all you singers out there...

[Tim Brown]

Are those 3.5 and 3 octaves including or excluding falsetto?

You know, I don't know. Because everyone keeps saying that Falsetto is "light", "soft" and "whispery" and not very loud; what I always thought was my Falsetto (King Diamond range) my instructor said was just a really high head voice, because I have complete control of intensity and dynamic range in it, and I can hit it really hard.
She said Falsetto takes place when the vocal chords are so tight that the air just barely vibrates the edge of the vocal folds... which is what one of the books I have basically says - even though I imagined that it was sort of like when you put your lips together and vibrated them by going Bbbbbbbb (like a little kid does) I didn't know that the vocal chords actually worked like a zipper, and it is really talking about just one end of it working/vibrating.

So to me, as far as I know, I no longer have a Falsetto, because what I thought was Falsetto turned out to just be a really high head voice. I mean I can hit in that "black female soul singer at church" high range.

So I either can't hit Falesetto, or I sang in falsetto so much that I was able to develop it to the point where I have a lot of dynamic control over it.

Admittedly, I used to sing King Diamond material all day long. ( after all, I AM a metalhead )

For me, what I wound up developing is my Chest and Middle voice.

(E above Middle C through B/Bb) is Middle voice for men, that's the weakest area in most males.
For women, it is B above Middle C through E or F.

It's not really a very wide area at all to work on...generally 4 or 5 notes, 6 or 7 if counting the sharps. But once you develop that area, that's a key factor.
For me singing high wasn't a problem (except for my cigarette smoking issue) my problem was learning to sing in my chest and middle voices.
I did the high thing so much but had no control over anything below it- as a result of being a drummer singing behind a guy who living in Italy and trained in Italy, the only background part that I could do that the other guys in the band couldn't do - was the high part, so that was my assigned harmony part - even though Glen could actually almost reach where I was - but his speaking voice was a lot lower than mine. (That was my best friend. He died from pancreatic cancer in the late 90's. We "joined forces" when we were in Ms. Kaiser's 10th. Grade English.)

But anyway, once you break through and establish control of your middle voice, you can work and strengthen it to the point where it's incredibly smooth and not just, "okay, I can sing through that area without breaking."

It's funny, once I decided I wanted to sing, I start getting into all these "dorky" pop/rock bands like Survivor. I HATED them during the early/mid 80's.
Now, I love Jimi Jameson's voice, and that's one of my favorite bands to sing along with because I had either a node or a "bent" spot in my vocal fold, and there were a few notes in my upper chest voice where my voice would just drop out. I always assumed it was from smoking.

I didn't go to a doctor until I had actually worked whatever the issue was out (I'm assuming it was taken care of through the exercises I was doing)
I went to a doctor and they found no problems with my vocal folds, but told me that I may have blown through too much air and that could have been why the folds wouldn't line up, and just like a zipper, if the edges don't match up evenly and smoothly, there's "glitch" or bad spot in the voice.

So for me, the majority of what I do is Chest and middle Voice these days, because that is the area that I always wanted to be able to sing in. Screaming was easy for me. One of my friends told me "You went about this all wrong, you're supposed to start out singing in chest and struggling for a high note, but you just had to come at this bass-ackwards!"

Think about this: Frank Sinatra had an entire career in his Chest voice. Bruce Dickenson and most of the other Metal singers of the 80's aren't as high as you would think. To me, I wanted to be able to sing Dio, Bruce Dickenson, Eric Adams (Manowar), and all of that other power stuff. But when King Diamond came out I found that I could do that easily, so that was what I worked on with the idea that I would work on the other stuff later.... I just didn't know it would take me almost 20 years before I seriously worked on the "other" stuff.





Tim

 

[azraelswings]

So where does your range extend from and to?

 

[Tim Brown]

So where does your range extend from and to?

My Range is from an F two octaves below Middle C, to a C two octaves above a Middle C. The higher notes really depend upon how much I've warmed up, how hydrated I am, and whether I've consumed any dairy, wheat products, or chocolate. Those all determine how flexible my voice is, because I have a slight allergic reaction to all of those foods. I generally try not to consume any of those, but every once in a while I break down and eat some crap food like McDonalds or Burger King, and I'll have a Chocolate shake or soemthing like that.

