Members Shart Posted April 23, 2012 Members Share Posted April 23, 2012 What's worthy of my hard earned dollars? I'm not brand new to singing nor am I a great singer, just looking to strengthen my voice. I have a couple cd's that I practice with on my commute to and from work, the Roger Cain one and another I bought from itunes. I found some free podcasts that I plan to check out as well. Any suggestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members urca Posted April 23, 2012 Members Share Posted April 23, 2012 "Breath Control For Vocalists" - Edward Schnerpelli Awesome book designed for beginners to intermediate singers, not too technical but goes into details about proper breathing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Shart Posted April 23, 2012 Author Members Share Posted April 23, 2012 Ok, did a search and found a handful of instructional resources by: Jaime Vendera Brett Manning Melissa Cross Robert Lunte Anne Peckham Elizabeth Sabine Singing Success Youtube Channel Schnerp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BrotherJake Posted April 24, 2012 Members Share Posted April 24, 2012 I picked up Born to Sing by Howard Austin and Elizabeth Howard from AMS a couple years ago and I have learned a lot from their program. They cover a lot of different singing styles and have some killer vocal warm ups. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members paganskins Posted May 1, 2012 Members Share Posted May 1, 2012 I picked up Born to Sing by Howard Austin and Elizabeth Howard from AMS a couple years ago and I have learned a lot from their program. They cover a lot of different singing styles and have some killer vocal warm ups. That looks comprehensive and good value if a little dated production wise, there's samples and info on their website http://borntosing.com/ I've been having good results with Voice Lessons To Go by Ariella Vaccarino which if you buy as MP3 downloads from amazon are really reasonable Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ChristianRock Posted May 1, 2012 Members Share Posted May 1, 2012 I recommend Christina Branz's "Vocal Warmups and Exercises" - on Amazon.com for 6.99 digital download. Two full CDs worth of vocal exercises. I've had vocal lessons with good teachers and this is the kind of stuff they have you practice at your lessons. I also have and recommend Ariella Vaccarino's "Voice Lessons To Go - V.1 Vocalize & Breath". 8.99 for the digital download at Amazon. That's actually the one I've used most. Got it before Christina Branz and I still use it - but it's because it's just a half hour packed with power exercises. It'll get your voice in shape. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members staticsound Posted May 3, 2012 Members Share Posted May 3, 2012 Depends on what style of music you want to do. That being said, I highly recommend Ken Tamplin, Jamie Vendera, or Rob Lunte. Stay away from "Singing Success"....useless IMO! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bajazz Posted May 11, 2012 Members Share Posted May 11, 2012 Depends on what style of music you want to do. That being said, I highly recommend Ken Tamplin, Jamie Vendera, or Rob Lunte. Stay away from "Singing Success"....useless IMO!Some people have found "Singing Success" helpful. I have used it a lot and found it as a good tool for range building and general singing in low to medium volume. But for heavy rock singing it's useless, unless you ignore the "no need for support" thing. And it's got lots of excercises that are very similar to other methods. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LordBTY Posted May 13, 2012 Members Share Posted May 13, 2012 Depends on what style of music you want to do. That being said, I highly recommend Ken Tamplin, Jamie Vendera, or Rob Lunte. Stay away from "Singing Success"....useless IMO! + 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members staticsound Posted May 13, 2012 Members Share Posted May 13, 2012 My advice is to be wary of singing 'methods' and 'exercises". I've found the most efficient and quickest way to improve my voice has been singing songs, lots and lots of different songs, day after day after day. But NOT singing along with already made recordings where there's other vocalists ... that's useless. I'm a musician so I can easily accompany myself, and I usually spend 1 to 2 hours a day practicing songs. It really works well for me. Singing without any training or technique, you're asking for trouble and could potentially ruin your voice if you're doing it wrong... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members diggthis23 Posted May 14, 2012 Members Share Posted May 14, 2012 Is 'Singing Success' really that bad of a program? I've been using it for a while, and it's pretty good. Could I have your experiences? I also have Eric Arseneaux's 'AAproach 2.0'. That gave me some fantastic breathing exercises. