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"Ken Tamplin's Testimony Of His Singing Journey"



As many of you know I didn't start out as a singer, I started out as a guitar player.



Though I dabbled in singing some, and yes my cousin is Sammy Hagar, singing was
only a means to get me to my next guitar solo :-)

(I practiced 6-8 hours a day, 6 days a week. I was a "guitar freak")



Around age 19 I joined a professional band named "Joshua". (This was the band
leader's name).



Joshua enlisted me as a 2nd guitarist and eventually background singer (most everyone
in the band sang background vocals).



Joshua was obsessed with high-range singing. His favorite vocalists were Steve Perry
and Mickey Thomas.



That was a big problem for me, because on my best day I was lucky to squeeze out an
F#4 and once in a great while an A4 - but not very often.

(much less trying to hit the "high harmonies" of a Steve Perry or Mickey Thomas song)



So in my typical obsessive fashion, wanting to take my profession seriously, I started
out on my quest to be the best guitarist / singer I could possibly be.



I started taking lessons from Andy Boettner (who claims he worked with Michael
Jackson way before Seth Riggs claims Michael). Not getting the results I wanted, I
began to study with Mary Burns (who claims everyone from Mike Reno of Loverboy to
Brian Adams and Ann Wilson from heart...just to name a few).



It seemed no matter how hard I tried, I could not gain much range at all. Maybe a little
stamina, but I couldn't tell if that was just a byproduct of singing a LOT of scales.



I moved on to study with MANY other vocal coaches, again with little or no real results,
spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars I didn't have and ending up in complete,
abject frustration. (I can't tell you how many times I wanted to quit and just resign myself
to the fact that my voice was my voice, my range was my range, and there was little or
nothing I could do to change that.)



As fate would have it, while working as a TV salesman back in about 1982-83, I saw
"Tiffany" come on TV and her father happened to be one of the TV salesmen right next
to me.



He told me how she had a very similar story but that they were taking vocal lessons
from a guy named Ron Anderson who really helped her.



I thought, ok, let's try this again.




Ron was way out in Encino, Ca and I was living on my mom's living room floor in a
sketchy neighborhood in Anaheim, Ca. so that I could pay for these VERY expensive
vocal lessons.



After studying with Ron I did start to see "some" improvement but it was very gradual.
One of the things that helped me greatly was that the band Joshua practiced 3-4 nights
per week plus gigs on the weekend (or longer tours like Europe) where I got to
"practice" what I was learning in "real live performing" applications. So I got to see
firsthand what worked, and what didn't.



I then heard about a guy in Washington who was teaching rock guys like Geoff Tate.
His name was Dr. David Kyle. (now the late Maestro Kyle). He had a very different
approach than Ron, so often times information conflicted, which I had to sift through.



Around 1984 I decided to try a few more people. Elizabeth Sabine (who did absolutely
NOTHING for my voice) as well as Seth Riggs.



I knew Ron had studied with Seth as one of his coaches so I thought I would go straight
to the source. I began to see huge conflicts in what many were teaching but I still had a
burning desire to learn and grow.



Seth had a background that was more like a speech pathologist while Ron had more of
a Bel Canto background and Kyle was more like a great Broadway coach.



I took from Ron for 11 years.



I took from Seth for 5 years.



I took from Kyle for a little over 4 years.



(as well as many many additional coaches over the years not the least of which was
studying the great Leone Magiera - Pavarotti's coach for over 50 years).



In the end, I had to develop and take from all these life experiences, "road testing" what
worked and what didn't.



I found the fundamentals of Appoggio / Bel Canto by far to be the best platform for
powerful, long term vocal health.



I found that SLS is bloated with a ton of needless exercises that have no real practical
application to singing and suffers greatly in the support department (even though it
"borrows" heavily from Bel Canto), as well as early bridging and early vowel closure.
Early bridging will atrophy the voice over time and KILL your chest voice. The world will
soon see these fundamental flaws in SLS (especially in closing down vowels too early


with no provision for re-opening them in the upper registers). It may be fine for a
beginner, but after that it is useless in my opinion.



However, Bel Canto also has its limits.



When we sing popular music, Bel Canto does not provide for vowel modifications in the
English language. Only Italian. (see my video on AEIOU vowels)



AND



Is diametrically opposed to any kind of distorted compression (which I personally love)
and has no provision for high range belting or fusing the chest voice into the female
soprano register. (side note: Appoggio support is killer and there is nothing that can
compare to it).



I learned, that by pushing the envelope of Appoggio to its extremes, that hyper glottal
compression (distortion) indeed was not only attainable, but this could be done safely as
long as one always comes back and "cleans up" the voice, putting resiliency and
elasticity back in the cords without the over-use of air.



I also learned that bridging later (contrary to what many teach) actually keeps the call
register powerful and strong over time, (provided it is "worked out" correctly).



I learned that the chest voice could indeed be "fused" seamlessly together with head
voice for one long, powerful note (one register).



I learned that the over-use of air (combined with poor support) was one of the voice’s
greatest enemies.



I learned that within vowel modifications, that those modifications can "start over" once
you are in the female soprano range allowing for male voices to sing well into that range
even if you are a high Bari like me.



I learned that by starting with a lowered laryngeal position and then gradually releasing
to a static (neutral) position, that amazing open throat technique can be achieved and
embedded (along with good tongue placement) for the greatest freedom and space in
the throat possible.



I learned that there is a ton of ridiculous information out there from vocal coaches who
are parroting things they have read, while they themselves can’t sing to prove their own
method. Neither do their student's prove it with their voices (this is why the absence of
them posting any students on their web sites), while all the while taking credit for guys
like Stevie Wonder. (Uh hummm, the last time I checked, Stevie Wonder was a great
singer long before going to this or that vocal coach. So to take credit for their singing is
utterly absurd. Let’s see what voices these coaches have truly built from scratch).
NONE.




I couldn't even begin to list here all of the things I have discovered along the way, but I
can tell you this:



I will be 50 this year in December. I have 40 commercially released CD's, Have toured
the world over most of my life, have well over 1,000 songs placed in film and TV, and
have had the opportunity to experiment a LOT in the studio and live performing to find
the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. After all this time, experience, and effort, I’ve
discovered what really works and what doesn't.



I invite everyone along for the ride.



It's not easy.



It will take discipline and dedication. At times you'll want to quit. Those that don't quit
and instead persevere WILL see the fruit of their hard work.



For this reason I am sharing my VERY hard-to-come-by information. If you apply
yourselves, it will blow your mind.



-Ken Tamplin