Normally, in a man - that High C is considered falsetto, but I can't really consistently hit anything above it; I can make "noises" up there - but unless I "own it", I don't consider it singing.

Essentially, just from what I've learned, most men should have a range from an E or an F two octaves below Middle C to an A 2 octaves above Middle C. That's Chest through Head voice, so I'm just a few notes above where the average man's range should be.

Most Women should have a range that is from F an octave below Middle C, to an F that is 2 octaves above Middle C. (Chest through Head voice.)


Notice the emphasis on should; people who smoke, or try to live in cookie monster land, or throat singers, and Alcoholics, all have damaged their voices to some degree - probably not permanently, but there is a chance. I was lucky - I smoked for 20 years, but I also kept a fairly healthy diet (My mom was a vegan for 12 years) - I didn't eat junk foods - I just ate too much and too many starches. And I drank tons of water - even though I drank almost a gallon of coffee a day. The Caffiene has a drying out effect on the vocal chords (along with the smoking).

If you really wanted to get technical, I can also do what is called a "vocal fry", and that is over an octave below my lowest singing note. That's the "Deathmetal" imitation harmonizer or what I like to call the "cookie monster" voice used by people like Barney Greenway from Naplam Death.

I've been lucky enough to know two professionally trained Classical/Opera singers. One sang with the local symphony, the other actually sang Opera during the late 1920's- early 1940's, and she was Richard Wagner's wetdream. She was an Austian woman who had that low Germanic voice that is prized in Wagnerian Opera's.

What I need to do is learn to read and write music, because I still can't read. I had no intentions of singing other people's compositions - especially not from charts, but I really need to do it for my own musical education...plus I'm wondering what kind of extra money I could make singing jingles, after all - every major city does have some local jingle work.

I've thought about hitting some of the karaoke contests to see what I could win. My cousin regularly picks up an extra couple of hundred dollars a month doing that in the midwest. We keep waiting for her to get banned from entering them.
And I was thinking - you know, I could do that here. Of course, I'd have to start singing country



Tim

 

[Tim Brown]

Are those 3.5 and 3 octaves including or excluding falsetto?

Sorry Azraelswings, I didn't really answer your question.

Those are without Falsetto. Falsetto is the octave above "head" voice, theoretically starting with the C two octaves above Middle C.


From top to bottom the ranges are:

Whistle Register (that Mariah Carrey dolphin thing)
Falsetto
Head
Middle (50% Chest voice - 50% Head voice)
Chest
Vocal Fry (Death Metal Cookie Monster voice)

I would say starting out - as long as you haven't damaged your voice. virtually all men - once they've gotten the Middle voice down - will have a 3 octave range. Once you have that, then you can start adding in the higher notes.

 

[Tim Brown]

For building lung power, I use a special medical device that causes you to exercise the muscles that control the lungs. It cost me about $35, but it's an amazing invention. It took me a while to get used to using it, but it's killer.

I want to get to the point where I can hold a note for 60 seconds.




Tim

 

[zed32]

For building lung power, I use a special medical device that causes you to exercise the muscles that control the lungs. It cost me about $35, but it's an amazing invention. It took me a while to get used to using it, but it's killer.

I want to get to the point where I can hold a note for 60 seconds.




Tim

that's insane! i don't think i have the lung capacity to hold a note for more than 10 haha, but i guess i never really tried? i need to get in better physical shape too haha maybe it will help my breathing.

 

[Tim Brown]

that's insane! i don't think i have the lung capacity to hold a note for more than 10 haha, but i guess i never really tried? i need to get in better physical shape too haha maybe it will help my breathing.

Well, what you can do is take a deep breath and exhale completely, then try to blow out after you've exhaled completely. (To fully empty your lungs. You won't really do it, but every little bit helps.

Then take a deep breath, and hold your tongue against your teeth so tht you make an "sssssss" sound. Then slowly let the air leak out so you just barely have a constant "ssssss" going.

Generally, that amount of air is all you NEED to sing!

When you inhale, try to get it so that it feels like your ribs on the side and back expand. A good way to do this, is to hold a tennis ball under each arm pressed against your sides, and as you exhale make sure you keep your ribs expanded so that your lungs can slowly collapse - while your ribs remain open.
If you let your ribs collapse, you will wind up forcing the air out.

