some effects that would help you attain this sound, and then when it is not in vogue anymore, you could simply turn off that effect.

Many non singers will tell you that you just need to work on it, or work up to it, or get "stronger" or some other crap.

An example of a singer who I love, John Lennon, shredded his voice - intentionally - on the song "shake it up baby" in order to get that cool strained rasp, that works so well. He really couldn't sing as well for a couple of days after it, I recall him saying in an interview. The point is, if you really want to sing like this, then you probably can, but you will feel the pain, and you will be limited afterwards. And, you certainly can do damage to your vocal chords. The pain is there to tell you something. You are hurting something in there. So, it is up to you.

[DeadNight Warrior]

This actually is a pretty cool question.

Some people can growl. Some people really can't. You could get some effects that would help you attain this sound, and then when it is not in vogue anymore, you could simply turn off that effect.

Many non singers will tell you that you just need to work on it, or work up to it, or get "stronger" or some other crap.

An example of a singer who I love, John Lennon, shredded his voice - intentionally - on the song "shake it up baby" in order to get that cool strained rasp, that works so well. He really couldn't sing as well for a couple of days after it, I recall him saying in an interview. The point is, if you really want to sing like this, then you probably can, but you will feel the pain, and you will be limited afterwards. And, you certainly can do damage to your vocal chords. The pain is there to tell you something. You are hurting something in there. So, it is up to you.

As I and others have said, it's simply a technique. You don't have to tear your vocal cords up to get the sound, you just have to learn the proper technique to do it. Lennon might not have known how to do it properly, but it certainly is possible.

It's not something that'll ever go out of style; it's been around for much longer than rock and heavier styles have been around. A little bit of grit is pretty much the same as an all-out scream, just that one is a more extreme use of the technique.

[Dr.Innovation]

As I and others have said, it's simply a technique. You don't have to tear your vocal cords up to get the sound, you just have to learn the proper technique to do it. Lennon might not have known how to do it properly, but it certainly is possible.


Would you be so kind as to show us how to do it, or relay what has been taught in written form? OR post some examples of your view. I'm interested:idea:

[strat2]

... BUT my throat started hurting a LOT after that, it is not hurting now but it just stopped yesterday, i was planning to sing in the next gigs, but now im afraid of this pain, what do i have to do to stop this? ...

If your throat is hurting from singing, you need singing lessons , or at least avoid whatever technique you are using that results in a 'hurting' throat.

[DeadNight Warrior]

Would you be so kind as to show us how to do it, or relay what has been taught in written form? OR post some examples of your view. I'm interested:idea:

As I said in my first post in this thread, I can't really explain how to do it. I'm a crap singer and have never had any training at all. That said, I actually figured out how to do it by accident one day. My voice was pretty worn out already from general tiredness and I was just singing along to something in the car. Happened to hit a certain note in a certain way that my tired voice just didn't want to keep clean... no strain at all, it was just I guess how the note was resonating in mah bits.

To me, it feels like the "grit" part is sorta resonating in the hard or soft palate (depending on the pitch it seems to me). Switching between the clean and gritty feels almost just like a mental switch, but there is also a difference in the feel of the resonance. Again, it doesn't involve straining at all, and it doesn't feel like it takes any more air than "normal" singing. Once I'd stumbled across it that very first time, I just kept doing it until I knew I wouldn't forget how to. :o Over time I've expanded the range over which I can do it a bit (lower mainly, although I can't do death metal style growls with it yet), but again, I'm a crap singer with no training, and I don't really practise singing much aside from when I'm in my car.

If I remember to and have time when I get home from work, I can try record a quick clip. Won't really teach anyone much of anything, but it'd be an example of the ability to do it.

[Silverfox]

As I and others have said, it's simply a technique. You don't have to tear your vocal cords up to get the sound, you just have to learn the proper technique to do it. Lennon might not have known how to do it properly, but it certainly is possible.

You are right, it's all about technique. The reasons people say you have to "strengthen you voice" is simply because in the beginning you WILL do it wrong, and that hurts. I haven't seen anyone that has ever done it right the first time. However, different voices will make different sounds with the right technique (without training ofc, it's possible to change)

[AdamCh311]

Ah. The cookie monster vocal syndrome. Here's the deal on that style of singing - it damages the vocal chords. The vocal chords can heal, of course, but if you continue to damage them, it's going to have a long term effect.

