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Hello all, nice to join your community. I’ve got some questions:

I’ve been studying for the last few months via weekly skype lessons with another teacher in the Orange County area and stumbled across Ken’s program and was so impressed with his singing that I just bought the Pro Pack and began the program a week ago. As you all already know, it’s awesome. But now I’m feeling very guilty, because I like my other teacher (and can afford to have weekly skype lessons with her), but Ken’s program is so good there is no way I’m going to put it aside. So I guess this is what infidelity feels like (not that I would otherwise know)…anyway, I was hoping I might be able to proceed with both Ken and her (that always works out, right?), as I still think there is value to having a weekly face-to-face with someone (can’t afford to with Ken), and it seems thus far they both have been mostly on the same page as far as I can tell, except for one glaring thing…she has from the start been focusing a lot on “upper register and increasing upper register before doing the go-through” type exercises. She has me doing triads starting low in chest and then on the top note using quiet head voice, and then trying to increase the volume of head voice as much as possible, specifically without “going through” into chest voice. Her approach is to develop the upper register as much as possible first. This seems to contradict what Ken said about not training any head voice until chest voice is fully developed. Do I have that right? Is this a deal breaker (for her, unfortunately)? Can’t I somehow train diligently with Ken’s method and also focus on strengthening upper register without diminishing/damaging my ability to build a powerful chest voice (I’m into hard rock so it needs to be big)?

I'm not expecting anyone to say that training with two people is a brilliant idea, but I'd like to get a sense of how much damage, if any, I'm actually going to do to my progress on this one point, if I'm otherwise working hard with Ken's program.

So, assuming the answer is I should man up and drop my old teacher (I know it, I know it), I have yet another question regarding the same issue about head voice...when I hit the upper notes of the exercises it feels like I’m automatically in head voice whether I want to be or not. I might be able to hit them in chest voice if I use a lot of volume, but he specifically says to “sing lightly”. Does this mean that he specifically wants me to hit those high notes with a soft voice (and still be in chest), or is he just saying don’t sing so loudly that you hurt yourself? I’m not sure I can hit the high notes in chest voice without using a lot of power, so maybe should I avoid singing the high notes altogether for now, until my chest voice is more "developed"?

Finally, when do I go ahead and start with the other materials (HTS Pro Pack 1-3B)? Should I do them as I go through the Volumes, or should I wait until completing all 3 volumes first before starting all those other good materials?

Sorry this was so long.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

Jason

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Answers

  • jakmedicjakmedic Pro, 2.0 PRO Posts: 8
    Streeter, thanks for your reply, very helpful. I might also bring this question up with the coach I've been using, she'll probably get defensive and pissed that I'm seeking outside assistance, and then maybe she'll fire me, simplifying it all. I wasn't aware there was a "pro status" on the forum, thanks for the tip, I've emailed KTVA support and await their reply.
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