Honest critique and recommendations for in person vocal coaching

cjcsurrow

I'm a semi pro and aspiring pro rock and metal singer in several tribute bands as well as an original project and seeking vocal coaching. My details are as follows:

Influences- Robert Plant, Klaus Meine, Geoff Tate, Sebastian Bach, Rob Halford, Don Dokken, Jack Russell (Great White), Joey Belladonna, Joey Tempest, Mark Boals, Steve Walsh, Steve Perry, Lou Gramm, Brad Delp, Paul McCartney, Glenn Hughes, Goran Edman, Steve Marriott, Mickey Thomas, Bobby Kimball, Tony Harnell, Geddy Lee, Rik Emmett, Bruce Dickinson, Michael Kiske, Ronnie James Dio, Lenny Wolf (Kingdom Come), Christian Augustin (Sortilege), Bon Scott, Sammy Hagar, Michael Sweet, James LaBrie, Steve Grimmett and many more

Areas to improve upon-

- Tone choking on closed vowel sounds ee's and oo's, bottlenecks that begin to appear around A4-C5 and then again around E flat 5-- seeking proper warm-ups in my full range

- Power, projection, tonal consistency, sounding smoother, and more agile for runs while retaining my individual timbre, proper vowel modifications and eliminating bottlenecks that begin to appear around A4-C5 and then again around E flat 5 throughout my range of F#2-C6. Proper warmups and stamina to tour and perform the challenging material that I perform up to 4-5 nights a week

Samples- https://fb.watch/oC23NJzAh9/
https://fb.watch/oC29xMvoKl/

I would very much be interested in hearing your honest critique and evaluation of my current voice, what I can improve upon, and if you are able to help me achieve the above goals I listed

Klaus_T

hi, i think you sound good and clearly have put in a lot of work. the goals you have is what more or less every serious musician wants: wanting to improve. so wherever you are, it can always get better.

all the goals you mention are addressed in Ken's course, he systematically teaches vowel mods, support, belting, and also, how they work together. the course exercises are the warmups you are looking for. Ken comes from a similar background when it comes to the singers and bands you listed. hard rock is more demanding than, say, RnB when it comes to muscular work and "power".

and o for these kind of "loud" vocals, you also need to be sure it is safe to do.

while i think that Ken does lessons 1:1 still, in 5 years on the course i never had one, and people get better here without any private lessons. i learned a lot about singing, and improved in a way i would have never dreamed of. most of the groundwork and grinding, i.e. doing the exercises (roughly an hour, 5 times a week), you would have to do at home by yourself anyway. without the student's motivation, it is worthless. the muscular growth and coordination has to be built, and that is time-consuming (but worth it, when you see the growth).

what is your current warmup like? how often do you do it?

cjcsurrow

Currently, I just sing parts of songs. Lately, I've been singing parts of Back on the Streets by Vinnie Vincent sung by Goran Edman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5BLNMuXYvo

Klaus_T

you mean as your warmup, you sing parts of songs?

cjcsurrow

Yes exactly

Klaus_T

alright then you are definitely missing out on some progress. scales and exercises help you to isolate certain muscular coordination and growth things, which will be tricky enough to master in isolation (examples: position of larynx, support, open throat, placement, pitch-specific vowel modifications, to only name a few). in a song or a snippet of a song, these things whizz by at lightning speed, and there will be very little learning or carry-over effect other than warming up the voice. the terminology is confusing, but warm-ups are (or should be) much more than that. they are kind of a lab in which you can try out and hone in on techniques in isolation, giving your muscles and brain a chance to learn those properly. kind of similar how in a sport, you also need to do drills that prepare you for the game but are not anything like the game in its entirety, but rather isolate one aspect of it. but , if you train those in isolation, you will get better at the actual game. Ken didn't come up with this idea of course, this is similar to classical singing teaching, and every teacher will give you some kind of exercises. Whether they are actually good exercises and helping you improve in the long run, or just a waste of time, or maybe even harmful for your health and/or technique, this is something you will have to figure out by doing them for a while and figure it out. if you listen to Ken's story and how he came up with the course, you will hear that he spent a lot of time and money on stuff that was no good. so he compiled that what worked into the course, and developed it further over time.

my recommendation is that you check out my profile page, you will see a routine that i have compiled from the free YT content. after doing these for around 2 weeks (after years of dabbling without any guidance, without any real progress), i could tell that they do work, and signed up for the course. i was really annoyed with myself at first that i knew Ken's videos for 2 whole years before i realized that i wasn't going anywhere with my own attempts, and maybe was just too lazy (or ignorant) to really commit to daily practice and all that stuff. anyway, i started the course and never looked back. better late than never

but don't take my word for it, i am sure you will notice the benefits of these exercises yourself even after a short while (even though some stuff will take much longer to learn, strangely no one would expect to master the guitar in a year or so, but some people think singing is different; it's not). you can follow the instructions on the profile page, and if you have any questions, do let me know! curious to hear what you think about this