Intro and questions before I purchase the course

bluesboynicky

Hi Everyone,

My name is Nick - I play old acoustic blues and perform regularly at farmers markets in and around Toronto (Canada). I've a practicing musician for 20 years but only got the courage to start singing about 3 years ago. So happy I did! I'm at the point where I can sing a tune, on pitch as I have great ears from my music training, and on the average set, I would say I get brief moments where I think I sound good, but when I listen back to recordings I make I generally don't like the sound of my voice, sounds thin, strained. Bottom line, I haven't put the same work into my voice as I have into my guitar and I'm ready to dedicate regular practice time to getting this corrected. My ultimate goal would be for a spectator to say something like "that guying playing the slide guitar was so cool...and he wasn't a bad singer either!"

Before I take the plunge and buy the KTVA program (will likely go for the Pro-pack option) I have a few questions that I'm hoping forum members will answer. I've already spent some money on a different program and I couldn't even get started - the material was insanely complicated, almost like it was written to get me to quit. So I'm doing a bit more research this time before I lay down any more cash

1) Is this program simple? I would hope that I could start my practice routine relatively quickly, ideally on the first day after watching some of the videos. If I need to spend hours and hours trying to understand the training 'workflows' then it's not for me. I just want an experienced vocal coach that will tell me what to do while I'm practicing and then I will go and do it. It shouldn't be complicated

2) The streaming option - I noticed it delivers the content on a weekly basis. I'm assuming that it delivers you just enough content to keep you busy during the week. Am I correct? And by busy I mean that you are practicing 5 times a week for about an hour as Ken mentioned in one of his videos. Or do some of you who bought the streaming option wish you had the option of going ahead?

3) The private lesson option. I'm not looking to join a singing contest but I do think that there is a benefit to private instruction, particularly at the beginning. When do the private lessons occur in relation to the timing of the program? And can a guy like me with modest goals get by without?

Thanks for reading and I'm hoping

bluesboynicky

My apologies I was hoping to post this in the "Introduce yourself" forum but I can't figure out how to do that - I only see a button at the top left that says "New Discussion" but id doesn't let me choose which forum to post. If a MOD is able to move this to the proper forum that would be great.

[Deleted User]

The course is laid out so anybody can follow it. You have an instruction video that demonstrates the techniques in detail, then you follow up doing the vocal exercises.
There is work involved of course, but worth every bit of it.
If you do the course as recommended, your voice will grow really quick, and then when you get used to the techniques, it gets even better.

I bought the DVD's so I can't help you with the rest, sorry.

Peace, Tony

Furious_Phil

Basically what Tony said.

It is very easy to follow, and systematically laid out for you, so all you have to do is focus on the lesson content, and work your butt off.

The Streaming option is all well and good, and a good fit for people with financial restrictions, but understand that it is like a Netflix streaming account. As soon as you stop access payments, the content will no longer be available to you... also probably not a super idea if you don't have a solid internet provider.

Getting the Pro-level course via electronic download (if you have a decent internet provider) or via DVDs if you don't, means that you have access to all the course material 24/7 forever.
I personally like the option of being able to restart/revisit to anywhere in the course as I see fit... but ultimately, it comes down to what is viable for your current situation.

There is also a PDF for each volume showing the workflow of the overall course, and giving performance notes etc.

Private lessons are over and above the lesson cost. These are exceptionally good if you are really stuck on something that we can't help you through, or if you are a pro-level singer needing help while on tour etc. I haven't had to do one yet, but that day may come, so it is good to have that option!

If you have any further questions on it, feel free to ask!

Cheers,

Phillip

bluesboynicky

Furious_Phil and Tony, thanks for the responses! Phillip brought up a great point owning vs streaming so I think I will go with that. Going to purchase and download now! Looking forward to it.

[Deleted User]

Enjoy, and hope to see you around the forum.

Peace

highmtn

One other point on the streaming. It's monthly payments and monthly content, not weekly. After a few months, if you are really putting the time and effort into the program that it takes, you will have content waiting in the queue for you, and you will have no shortage of content. The content accumulates over time. But in the beginning, you have only Volume 1, Part 1 to start out. You also get Student Access to the forums with any KTVA course presently offered, so you will see a much larger forum than what you see as a visitor or "member". The student areas are massive.

Alyona

I think that even for me is pretty simple (I'm russian ahaha). He gives nesessary information, you can look up in internet some pictures of the body structure like where is Larynx and how that looks. But you can't help but know about it to be able to control if you sing right.

leila260

Hi everyone! I was looking for the right section to post this question, but as I wasnt able to find it, I decided to post it here since it appears to be a good fit for my concerns. Not really sure if this is a good decision though! Sorry if this cause some kind of inconvenience, I just need to get rid of this before purchasing.

My question is in regards to the downloable version of the course. I don't have a computer (yes sir, you read that right!), but I do have an Android cellphone. I'd like to know if I can download the course to my phone. Maybe it is a stupid question, but I thought that maybe the page from which the material is available for download doesn't support Android or something.

And thats muy question. Thanks in advance to those willing to help me.

Have a great weekend!

highmtn

@Furious_Phil
Can you answer @leila260 ? I'm not sure how someone could download the entire program to a cell phone. The program is HUGE and would swamp most phone storage.

The streaming option is presently on hold. Otherwise that would be another option, but that is not currently available.

Another option would be DVD's, but I think the audio CD's are mp3, and may not play on all CD players. I believe the DVD's play on most standard DVD machines.

Furious_Phil

Absolutely Bob.

@leila260 You have 2 options:
Option 1 -
Depending on your Android phone type, most have an additional SD card for additional storage. Find out what the maximum capacity SD that your phone can handle. 32Gb should do it.
After getting the appropriate sized SD card installed, you'll need 2 apps
- Winzip, 7-zip or WinRAR to unzip the files you've downloaded
- VideoLAN player to play them on
Once you have it downloaded and unzipped, then you can play them from your newly installed VideoLAN player

Option 2 -
Download GoogleDrive (cloud-based storage) and download the course zip files to there
After getting GoogleDrive installed, you'll need 2 apps
- Winzip, 7-zip or WinRAR to unzip the files you've downloaded
- VideoLAN player to play them on
Once you have it downloaded and unzipped, then you can play them from your newly installed VideoLAN player

Caveats -
- Be advised that this is a very large download, so be sure to be on wireless and not your cellular data plan!
- If you choose the local SD card method, understand that if your phone gets lost/stolen, that the files will be gone and you'll have to re-download them etc. With cloud storage, they will always be there for you and backed up... ready for you to access on any device you so choose.

If you have any questions, please feel free to shoot them my way

Cheers,

Phillip

highmtn

The full KTVA 2.0 Course Plus Pro Packs is about 29.5 GB.

Furious_Phil

Thanks Bob, I amended the post to reflect that

Heiki

@highmtn

But when the streaming feature is on hold, why do we have still to pay the same fee? Is there a download possibility instead?

Gaston_Jauregui

@highmtn i have volume 3 videos in dropbox and i have the iphone app (not all, though i could) and the audio workouts in my itunes on my phone this way i can watch a video if i want to, but i just have volume 3 right now uploaded in dropbox , still i was thinking on making the videos of the volume smaller to not use that much of the space of my dropbox, even though im paying for more space

highmtn

@Heiki - the streaming feature is not on hold for you, if you are subscribed to streaming. Streaming is just no longer being offered to new customers. You can write to ktvahelp@gmail.com if you want to convert from streaming to download.