That's why I bought the medical device. It speeds up the process.

I use it 10 minutes a day and it has made a world of difference.

I bought several different kinds, but the one that was $35 seems to work the best.

Now, if you are doing the "sssss" sound and there are any breaks in it, start at the highest note that you can comfortably hit, and lightly sing "eeeee", and slowly bring it down in pitch.

The "eeeee" sound helps re-align the edges of your vocal chords so that the work correctly. If you have laryngitis or you've blown your voice out, this will help get your vocal folds back into shape.


Here's a few tips:

#1. Drink a minimum of TEN 8-ounce glasses of water per day.
The average person needs 8, singers need more. I just drink room temperature Zephyhills brand Natural Sping water (It's local for me) in 20 ounce bottles all day.
Yeah for Sam's club! Those guys probably think I'm stockpiling for a Nuclear war.

Softdrinks, Milk, Tea, Beer, Alcohol, and Coffee all deplete your body of water (it literally displaces the water in your system) Because these are not pure water, your body views them as food, so it takes longer to process it.
Lemonade will actually cause your body to produce excessive phlegm/muccus.

Room Temperature water takes approximately 20 minutes to hydrate your body from the moment you drink it. Hot or cold water takes longer because your body has to either raise or lower it to body temperature before it can use it.

#2. Buy a Humidifer.
I bought a $35 Humidifer at Walmart. They had some Round ones for about $12, but they were big and bulky. I needed a Square or Rectangle shaped one. I have it in my bathroom, sitiing on the back of the toilet tank. I have it running 24/7/365 days a year.
Why?
Because dry air is bad for your vocal chords, and breathing air with water in it is the ONLY way that water will directly touch your vocal folds, and it helps cleanse the phlegm/muccus from them

Dehydration is the #1 Enemy of a singer.

As for the Humidifer: Think about this - I got 5 years out of the last one I had. That's $7 a year. Just set it for it's lowest setting, because you don't want so much water coming out that it starts getting everything wet. You just want a really fine mist.

#3. Gargle with Salt water or Vinegar.

One of the first things I do every morning is Gargle with warm (not hot!) Saltwater. 1/4" Tsp. in 8 ounces of water. The Gargling action helps clear your throat, and acts as a massage for the vocal folds. The Saltwater (as well as the Vinegar) helps remove phlegm.



Tim

 

[azraelswings]

?

My Range is from an F two octaves below Middle C, to a C two octaves above a Middle C. The higher notes really depend upon how much I've warmed up, how hydrated I am, and whether I've consumed any dairy, wheat products, or chocolate. Those all determine how flexible my voice is, because I have a slight allergic reaction to all of those foods. I generally try not to consume any of those, but every once in a while I break down and eat some crap food like McDonalds or Burger King, and I'll have a Chocolate shake or soemthing like that.

Normally, in a man - that High C is considered falsetto, but I can't really consistently hit anything above it; I can make "noises" up there - but unless I "own it", I don't consider it singing.

Please don't mistake me for being confrontational, and understand my admission that I claim to be no vocal expert, also that I have listened to your clip above and find your singing impressive. That said, I frankly find many of the claims in these last few posts of yours to be downright preposterous.

I have no way of varifying what you claim to be your full range. If I am understanding the above correctly, you claim to be able to hit all notes in every typical vocal range, save one. That is, all but one note that a typical bass could hit, in addition to those notes a typical soprano could hit, according to This site. I'm currently looking at the range guide in The Idiot's Guide to Singing, which closely matches those at the above site

Essentially, just from what I've learned, most men should have a range from an E or an F two octaves below Middle C to an A 2 octaves above Middle C. That's Chest through Head voice, so I'm just a few notes above where the average man's range should be.[\QUOTE]

If you are saying that most men's ranges fall within the range you outlined above, then you are assuredly correct. If you are saying all men should have a range that large, you are quite mislead. In fact, you may notice that the above site lists the tenors range at a full octave below the A you outline above.

Most Women should have a range that is from F an octave below Middle C, to an F that is 2 octaves above Middle C. (Chest through Head voice.)

The charts in the site above, and in the book I'm looking at, would call that high f a fourth above the typical soprano range. Most women, in fact most people in general, do not have a full 3 octave range.