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members diggthis23 Posted May 14, 2012 Members Share Posted May 14, 2012 Brett Manning and Singing Success are the same people (technically; same company). Melissa Cross helps out people in hard rock and metal mostly. If that's your style, great! I don't know too much about the others... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members staticsound Posted May 14, 2012 Members Share Posted May 14, 2012 Singing Success is a marketing gimmick. It "may" help you if you want to sound like Taylor Swift. Brett Manning offers abunch of exercises that are useless in real world application. The biggest fault in SLS is the abscensce of breath support, which is key to singing anything. Look at the free vids on YouTube, the only person in that whole BS program thats worth a shit is Chris Keller...and the technique he is using on his cover tunes ain't SLS! Melissa Cross is BS too, if you are looking for a good program, once again I recommend Ken Tamplin, Jamie Vendera, or Rob Lunte. These guys know their shit, and it is def worth the money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jazeraben Posted June 2, 2012 Members Share Posted June 2, 2012 I always wanted to improve my singing skill. I have several mp3s here that guides and helps me how to sing the right way. But these are downloaded from a torrent. I am looking for new releases or tutorials as I wanted to know more other methods that could improve more my singing skill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members strat2 Posted June 3, 2012 Members Share Posted June 3, 2012 Singing Success is a marketing gimmick. It "may" help you if you want to sound like Taylor Swift...... I like Taylor Swift, but yea.....:D:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members strat2 Posted June 3, 2012 Members Share Posted June 3, 2012 I don't know Melissa Cross's whole program , but I can tell you all this: There is NO bs in this clip, I have used some of it in the past, it is real. [video=youtube;QMUoJbOVihg] You could use this as part of your warm up routine, but it also contains some 'Gold' in exercises that improve everything about how you sing and sound. . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members chamcham Posted June 3, 2012 Members Share Posted June 3, 2012 Personally, I use the vocal workout in Anne Peckham's "The Contemporary Singer: Elements of Vocal Technique". Another good workout is from "Vocal Warm-ups" by Hal Leonard. It is part of the Pro Vocal series. In general, I'd recommend choosing a vocal workout and using it 6 days days a week (1 day for rest). After you finish the workout, then you can go on to doing scales/drills/exercises/etc. don't forget to cool down at the end. As for learning about the physiology and technical specifics of the voice, I would recommend "The Voice Book" by Kate Devore. It covers all aspects of voice (alignment, breathing, vocal cords, resonance, onsets/linking/emphasis, speech training, warmup, preventing vocal injury, room acoustics and more). It has specific exercises for most things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Happyboyz Posted June 4, 2012 Members Share Posted June 4, 2012 My advice is to be wary of singing 'methods' and 'exercises". I've found the most efficient and quickest way to improve my voice has been singing songs, lots and lots of different songs, day after day after day. But NOT singing along with already made recordings where there's other vocalists ... that's useless. I'm a musician so I can easily accompany myself, and I usually spend 1 to 2 hours a day practicing songs. It really works well for me. +1 Yep, nothing beats good old fashioned PRACTICE. Just sing in your "own" voice and do it often; and don't slavishly copy other singers when you're not vocally equipped to do so, as that can damage your voice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members chamcham Posted June 4, 2012 Members Share Posted June 4, 2012 +1 Yep, nothing beats good old fashioned PRACTICE. Just sing in your "own" voice and do it often; and don't slavishly copy other singers when you're not vocally equipped to do so, as that can damage your voice. I agree with staticsound's response to rockaroonie's comment: --> Singing without any training or technique, you're asking for trouble and could potentially ruin your voice if you're doing it wrong... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bajazz Posted June 5, 2012 Members Share Posted June 5, 2012 Personally, I use the vocal workout in Anne Peckham's "The Contemporary Singer: Elements of Vocal Technique".I started with this method, and in a few weeks I had people coming up and asking what the hell happened to my voice. Never practiced before, just sang. Now, many methods later, I can relate to those saying that it is not the method, but the systematically hours put into it that counts. That said: It's also important to be ware of what you want with your singing. For me, being a cover artist, copying other artists was very useful in creating the different techniques I needed to be able to deliver variety in my show. Cover artists that sing in a very limited range with one style and one sound/tessitura/voice tends to be very boring to listen to. AC/DC and Johnny Cash It is supposed to sound different. I would also recommend copying other singers if you want to have a few techniues to choose from. Try saying that a guitar player don't learn other guitarists techniques, it would be insane and don't make sense! