Finally here...ordered Pro Pack and got started...
nouveauriche
Pro Posts: 8
I started singing in a gospel (not church) choir when I was 5. That was followed by little stage shows, primarily choirs with solos. I loved to sing. However I stopped singing when my piano teacher told me I didn't know how to sing. Ouch! I still recall the sting and the burn of that comment. I now know what she called singing was opera. She was one of those extremely gifted instructors who taught piano, organ, guitar and voice well. Although I kept taking piano lessons, I never considered taking a single voice lessons from her.
I still don't get that some teachers think opera is the only true voice style.
I wrote like mad in high school but was weird about performing my songs due, more than subconsciously, to that poison she planted. Back then, I wrote more pop tunes, like the singer-songwriters of that age. Then I went to college - a college with a world class conservatory of music - and took an evening music theatre class. I found it interesting that not one of those classically trained conservatory vocal performance majors said I couldn't sing. Hummmm...I never finished the class...who knows why. Maybe, I was just looking for validation that she was wrong. In the process, I met some incredibly talented singers.
A decade or so goes by before I start pursuing expanding and strengthening my voice. I took about a year's worth of lessons that did nothing but strengthen my lower register and maybe get me a half step (Lutgen vocalises). That still kept me stuck at alto. I write in the mezzo range and really wanted to sing my own stuff.
Then early in 2000's Bret Manning unveiled his SS course; it was quickly followed by a workshop. I missed my singing critique spot due to work, yet attended the rest. I met A&R people, studio singers, and found someone who, if I was in the area, I would train under. The workshop confirmed my decision to go indie.
I've since purchased that course at least 2 more times, giving one away as a present and replacing a damaged one, still hoping to get usable expansion of my voice. I even bought a couple of his other courses hoping the answer was there. But nothing he had improved my singing voice appreciably.
A little more time went by and I was piling up singing courses that really didn't do me any justice. So I donated them to libraries or to GoodWill. This past year, I came across a new course. The instructor could sing and his demo videos were impressive. So I decided to buy one of his lower level courses to test the water; he quickly upsold me to his big course. The problem occurred when I opened it. GEEK SPEAK all over the place. He wanted me to read his BOOK first before I started anything else. It was too boring, too dry, full of repetitious phraseology and pushed TOO HARD for me to buy a lesson. Then I listened to the audio lessons. Ugh! I had watched tons of his videos, read gobs of glowing reviews of that course, yet nothing warned of this disappointment. However...someone commented on a video he linked to mentioning KTVA, that his method was better. "KTVA? What is that?" It was that fortuitous comment that led me eventually find Ken's site and the rest is history. I just wish I could've found Ken before dropping 2 C-notes on that crappy course which now sits in my computer.
My Goals: expand my range to a solid G5, I would be beyond ecstatic with a C6. This will allow me to sing my own stuff. I write christian music in an eclectic mixture of styles.
I've gotten through the pdf, videos and audio tracks, while waiting on my hard copy. Vol 1 shows several sharp distinctions between Ken's method and SS/SLS that go way beyond no tongue trills. I look forward to results and to Vol 2 and beyond.
OK...time for breakfast!
(yes, I know it is almost dinnertime)
cj
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Comments
Josh
@nouveuriche,
I can see that you have been on a similar journey to mine and many others here. We have all these old Vocal Lesson CD's and DVD's and Video Cassettes, stacked up, gathering dust. All that money spent for a nay-nay here and a nay-nay there! Here a mum, there a mum, everywhere a dum-dum!!!
KTVA works. It's real. Listen to Ken. Follow his instructions, and listen as your voice begins to grow in ways that the entire pile of old, virtually useless other singing lessons NEVER accomplished!
When I first bought KTVA, I was bombarded by popups from "THE SINGING ZONE", aka Per Bristow. I actually fell for it, and bought it, thinking it would boost my chances of attaining my goals "just in case" KTVA was just another expensive fake. Before my purchase from Per Bristow was completed, he upsold me another forty dollars or so for a video that "many found was needed in order to realize the full value of the full course" I had already bought. So I bit the bait. It was nothing but a rip-off. The entire course, not just the upsell. Yes, world, I was a fool, and bought junk from Per Bristow for about two hundred dollars, and was too embarrassed to demand my money back from Bristow. It's disgusting to see the amount of popups that Per Bristow and Aaron Anastasi prey upon people who are actually doing internet searches on Ken Tamplin and KTVA. Both of them are LAME singers. Anastasi's highest note I can find on a YouTube performance is a D4! THAT's LAME for a Vocal Coach! Bristow sounds very weak and amateurish on an actual song. THESE GUYS ARE TAKING MONEY FROM PEOPLE as authorities on HOW TO LEARN TO SING?
Unfortunately, people trust them and want to believe that their promises of easy lessons, effortless progress, and nearly unlimited range are truth. By the time someone realizes that their methods don't work, it's too late. Perhaps an upsell will provide the "secret". Yes, if a little bit doesn't work, then surely more will help. Not.
I could have or should have bought a webcam lesson from Ken instead of falling for THE SINGING ZONE.
My voice started growing immediately by following Ken's instructions, and hasn't stopped yet. I will be doing Ken's exercises from this day forward. My biggest regret is that I waited so long, until I could "afford" to invest in KTVA. By the time I actually bought KTVA, I was not one whit better off financially than the day I first saw it and wanted it. I only deprived myself of beginning my vocal journey by about a year of delay. Delaying the beginning of my vocal journey is my only regret.
SS is nothing like KTVA. Yes, they both use lip rolls. That's about the end of the comparison.
KTVA is not the easy road. It's a REAL road that WORKS. It requires time, commitment, and focused energy to accomplish.
Glad to have you here, @cj
Welcome! You're gonna like what's going to happen to your voice!
Bob
Oh that Per Bristow...what crap. I think I did get my 40 bucks back because he was so horrible, and so were his videos.
The round tongue exercise - never saw THAT before. So I quickly went through to make sure what he said would not be there and...yep...no tongue trills. Most people have a clue as to HOW MUCH stuff Ken gives in his course.
By the way, the SS monthly thingy - whether you want to call it coaching or not - THAT is what really turned me off. People are paying them money, some a couple C notes at a time, to be 'lectured' to. I rarely see one of his coaches 'sing' what they are instructing...but again, too much talking and too little showing. I'm here to learn to sing better, not to talk better.
Oh well...I'm so looking forward to receiving the hard copy. And...the journey has begun.
Thanks!
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I'll log my progress.
Thx for commenting.
Thanks Ken. Now dare I look forward into the Pro Pack bonus disk for songwriters and composers?
cj
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