The Importance of Professional Vocal Tuition
If you are considering singing as a full time occupation or intend to be singing as a hobby over a long period of your life time, it is vital you learn how to do things the right way. You need to ensure you don’t pick up the usual bad vocal habits that many singers develop early on in their careers.
A prolonged period of singing using bad vocal technique could result in serious damage to your vocal chords and ultimately, completely ruin your chances of success in the long term future.
One of the main things I was concerned about when I started out singing, was that I did not want to be one of these people you hear about who ruin their voices without even realising. I’ve heard stories like this many times before from friends and acquaintances in the local music scene.
Many years ago I was enquiring about singing lessons and was speaking to the guy who’s been running the local music shop for the last twenty years. He was explaining to me how important it is to get proper training and started telling me about the lead singer of a popular local band who had a great voice and sang for years with no trouble at all. One day he went to a gig and his voice just completely caved in. He was croaking like a horse, had severe throat pain and had to jack in the gig.
After a trip to the doctor and a throat specialist, it turns out his throat had been seriously damaged due to years of bad technique and negligence. Over time, nodules had developed on his vocal chords, he was unable to sing and barely able to speak. He said the poor guy had to have three throat operations, still has trouble speaking and will never sing again.
I was pretty shocked when I heard this but have since heard quite a few more accounts of similar things happening to singers in the local community and also famous singers in the public eye.
It’s not just amateur vocalists, there are many famous people who’s lives and careers have been turned upside down by serious vocal problems that have arisen due to vocal negligence and bad technique.
Singing injuries and other problems like developing throat nodules are common issues that can affect any singer and have a devastating effect on the lives of those who do not take precautions to avoid them.
Damaged vocal muscles and nodes on vocal chords often need operations to correct them and it is generally the case that singers who have these operations take months or even years to recover. Although some people do make full recoveries and return to singing, unfortunately many do not. In many instances the voices of those who do recover never rarely sound the same.
This was always one of my main fears when it came to singing. As a performer, I knew that anything I purposefully did to my body because of my lifestyle such as drinking or smoking etc. would be my own doing, so any damage I did to myself because of this would be my own fault and no one else’s.
That’s fair enough, but what I couldn’t deal with is knowing that simply by singing and using wrong or bad techniques, I could easily end my own career purely through bad judgment and ignorance.
If I was to use or develop my own warm up and vocal techniques and use them for the rest of my life, then if those techniques were wrong or flawed, a few years down the line they could ruin me for good.
For this reason, I chose to give Singing Success a go.
My View on Singing Success
I had read about it and been told about it by a couple of other singers in my community, so along with various other singing tutorial courses, I decided to check out the Singing Success web site and took a look at the testimonials by various famous singers and recording artists.
The course had a lot of good reviews which I carefully read, but I think what did it for me was the recommendation by Keith Urban. I thought if it’s good enough for him, then it’s good enough for me.
Another deciding factor that helped me take the plunge was the money back guarantee offered by the program.
The site states :
‘Sing Any Song You Want, in Any Key You Like by Adding a Full Octave to Your Range–GUARANTEED or Your Money Back! We will give you 6 months to try this Amazing Program.
If it doesn’t give you at least an extra octave and the results you’re looking for, send it back and we will refund your full purchase, NO QUESTIONS ASKED!’
That sounded like a pretty good guarantee.
The course is $200 which is quite a lot of money, I thought if it doesn’t work, they can have it back. What’s to loose !
Finally, I thought spending a bit of money now, could save me a lifetime of grief. So I gave it a try.
I’ve been using his tutorial cd’s for over two years now and originally before I tried the course, I thought I was a reasonably good singer. As soon as I began the tuition, I realised how much I needed to learn and just how bad my vocal technique really was.
I won’t kid you. It’s hard at first. You just start on the first cd and take it slowly one at a time.
Mastering fundamental techniques such as lip trills and tongue drills while going through all the exercises with Brett and accompanying students is pretty tough at first, but once you start to get the hang of it and learn to relax and go with your voice instead of fight against it, you’ll start to see results pretty quickly.
Within two or three weeks, my vocal range had increased 5 semi tones (almost half an octave) and the whole underlying core of my technique and singing ability had become more solid and stable. There is no doubt about it, you will start to feel more confident in yourself as your voice starts to connect right the way up through your vocal range. Your singing voice develops new richer qualities and matures in a style that you would not achieve without proper vocal training. I’m pretty certain you will be quite impressed with the results.
Singing Technique
A singer who is not used to this sort of training will feel the techniques are a bit weird when first beginning the course. As you get to grips with the exercises you’ll soon realise the importance of the training as you start to develop and learn to sing in a professional manner.
As you become familiar with the teaching method you will also spot exactly the same techniques being used by other professionals in the media and on television.
I often see techniques being taught by top professional coaches to students on programs such as The X Factor, Fame academy, Pop Idol etc. and you’ll immediately be familiar with the techniques they are teaching. You will understand how they do it and where they learned their skills because you’ve been doing exactly the same thing at home.
I remember years ago, watching Beyonce on a television program when she was just starting out. She was asked which one important piece of advice she would give to young singers out there wanting to improve their singing techniques and help them become stars.
She started doing this funny blubbering thing with her mouth. I couldn’t work out what she was doing at the time, but many years later after discovering Singing Success, I realised she was simply doing these weird and wonderful lip trills that form the foundations of every great singer’s ability. At first these techniques seem bizarre, but they play a huge role in a singers vocal training and turn normal people into incredible vocalists. Nowadays you’ll see professionals and students doing this sort of thing on TV all the time.
Since taking on the course, apart from massively increasing my range and improving my vocal power and ability, the main thing that makes me feel good about my singing is that I now have the confidence to perform and practice safe in the knowledge that I am not damaging my voice, throat or vocal chords through ignorance and bad singing habits. I know that as long as I continue to employ the techniques I’ve learned using Singing Success, that my future career as a vocalist is pretty much guaranteed.
I really believe that the choice I made to invest in my future has given me piece of mind and allows me to look forward to an injury free career.
All I’ve got to do now is keep singing.
My advice is give it a try. You’ve got a six month ‘No Questions Asked’ guarantee, and if you don’t like it, send it back.
There’s nothing to loose and everything to gain.
If you would like to have a look at Brett Manning’s web site and get some free stuff, videos and tips, then click the link below to check out the Singing Success web site.
Take a look at Singing Success.
Posted in Reviews 03.10.08
Note : In the past I have been asked by a couple of our viewers, ‘How much did I get paid for my review on this product ?’ and ‘How much do I get paid when people click the link ?’.
The answer for both questions is ‘absolutely nothing’. Everything I write on my blog, including here in this review is the truth and according to my own personal experience. The fact that the review also promotes the product is purely because I have actually found it to be useful and would recommend it to others, especially as if you don’t like the product, you can always get your money back.
If you click through, I also get paid nothing. The only time I might eventually receive a fee is if one of my viewers clicks through the link and actually buys the product there and then, and doesn’t decide to send it back within 6 months. At this point I believe it is only fair to receive a small subsidy due to the fact this free review has promoted their product and earned them a legitimate sale.
I hope that clears thing up.
K