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members chamcham Posted June 5, 2012 Members Share Posted June 5, 2012 I started with this method, and in a few weeks I had people coming up and asking what the hell happened to my voice. Never practiced before, just sang. Now, many methods later, I can relate to those saying that it is not the method, but the systematically hours put into it that counts. That said: It's also important to be ware of what you want with your singing. For me, being a cover artist, copying other artists was very useful in creating the different techniques I needed to be able to deliver variety in my show. Cover artists that sing in a very limited range with one style and one sound/tessitura/voice tends to be very boring to listen to. AC/DC and Johnny Cash It is supposed to sound different. I would also recommend copying other singers if you want to have a few techniues to choose from. Try saying that a guitar player don't learn other guitarists techniques, it would be insane and don't make sense! Yeah, after a few weeks it REALLY changed my voice, too. That's why I stuck with it. A year later, I still feel changes inside my body (especially increased air flow and resonance from my lower stomach all the way up to my throat). A lot of people recommend vocal workouts. Other people, say don't do vocal workouts and just sing instead. Singing alone never really helped me, but vocal workouts alone isn't enough either. So, if possible, do both. You learn different things from each one. Vocal workouts exercise your voice (think of it as a physical workout to get better pipes). Singing songs help you to learn the art of singing tracks. I tried singing songs every day, but it never seem to improve my voice at all. So I decided that singing songs wasn't the best thing for building my voice. I turned to vocal workouts and instantly felt big changes within 2 weeks. Now I've done vocal workouts for over a year. So my voice feels much more agile, flexible, and hitting the right pitch is almost effortless now. It's an incredible feeling. But I never really practiced singing songs seriously. So I have trouble controlling my voice in the context of a song. So that's my next area of focus. Also, if you can afford it, get voice lessons. Find a teacher that you admire and is able to honestly critique and shape your voice in a way that you like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators davie Posted June 6, 2012 Moderators Share Posted June 6, 2012 Yeah, after a few weeks it REALLY changed my voice, too. That's why I stuck with it. A year later, I still feel changes inside my body (especially increased air flow and resonance from my lower stomach all the way up to my throat). A lot of people recommend vocal workouts. Other people, say don't do vocal workouts and just sing instead. Singing alone never really helped me, but vocal workouts alone isn't enough either. So, if possible, do both. You learn different things from each one. Vocal workouts exercise your voice (think of it as a physical workout to get better pipes). Singing songs help you to learn the art of singing tracks. I tried singing songs every day, but it never seem to improve my voice at all. So I decided that singing songs wasn't the best thing for building my voice. I turned to vocal workouts and instantly felt big changes within 2 weeks. Now I've done vocal workouts for over a year. So my voice feels much more agile, flexible, and hitting the right pitch is almost effortless now. It's an incredible feeling. But I never really practiced singing songs seriously. So I have trouble controlling my voice in the context of a song. So that's my next area of focus. Also, if you can afford it, get voice lessons. Find a teacher that you admire and is able to honestly critique and shape your voice in a way that you like. It seems like you're making good progress! I think I'm similar in a way. One thing is for sure, never sing (songs) with a raw voice, especially if its in the higher ranges. Gotta always warm-up. So when are you gonna post up a clip? lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members chamcham Posted June 6, 2012 Members Share Posted June 6, 2012 It seems like you're making good progress! I think I'm similar in a way. One thing is for sure, never sing (songs) with a raw voice, especially if its in the higher ranges. Gotta always warm-up. So when are you gonna post up a clip? lol LOL. As of now, I'm happy with the progress I've made with my voice. This summer, ear training will be my main focus. After that, I'll probably start working on getting some Youtube clips up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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