Notice the emphasis on should; people who smoke, or try to live in cookie monster land, or throat singers, and Alcoholics, all have damaged their voices to some degree - probably not permanently, but there is a chance. I was lucky - I smoked for 20 years, but I also kept a fairly healthy diet (My mom was a vegan for 12 years) - I didn't eat junk foods - I just ate too much and too many starches. And I drank tons of water - even though I drank almost a gallon of coffee a day. The Caffiene has a drying out effect on the vocal chords (along with the smoking).

If you really wanted to get technical, I can also do what is called a "vocal fry", and that is over an octave below my lowest singing note. That's the "Deathmetal" imitation harmonizer or what I like to call the "cookie monster" voice used by people like Barney Greenway from Naplam Death.

I've been lucky enough to know two professionally trained Classical/Opera singers. One sang with the local symphony, the other actually sang Opera during the late 1920's- early 1940's, and she was Richard Wagner's wetdream. She was an Austian woman who had that low Germanic voice that is prized in Wagnerian Opera's.

What I need to do is learn to read and write music, because I still can't read.

I think that this may be the source of our misunderstanding.

I had no intentions of singing other people's compositions - especially not from charts, but I really need to do it for my own musical education...plus I'm wondering what kind of extra money I could make singing jingles, after all - every major city does have some local jingle work.

I've thought about hitting some of the karaoke contests to see what I could win. My cousin regularly picks up an extra couple of hundred dollars a month doing that in the midwest. We keep waiting for her to get banned from entering them.
And I was thinking - you know, I could do that here. Of course, I'd have to start singing country



Tim

Best of Luck

I'll certainly look into the books you cited above. And I will certainly be pleased if I too, wind up with a 3 octave range. However, I consider such an expectation unlikely to be fulfilled.

 

[azraelswings]

Well, what you can do is take a deep breath and exhale completely, then try to blow out after you've exhaled completely. (To fully empty your lungs. You won't really do it, but every little bit helps.

Then take a deep breath, and hold your tongue against your teeth so tht you make an "sssssss" sound. Then slowly let the air leak out so you just barely have a constant "ssssss" going.

Generally, that amount of air is all you NEED to sing!

When you inhale, try to get it so that it feels like your ribs on the side and back expand. A good way to do this, is to hold a tennis ball under each arm pressed against your sides, and as you exhale make sure you keep your ribs expanded so that your lungs can slowly collapse - while your ribs remain open.
If you let your ribs collapse, you will wind up forcing the air out.

That's why I bought the medical device. It speeds up the process.

I use it 10 minutes a day and it has made a world of difference.

I bought several different kinds, but the one that was $35 seems to work the best.

Now, if you are doing the "sssss" sound and there are any breaks in it, start at the highest note that you can comfortably hit, and lightly sing "eeeee", and slowly bring it down in pitch.

The "eeeee" sound helps re-align the edges of your vocal chords so that the work correctly. If you have laryngitis or you've blown your voice out, this will help get your vocal folds back into shape.


Here's a few tips:

#1. Drink a minimum of TEN 8-ounce glasses of water per day.
The average person needs 8, singers need more. I just drink room temperature Zephyhills brand Natural Sping water (It's local for me) in 20 ounce bottles all day.
Yeah for Sam's club! Those guys probably think I'm stockpiling for a Nuclear war.

Softdrinks, Milk, Tea, Beer, Alcohol, and Coffee all deplete your body of water (it literally displaces the water in your system) Because these are not pure water, your body views them as food, so it takes longer to process it.
Lemonade will actually cause your body to produce excessive phlegm/muccus.

Room Temperature water takes approximately 20 minutes to hydrate your body from the moment you drink it. Hot or cold water takes longer because your body has to either raise or lower it to body temperature before it can use it.

#2. Buy a Humidifer.
I bought a $35 Humidifer at Walmart. They had some Round ones for about $12, but they were big and bulky. I needed a Square or Rectangle shaped one. I have it in my bathroom, sitiing on the back of the toilet tank. I have it running 24/7/365 days a year.
Why?
Because dry air is bad for your vocal chords, and breathing air with water in it is the ONLY way that water will directly touch your vocal folds, and it helps cleanse the phlegm/muccus from them

Dehydration is the #1 Enemy of a singer.

