Is this a good program for someone with zero musical training?
Hi...
I felt compelled to create the title of this post as such because unlike so many posts I've read while lurking, I have zero musical experience. Typically folks already have established ability with an instrument, some singing training, sang in choir...you get the idea.
Well I can say nobody has ever heard me sing and that's probably a good thing since I'm more apt to cause hearing damage and irreparable psychological trauma than produce a good sounding note!
All that said...I've been dabbling in guitar for a few weeks for fun - i'm 100% self-taught - and enjoying it. I can play some chords and several songs which has been a nice bit of motivatoin and reward. Still I have to say I'd enjoy it a lot more if I could actually hold a tune and sing. As far as goals, for a change I'd like to enjoy the sound of my voice and at least sing well enough for friends and family. Even that seems like a lofty and distant goal.
Just browsing around the KTVA forums as a non-member, I get the sense people are very serious and established. I'm disciplined enough to be serious and consistent having done so with many endeavors but in this I would be starting from absolute zero. It almost feels like walking in to an Olympic training center for say, marathoners when you are just run the occasional weekend 5k for charity with your friends - you get the sense this is all way bigger than you 
With that in mind...Is the 'sing better than anyone else' package appropriate for someone like me? Would I be better off with the 'mini'? Or perhaps it would be better to just focus on basic musical theory and return to this later?
Many thanks in advance.
Comments
Hi, @adrianna,
You ask a fair question. Most of us here were not "gifted" from the start. There ARE singers that have never struggled, but I'm not one of them. That said, I do have a good ear, and I can tell when notes aren't quite right.
Some musical experience is helpful, but we also have people coming in with even less experience than you, now that you know a few guitar chords.
It's helpful if you can hear well enough to know how to match a note accurately when you hear it. Otherwise, you'll have to learn that, and that can be intimidating. We do have a Basic pitch program to help with that as well, but you really have to be able to find pitches and match them with your voice before you can move on and hold your own in a song.
We all started out somewhere and we're all still moving forward along our own paths on the same journey. And we all try to help one another out along the way. God Bless the child that walks in the door singing on perfect pitch and with a stratospheric range. It ain't me, babe! I've had to work to put my voice in order and it hasn't been overnight.
I've done a number of vocal courses, but when I found KTVA I knew my search for the right course was over, but my real vocal journey was just about to begin... I'm still moving along down that road, and still growing.
We've all had the angst of not wanting to harm the ears of our listeners. It takes some time to develop your voice and and your confidence. Ken provides us with the direction and the instruction to give us specific goals and ways to achieve them. Put all of the elements together and you have a multi-faceted vocal technique. As you put all of the pieces together, it gradually assembles into a voice that can do more than you could imagine at this point.
Your vocal journey will last you the rest of your singing life, so there's not really much point in delaying the beginning. All of that early-stage learning will still be there to go through whenever you decide to get started. My biggest regret about starting KTVA is that I did not start as soon as I realized that it really was what I had been looking for for YEARS. I hesitated while thinking I was "saving up" for it. When I bought about a year later, I had no more money in the bank than when I first found it. I lost a YEAR being "thrifty". DUH!
I would be a year further along now, but for my brilliant Idea of "saving up".
So, one way of answering your question is to tell you that I don't think you want to waste your money on any of the other programs out there, because they don't teach you what you will learn here. They will tell you that they do, but they don't. I probably have already taken whatever other courses you would take alternatively, and I would recommend that you instead take the best lessons.
These are the lessons that are better than anybody else's, so they will teach you at whatever level you end up accomplishing, to be better than anybody else's lessons would have achieved. If you turn out to be a "natural" or just a good, solid student, you will achieve a lot with KTVA. It's worth every penny. You will get out of it according to what energy, effort, and focus you put into it.
If you stick with it, it will take you to the most advanced levels you want to go to. If you just want to get your voice working, and be OK hanging out and singing with your friends, it will definitely get you there.
You can hang out with the marathoners and be most welcome. You might find yourself taking off on a few mini-marathons, as well.
I would take the full course. Mini will teach you some basics, but you simply can't take in the full picture from a thumbnail sketch.
But that's up to you.
Good luck, and good singing to you!
Bob
WARNING!