Introducing myself

victortang

Hi Everyone! I am happy to be part of this forum/community. I am 53 yo and had been a full time Pianoman from approx. 1987-2005. Gave up singing to pursue my own business in the fitness industry. But in the last 2 years have discovered that i simply cannot live without singing (and playing music). Since training with the KTVA Volume 3 once a day every single day since 2 months ago, my improvement has been no short of phenomenal!!! I am simply amazed! Ken's knowledge is "mysteriously" amazing - I should know, I have been through many many "vocal coaches". Anyway, nice to know so many feel the same way as I do.

doc_ramadani

Hi @victortang,

a warm Welcome from Germany. Very good to have you here. I am 48 years old and joined KTVA 5 months ago. May I ask whether you started with Vol. 3 or whether you did Volumes 1 and 2 without being registered to the forums. From your profile I can see that joined the forum on October.

Regards,
Doc

HuduVudu

Welcome @victortang !!!

victortang

Thanks for your warm welcome Doc! The 2 months on vol 3 i mentioned was an approximate. On hind sight it's more like a month and 7 days... I did Vol 1 and 2, every day for about 30 days from 23 Sep, and proceeded to volume 3. Been doing Vol 3 religiously, except today. I have a performance tonight and i am worried about over stressing myself. There will be about 30 songs I have to perform, ranging from jazz to rock...

doc_ramadani

Hi Victor,

thanks for clarifying that to me. I found your other discussion with the cool AC/DC cover, too. You deserve a honest feedback, don't you? - I would try not to rush through the Volumes.

I can see that you are a very experienced musician with a lot of great skills. That is very good and it will make some things easier for you (for example: pitch, understanding of scales, ...). But from the video I can see that you could improve some things - especially support. We are training muscles. This will take some time. Ken recommends 3 months for Volume 1. And I think he is absolutely right. I started to get the real benefit form Volume 1 in my 4th month.

And please be careful with the distortion. Your distortion does not sound like a relaxation - it sounds like straining. This could hurt your voice.

I hope it is okay to be that honest.

Regards,
Doc

victortang

Thanks Doc! I really appreciate it! I didn't realise that volumes 1 and 2 required that much time. I have had vocal training for over 10 years and thought that my foundation may have helped. Nevertheless I will take your advice and revisit. My distortion did not feel hurtful at all. I have hurt my voice 10 years ago and this is not new to me. This is the type of voice i have been used to singing (I passed the 2019 first round audition of The Voice Australia with this ) :

doc_ramadani

Hi Victor,

So ... ... I can see that you have "some" experience on muscles. Did you get them in 3 months? - If yes, great for you. If you had to work harder, you probably know what I mean.

I am on thaiboxing for 20 years. And I enjoy it very much. But it took me a long time to withstand a 1 hour training. And now, since I am 48, I have to work even harder to keep my fitness.

If you feel comfortable with your distortion it is absolutely okay. Form an outside it just seemed to be like straining. But I am not that experienced to evaluate this in detail.

Good to have you here.

Regards,
Doc

highmtn

Welcome, @victortang. Nice to have you on board. Since you've been on Volume 3 for a while, it would probably be worth it to go back and review, just in case Ken might have laid something out that you missed.

Ken sent me back to Volume one after I thought I was doing well in Volume 3. I learned more by going back. I have sent myself back a few times since then, just to review and make sure nothing was getting past me.

That's a cool video.

victortang

Good to see your enthusiasm Doc! I happen to be with a medical doctor (a doc like yourself), here in my gym (who is my fitness personal coaching client) - he agrees that i need to be careful with my voice too. SO yes thanks.....I will have to water down my madness a bit!

victortang

Thanks highmtn! I will! I actually did go back to review it about 2 weeks ago. But I will take your advice and Doc's advice, and working on Vol 1 and 2 for longer. I have had over 10 years of vocal training similar to 1 and 2, but you are both right, I should be more patient.

victortang

By the way, this video here was done before I knew about KTVA!!!

doc_ramadani

Hi Victor,

victortang said:

By the way, this video here was done before I knew about KTVA!!!

so you seem to have great talents. I am curios on hearing more from you in this forum.

Regards,
Doc

victortang

Doc, No. I had NO talent. I have had over 6 vocal coaches, and like Ken, have spent A LOT of money on voice teachers. Most of whom are BS artists. I played the piano for restaurants, bars, hotels night clubs, and casinos for many years. I remember one time, a regular customer said to me that he used to wish i would shut the Fxxk up when i started singing. But about 3 years later (and many many lessons), he came up to me and said he no longer wanted me to shut up. True story!!!!

doc_ramadani

Victor, can you help me? - What are BS artists?

victortang

Haha! BS - Bull Shit. A better and more polite way to say it would be "con artists".

doc_ramadani

ha ha ha - okay, now I understand.

highmtn

@victortang,
I studied several vocal methods before finding KTVA, and though I thought I knew all of the basics of singing, I began to realize that just about everything I had "learned" in the past was essentially worthless, and that what Ken taught matters from the very most basic levels, and is the foundation of good singing right at the base level. Everything depends on the basic premises being right and solid. So you have to kind of leave all of your former "knowledge" at the door and give Ken your full attention, or you may have a few gaps in your full understanding or implementation.

