After KTVA almost one year. (former: My current singing without having any vocal coaching before.)

Mod

I like a band called Marillion very much. Both worlds with Fish and Steve Hogarth. This autumn I was able to record an initial version of a song called 'After Me'. That means earlier there has been an inability to produce the highest notes properly. My singing is far away from perfect and I'm not satisfied with my tone but I love singing and want to use Ken's methods and see where the road takes me... So here is a link:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=78xW307SbYc

Mod

Here is another song: Billy Joel's Uptown Girl. The recording is made by using Cakewalk Sonar X3/Shure 58 mic and Roland Quad-Capture.

Any comments would be appreciated.

And the link:
https://youtu.be/ACPLS8XPsxM

esequibo

hey, i love uptown girl i used to impress girls with it at the local karaoke haha
you did a great job imo, now you only have to find a good youtube tuturial on mixing voice

Mod

esequibo said:

hey, i love uptown girl i used to impress girls with it at the local karaoke haha
you did a great job imo, now you only have to find a good youtube tuturial on mixing voice

Many thanks for the comment! I love it too and many other Billy Joel songs are just great. I'll go through Ken's videos but I've only watched two of them so far. So a lot of work ahead...!

Kevin123

"Uptown Girl" sounds good. You capture the essence of the song quite well. Keep at it!

Mod

Kevin123 said:

"Uptown Girl" sounds good. You capture the essence of the song quite well. Keep at it!

Thanks! Haven't been here for a while. Now saw your comment!

Mod

I did my version of a song called On The Loose. The band is Saga and they wrote this song about 1980 or so. Unfortunately the opening line is not the best possible, but I cannot do a retake anymore as some people are already sleeping here. The discrepancy is not very large, luckily, and as I listened to the song, at least with my abilities I coundn't block any more bad notes...

Here is the link:

https://youtu.be/5Y8jpHvBL4Q

Wigs

Don't forget to get your student access here

https://forum.kentamplinvocalacademy.com/discussion/6859/how-to-get-access-to-the-ktva-how-to-sing-better-than-anyone-else-student-areas-of-the-forums#latest

Mod

https://youtu.be/v9rxbvd4nYA

More recent 'On The Loose'. Maybe a bit better than the first one. But some training to do to reach the level of Michael Sadler - heh.

Wigs

Pretty good, sounds like it's sitting around your passagio. Don't forget to try and find those open spaces on those smaller vowels like ooh.

Mod

https://youtu.be/p7LUb3DPNQw

Here is a cover of Limelight from Rush. I've had some difficulties finding time for practicing. The old level + 01 volume's vowel scales from Ken's course, done a couple of months. Nothing more.

It is nothing near perfect but if compared to my original level this is a masterpiece.

I haven't yet been able to properly go pass the second passagio. Especially when comes to from up to down part.

Wigs

Sounds like you are getting some progress, good work

maxxiengn

Wow, you've made a lot of progress compared to the first video you uploaded. I mean, your voice sounded a bit stiff in the first video but now I can hear so much more flexibility and feelings in your voice. Keep up the great work!

Mod

https://youtu.be/jDzxOIZsNbE

Here is my Asia cover. It's The Smile Has Left Your Eyes. When singing this I got a little impression about how good singer John Wetton was. I left my vocals quite loud.

Thanks for the comments! I'll try to find more time to go through the course. E.g. this song has many parts that require more stamina than I have. And the last three words of the song need some work too.

Mod

https://youtu.be/kipSEi-g9YQ

I think my voice has finally responded to Ken's Vol 1 vocal exercises. Here is a sample. Billy Joel's Always A Woman To Me.

I stopped daily singing of too difficult songs and kept on going with the vocal exercises. It didn't take long after that I noticed that the exercises are feeling better. Now I'm convinced it was a mistake to try to learn how to sing just doing songs. Especially lower notes feel easier to be produced. My range may not be as good as before but I think I must gain it back by training Ken's scales.

Wigs

I can hear you using the vowels you practice with while singing this song and having the ping show up as well. Good work mate

Mod

Wigs said:

I can hear you using the vowels you practice with while singing this song and having the ping show up as well. Good work mate

Thanks! I have also practiced Billy Joel's 'Honesty'. Usually, it feels much easier to sing after applying Ken's scales. However, I still struggle with the last chorus that has a vowel in the word 'heard' that is now included in those scales. Sometimes I practice that 'ea' but currently, I'm more into bridging due to I omitted bridging for much too long.

But that 'heard' is also the highest note of that song and Billy is using a 'raspy' sound in that one. It will be interesting to learn if I'll ever be able to apply the same kind of sound as he does.

Mod

Mod said:

Usually, it feels much easier to sing after applying Ken's scales.

I mean, obviously, it feels easier now than before applying anything of Ken's course. I used to merely sing songs and that's about it. Without any special vocal exercises.

Mod

Now I have applied for the course's first part for about 8 months. The following song is in Finnish. My own language that is. Hopefully, you get a Swedish cook experience from this. The backing track is analog as I recorded it from my computer's speaker. Therefore the vocal part is quite loud here.

I think Ken's course has helped me a lot.

https://youtu.be/Su-VL7KQGHc

It took me over a year to start the course properly. I really regret I was slow to start.

Mod

Here is the newest recording:

https://youtu.be/00eMAcNU4KA

I'm not completely satisfied with my tone. And the two high lines of this song (after the guitar solo) are not sounding good enough. I think I may sound better in other songs, even though some notes are even higher than in this song. The other song I tried to sing is Motörhead's Ace of Spades. In that one there is strain present. So that is merely another example in which my voice is not like at home.

https://youtu.be/NqBUbVuG6Zo

I didn't even try to bring any distortion into that.

Due to lack of time, I'm still pretty attached to part one vocal exercises.

Has anyone had similar issues? Did you pass them? I think that for me (in Waiting for an Alibi) it may be the word 'waiting' and its first vowels that just don't work. It's only G4

EDIT (2023-01-14): Just took another shot with Waiting for an Alibi. High notes are much better now and not sharp or flat. 'Wai' is still a little bit strained but less. So what is different? Only that I had to do other things for a couple of days and I had less time to sing. So resting was a good thing. But I guess there should not be a need to rest for a [most unprofessional] singer that doesn't do gigs or better, tours.