Here is my advice, and yes it is both sarcastic AND true. Let someone else in the band do the cookie monster growling vocals. Eventually that style of singing will become extremely dated and no one will want to do it any more, for fear of being made fun of. That may take another 10 years, because trends die hard in metal, but 10 years of growling WILL do serious damage to your vocal chords. So 10 years from now your voice will be shot and no one will want to hear the growl.

I'd also suggest something else - growling words is NOT singing. If there is no pitch variation and the note cannot be distinguished, it's not singing, it's yelling. Rapping is not singing either, though it's a heck of a lot more entertaining than yelling or growling.

I'm hoping that yodeling comes back. It sounds extremely stupid but it always makes me laugh.

It sounds to me like he's not "normally the singer" and the he is the "someone else doing the growling".

[WowieZowie]

As I said in my first post in this thread, I can't really explain how to do it. I'm a crap singer and have never had any training at all.

If I remember to and have time when I get home from work, I can try record a quick clip. Won't really teach anyone much of anything, but it'd be an example of the ability to do it.

So, you can do it. And that is cool. But it only underscores that fact that some can do it, and some can't. Some people, when they do it, it hurts their voice. I just don't think that everyone has the capability, to simply follow your example, get tired and sing in their car.

We are all different. Maybe you have a really great talent to be able to sing this way. And maybe the original poster, does not.

On some days, my voice has an ablility to sound more raspy, and it is fun to play with it. I sing certain songs that work with that sound, and I am all psyched about it. (foods that I eat can also greatly effect your voice.)

Actually, the more that I practice, I do get a little more character in my voice, and that is a very cool ting to me.

Oh, and I do practice singing, every day. I love to sing. When I hurt my voice, by trying to emulate someone, or push too hard, I have to lay off singing for a bit, and for me, that gets depressing. So, this actually may be where I am coming from with my stance on this topic. I want to enjoy the voice I have. I want to be able to sing when the show starts, and when it ends. Through practice, and constant care taken of my voice (nothing crazy just listening to what freak'n hurts me) I am able to sing on command. It is consistent (always good to be consistent) and seems to make people feel good.

I used to get sore throats, and all kinds of stuff. Before shows, I would be affraid that I wouldn't be able to perform. Etc. Well, I still get nervous. But not in the same way. I almost get cocky now. Like, when someone challenges me, or asks me if I am ready, I can look them right in the eye, and say, "yup." And it usually has exactly the reaction that I am looking for.

Anyway, my main point is, try to ease into this new sound that you are trying for. But, if it hurts, DON'T DO IT. Accept yourself for who you are, and work on what you DO have. There will most certainly be lots of people who diffinatively say "you can do it if you try this, or that." From my experience, this is not the case. They may have it, but you may not. And only YOU will know.

[Roberto_66]

I know I can't just say move this muscle to the left a bit and breathe this amount of air, but for rough vocals I use my nose or nasal area some how and it didn't hurt compared to what I was doing before.

Harsh vocals are a tough thing to figure out...

[Silverfox]

I know I can't just say move this muscle to the left a bit and breathe this amount of air, but for rough vocals I use my nose or nasal area some how and it didn't hurt compared to what I was doing before.

Harsh vocals are a tough thing to figure out...

Yeah, harsh vocals takes time to figure out and I think most people gives up because they don't have the patience for it, and can't be arsed to try and fail. However, talking to a vocal coach might help you get an idea on how you could do it, although he/she can't do it for you, you have to understand it and do it by yourselves.

[DeadNight Warrior]

So, you can do it. And that is cool. But it only underscores that fact that some can do it, and some can't. Some people, when they do it, it hurts their voice. I just don't think that everyone has the capability, to simply follow your example, get tired and sing in their car.

We are all different. Maybe you have a really great talent to be able to sing this way. And maybe the original poster, does not.

