How to sing everyday for hours and also do the KTVA course without losing the voice.
Octavio
Pro Posts: 5
Hi. Im a little bit worried now, because I was trying to do the exercises of the Volume 1 of the Ken Tamplin course ( I just started ) and today my voice is in bad shape . It sounds very airy and raspy higher than G4 in both mixed voice and chest voice, and the falsetto its not working today except for some some notes in certain Vowels. My problem is that my only source of income comes from busking (street performing) and I usually do it for 3 or 4 hours every day , a repertoire of pop songs , with a decent size amp but without monitors , and sometimes I need to sing even without amp (because the police here sometimes are annoying) . I arranged the songs I play to be in the range of C2 to G4/G#4 in chest and up to a D#4 in falseto( my comfortable range is about C2 to F4 or F#4 and higher than that I need to belt)
This is some demonstrations of my singing:
This was three months ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH-RwkmIpNc
And this was just one week ago:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_lmUcJgVAN-RWpzejR3aExFZ0U/view
I cannot concentrate very much on my posture or singing or breath because I have no support of anybody in my show and I have to entertain people, so Im most of the time focus on that, screaming, dancing , interacting with them. Also many times I cannot hear myself clearly because people are louder than my speaker ( and I cannot turn the amp more because Im gonna get noise complains)
Do you think it would be good to know if Im a tenor or a baritone and then arrange the songs so I dont blow my voice for trying to sing in a wrong range (according to my abilities at the moment)?
Its good for me to do the Ken Tamplin Course even though I sing so much everyday and my voice sounds bad?
I try not to speak loud and to speak little. I dont smoke and I dont drink alcohol. I just drink water and I follow a plant based diet (Mcdougall diet) and I drink around 1liter and a half to 2 or more. I sleep what my body ask ( sometimes even more than ten hours when I do more than 4 hours of show) and I try not to scream when I sing ( trying to locate the sound of the voice in the palate and nose) . This is my full time job and I want to make a career out of it so I really need your help! Thanks for reading
This is some demonstrations of my singing:
This was three months ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH-RwkmIpNcAnd this was just one week ago:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_lmUcJgVAN-RWpzejR3aExFZ0U/view
I cannot concentrate very much on my posture or singing or breath because I have no support of anybody in my show and I have to entertain people, so Im most of the time focus on that, screaming, dancing , interacting with them. Also many times I cannot hear myself clearly because people are louder than my speaker ( and I cannot turn the amp more because Im gonna get noise complains)
Do you think it would be good to know if Im a tenor or a baritone and then arrange the songs so I dont blow my voice for trying to sing in a wrong range (according to my abilities at the moment)?
Its good for me to do the Ken Tamplin Course even though I sing so much everyday and my voice sounds bad?
I try not to speak loud and to speak little. I dont smoke and I dont drink alcohol. I just drink water and I follow a plant based diet (Mcdougall diet) and I drink around 1liter and a half to 2 or more. I sleep what my body ask ( sometimes even more than ten hours when I do more than 4 hours of show) and I try not to scream when I sing ( trying to locate the sound of the voice in the palate and nose) . This is my full time job and I want to make a career out of it so I really need your help! Thanks for reading
Comments
You ask some good questions here, and I can see why you want to know these things.
First, let me say that your voice has improved since you started the course. In your "3 months ago" video, your voice is more airy and breathy, not nearly as strong. Your tone has improved.
Yes, you will learn to make your voice last for hours and hours when you have gotten further along in the Ken Tamplin Vocal Academy course... but it takes some time to build some of those skills, and in the meantime, while you are growing your new voice, you need to be careful.
Excessive air and excess air pressure will dry out the vocal cords, and cause your voice to wear out. So the best thing you can do is to try to sing and speak at lower volumes until you have mastered more of the techniques. You are already singing with better cord closure than you used to have, so that is one step in the right direction. Better cord closure reduces the amount of air that passes over your vocal cords, and can dry them out and make you hoarse. But make sure you don't "oversing". We can still sing too loud, and wear on the cords. So just bring the volume down as you are able. That will make your voice last longer, and don't sing "Hard" to get up to your high notes. Just let them come at the same volume you would sing easier notes.
