New guidelines?

Jablev1288

Sorry if this has already been addressed.

I'm not a course member yet...but been looking through the forum and Ken's YouTubeto pick up everything I can.

I see for the course members the general guideline is an hour a day doing the drills.

At one point it seemed Ken recommended once through the drills stretching chest and the 2nd time allowing the switch to head voice.

I think the more recent posts were saying 2x stretching chest because developing head voice should come later. But I'm not 100%

Which is the suggested way to practice as of 2020?

Klaus_T

hi, this is a question that i cannot fully answer in this section here, but it is correct that one hour a day (actually in the beginning, more like 45 min) is your expected "workload" for the course. 5-6 times per week. are you thinking oif doing the course, or are you already practicing?

Jablev1288

I may get the course once I have some extra cash. Most of my extra cash is put back into the business I'm running right now.

I'm still practicing what I can find on Ken's YouTube channel and with info I find throughout the forum.

It really is a goldmine of free info.

At the moment I'm working scales using LAH and getting the ping mostly

And the forum is how i found out about the recommendations for roughly an hour a day and 5 to 6 days a week for practice

And also about some recommendations of just chest voice early on for that workout out period but others were saying they were going 50/50 on stretching chest and using head voice as early as volume 1.

That's what I was confused about but if that's info strictly for the course I totally get it.

Klaus_T

you can check out my profile page for a workout i created before i started KTVA, i recommend it to people as a demo so they can try if the (near) daily exercise is for them. the exercises on the channel are sometimes actually more advanced then on the early volumes of the course. if you can, i recommend getting the course, it is a system that builds your voice from the foundation upwards. so actually, you need the full package in order to really make it work, otherwise you will need to reverse-engineer Ken's method, which took him decades to build. for the price, it is really so much information and material that if you can afford it, you can't really go wrong with it

in western singing tradition, the smooth connection between the registers is the ultimate goal (so you cannot hear a break between head and chest voice). we first want a strong chest voice, because the chest voice is our foundation.

i guess i am not revealing too much about any course specifics when i put it like that: we work on the connection (passagio) from day one, so as to make that transition smooth. strengthening the light falsetto head voice, which is normally not very strong in untrained (especially male) singers, and blending it with the chest voice, this is the end game, and will therefore be addressed in later volumes of the course. the course is laid out so this connection is built up bit by bit, you can compare it to a training plan for when you want to achieve certain sports goals. you can't start with the advanced exercises.

it is a matter of our aesthetics, we don't like to hear that "yodel" break, at least not for most music, and it makes a singer able to sing seemlessly from very low to very high notes, which i guess is what makes it sound impressive and skillful, because indeed it is a skill that most people need to work hard to obtain, as we do at KTVA

having said all that, if you do the YT videos regularily, you will be able to make your voice better, and you will have noticed that it gets better even after about 1-2 weeks, but in the long run, the course will give you a more structured package, and is obviously more goal-oriented. if you do his YT videos (nearly) every day for about 1hour, you will still make progress and will have a head start once you finally have saved up for the course!

Wigs

If you can pop a link to the discussions you are referring to in the forum that will help, it's a fine line we try and tread between what is open knowledge on Ken's YT channel and what is course specific.

Jablev1288

Thanks that helps me understand things a lot better.

And those videos too. I was actually pulling from some these already. Good to have them organized though.

@Wigs I'll see if i can't find those links

Jablev1288

I knew I read a few others but so far this the most relevant one

https://forum.kentamplinvocalacademy.com/discussion/11855/how-do-i-know-when-i-can-start-practicing-head-voice

Wigs

Thanks for that. So what @Klaus_T said is pretty much what you need to work on. The confusion with working head voice is you shouldn't spend time on it exclusively until your chest voice is nice and strong. We do spend half our time in the beginning bridging from chest to head, but the purpose of that is to build a strong connection, not to work the head voice. Do the bridging first, then the chest stretching. Depending on your ability you may not work on head for months or years. I'm 2 years in and only just starting to think of volume 4 which is exclusive head voice.