Been active some 30 years just "getting by" with technique, staying in my "comfort zone" in my niche

IraR

I've been just barely "getting by" with my singing technique, staying in my comfortable little "niche" of the music world, as a cantor of a synagogue with a standing 27-year "gig." There are various excuses I could give for not working more on my technique and not spending more on lessons when I could have, but I've felt fortunate to have raised a family in this business/calling and survived. (Kudos to Ken for spending so much time and money on studying for so long with the very best people and "getting to the bottom" of the confusion surrounding competing vocal theories, when many of us singers just gave up after a while.) And when music becomes more business than pleasure, a certain lack of passion starts setting in: After all, why would I want to singing any more than I have to already! With sub-standard methods, without a really "free" technique, singing can feel more work than fun! But now that my kids have grown up, at age 58, I've got more time and energy to devote, and besides, I really have to perfect my technique more now, since my voice doesn't recover from breakdowns nearly as fast. Us older singers, like older athletes, really have to rely on good technique, since, as we age, the native brute force and talent we might have had when younger won't cut it anymore. I began working from some abandoned vocal textbooks and then found your videos on-line. Right now I'm contenting myself with freebie material, but I'm learning quite a lot from that. I'm generally a pretty good mimic, and my previous training allows me to pick up a lot of what Ken is doing by watching and listening carefully: I love watching Ken's eyes and occasional use of "bugged-out" eyes, for example, which is an old method I remember being taught in learning to raise the uvula and expanding the throat cavity. I quite probably have had at least some swelling in the cords due to oversinging in lower registers, and "falsetto" head-voice hasn't come easily at first. But I am finding that my falsetto range is coming back more and I seem to be able to recover. With my newfound freedom, singing is getting to be more fun again! And slowly, I'm starting to want this enough to work at this. It also helps that Ken has restored my confidence in good, classic technique and methodology, something I didn't always have faith in, especially when teachers give seemingly-conflicting advice and I seemed to be going around in circles. Many of us in the past had to work with teachers who only really knew classical music or perhaps a little acquaintance with Broadway and jazz, so we had to work out fitting the classical technique to the newer styles ourselves; the latest generation is really fortunate to have Ken's material which breaks down the components of singing in every style under the sun.

highmtn

Hi, IraR!

Ken has trained other cantors and they have had great results from actually learning good vocal methodology, as opposed to "winging it". Your previous experiences should provide a great starting point for getting great results from Ken's program, should you decide to work the program.

Nice to hear of your background and story.

Bob