Ken Tamplin's Singing Testimony
highmtn
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Attached below is a file that is written by Ken. A lot of us have heard parts of his story, but possibly wonder how it all fits together to have fused Ken's voice into the incredible instrument it has become after all the years of training and discovery he has been through.
Here it is, all in one article, from Ken himself. When you read the whole thing, it answers many of your questions, like "how could he possibly know that much about the voice?"
Ken's journey has been one of struggle and triumph, lows and highs, humble beginnings and amazing vocal accomplishments. Our good fortune is that Ken isn't keeping all of his knowledge to himself. We get to come along for the ride, and begin our own vocal journeys, following a trail blazed by Ken. He guides us and shows us how to get to a destination that took him nearly 30 years. There was no trail when he first passed this way.
He's making it really easy, by comparison, for us to follow on his path.
Bob
Comments
Tiffany Renee Darwish (born October 2, 1971) is an American singer and former teen icon. She is most notable for her 1987 remake of "I Think We're Alone Now", originally recorded by Tommy James and the Shondells in 1967. Released as the second single from her eponymous album,Tiffany, the song quickly became a teen anthem.[1] Thanks to an original mall tour, "The Beautiful You: Celebrating The Good Life Shopping Mall Tour '87", Tiffany found commercial success;[2] both the single and the album peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard 200 charts, respectively. The singles, "Could've Been" and "I Saw Him Standing There", a cover version of The Beatles' "I Saw Her Standing There", followed soon after, with the former also claiming the number one position on the Billboard Hot 100.
Although Tiffany's second album, Hold an Old Friend's Hand managed to chart in 1988, it failed to replicate the success of her debut album.
Hi Bob,
Any hints on how to open the pdf.
I hover and click the mouse and get nothing :-(
Roger
"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
Thanks Bob! (and Ken, of course)
Very quick response.
KTVA rocks!
In my case, I've always had a pretty good ear for pitch. That said, I've had to learn to actively LISTEN to my own voice at times, lest I let 'er drift. If we aren't listening and comparing the pitch of our voice (in REAL-TIME) to the pitch and key of the song or scale we are singing, we can lose our way. If we get off-track, we may not know how to get back onto the proper pitch.
Also, if we aren't yet trained on a certain note, and try to attain it, we may miss the mark for that reason, as well.
To truly CENTER on a note, we can't be a skoshe low or a skoshe high. It's got to be as dead-on as best as our ears can tell.
It is very adviseable to record all workouts and practices and to listen to the playback. That way we can monitor our pitch accuracy and come to grips with any adjustments we need to make. The recorder doesn't lie.
If it says we're sharp or flat, we can use that information to turn our weaknesses into our strengths!
Bob
@blondiewales,
Ken had a limited range. He practiced and practiced and took lessons from many famous teachers, but his range did not improve much at all. It took many years before he came upon the techniques that he now teaches in his courses. It's obvious from watching his many videos that his range has greatly expanded.
Bob
Gentlemen, and Ladies, You may start your engines!!!
: ^ )
@Quantumjoe,
The message near the top of this thread that starts out: "Ken Tamplin's Testimony Of His Singing Journey" is the text of the pdf file. So many people were unable to open the pdf, I just copied and pasted it into this thread so everybody could read it.
If you read the post, you read what's in the pdf. The pdf must be corrupted or something.
Anyway, it's a great story!!
Bob
I will be 43 in several months and finally...finally am in a band. I've known many individuals over the years that play, even at one point my husband at the time was a tremendous singer/guitarist but nothing worked out (these are reasons that I'll keep to myself). Regardless, I have never stopped doing my vocal lessions. I work Divas 2 to warm up then move to Divas 3 to expand my range, strength and breathing. I then sing for a couple hours and suck on a Zink tablet (some days) to give my vocals a break for a bit. Within 2 hours, I'm singing again with even better clarity, pitch, and range.
The pianist I work with years ago told me, Success is when you are prepared when the right moment comes along. I always remembered that so continued to never lose hope and continued with my KTVA vocal workouts.
Thank you, Ken. There's a little three year old girl inside me whose dream fourty years later has come true. Kiki ~
Congratulations on getting into a band, Kiki!
There is a lot of fun and adventure to be had singing and/or playing in bands, especially singing.
Your friend the pianist was right. You have to prepare yourself, so that when that moment comes along, you can jump on the train when it comes through town!
Good for You!
Bob
I see Ken's quote above:
"I started taking lessons from Andy Boettner (who claims he worked with Michael
Jackson way before Seth Riggs claims Michael)."
Ken has been going through quite the ride in his singing journey.
Is he still active on the forum? I can imagine he is too busy for it.
I am only in week 3 but I am so glad I made the leap with KTVA and this tremendous support group!
I look forward to putting in the work and expanding my range, tone and knowledge of the voice.