Need your help
k-emm
Pro Posts: 4
Hello there, my name is Andreas. I have played the guitar for a long time. My main influence is Gary Moore and Joe Bonamassa. I never knew how to approach singing until i came across Ken`s how to sing course which i love. I have worked with Ken`s course for some time now and i thought my singing improved significantly. I havn`t had classes with Ken personally. The only person i played to is my wife and she is my only judge. She thinks that my singing is well....... ok. Could be that she is pitying me. She says that it is ok for me to play for the family but if i would play for a bigger audience i will embarass myself to some degree due to my subpar voice. Thing is i really do not want to play for other people to get some pity comments like -yes you played well but couldn`t you stop a little bit earlier.
I am very uncertain as to how good or bad i really am. At least i do not know if i really can go out and make people happier with my music. Nobody wants a mediocre concert. So what i need from you is som really honest judgement with regard to what you think of a short performance from me. So what i did was i took my camera and guitar and played a Medley just to give you an impression of my voice (nothing fancy, no postproduction or anything else). I havn`t played for a while (playing, etc is a litttle bit rusty) since i got somehow depressed about the fact that i suppose i am not good enough to play for anyone else but myself. I just don`t want tot give up before i got some comments from third parties about my performance. So please be critical, honest and don`t be nice unless you really think the performance is good. I want to know the plain truth if you think i should go on singing or just keep it to playing the guitar.
Thanks a lot in advance for taking your time!!!!
Here is the You tube link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaaoWrOp26o&feature=youtu.be
I am very uncertain as to how good or bad i really am. At least i do not know if i really can go out and make people happier with my music. Nobody wants a mediocre concert. So what i need from you is som really honest judgement with regard to what you think of a short performance from me. So what i did was i took my camera and guitar and played a Medley just to give you an impression of my voice (nothing fancy, no postproduction or anything else). I havn`t played for a while (playing, etc is a litttle bit rusty) since i got somehow depressed about the fact that i suppose i am not good enough to play for anyone else but myself. I just don`t want tot give up before i got some comments from third parties about my performance. So please be critical, honest and don`t be nice unless you really think the performance is good. I want to know the plain truth if you think i should go on singing or just keep it to playing the guitar.
Thanks a lot in advance for taking your time!!!!
Here is the You tube link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaaoWrOp26o&feature=youtu.be
Comments
You've got a pretty cool voice, man. Obviously the recording quality isn't the best, but you sound like you've got the sort of voice that would work well over the sorts of material I would imagine you'd be likely to play.
Criticism-wise, you sound like you need to project yourself a bit more and work on your pitching and control, but you've got an interesting voice which, in my opinion, could sound great over properly rehearsed songs.
Learn to be more confident in your voice, take a chance and go along to an open-mic night. Just keep on doing small things publicly - open-mic, busking, small pubs or clubs - and doing it again as I suspect your performance would skyrocket once you get comfortable with your own voice. You might be surprised how positive the feedback is, but don't get disheartened if you don't garner rave reviews with your first performance in front of two men and a dog.
As to whether people are going to like you or not: In my experience, you're never going to know that until you actually do it. It's all incredibly subjective and we can only really guess at what's likely to suit other people. Not everyone's going to think you're amazing; most people don't really care and will just enjoy a bit of live music, but even one person giving you some positive feedback can push you on to better things. Again, you're not going to know until you do it so just go for it. You've got literally nothing to lose and you could find something fun, and potentially even profitable, to do in your spare time.
I'm sure more of the pro contributors on here could offer more specific advice, but hopefully the above is of some use to you.
All the best
Thanks a lot
Andreas
Hey man, that's a pretty cool video, nothing to be ashamed of for sure. Cool acoustic playing as well.
Where are you currently with the KTVA programme? are you having trouble with any exercises? Do you build any tension in certain parts of your body during any of the exercises? It would be interesting and helpful to hear about your progress within the programme.
If you can make time for music and singing etc. never give up. it's such a great thing! However sometimes things don't come as fast as you'd like them to. working the KTVA programme takes some time, but you can get miles in a few months already.
Now i am no pro (yet!) so it is more difficult for me to judge your singing. However a few things you can definitely work on, one of them is pitch. recording yourself is excellent to judge your pitch! As this recording's quality is a little low, you could try and do separate recordings of the guitar and your voice with a proper microphone (Shure makes really good affordable mics), record yourself in a room without too much 'bouncing of the sound'.
Another thing is, watch out for all those consonants sounds, they can choke you up badly and your pitch can get a little out of control, or you start forcing the sound too much. I can't tell for sure that this is happening with you, but it's a very important aspect when singing songs. I like to examine the songs and avoid too much consonant sounds, slightly altering the vowel sound whilst still delivering the words correctly. Ken even suggests to sing the song with only vowel sounds, so no consonants at all, and then slightly introducing them. However, if your are very familiar with your vowel sounds and they come more naturally, you know at about which notes you will need the transitions. I like to think i'm pretty familiar with the vowel mods, but i can still choke up on the consonants, losing power, losing pitch, forcing too much air, needing a small break. If this happens too much on a song, i can look at what i'm doing wrong, look at where i'm forcing the wrong vowel mods OR pushing the consonant sound too much. It is very helpful with a consonant heavy song if you can hit notes above the song, this will make the song easier to sing in general because of your range. But you don't have to limit yourself to songs that are slightly below your upper notes, if you're trained you can use your whole range!
I too only sing with my wife near me, and she tells me to go forward with it because she notices improvement, especially when i started volume 2. She gave me a microphone for Christmas! But it is good to get other opinions, but don't worry if the compliments don't come flooding in. You have to practice and keep exercising. In a few months your voice can grow so much. You can keep asking your wife for an opinion, but you don't have to do this every day, maybe give it some time first and review it with her again? from there you can ask others, and as i stated, make some recordings.
This message got a little longer than intended i guess, so I'll leave it at this for now
Good luck, don't give up!
Ben
There is no reason for you to quit. You do have room to improve, but you have a good core to your voice, and just need to keep improving it. On some notes you are a little bit flat, but most of the time you are on-target.
I suggest you submit a basic LAH scale in the students area of Volume 1 here in the forums, and let's see what you need to do that you might need improvement on with your KTVA techniques. That is what is going to get your voice up on pitch for those higher notes, and to build your tone and stamina.
Your attention is a little bit divided by your guitar work and your confidence level in your singing. You do have a decent voice, and it can be improved from where it presently is a LOT. Let's get you on-track with your lessons and KTVA techniques. Once you get those more perfected, you will be in a better place to apply those techniques to songs, by de-emphasizing consonants and using support to help your consistency.
Good job, and thanks for getting up the guts to post a first video. Now let's get to work on seeing how you are doing Ken's techniques on a couple of his exercises.
All the Best!
Bob
thank you so much for taking your time! I have gone through the whole program several times. I see that i struggle at times with pitch. Next thing i will do is i will contact Ken for a private lesson and see if i can improve that way! Thanks again so much!
Best
Andreas