New to singing, seeking for feedback from Ken or his commentators only

martinjdagys

Hello Ken and his team,

I have been searching for some singing tips and I recently found your vocal coach channel, which provides a lot of valuable tools and methods

I would like to ask for your feedback on the following (seeking opinions from Ken, his coaches, commentators only)

Here are three 48 sec snippets each me singing a bit from Enter Sandman

• First one in a high head voice
https://youtube.com/shorts/sq3OWIX0Vhc?si=k90wnvPShtn9cIgG

• Second one also in a high pitch but not distorted
https://youtube.com/shorts/WcF5LcIX5Ow?si=Bx6zZiY85ZmvOuI8

• Third one where I more talk than actually sing
https://youtube.com/shorts/bVoCK0H1MrI?si=NuCaMZE5QLizhbUV

Which one(s) out of these three in your opinion I should prioritise the most in terms of extracting the potential for live and studio situations?

I am working on them all, have been practising singing for a few months

If I sing like in the second video, which is quite high and challenging but comfy enough for my voice, I might do it for fifteen minutes or so and then my vocal chords need to rest for like half an hour, I drink some tea or warm water as often as I can

I would like to know if I keep practicing every day for a number of months will it get easier, more relaxed to sing these notes as in will it become more effortless and natural or would I have to apply certain techniques that I may have not discovered yet for my voice to really become stronger?

Thank you

Terence

@martinjdagys
You have a good voice with lots of potential.

- The long-term effects of singing #1 exclusively will be to atrophy your chest voice. The melody note is buried in the distortion and you're better off working up to doing head-voice distortion (which should be done only after mastering distortion in chest) so it doesn't mess up your voice.

- #3 is already easy for you. Singing it over and over will not develop your voice. It may, however, burn in some bad habits (which you'll inevitably bring to the harder parts of your range, making them more difficult to sing than they need to be.)

- #2 has the best potential of the three for developing your voice but you're essentially belting in the middle of your passagio which is not the best way to develop strength in that area. Doing so will probably pull your head and chest voice apart if you're not doing it correctly.

When singing correctly, in this style and even with distortion, you can sustain it for a long time without having to take a break and certainly not inflaming your cords.

Using your #2, take it down a minor 3rd, try removing all consonants and singing only the vowels. Notice how your voice no longer collapses as it does when hard consonants stop the air. Practice the phrases with vowels only for a while. Then increase the pitch by half-steps until you're back to the original key. Then slowly add in soft consonants until the words are distinguishable but the airflow is not interrupted which causes the voice to collapse.

We do provide free critiques but we work for free and there are not that many of us. It's also much easier to provide useful feedback by pasting links to specific areas of the course where there are examples of everything we're talking about. Giving feedback to those who don't have access to the course, therefore, can easily turn into a dead-end or turn into a text-only voice lesson where there's no sound and for which we don't have the bandwidth to do anyway.

But, try out what I recommended and I think it's the right immediate path for where you're currently at.