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Kevin Richards vs Brett Manning


staticsound

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Ok, so I am on a quest to find the best method for my voice. I recently purchased the Kevin Richards "Breaking the Chains" and I also have Brett Manning's "Mastering Mix". My ultimate goal is achieving a voice suited for harder rock. So here is my dissertation :)

 

Kevin Richards

First off, not for beginners!

It's helped me get a more "resonant" chesty voice

Chest exercises are good, mix are so, so IMHO

Head Voice exercises are a little hard to follow and difficult at times. Most go all the way up to C6.

Not much about adding vocal distortion

A plus, you email him a question and he actually gets back to you within a few hrs.

 

Bret Manning

More in depth regarding mix voice

Seems I get a better workout with the exercises

Problem is it cleans my voice up too much

I can hit higher notes but w/this method it becomes too thin. Actually hit an E5 today.

IMHO I think they encourage you to flip to head to early...E4?

Rock is sung from the gut so I don't think this helps.

Maybe it's to bridge the connection between chest and head, idk?

 

So in conclusion, both methods the exercises are similar with their own twists to them. I've been mixing up both methods, Kevin for chest and head, both for mix voice and occasionally Manning for head...mainly to expand my range, since it seems easier to do with his program. I think the Manning method is tailored more towards that "pop" sound and Richards is definatley rock. To back this up one of Manning's "star" talents is Taylor Swift...Lol. But I must say Manning's "Mastering Vibrato" is killer!

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Sounds like you found the right "mix"! I agree with all of what you said, although my only experience with Kevin's stuff comes from his youtube videos.

 

Brett is definitely geared more to pop/r'n'b/country styles. If you want to get into hard rock and metal styles, there are better places to go, but it's important to realize that Brett's stuff on mix will still provide a solid foundation for this kind of singing.

 

As to flipping too early to head voice--remember that Mastering Mix is the second set of lessons, designed (to some degree) to follow the Singing Success program. So with this set you're starting at a more advanced level; his turn to head voice is not too early if you put it into the context of the series.

 

People like Rob Lunte (who runs the Modern Vocalist website) and Jaime Vendera might be better resources for your preferred style, but remember that foundation and style are two separate things, and a good style-based instructor may not necessarily be the best in town for foundation work.

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+1 on Kevin Richards is really a standup guy. He's worked hard on his own voice and he works hard to keep his customers happy. I've sent him some emails myself and he answers in great detail and length and is always very helpful.

 

Here's something he wrote me in his last email when I commended him for his great customer service:

 

 

I decided early on that if I really wanted to help singers achieve their vocal goals I was going to have to be there to answer questions. If there is one thing a buyer of a “at home” vocal course needs is their questions answered. I’m not a believer of a once you bought you’re on your own kind of customer service.

 

 

Very cool!!!!

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As to flipping too early to head voice--remember that Mastering Mix is the second set of lessons, designed (to some degree) to follow the Singing Success program. So with this set you're starting at a more advanced level; his turn to head voice is not too early if you put it into the context of the series.

 

 

You're right. At first I was a little iffy, but it totally helps with mix voice. It's actually really amazing how once you put all the different exercises together and apply them to a song how much better and it sounds when you blend the registers. I also agree that this is a good way to build a solid foundation. It makes the heavier rock stuff easier to do as well. What I like about Kevin is he has said that there is no one program that is perfect and if you find a mix of different ones that works for you, go for it. Plus like Duke said, you shoot an email and he usually gets back to you very quickly, with a detailed explanation of whatever question you asked him.

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Apparently Mastering Mix and Breaking the Chains approach mix voice in different ways: Mastering Mix is SLS while Chains is more traditional vocal coaching.