On some days, my voice has an ablility to sound more raspy, and it is fun to play with it. I sing certain songs that work with that sound, and I am all psyched about it. (foods that I eat can also greatly effect your voice.)

Actually, the more that I practice, I do get a little more character in my voice, and that is a very cool ting to me.

Oh, and I do practice singing, every day. I love to sing. When I hurt my voice, by trying to emulate someone, or push too hard, I have to lay off singing for a bit, and for me, that gets depressing. So, this actually may be where I am coming from with my stance on this topic. I want to enjoy the voice I have. I want to be able to sing when the show starts, and when it ends. Through practice, and constant care taken of my voice (nothing crazy just listening to what freak'n hurts me) I am able to sing on command. It is consistent (always good to be consistent) and seems to make people feel good.

I used to get sore throats, and all kinds of stuff. Before shows, I would be affraid that I wouldn't be able to perform. Etc. Well, I still get nervous. But not in the same way. I almost get cocky now. Like, when someone challenges me, or asks me if I am ready, I can look them right in the eye, and say, "yup." And it usually has exactly the reaction that I am looking for.

Anyway, my main point is, try to ease into this new sound that you are trying for. But, if it hurts, DON'T DO IT. Accept yourself for who you are, and work on what you DO have. There will most certainly be lots of people who diffinatively say "you can do it if you try this, or that." From my experience, this is not the case. They may have it, but you may not. And only YOU will know.


Well the thing is though, I believe everyone (not counting those with some kind of throat deformity perhaps) is capable of doing this. The thing is though, it's not really something you'd know how to do unless you were taught or, like me, accidentally stumbled across it. It's only something I figured out maybe a year ago, so for the many years before that if I wanted harsh vocals I'd be doing it the painful and harmful way.

The tiredness thing for me was just what enabled me to figure it out, but it of course isn't the only. These days tiredess can make it hard to keep my voice clean (it seems to take less energy and concentration to just let my voice slip into harshness, now that I know how to do it I guess), but otherwise it's fully controllable. I'm sure any decent rock vocal coach could explain it all with a full knowledge of what physically goes on, but I'm no teacher, or even a student.

I think he difficulty with people learning it is that it's simply an unusual thing for most people, given that you don't ever really do it during the normal course of a day (at least, I don't). It's not something you'd ever really use until you wanted to be able to sing in a harsh voice, at which point you naturally revert to the only way you're aware of at that point, which is basically just painfully slamming your vocal cords together.

[DeadNight Warrior]

I know I can't just say move this muscle to the left a bit and breathe this amount of air, but for rough vocals I use my nose or nasal area some how and it didn't hurt compared to what I was doing before.

Harsh vocals are a tough thing to figure out...

Sounds like you might be on track.

The only way I can really think to describe it at the moment is that it sorta feels like I'm pushing the resonance through my soft or hard palate... which is I guess nasal area-ish. You don't want it to actually sound nasal though. :thu:

[SevenString]

I'm going to put on my asbestos coverall now, because I fully expect a lot of flames for posting these: :lol:

bP2KULI3gIQ

tIwsi9iMip0


If someone gets something useful out of these, then that's great! :thu:

As I say over and over in the vids, I am NOT a voice teacher, just a working musician.

[Cool Hand Luke]

So, you can do it. And that is cool. But it only underscores that fact that some can do it, and some can't. Some people, when they do it, it hurts their voice. I just don't think that everyone has the capability, to simply follow your example, get tired and sing in their car.

We are all different. Maybe you have a really great talent to be able to sing this way. And maybe the original poster, does not.

I'm with DeadNight Warrior here. I think that anybody can learn to do it. Unless you have some sort of handicap or deformity we all have the body parts and muscles needed to do it. Nobody said that it would be easy or that everybody can figure it out themselves. Most people probably can't.

It's not like I'm there myself but I'm getting closer. You can choose to leave well enough alone and get by with what you've got or you can do something about it and get better. It's up to you.

Since I started using my voice properly I have expanded my range and color palette to choose from a lot. I could sing just fine before, but I was limited in my options. Whenever I was singing high notes I was hurting my voice and I wasn't very loud. Now I can sing higher without any damage and I can sing way more powerful than before.

