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Hi KTVA from Croatia

BlockheadDavidBlockheadDavid Pro, 2.0 PRO Posts: 21
Hi everyone,
First of all a huge shout out to the best sister who kindly helped me purchase this course. Hope I can repay the favor someday!

My name is David, I'm 17 years old and I love to sing. My favorite band is Dragonforce by far and I'd say Marc Hudson is kinda like my idol. I hope to learn how to sing better. I've been playing some instruments like the guitar, a bit of piano, some traditional Croatian instruments and a bit of singing since elementary school, but now I decided to dedicate myself to singing. I abandoned the guitar and sports(I trained football - not American, might return to it sometimes when i get to college) to train my voice because i like singing best, or so I think.
As my name suggests I'm a total blockhead and I need everything drawn for me and sometimes even then I don't understand.

Since i started singing i noticed an increase in range, but I don't know if I'm actually hurting my voice or not. I think i can hit 3-4 octaves but maybe with forcing the high notes in head voice and I really don't know if the super low notes i can make are actually "singing" or not. Just in case you were wondering i hit up this virtual piano which says the notes' "names" - http://virtualpiano.net/ - and from what I can tell I can reach from C1-G56. Why it's 56 I have no idea, lul. This is chest and head combined. Probably a forced G in head though which sounds horrid(yep, I've recorded that too).

I'd love to record myself singing and maybe my vocal range from lowest to highest so you could evaluate and say if it is good or not. As a side note I've tried recording myself and there is no words to express the disappointment I felt when I heard myself for the first time. I literally wanted to stop singing forever. To me it sounded like i had a good tone and color but when I heard myself... "damn, is that even me??"

I actually already started the course and I have some questions. First the breath support. First I thought I got it but then Ken said in a later video that some people think they know how to do it, but they don't and it got me thinking; am I doing it right? Then came troubles with the tongue exercise; if i force my tongue down i feel like it gets really tense. Then came the vowel modifications. At first everything was fine(or so I think) then came the uh modification (AH->OH->UH) and it just feels so unnatural to me. It's like I can hit some higher notes easier if I just went with the original Ah sound; I might be straining my voice there.

Oops, looks like I wrote quite a wall of text here... anyways I'm hoping to getting tips from everyone and perhaps getting a few new friends here on KTVA. Please be gentle with me (>_<)

P.S. This is the first singing course I ever did, or started doing rather, so everything I do now is self taught. Whether that's a good thing or not I'll see, i guess.

Comments

  • highmtnhighmtn Administrator, Moderator, Enrolled, Pro, 3.0 Streaming Posts: 15,354
    Welcome, @BlockheadDavid, to the forums.

    You have a lot of questions. You also have a very awesome sister! What a great thing she did to help you to do something that is important to you.

    Give everything a little bit of time. There are a lot of things to learn all at once at first, but it's best to kind of give it a little bit of time so that it won't seem overwhelming. It's easier to focus on one thing at a time, and eventually the whole picture starts coming more and more into focus.

    We all hate the sound of our own voices when we first hear it. That's just something that takes a little while, too. Eventually, instead of cringing when you hear your voice played back, you'll be going "Hey!" "That was pretty good! Let's hear that again!" But it takes a while to get there.

    The tongue often takes a while to cooperate, too. Eventually it will go along with the program, but at first it wants to show you who's boss. After a while it realizes that singing isn't going to go away, so it gets bored with misbehaving, and starts cooperating more. The tension will eventually neutralize. Struggling won't help. Just give it time.

    Watch the videos very carefully, several times, and start doing the exercises regularly. Everything will begin to fall into place.

    Listen to what Ken says to do and copy him. Be a mockingbird.

    All the Best.


    Bob
  • BlockheadDavidBlockheadDavid Pro, 2.0 PRO Posts: 21
    Thank you. Will be practising every day for at least an hour. I'm planning to stay on Volume 1 for a couple of months just to make sure i get everything right. Cheers!
  • highmtnhighmtn Administrator, Moderator, Enrolled, Pro, 3.0 Streaming Posts: 15,354
    edited April 2017
    I put in 3 months, and still got sent back. Get it right the first time is what I recommend. Rushing won't help. You'll be using this information for the rest of your life, so take your time. That said, there's no shame in going back to revisit things later.

    If you're a blockhead like me, you might want to take your time.
  • BlockheadDavidBlockheadDavid Pro, 2.0 PRO Posts: 21
    edited April 2017
    Well, as my name suggests I am a total blockhead. :smiley:
    That is why I'm already planning on taking longer on Vol 1 before proceeding. The only problem is; I don't know whether or not I'm doing the exercises right.
  • highmtnhighmtn Administrator, Moderator, Enrolled, Pro, 3.0 Streaming Posts: 15,354
    Just do them to begin with. After you've practiced for a while, send in a "basic Lah" scale. That will tell us a lot.
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