As for the Humidifer: Think about this - I got 5 years out of the last one I had. That's $7 a year. Just set it for it's lowest setting, because you don't want so much water coming out that it starts getting everything wet. You just want a really fine mist.

#3. Gargle with Salt water or Vinegar.

One of the first things I do every morning is Gargle with warm (not hot!) Saltwater. 1/4" Tsp. in 8 ounces of water. The Gargling action helps clear your throat, and acts as a massage for the vocal folds. The Saltwater (as well as the Vinegar) helps remove phlegm.



Tim

Good advice. Can you give a full name for this device and possibly recommend where I could order one?

 

[Tim Brown]

Please don't mistake me for being confrontational, and understand my admission that I claim to be no vocal expert, also that I have listened to your clip above and find your singing impressive. That said, I frankly find many of the claims in these last few posts of yours to be downright preposterous.

I have no way of varifying what you claim to be your full range. If I am understanding the above correctly, you claim to be able to hit all notes in every typical vocal range, save one. That is, all but one note that a typical bass could hit, in addition to those notes a typical soprano could hit, according to This site. I'm currently looking at the range guide in The Idiot's Guide to Singing, which closely matches those at the above site



The charts in the site above, and in the book I'm looking at, would call that high f a fourth above the typical soprano range. Most women, in fact most people in general, do not have a full 3 octave range.




I think that this may be the source of our misunderstanding.



Best of Luck

I'll certainly look into the books you cited above. And I will certainly be pleased if I too, wind up with a 3 octave range. However, I consider such an expectation unlikely to be fulfilled.

Hi Sean,

Okay, do you have a keyboard? (I'm guessing that you do)

Go to Middle C.
Count down 11 White Keys.(To the Left)
That is the Low F I can hit.
Go back to Middle C.
Count up 14 White Keys. (to the Right.)

Since you read music and I admittedly do not, let me ask - how many octaves is that? Because that is the range I can sing in. Perhaps I'm off in knowing what an octave is?
I thought from F to F was an octave.

This was my understanding, and everything is from Middle C:

1 The lowest F (11 White keys down) to the next second F (4 white keys down)
2 My second F(4 White keys down) to the next F (3 keys above)
3 My Third F(3 keys above) to my fourth F(10 White keys above)

Now, isn't that three octaves? Or is that only two octaves?

And then I can hit 4 White keys above that top F.
To hit the last octave of high notes, I have to have eaten clean (no dairy or bread at all for almost a week) and I have to be well hydrated, and it takes me about a half an hour of warming up.

A piano has 88 Keys; on my best days I'm hitting what? 26 of the White keys in the middle, although more above Middle C than below it.

So perhaps my understaning of what an octave is, is incorrect.

That last octave at the top I was told was my head voice, but it may be that it is falsetto. I sang in the "Middle C through high F range" for 20+ years (but had a break around the A & B above Middle C.) I'll be 37 in mid July, and didn't even start trying to sing in my Chest voice until in the early 90's, I was all wrapped up in King Diamond. (If you haven't heard him - it's all high ear-piercing stuff.)
When I started singing Chest, I sang all "throat and lungs" because that was how I sang the high stuff - and didn't know about, or rather how, to sing with the diaphragm. People tried to explain it to me, but I just didn't get it until one of my people I know who was an Opera singer shoved a board in my gut and told me to sing, and as I sang, she pushed it in and told me to tighten up.

Elizabeth Sabine says use a hardbacked book - but the technique is the same.

Roger Love (one of authors I suggested) is against this type of technique. He says that a singer should be "loose" and relaxed, but he is also teaching what I call "throat" level singing.... you don't sing any louder than your natural speaking voice, and to me this type of singing has you blowing more air to get volume.

Whenever I go for any Power - say I'm trying to sing like Michael Ball or hit some Operatic type of stuff - I automatically sing from the diaphragm.... it's just something I developed.

My torso becomes rigid and acts like a resonator, and I get a ton of power without feeling like I have to "force" or "press" the air out.
This seems to be the only way I can slowly let the air flow out.

