Hi from Czech Republic!

Laso

Hey fellows,

I am a newbie here so I´d like to intruduce myself to this awesome community!

My name is Vlad, I´m 24 and I come from Czech Republic.

There´s a quite long story behind my singing "career" and I want to share something of that. 

Until last week, when I started to work regularly on KTVA singing method, I had never taken any singing lesson or anything like that. I have been singing from about 15 years old, all by myself.

I went through some bands during my life, singing and also playing the bass guitar. As to the genre it was always a kind of hard rock. The older I am the more I like heaviest kinds of music (metal) which leads me to my recent focus - metal, death metal, metalcore (Bands like In Flames, Bullet for My Valentine, Soilwork, etc) . Don´t blame me for that please. I do screaming, growling and all that stuff, but I like it and want to do it - but correctly. And still I also love melody so I want to be a good singer for all kinds of music. Right now I am only a singer (I am done with the bass ) and want to be the best!

If you are interested, here are some demonstrations (studio records of my bands):

www.bandzone.cz/paranoidck - this one is a kind of Czech hard rock band (the page is Czech, even though just click the play button). I didn´t scream there yet, so don´t worry, it´s only melody. 

www.myspace.com/atsicz - this band is my recent one. It´s much harder and the vocals are so difficult! And that is probably why I started KTVA. I don´t want to be one of the screamers that cannot sing. I love singing and I want to show that I mean it serious! I have great plans for this band and I´m ready to sacrififice a lot and do as much effort as possible to fullfil my dreams. Tracks are about a year old so not touched by the KTVA method yet. You can here maybe where my problems were.

I have a problem. I am a smoker. I smoke for about five years. It´s terrible I hate myself for that, but it is SO hard to stop! I try to reduce it and seem to have success, but it takes a lot effort. I started to have some problems with my voice (didn´t sing so high as I used to, had a lot of mucous) so I was to see my doctor. She told me that I have a little permanent damage of my vocal chords probably because of that smoking. Nothing serious - she told me that using good quality techniques and methods no-one will recognize my damage in singing. 

So... here I am... I am ready!

Laso

I started a week ago (an hour of singing and training of VOLUME 1 every 6 days). Yesterday I gave myself a break.

So today I started again and had an idea to record myself when training. Because I´m really not shure if I´m doing it right. It would be a great honor if Ken could listen to it, but I understand he must be very busy. So I would appreciaty any help from you guys!

It´s the LAW:

 (Scale 1)

 (Scale 2)

 

 (combination of EH and AH)

 (the last exercise of VOLUME 1 audio) 

 I recorded these right after the warmp up (lip roll and tongue exerc.). I know there are places wrong in pitch, but the technique is more important to me. Could you tell me how it sounds to you?

Here is also demonstration of a song - you can here me in action

highmtn

Welcome to the KTVA forums, Vlad!

Your voice sounds good. You have good range and pitch.  You will find that as you continue to do Ken's exercises, your voice will grow in tone and strength. 

Learn and practice as much as you can regarding support.  On your scales you often just touch the high note and move back down quickly.  With more support you can sustain those highest notes more comfortably.  It may be Ken in the background on the recording, but I was hearing some artifacts that sounded almost like autotune going on. 

Your growling grunge vocals can take a toll on your voice.  Make sure that you pay strict attention to Ken's instructions.  You may find that some of the methods you are using are outside of the boundaries of safe and healthful singing.  You want to still be able to sing your full range years from now, I'm sure.

You have a good start.  Follow the rules Ken sets, including leaving whatever you may have learned about the voice in the past at the door. 

Your voice will grow like a monster!

Bob

Laso

Hi Bob,

thank you very much for your quick reply! I´d like to say I really appreciate what you guys do here. I´m trying to read through all of the topics here and find them so useful! As to the singing, KTVA is the best thing I´ve ever experienced, because my voice is growing so fast! I have never known about my range until I started using vowel modifications - but there are some more questions:

1) Am I doing the vowel modifications correctly?

2) I would like to know what kind of voice I am - baritone, tenor.. - How can I know? I´ve read somewhere that it is about my top lowest and highest comfortable notes - as to the lowest, it´s probably the same like Ken starts his exercises on Volume 1 with. The highest is here - https://soundcloud.com/kreius-1/the-highest-note 

3) Support - I know what you mean - I feel very weak when singing higher notes. But how to work on it? In Volume 1 there is only one short exercise in the beginning which is quite difficult for me, because I always feel dizzy as I have to breath so quickly. Do you have any suggestions?