Later, in Volume 3, you will learn the techniques that will help you to be able to cut back the air a lot more, but you need to train for a while to build up to that. You do need to do the workouts every day, if you can, but "save" a little bit of your vocal energy. You can credit your work time vocals towards your workout time, and only do the vocal exercises and workouts to the extent that you don't feel "worn out". Stay a little bit below the threshold of extending your range or volume so that you are just lightly stretching but NEVER straining your voice. That way, you will be just getting yourself into better and better shape, without giving yourself any vocal setbacks. If you overdo your singing by straining, your cords can swell, and that will affect your voice while you recover from that. It's better to stay just under those limitations, and keep moving forward, little-by-little.
Your daily singing from busking will help you to work-in your new techniques, if you don't force or push too hard. You're doing a great job of that already.
Find a balance that works for you of continuing to exercise and do your lessons while surfing just below the threshold of too much singing. As your voice continues to grow, and you learn to remain below any threshold of excess wear on your vocal cords, you will become more and more resilient as a singer. Your voice will become much stronger and resistant to wear, and you will become more knowledgeable about your "safe zone" to remain in with your voice.
A lot of the "loudness" of singing well, or of safe distortion is actually an illusion. You are not really singing as "loud" as you appear to be, and that helps you to keep your voice in fresh condition. Again, these are techniques that come later, after getting the basics of singing well-embedded into muscle-memory.
For now, moderation in your singing volume is advised, to keep you from oversinging. Pacing your songs where you warm up with easier songs, and then spread-out the more difficult songs between easier songs will help you to get through your long days. Monitor your voice, and pay attention to anything that feels like it's scratching or stressing your voice, and stay within safer boundaries until you become better at manuevering through more difficult notes and passages.
You will have to take care of your voice as you go through the building of it. It can be done, but you must proceed responsibly. You will improve AND gain more longevity in your voice.
All the Best!
Bob
Thanks for the advice. About those videos and the difference Im gonna comment something : I just started the course. I think I just did half of the audio exercises once, but Im trying to apply the vowel modifications in my everyday singing, and also the posture and the diaphragm. I think the main difference in those two videos is this : In the old one (Fix you - Coldplay) Im singing mainly in falsetto (the way that the original singer did in the recording of the song) and its very high for me (the song stays most of the time around G#4 up to B4) . I think my falsetto its still not very developed and it sound quite airy and breathy, but it doesn't feels like straining to my vocal cords singing in this way. But In the second video though, Im singing most of the time in chest voice , and its not quite as high as that song , because the higher note in Imagine its a G4 and its falsetto, and No woman no cry its G4 too but all in chest voice.
I think because I sang so much in the last time (sometimes more than 12 hours of singing shows per week) I gained some ability on my singing , especially confidence and knowledge of my limitations.
Now, I don't really know what its "singing with better cord closure" . Its in the volume one this topic? I still need to watch some of the videos in it.
The problem about singing at lower volume it seems to be mainly when Im singing in front of people. When I go higher than F#4 , around G4 I find almost impossible to sing at lower volume (like the lower notes) and not have a terrible voice crack. But for some reason when Im alone I can access a kind of mix voice and I'm able to hit even a A4 or higher, and I did recordings and sounds quite good. But , like I said, when I'm in a show I have to put lot of strength sometimes for the high notes. I think the main problem its the lack of volume and of monitors... many times I try to compensate this singing quite loud, and then it feels as I cannot sing quieter. I will try to put more volume on the Mic next time, and try to sing more quiet and I will comment about that. Also my amp doesn't have compression, do you think it would make difference in my singing if I buy a compression effect?
Thanks for your support.
Octavio.