New singer here!

BrandonL

Hi everyone. I've been listening to Ken Tamplin for years. I have some health issues though and it stopped me from learning to sing until recently. I can practice on occasion now.

My diaphragm sits lower than the average person. It makes it painful to sing but I still want to sing because I enjoy it that much.

I noticed that Ken's voice recovery video tutorial helps me sing since I can't do diaphragmatic breathing like the average person. Holding a lot of air helps a lot. I know it's probably not the best way but it works for me.

I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice on how I could start learning to sing as a beginner with some structure on Ken's YouTube channel?

Right now I feel kind of stumped, I'm bouncing from one video to the next on Ken's channel. Not to say that they're not beneficial videos but without structure, I'm not really sure how well I can improve efficiently.

Maybe even meet somebody to share progress with and be corrected by?

Feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Terence

There's a $1 deal that's about to end.You'll have access to all courses for $19/mo.

bobmazzo

I wish you the best Brandon. Maybe Ken can help strengthen your diaphragm to a point that it's not so painful in the future.

BrandonL

bobmazzo said:

I wish you the best Brandon. Maybe Ken can help strengthen your diaphragm to a point that it's not so painful in the future.

Thanks Bob maybe that's an option. I think my diaphragm getting stronger would be a side effect of singing no matter what. So let's hope for that!

BrandonL

Terence said:

There's a $1 deal that's about to end.You'll have access to all courses for $19/mo.

Hey thanks for letting me know about that. I have to save for medical bills so unfortunately I'm pinching every penny. I need some free resources for now. But I'm definitely going to consider that in the future.

charlie_v

Is your low diaphragm due to a medical condition? I'm a doctor, and can think that if you had a problem with one of the nerves, this could cause a lowered diaphragm, but I wouldn't expect that to be painful. ??

I've been doing the course for about 6 months. What I'm discovering is that there is a HUGE amount of information about singing that I didn't know about. The course is comprehensive, and you work through things progressively. I think the free online videos are more about appetisers, to help you see the quality of the instruction. But I think it would be really difficult to develop your voice properly in a piecemeal way.

I hope you can sort your medical problems soon, and we can welcome you onto the course proper! In my experience so far, it's been amazing!

BrandonL

charlie_v said:

Is your low diaphragm due to a medical condition? I'm a doctor, and can think that if you had a problem with one of the nerves, this could cause a lowered diaphragm, but I wouldn't expect that to be painful. ??

I've been doing the course for about 6 months. What I'm discovering is that there is a HUGE amount of information about singing that I didn't know about. The course is comprehensive, and you work through things progressively. I think the free online videos are more about appetisers, to help you see the quality of the instruction. But I think it would be really difficult to develop your voice properly in a piecemeal way.

I hope you can sort your medical problems soon, and we can welcome you onto the course proper! In my experience so far, it's been amazing!

Thanks so much for the response. And the welcome. Hopefully another welcome once I can join the course.

Since you're a doctor! Which nerve do you think?
I feel my abdomen and diaphragm anatomically lower and was diagnosed with a low riding diaphragm. To be honest with you it's extremely painful. I have to lean forward and hold my abdomen when I'm singing. My abdomen underneath my xiphoid seems to spasm inward when I sing.
I had an injury to my abdomen which lowered my diaphragm made me start losing consciousness, it lowered my blood pressure and put me into heart failure, cause slipping rib syndrome, torn abdomen, median accurate ligament syndrome, and suspected visceroptosis. etc.. I have to sleep vertically or else I don't get enough sleep to get out of bed.

It turns out I have ehlers-danlos syndrome. But we're struggling to find a radiologist and surgeon locally that can fully find the injury for surgical intervention. So I'm saving up for Mayo Clinic since nobody can do the dynamic ultrasound radiology that we're requesting. And no surgeon can or wants to try to help locally with ehlers danlos.

If you're interested, I would love for you to follow my videos on YouTube: Brandon's Health Journey. It would be great to have a doctor listening in on my situation.

Back to singing! It sounds like preferably I'd need to join the course eventually to get some benefits out of the videos. By the sounds of people reccomending I join the course, it sounds like the YouTube videos might be more like expensive bread crumbs. Really great information but a lot of small tips here and there and not structures a full slice. But it has helped me a lot. Just learning the triad practice changed everything for me. It helped me learn my first song.

charlie_v

Thank you for the update. Ok, that's quite complicated. The EDS would make you more vulnerable, and if you had an injury to the abdomen, that seems to be what the problem is. It's the phrenic nerve that controls the diaphragm. It runs very close to the thyroid gland in your neck, and sometimes gets damaged in neck surgery, but no reason to believe that's relevant in your case.

It may be worth seeing if you can speak to a physical therapist about singing exercises, tensing your abdomen etc. They'll be able to examine you and ensure you're good to go!

As for the YouTube videos, I work on the principle that 'a worker is worth his wages.' There's no reason why Ken should share all his wisdom and expertise for free, particularly as he's spent $1m on his own voice! But the videos give you a taster, so you can really see the quality of the content.

Hope you can find suitable medical expertise soon!

BrandonL

charlie_v said:

Thank you for the update. Ok, that's quite complicated. The EDS would make you more vulnerable, and if you had an injury to the abdomen, that seems to be what the problem is. It's the phrenic nerve that controls the diaphragm. It runs very close to the thyroid gland in your neck, and sometimes gets damaged in neck surgery, but no reason to believe that's relevant in your case.

It may be worth seeing if you can speak to a physical therapist about singing exercises, tensing your abdomen etc. They'll be able to examine you and ensure you're good to go!

As for the YouTube videos, I work on the principle that 'a worker is worth his wages.' There's no reason why Ken should share all his wisdom and expertise for free, particularly as he's spent $1m on his own voice! But the videos give you a taster, so you can really see the quality of the content.

Hope you can find suitable medical expertise soon!

Thanks for the advice on physical therapy. I didn't realize that they could help with singing. I'm going to take a look into that. Maybe they can see the spasms when I'm singing and report it back to my doctor.

Good point on his videos being teasers.