New student from Germany

Matthaei

Hi folks!

Ralph (33) from Munich, Germany, here.

It's been five months now since i discovered Ken's youtube videos.I was just browsing around for some additional vocal exercises to improve my singing.

I've been an amateur singer for 12 years now. It all started when my former band colleagues encouraged me to sing background/baritone parts in our arrangements. They liked my voice which they knew from some sing-along songs. I was "just" an gituarist at that time and never imagined me as a singer in front of the crowd.
It took a while but eventually i said yes and it was a life changing decision. I liked it very very much.

After a short while i started to write my own songs and our band changed. From playing worship songs (in rock style) for youth services only to a soft rock band with own material.
It seemed only natural that i also write the lyrics, the vocal lines and also sing the lead.

We started with songs in "Simon and Garfunkel style", which was all fine. But shortly after that we wrote also harder arrangements and i found that my voice was reaching its limits very quickly.
Since also most of the songs came from me i became the permanent frontman of the band.

At that point i felt that i want "more". So i made the decision to become a really good singer, as good as i can be.

I started to take singing lessons by an vocal coach in my small hometown.
I learned some of the funamentals like a good posture, diaphragmatic support, and we worked on the passagio and head voice.

My voice improved, but even after 4 years i still had a lot of trouble to really convince as a rock singer. I wasn't able to put "strong feelings" in my voice, to sing with distortion, to belt high notes,... etc. Also i haven't developed any kind of vibrato.

I figured that my voice is either just not made for rock or my coach lacks important stuff i need to learn in order to sing in that style.

My teacher was a voice student by herself although in her masters course, maybe this was also a big part in the situation. Stuff like vowel modification... i never heard anything of it before i found KTVA.

Anyway,... in 2009 i moved to the south area of germany and started my master study. In that time there was no way i could maintain singing lessons or make music at all. So i skipped the whole part of my life for some years. I got my degree, got a good job, a nice place to live and a little daughter.

But my dream of becoming a good (rock) singer was still there,... it even grew stronger in the time i wasn't able to sing at all.

Two years ago i started all over again.
I found a new local vocal coach who is a professional singer in the film industry, but her genre is more in the musical/pop area.
She brought me back on track and i improved my voice a little further as well.

Last year i got into contact with a 80s hard rock coverband (stuff like purple, dokken, gotthard, billy idol,..). who were searching for a new vocalist.
They knew that iam still a beginner but they were willing to give me a fair chance to improve as we go.
This year in January, we found some songs to start with and now iam working very constantly and hard on becoming a convincing hard rock singer.

As good as my current vocal coach in her genre is, she also lacks experience in this style of singing. Thats when i started to search for further lessions on youtube. Then i came across Ken's channel.

I was very impressed by his way of teaching. Very open-hearted and positive. And of course also by his cover songs... killing! During the last months i came back to the channel a million times... listening and try to learn,... and i was also thinking about to buy his course at some time.

Although i was in the christain music scene for a longer time i never heard of Ken before.... i dont know why ;-)
After hearing his Michael Sweet/Stryper "soldiers unter command" interpretation - one of my most faviorite christian 80s power metal band of all time - it was completly clear, i HAD to get his course. No way around it :-)

So last week i bought the ProBundle. Iam very curious if Ken's course can also help ME. :-)

so long...
Ralph, aka Matthaei ;-)

Matthaei

Oh, i somehow wrote in the wrong subfolder "getting started", i wanted to write this into "introduce yourself". Sorry! Maybe it can be transfered to there?

Matsy

You have come to the right place! It will take time and effort but there are some areas you will notice improvement in almost immediately.

Good luck with improving all those areas that you mentioned and YES, Ken definitely teaches you how to do all those things.

Imagine asking an artist who works with brushes to teach you how to paint with spatulas or even computer generated art. They may have a general idea but won't be able to give the same instruction as someone who works with spatulas or CG every day.

highmtn

You're gonna rock it, Ralph!

Bob

bentk

You have come to the right place, especially for this type of singing (rock). I think Ken's course covers all styles eventually when you get the technique and stamina, but it really kills with rock vocals!

All the best,

Ben

Matthaei

Hey guys,

thanks for the welcome!
Yesterday i had my first weekly band rehearsal after doing the volume one exercises only prior the last 3 days before. I already tried to use open throat technique and vowel modifications. I will need much more practice and put hard work in that, because i don't really have the feeling when the modification is right. But i got some compliments on my improvement! Noticed that my vibrato is also comming through when i keep in mind to open my throat and drop my tongue at the base of the jaw. The last days workouts gave me a far better support than in the last weeks. Made it way more easy to keep my pitch in fast songs where i need to sing a lot of words.
However, still everything sounds a bit "ugly"... ;-)

Ralph

highmtn

@Matthaei,

You've heard the story of the ugly duckling that was transformed into a beautiful swan, right? Have faith. You will like what happens to your voice as you continue to implement Ken's methods.

Bob

Matthaei

Bob,

thanks for the good words!
I made some records yesterday. Actually we are doing it at every rehearsal as simple byproduct of our IEM system. It is very helpfull to afterwards recognize mistakes, tone quality, pronouncing (as non native speaker) and also to hear if improvement is really there.

During rehearsal that can be very elusive! Sometimes i get the feeling "yeah, i really NAILED it big time".

The next day, when adrenalin is back on a normal level and the ears are neutral enough, its time for the naked truth... pretty disillusioning ;-)

Ralph

highmtn

Although it can be a little bit of a shock, we need to know what we sound like, so we can start figuring out what is working and what is not. After we get over the disillusionment, we can take a more realist approach and start really improving, bit by bit.

:-)