Possible to increase head voice range?
leestrobel
Member Posts: 4
Hi, this is my first post on the forum. I love Ken's YouTube videos and I'm seriously considering buying the course; however, I have one burning question:
Some of his videos cover how to increase your range by blending your head voice with your chest voice, but is it possible to extend the upper end of your head voice? For example, I am a male in my late 30s and the top end of my falsetto/head voice is around Eb5. If I try to go higher than that, I just can't - there's a block. So, is that the highest I can possibly go, or is it possible to extend further? If so, is that covered in the course?
Thanks in advance!
Some of his videos cover how to increase your range by blending your head voice with your chest voice, but is it possible to extend the upper end of your head voice? For example, I am a male in my late 30s and the top end of my falsetto/head voice is around Eb5. If I try to go higher than that, I just can't - there's a block. So, is that the highest I can possibly go, or is it possible to extend further? If so, is that covered in the course?
Thanks in advance!
Comments
a warm Welcome to the forums.
For sure, it is possible to extend the top range. But we want first to build a rock solid chest voice. Therefore we students here spend a lot of practice on growing our chest voice first and then, after that, increase the range and the strength of our head voice. If you do not do it that way you will loose a lot of your chest voice.
Doc
I guess another general question about the course is: does it provide clear guidelines for how to know when you are ready to 'graduate' from one section and move on to the next? I think my chest voice is already fairly strong, but I've never been to a vocal coach and I don't really know.
The course is laid out in volumes. There is no specific "graduation" point from moving from one volume to the next. HOWEVER, the moderators and seasoned veterans on this forum can help evaluate your progress along the way to make suggestions for "graduation". It is not a time based graduation, but a progress based graduation.
Let me add that the temptation for many is to move quickly through the volumes. As Ken says, this course is a lifetime course, building vocal muscle, and just as important, knowing how to control that muscle.
Doc was on volume 1 for about 6 months and then moved to volume 2, others have been on volume 1 for much longer. I have been on volume 1 for 6 months, but because of some breath control issues, I've decided to stay on volume 1 for awhile longer. I have no problems with that. My voice is growing steadily as is the control, so I am still moving in the right direction.
Like all things in life, what you put in is what you get out. The workouts (exercises) seem so basic and simple on the surface, but once you get into them, you start to hear and realize all the little nuances to singing and that there is so much to learn and feel/experience as you learn to control your voice.
I did Ken's free videos off and on for about 5 years prior to buying the course. It was great, and I learned a lot. What the course gave me was deeper instructional videos along with a daily workout regimens. I had to supply the discipline to do them, however.
The second and almost equal best part to buying the course is this forum. In the "student" section of the you get a great community of folks like @doc_ramadani and others who are very, very helpful. The forum has been invaluable to me.
There is no pressure to purchase the course, but if you are committed to practicing, you won't regret the purchase. I also recommend getting the Pro version if you decide buy.
Are you the Lee Strobel? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Strobel
Good singing to you, Lee.
Chris
Hi Chris,
Thanks for your comment. Yes, I am The Lee Strobel. Although, I'm not sure who that guy on the Wikipedia page is. I do know of him and I know he is an author, but I haven't met him. I'm a different Lee Strobel, ha ha
Your comments are very helpful and I will definitely look into buying the course once I can round up the money (get it signed off by the wife, etc.).
A bit about my background: I did quite a lot of choral singing at middle/high school when I was younger (early-mid teens), but I haven't done much since I reached my 20s. In the last couple of years, I've been getting more interested in singing again and maybe joining a cover/tribute band. I discovered my head voice about 3 months ago (partly thanks to Ken's videos), which was very cool, and I've been trying it out and seeing what I can do with it. I'm a big fan of Layne Staley, so I've been practicing and trying to sing a lot of his songs from Alice in Chains and his other band Mad Season. I think it would be cool to try to put together a Mad Season tribute band in my city, that would be great fun. Maybe it will happen one day ...
I get the money thing. That's why I didn't buy for such a long time. I kept thinking, is this really worth it? How good can it be? Man, that's a lot of money. It has been worth it and yes, my wife signed off last Christmas. I figured at 50 years old, I may not have much time left to do this.
If it helps, KTVA does run additional sales periodically, around various holidays. Black Friday was particularly good last year, which is when I bought. Again, zero pressure.
I am very happy that I met Lee Strobel, and not that Lee Strobel. I prefer originals.
Very good to have you here, Lee. You seem to love real rock music. I do too. If you want to be able to sing like Layne you should really have an eye on this course. Personally I started from nothing being a guitar player for 35+ years. I never thought that I would be able to sing songs that I am able to ding right now.
And the icing on the cake is, that I meet nice people here, like @HuduVudu, @cwcw, @sagemacg, @Sophia, @Mysti, ...
Stay with us and you will learn a lot.
Doc
@cwcw just for the record, it's not that I doubt the course is worth the money in any way. I mean, the quality of Ken's YouTube videos speaks for itself, and he is clearly a very experienced and skilled coach. Also, I would think if I were to take weekly private lessons, I would probably spend a similar amount within a month or two. So, it seems like good value to me.
But still, it's a decent chunk of change that I need to come up with. I do definitely want to get the course and hopefully I will sign up at some point this year