As to the recording there shouldn´t be any autotune (I hope) in there. I added just a little of RVox plugin - it is a compressor - just to make it louder.

Once again, thank you very much Bob!

highmtn

Vlad,

I actually don't hear the vowel modifications in your exercises, but your "LAH" still sounds good, even on the high notes.  This may be an indication that you haven't yet reached the top of your range. You should be using the mods at the top of your range when you begin to feel the tension.  The good news is that you may have even higher to go before you need the modifications, OR that if you do the mods more properly, then you will be able to dwell more comfortably for a longer time on those highest notes. 

The mods should be subtle, and should be a little difficult to detect, but they need to be there enough to do their magic of giving you more notes at the top with less tension.

Your range is quite high.  Your demo got you up to an F#5, which is quite respectable.  I think if you were modifying a little more, having gone through AW (as in loft), OO (as in hook), and finally Ooh (as in who), you would be able to have less tension and maybe get up to G#5 or better.

The good news also is that you are properly paring down the weight as you ascend, and because you are doing that, you are able to continue getting higher and higher even without much vowel modification. WITH the vowel modifications employed more, you would increase your capabilities all the more, I believe.

My guess would be that you are definitely a tenor, but which kind of tenor, or any other vocal fach is determined by the locations of your primo and secondo passagios, according to most accounts.

If you purchased a KTVA Bundle, then you can look in your KTVA bonus files and find the Word file titled "Determining Singing Range and Vocal Fach" and that will help you to nail down just which type of what you are.

Regarding support: Again, if you purchased a KTVA bundle, then you have all three of the KTVA Stages.  The Last Track on the Stage Three Audio Warmup/Workouts is an extended version of the Ha-ha exercise.  This does not teach you HOW to support, but it will build the musculature that is NEEDED FOR Support.  If you're getting winded now on the Stage One version of the Ha-ha puffs, then you're going to really be challenged when you get to the Stage Three version. 

There are a lot of discussions about Support in the KTVA Webinars.  Support can be a hard concept to wrap your brain and body around, but it is essential to master.  Support is the Power Plant for your voice, and it will Magnify the Power of your Voice Exponentially.  Could be it's time to consider exchanging the smoking for running and doing sit-ups...  Smoking will only diminish your singing accomplishments.  I know it's tough.  I think I quit four times, at least...

Maybe the artifacts my ears heard were the RVox.  It just had a tiny bit of ever-so-slight artificiality sound somewhere in the mix.  I must be hearing things!

Bob   

Laso

Bob,

thank you so much! It makes a lot of sense to me! Still I´m surprised by the vowel modifications because I feel like I do them. So that´s great, I can move it even higher!

Since now I am going to practise two - three weeks more with VOLUME 1, for being more confident and having better control of my voice, then I will jump into the Vol 2. I can´t wait for it!

One of my other troubles is application of the method to the real singing, because when I sing my regular songs I still feel tension, which is probably again because of that support.

You are right about exercising - I stopped last year and I can feel my body really misses it. It is important to be fit for singers. 

Thank you so much, Bob! You are the best!

highmtn

Vlad,

Here is a link to a post that will help you to set your sights on what you will need to do in order to apply your KTVA technique to your actual singing of songs.  There are other posts on this same process, as well.

This process seems a bit crazy, but if you do this, you will find that it actually moves your voice to where it needs to be in order to apply Ken's techniques and remove your old habits. 

Check it out...

http://kentamplinvocalacademy.com/forum/#/discussion/1095/how-do-you-use-the-program-for-singing

You will find that this process will lead you into a way to apply your vowel techniques into the songs you are singing and it will transform your voice and bring into play all of the strength that your KTVA exercises build into your voice.

Bob

Laso

Thanks Bob, I will try it as soon as possible! It sounds great.

I like KTVA for being so scientifical if you know what I mean. It really seems that there´s always a way

Vlad

highmtn

Vlad,

The method in the link above will not be that effective until you have made your way through most of the three KTVA Stages.  By that time you will have really learned a lot about how to sing and modify your vowels, you will have practiced your rear end off,  and you will in turn apply that muscle memory and all of the strength you will have gained into your singing. 

Without first building on all of the KTVA basics and practicing for a considerable amount of time, you won't have that much strength to apply to the technique.  After you have spent your time on all three KTVA Stages, you will be able to use the vowel emphasis and consonant de-emphasis and really, really transform your voice.

Bob