 

When I asked Kevin about breath compression and adduction this is what he said:

 

 

Now on to vocal adduction: There are two ways to achieve adduction. 1. Physically producing cord compression by pressing the vocal cords together (Mastering Mix) and 2. Producing cord compression using mostly breath pressure and only slight physical pressing (Breaking the Chains and old school classical method)


I have the “Mastering Mix” series and while it has many great exercises to relieve tension into mix it misses the one very important tool a singer needs - projection. The Speech Level Singing (SLS) crowd emphasizes vocal cord compression over strong breath support. They have this “you already know how to breath - so just breath” philosophy. I am the reverse. Mastering Mix talks a lot about the “light mix” which is technically called medial cord closure. This is where you are only using the fine edges of the vocal cords to sing. Therefore you don’t need a lot of breath support to produce sound. It’s a lot like speech. Its also makes your voice very thin sounding. Unfortunately singing is more intense than speech (Rock & Metal is a lot more intense) therefore you need more intense breath support. That is where my method comes in.


The SLS “Gee” exercise uses the heavy “G” consonant to force cord closure using just the vocal cords and very little breath. The problem is that method makes it very easy to squeeze inside the neck to produce a “singing level” sound.


Using the “soft grunt” requires you to push air from deep around your waist to produce the sound. This leaves the throat to feel open and unrestricted. The voice is essentially a wind instrument so to make it work properly you have to use a good amount of air - just like any other wind instrument. To get it to work you literally have to sing while holding back your breath. It’s hard to describe in words but try this: take the example of the “Vocal Edge” exercise on CD 1 of “Chains”. It’s a very short little burst of sound using the “uh” sound, like in the word “cup”. Now take that short little sound and gradually drag it out longer and longer. You get the typical “Manning” light edge sound. Now take that drawn out, light edge sound and add a grunty/forceful exhale from the waist to it. What should happen is that very hard “uh” sound starts to soften, but it also become louder and deeper sounding. Do NOT press at the throat, take that very easy “edge” sound and add a lot of air behind it. With that big exhale of air from deep in the body you will feel less of a need to grasp inside the throat as the sound still happens without all that tension. The throat open and widens to accommodate that on rush of air. The cords stay closed because they naturally resist the air you exhale. Pushing air out rapidly gets them to exert pressure against themselves to stay closed. This creates what we call “breath compression”. Its more in line to how the vocal cords work anyway.


In old school Italian voice technique this is called “apoggio”. This is how male Opera singers get such powerful sounding voices. Its perfect for Rock singing. We did this as kids without thinking. We could yell and laugh all day and never lose our voices. That’s because we weren’t consciously trying to manipulate our vocal cords. We just let them do what they do naturally. We stayed out their way. In my opinion the more we try to manipulate the vocal cords physically (like SLS), the harder it is to learn how to use them correctly. If you’re breath support is on target and you don’t grip at the throat, the voice works the way it is designed.

 

 

that helped clarify a lot of things for me, but I still not at the point where it makes 100% sense though. I wonder if the difference b/w using "breath compression" for adduction vs "medial cord closure" for adduction also plays into why one method has the breaks occur a little lower than the other method. I guess from a physiological standpoint it makes sense.

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This is awesome information, thank you!

Although I have farking clue what it all means I can relate to what he

said "we did it as kids without thinking" -regarding apoggio-

 

I think it would help people to do *impressions* of voices

you know voices that Eddie Murphy did in Raw or Sam Kinison.

 

It helped me identify how to relate to different types of singers

and the genres they sang in.

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Do not get lessons with Kevin Richards. He is a good singer with great technique but he is unproffessional and unreliable. He cannot meet his own standards that he places on his own students.

 

He only attended one lesson out the four he was supposed to attend to. By his own proffessional standards, which is in his policy, it states, "Two consecutive absences will result in removal from the schedule with no refunds, makeups or credit. Please note that it is up to the student to communicate directly with Mr. Richards well enough in advance to plan any absences or rescheduled lessons."

 

What makes this situation even worse was that he either forgot to come to the lessons or he just decided to hang with his daughter last minute. On no occasion did he give me 24 hours notice. This is requirement for his own students, "24 hour cancellation required to avoid forfeit. NO EXCEPTIONS."

For more information on his policy, look here. http://www.rpmvocalstudio.com/singing-lessons.html

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