Joe from Michigan
Jowabunga
Member Posts: 7
Hey everyone,
Older dude (just turned 50) here, late-bloomer to the vocal world after playing Rock Band and the like with friends for the last 10 years or so, nerding out in more depth in the last year, and finally taking the plunge and crossing voice lessons off my bucket list when I started them online in December. As a driven, perfectionistic individual it's been an exercise in patience as I fight to overcome some old habits, but 3 months I'm still going after it. Anyone have any experiences like this they're willing to share?
Older dude (just turned 50) here, late-bloomer to the vocal world after playing Rock Band and the like with friends for the last 10 years or so, nerding out in more depth in the last year, and finally taking the plunge and crossing voice lessons off my bucket list when I started them online in December. As a driven, perfectionistic individual it's been an exercise in patience as I fight to overcome some old habits, but 3 months I'm still going after it. Anyone have any experiences like this they're willing to share?
Comments
Happy singing,
Randy
Hey mate and welcome to the forum. I am turning 50 this year! Great to see you committing to achieving a life goal. I thought the same thing, I am not getting any younger, I have always wanted to learn how to sing properly, lets do this.
You can read my back story here:
https://forum.kentamplinvocalacademy.com/discussion/15501/hi-from-a-land-down-under#
Regards,
Scotty
Randy:
My attitude in the 3 mos I've been doing this has been "the only thing stopping me is me" but the confidence has been shaken at times... I'll get more into that further down in this post. Regarding the 'lah triads", I may not have access to this because I haven't purchased the course. Right now I am doing lessons with a different vocal coach... I decided earfy on that as someone who is not likely to develop a performing career it didn't make sense for me to invest in a far more expensive endeavor until I was sure I wanted to commit to this long-term. 3 mos in I'm still not certain.
Codeowl:
I read your entire story, really appreciate you sharing in such detail. Your persistence is legendary and I'm glad you've had some breakthroughs.
More on my situation:
Based on feedback from my coach and how I've been feeling over the 3 months I've been taking lessons and working independently my trajectory and progress have been better than expected. I'm fortunate enough to have had pretty good pitch from the beginning, but my biggest issue is, based on bad self-taught bad habits, flawed methods of getting to the higher stuff which cause strain, etc. Consequently my voice sits in a very thin, often harsh place despite my best efforts to the contrary.. I knew that I was doing this to some degree prior to lessons, but I had no idea how deeply-rooted.it is. Unfortunately, my song choices, some of which I've been singing for years, have been really ambitious/challenging in ways that are directly affected by this I've consequently bounced off them pretty hard and had to them back on the shelf for a while. It's shaken my confidence enough that it's been affecting my desire to sing songs generally. I've considered taking a break to reflect and come back when the passion returns, but I also realize that expecting the world to be my oyster after only 3 months of training, especially without setbacks, is ludicrous.
Anyway, while I'm likely going to continue working with my current coach as my experiences have been great, I am also considering other options (coursework, evaluations by another coach or two, etc).
I found in my first attempt I had a number of issues that all worked together to take me out. So I too struggled with higher notes, and I was trying to get them by pushing more air, and didn't realize that I was also raising my lyranx right up as I went for the high notes, which was adding a heap of tension.
So the first game changer for me in my second attempt was understanding that keeping the larynx in a slightly lowered/neutral position while using the raising of my soft palate as the tool to move up in pitch was like opening up a new ability. Boom!! I could now go up in pitch without strain. It was a combination of studying the videos in Ken's coarse, developing muscle with the vocal exercises and researching in the students area of these forums that has really given me the breakthroughs I was not able to get on my own.
I can second @RandyB, the Coarse/Student Forum Access are overwhelmingly worth the money.
If you end up getting access give me a shout and I could point you to some great discussions around the stuff above in the students area
Yeah I hear you on that. AC/DC, Cold Chisel, Guns'n'Roses Etc.. all high signers and belters...