Perhaps in another 10 years I'll be able to figure out how to "float the ribbon across the room" without keeping my body rigid. (I was told to "visualize" floating a ribbonacross the room on my breath...it didn't work. )

For a few months I was having problems with 3 notes in the middle of my range, and I was trying to find out why I was going raspy and redeveloped a break in my voice, and it turned out to be the Soy burgers and soy sausage patties I was eating.
That sucks
I don't do pork so there goes breakfast.

My old lead singer had studied Opera in Italy - his dad was stationed over there when Glen was a teenager; I rmember he used to tell me "Tighten up your ass like you have to take a crap, and push when you sing!"

Glen was an incredible singer, man. He had power for days. I never understood how he could do it because he smoked two packs a day and he could put your eardrums out with volume. He was like damned air raid siren.

Anyway, it's late, I'm tired, and I'm gonna hit it. Thank God I get to sleep in tomorrow. I was going to paint, but it's supposed to rain this whole week so I won't be doing that.


Tim

 

[azraelswings]

No your understanding of an octave is correct, and I don't in fact doubt that you do in fact have such a large range, as it is quite possible. Your generalizations of other people's voices are not quite as correct. Most people don't have such a large range. My range is from the second E below middle C to the second D above it. I've at times gotten as far up as the second E above middle C. However, to quote my friend Ed regarding the upper end of my range: "Just because you can hit all those notes doesn't mean you should." :-D

Where can I get one of these groovy medical devices?

 

[azraelswings]

Bought Love's book at BN today. Havent gotten far, but it DOES look promising. He states that the average person should make it through 2.5 octaves without problems. I guess we'll see . . .

 

[Tim Brown]

No your understanding of an octave is correct, and I don't in fact doubt that you do in fact have such a large range, as it is quite possible. Your generalizations of other people's voices are not quite as correct. Most people don't have such a large range. My range is from the second E below middle C to the second D above it. I've at times gotten as far up as the second E above middle C. However, to quote my friend Ed regarding the upper end of my range: "Just because you can hit all those notes doesn't mean you should." :-D

Where can I get one of these groovy medical devices?

Well, I think your friend Ed is probably right. It 's like - I can hit "sound" up higher than my range, but I can not hit a defined note - actually, I get two sounds at once. There are two sets of vocal folds, and what happens is that the set called the "false folds" vibrate with the actual vocal folds, so that I get two tones at the same time... theres a word for it, but I can't think of what it is. It's like a Diphthong; a Diphthong has two sounds at once. If you sing an "I" , it's a diphthong - because it has the "I" as well as the "E" sound mixed with it. almost like "ah-ee".

These days I rarely use the high stuff outside of my private practices, now that I've learned to sing in the "Dio range", that's where I stay most of the time. It's funny; after i started taking private lessons, I began a gradual process of listening to some Broadway type of stuff - I would have NEVER done that in the old days. One of my favorites is Michael Ball - he is simply incredible...man he has such a rich timbre to his voice. I used to always sing really...it was really brittile and biting sounding. On that song I posted, that was a few years before I ever took any lessons or read any books on singing. I just had this really harsh/biting tone, and once I began to learn to sing from the Diaphragm, I gained a TON of resonance, and my voice became really rich sounding. I guess I had initially been blocking all of that out.

I think the whole reason I even work on the high stuff, is so I don't wind up like Robert Plant. He quit singing highs, and now he can't do it. Especially now that I'm getting older, I'm trying to keep my voice as flexible as possible.

I want to get the rest of Loves books, just to see what else he goes into.

There is another guy named Brett Manning who has a CD course that I'd like to get. He has like a 5 octave range. Man, he can do the Whistle register like Mariah Carrey! It's a trip.

Check it out:

I would love to have that CD course, but it's outside of my budget right now (It's about $300.) I learned about him from a friend who moved to Nashville. He was checking out vocal coaches and called me and told me about Manning, so I looked online and he's got a site. He guarantees you a FULL Octave increase.

http://www.singingsuccess.com/

That's the thing that sucks about living where I live. For what I want to be able to do, I probably need to move to Nashville, or LA, or New York for training purposes.


Tim

 

[azraelswings]

That clip is downright unnatural. I'll work through Love's book, and hopefully wind up with a range similar to your own. I'd be quite happy with 3.5 octaves I could hit well.

 

[Tim Brown]

That clip is downright unnatural. I'll work through Love's book, and hopefully wind up with a range similar to your own. I'd be quite happy with 3.5 octaves I could hit well.