You'll be able to make that judgement on your own. Just be sure you don't do what I did and jump to the conclusion that because I could do the scales that I was doing them correctly. "Oh, I got that. What's next" kind of thing. He's giving you gold from the very beginning.

victortang

Thanks highmtn (is that how i address you?)!! Yes I do feel that I have found gold! I will take your advice very seriously indeed. Even with those "gaps" that (I know) are there in my study of Ken's methods, I know I have made unbelievable progress. And I concur with your opinion about many of those worthless "methods". From my previous "teachers", I feel like I have learnt next to NOTHING. The only useful tools I have used were from Seith Riggs. And that was a $20 book! So again, thank you! And thanks to you all who responded with such valuable suggestions/advice! By the way, on an average day, I spend up to 3 hours a day on vocal training. I go through each exercises carefully, and video myself to playback to see if I had it right - visually and audio as well. So you are right - I will not have the "Oh I got that what's next" attitude. I even take my lip roll very seriously, honestly! Thanks a million!!

victortang

Thanks for your welcome HuduVudu! For some reason I missed it! Sorry.

HuduVudu

victortang

doc_ramadani said:

Hi Victor,

thanks for clarifying that to me. I found your other discussion with the cool AC/DC cover, too. You deserve a honest feedback, don't you? - I would try not to rush through the Volumes.

I can see that you are a very experienced musician with a lot of great skills. That is very good and it will make some things easier for you (for example: pitch, understanding of scales, ...). But from the video I can see that you could improve some things - especially support. We are training muscles. This will take some time. Ken recommends 3 months for Volume 1. And I think he is absolutely right. I started to get the real benefit form Volume 1 in my 4th month.

And please be careful with the distortion. Your distortion does not sound like a relaxation - it sounds like straining. This could hurt your voice.

I hope it is okay to be that honest.

Regards,
Doc

@doc_ramadani Hi Doc! Hope you are well. I did take your words seriously re: hurting my voice with distortion. Yesterday I had a one-to-one lesson with Ken and specifically asked him what he thought of my compression in that video that you showed concern over. He said I did it correctly. So I am pleased. I thought you should know, for your own knowledge. He did say i got lucky when i confessed that i didn't even know what compression or distortion is, and that i just did it after warming up the entire Volume 3 exercises.

Thought you would like to know.

A merry christmas to you and your family!

doc_ramadani

Hi @victortang,

thanks for asking. I am well. We just bake cookies for the family. It smells so wonderful.

It is very nice that you come up with this feedback. I hope you did not mind that I wrote this quoted comment. It's just an occupational disease. I am concerned with the health of people.

Wonderful that you met Ken in a one-to-one lesson. Who else than him can (Ken) tell you what to correct. I wish you great success and will keep my fingers crossed for the "Australian Idol". I would be proud if one of my classmates of the higher grade would succeed in a challenge like that.

Good luck, and for you also a merry christmas,
Doc

victortang

@doc_ramadani

Hi Doc, Re: Your comment "I hope you did not mind that I wrote this quoted comment"

Not only did I not mind, I really appreciate it! That is why I valued your concern enough to deliberate and to investigate. If I only took it as something I should "mind", I would have ignored it.

Please don't stop being honest. You are a credit to this community! No one should be upset by mere words. Wars have been fought over words. That is not only illogical but also harmful.

If I am insulted/upset by someone's words, it is only because I allow myself to be insulted/upset. It would only be MY fault.

doc_ramadani

Hi Victor, @victortang

very nice words - thank you. And great to have you here in the forums. Please keep posting your demos: they are very helpful for all of us. I learn so much from listening to other peoples demos.

And Victor, you are are really great. You have so much vocal agility. That is awesome. Work on that.

And: I am not your cousin, not your wife, not drunk, but I am still giving you positive feedback.

I wish you and your family a merry christmas,
Marco

victortang

doc_ramadani said:

Hi Victor, @victortang

very nice words - thank you. And great to have you here in the forums. Please keep posting your demos: they are very helpful for all of us. I learn so much from listening to other peoples demos.

And Victor, you are are really great. You have so much vocal agility. That is awesome. Work on that.

And: I am not your cousin, not your wife, not drunk, but I am still giving you positive feedback.

I wish you and your family a merry christmas,
Marco

Hi Doc @doc_ramadani I wish to clarify what you meant by "vocal agility". Can I take it that you are saying that I am versatile - being able to sing different genre of music? Or do you mean something else?

doc_ramadani

Hi @victortang,

please excuse if my english is not as precise as it should be. I am not a native speaker. I am german. By vocal agility I mean:

"skill, dexterity, agility, cleverness, adroitness, skilfulness, maneuverability, mobility, nimbleness, manoeuvrability, flexibility, movability" (That is what Google translator spits out when put in the german word that describes it the best).

But your suggestion "versatile" describes it the best. Yes, you are able to sing so many different genres. For me, and that is just my personal opinion, sometimes a tiny bit to much like a musical actor. But overall, I must say that I would proud if I were able to sing like you. You earned great skills, Victor. You are really good.

Marco

victortang

@doc_ramadani Hi Doc, I think a famous wise/clever guy in the past said that we become what we think of all day long, or something like that. My "skills" if anything to talk about, had to be earned...every single note! You know, I woke up this morning and the first thing I thought of was, "How the hell do I make that last word of "Nella Fantasia" sound effortless, soft and gentle but resonant??", and I drank my coffee and here i am doing some weight lifting. I have done this for over 30 years. This makes my life worth living for, alongside my wife and 2 children of course.

victortang

Continued from last post. Earl Nightingale, who has become famous for his speeches and most commonly his quote: 'We become what we think about'