[WowieZowie]

Cool vids there SevenString,

You sound good.

To me, some people have greater proclivity toward this end. I think that you have shown that it is something a person can work on.

Your voice sounds as if it breaks up better than mine. This is just a fact of life to me. Others would seem to differ, like we are all just as capable. Cool with that. I just don't agree.

[SevenString]

Cool vids there SevenString,

You sound good.

To me, some people have greater proclivity toward this end. I think that you have shown that it is something a person can work on.

Your voice sounds as if it breaks up better than mine. This is just a fact of life to me. Others would seem to differ, like we are all just as capable. Cool with that. I just don't agree.

Thanks for the kind words. :thu:

I hope you get something useful out of what I posted. :)

[nixonjacket]

So check this out.. everyone on here can laugh if they want to but Im here to tell you.. This works---
During the day (any day, not just practice) I drink a glass of water every hour.. keeps the cords hydrated (takes like a half hour for water to reach them, so ive been told).. At practice I drink water and cranberry juice (taste like crap but it works.. try it) .. At shows I drink choc milk(very soothing to the throat), do NOT drink beer, whiskey etc etc.. that will kill your pitch and makes it really easy to hurt your throat. Keep your vocals loud in the PA so you can hear yourself over your own voice and over everyone else. Oh, and practice singing in your normal "pretty" voice..(not growling), itll help your vocal stamina and it will let you know where you can and cant go. Anyway, hope this helps.

[zosoKing5]

ill put it simply.

your vocal chords are muscles. basically what you did was sprint a mile after sitting on your ass for 3 years straight. you have to work out and stretch those muscles for best performance.

[DeadNight Warrior]

ill put it simply.

your vocal chords are muscles. basically what you did was sprint a mile after sitting on your ass for 3 years straight. you have to work out and stretch those muscles for best performance.

But at the same time, you have to be doing it the right way in the first place.

You can lift something heavy however you want, but if you don't do it the right way (we've all seen the OH&S videos :facepalm:), while you may end up with the same kind of result (i.e. heavy item lifted off the floor), but you could very well end up hurting yourself in the process.

Still haven't had a chance to record anything. The problem is finding a time when I can do it without pissing anyone off... it's a tad loud. :o Not that a clip is really going to help anyone anyway, seeing as I can't explain dick... :o

[Laroosco]

.<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ObR-MuVZQuw&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ObR-MuVZQuw&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

This is about as screamy as I would ever want to get. Not death metal or any of that. It's definitely not easy but it can be done without damage. Travis has been doing this style consistently for years

[InfinitySquared]

There certainly is a technique to harsh vocals, it isn't just blowing your chords out to force them to resonate. I think one good way of knowing that you're doing it right is if you're really quiet. (Assuming you do vocal fry, but that is the safe method, false chord and death chord are still bad for you) If you have the volume of a shout then you're actually screaming: You know, that thing people do during high tension situations like fires, wars, shootings, etc. That's bad for you. Very bad for you. At least if you have any desire to maintain a significant range as a singer. Also, you risk developements such as polyps that could be major inconveniences and could require surgery to be treated.

Once you find that fry sound, you get volume by adding it onto a shout.

What you're trying to do is manipulate your voice production (I won't say throat, because your throat should be relaxed, or as relaxed as possible) to imitate that sound without actually putting that amount of pressure on your vocal chords.

There's plenty of stuff on youtube about it, there's instructional videos by the likes of Melissa Cross, etc. If you're interested in putting in the time to learn how to do it correctly then go ahead and do so, but frankly, assuming you're normally not a singer, it's probably not going to be that big of a deal if you just go ahead and keep doing it. You probably won't do any serious damage unless you do it a lot. (Meaning, don't expect to be the lead vocalist in a band. A few grunts here and there aren't going to tear your chords out)

I would advise learning how to do it correctly anyways, but just be aware of that option.

[Melinda Amherst]

Well, the problem here is that you're not doing it correctly.
But, the solution may be using correctly your diaphragm or your vocal chords because you're forcing them to do something that you're not educated to.
Try to use your diaphragm and try to "growl" from your chest voice...

Or a more simple solution, Let someone else do it! :P