All of these guys studied under Seth Riggs. He's this world-reknowned vocal therapist. By vocalizing all these sounds like "gug", "goog", "mum" & "moom", "na", "nay", & "no" they will build th muscles in your throat so that your range will expand.


Tim

 

[TheRockDoc]

There are all the others...

I'm sure there are others, but Mark Baxter is definitely one of, if not the best...www.markbaxter.com

I knew him when a guy named Gary Hoey was a guitar teacher of mine back in Boston, and I sent my old partner, John Ridlon, www.hypercane.com, to him. Not only is he a great teacher, but a very nice guy.

Go to 'media' on John's website and you'll see the product of two of his students

 

[crazyjman]

Zed, Here's my surefire lowcost method for increasing vocal performance;
First watch American Idol tryout episodes. If this doesn't boost your own confidence I don't know what will.
Second, sing in front of anyone under the age of 10 for the most brutally honest evaluation of your ability. Siblings, cousins, etc. My kids have no problem knocking me down a couple of pegs whenever necessary.
Cheers!

 

[Tim Brown]

I'm sure there are others, but Mark Baxter is definitely one of, if not the best...www.markbaxter.com

I knew him when a guy named Gary Hoey was a guitar teacher of mine back in Boston, and I sent my old partner, John Ridlon, www.hypercane.com, to him. Not only is he a great teacher, but a very nice guy.

Go to 'media' on John's website and you'll see the product of two of his students

I have Baxters book and video, but he doesn't teach the Middle Voice concept in it, and the Middle voice was what opened the world to me.

I know who Gary Hoey is. He's a shredder.

I watched the video on the site, I thought it was cool that they were playing with the drummer from Extreme. I can't think of his name offhand, but I saw him with Annihilator probably 10 or 15 years ago. He also played with Vai.
Man, I hate when I can't think of his name, because he's a killer drummer. Wasn't he playing in Tribe of Judah with Gary Cherone?

Anyway, I think Baxter would be awesome in a one on one situation, but I just didn't get what I was looking for out of his book, of course - I would still suggest owning it! There is great information in it, it's just that I couldn't seem to gain any ground in the area I was trying to gain ground in. All of the medical and dietary advice is great, but I needed to know how to clean up that middle ground for a smooth transisiton, and his descriptions and exercises in the book didn't work for me in that. (I was having a bad transition out of my chest voice into my head voice - which is exactly where Middle voice is. In Middle voice, you actually close off part of the vocal cords...sort of zipping it up like a zipper, and certain exercises bring about the ability to control the larynx in this manner.

The videoMark has out, on the other hand, - is great because he shows you, among other things, how to heal a blown voice.
I've talked to him, and swapped E-mails with him a few times over the years, and he helped me when I blew my voice out last Novemeber. (I had the flu and didn't know it, and I was singing this B.O.C. song called "After Dark". I hadn't warmed up properly, and it was a little rough, and the next day , I woke up with no voice at all, and couldn't speak for quite a while. It took me until the middle of January before I finally had full use of my voice.

Lesson learned.



Tim

 

[gibsonguy09]

my singing career consists of family/friends..... you can never tell (in my opinion) if your good or not. You need a friend that you trust to tell the truth if you suck or rock. My friends say im good but i will never sing in front of big crowds.

 

[azraelswings]

my singing career consists of family/friends..... you can never tell (in my opinion) if your good or not. You need a friend that you trust to tell the truth if you suck or rock. My friends say im good but i will never sing in front of big crowds.

I will not tolerate such pessimism!



In all seriousness, stop with the "I'll never . . . " crap. Forgive me for being so forward, but you and me go way back: I haven't forgotten you hitting me with a rep point back in the day. Ask yourself if you wanna sing. If you want to sing, just do it. For small crowds or large crowds. If singing is what you wanna do, do it. Don't tell yourself you can't, or you're not good enough. Tell yourself just the opposite. Think of everytime someones used that surprised tone to say "You sing?" and offer up a healthy helping of "Go fuck yourself." in response.

At the beginning of this past spring semester I couldn't match a note. At the beginning of the school year, I was just learning to play guitar and sing simultaneously. Now, people actually like it. When I bring my A-Game at least .

</motivational speech>