I am not sure if you are also playing an instrument, but I have tried to focus on songs in my range, with melodies that are pretty simple and easy to play on the guitar, where the lyric goes with the strumming. This way I can focus on the execution of technique.
One of the first ones I focused on was:
Bill Withers - Ain't No Sunshine
It is a really nice simple song. As time has gone on I have tried to add my own style to this and do a few nifty bits, it is a fun tune to sing.
Another one is:
Hootie & The Blowfish - Let Her Cry
This is also a really great tune. There are a few bits I struggled with on this one, but I worked out a few vowel mods that enabled me to overcome these obstacles. Vowel Mods are another awesome thing you learn in the coarse.
Anyway, hope to see you round mate, there is heaps to learn many new abilities to unlock
Regards,
Scotty
Funny - I've done quite a bit of Hootie too actually. Let Her Cry has been a Rock Band favorite for a while. I've also done Change (from their latest album), Goodbye, Innocence, and a few others. His voice is in the range that I never have to battle to hit the notes.
I looked over the course again yesterday. Right now I'm pondering where I'm heading with this, if it's something I want to continue to invest in, etc. My original intention was never to perform, play in a band, or any of that, mainly just to cross taking voice lessons off my bucket list and I've done that (and improved while doing it). Right now I'm leaning in the direction of taking some time off, getting back to enjoying singing again, and maybe revisiting training down the road.
Fair enough mate. I don't think I will have a career in music as such, I am a computer programmer by trade. My motivations are:
1. I love music and singing and I have always wanted to be good at it. I the window of opportunity to really give it a good go, is not getting bigger, so there is not a better time than now.
2. I can play to family and friends.
3. Maybe I could get the courage to go to a Jam Night. It is a night where anyone can get up and play. Different places have different rules, some you have to register, some you just rock up and put your name down for that night...
5. I would love to write some cool songs and record them. I have written songs in the past, but as my vocal abilities grow, maybe I could really be able to do some sweet melodies, and tell some great stories.
6. I play guitar and it is super cool to be able to play/sing a song and have everyone sing alone.
7. We have a bass player at work and a drummer. We are all so busy and we know we not playing gigs or anything, though we joke about that arena gig we are going to do ... lololll but we have jam sessions at work, I bought a small portable PA system (I talk about here: https://forum.kentamplinvocalacademy.com/discussion/comment/84476/#Comment_84476) and I sing and play guitar. It is way more fun playing a song, where someone sings, rather than just playing cord progressions and trying to count the bars.
8. I am really excited to see how far I can take this, as in what I am capable of if I really apply myself.
Anyway mate, good luck with what ever you choose
Regards,
Scotty
I'm excited for you for all those things, man. I hope you can maintain your drive and you go after that shit with all you've got. I'll still be hanging around the forums chatting it up so I'll be keeping an eye on ya.
I can relate actually - I am an extremely driven person when I decide on taking an interest deeper. A few years ago I reached an impasse similar to yours with tennis where bad self-taught habits were preventing me from playing the game as it was intended to be played to the point that it was more frustrating than fun. To fix this, I had to take lessons/do clinics and essentially tear down and rebuild parts of my game. Expectedly, that part of the process was pretty sucky at times, but you absolutely need to go through that to get to the other side... which i did eventually. It was absolutely worth the time investment.
I took the same approach to singing. Even before I started lessons, I spent hours every week nerding out to youtube videos (including Ken's stuff), etc. Once I started lessons I dove right in, doing warmups/exercises 15-30 minutes a day without fail, constantly checking out material from other coaches, looking at ways to up my game and keeping a really great attitude in the face of going through Tennis 2.0 (which is, essentially, tearing my voice back down to basics and going through the rough stages of building it back up).
The big difference between tennis and voice, though, is that unlike tennis, you can still enjoy voice and music regardless of your level of skill or investment. This is the biggest reason I'm willing to step back now, before I get so invested and perfectionistic about this that I'm unable to "go back". Make sense?