THE VOICE CONNECTION
SOUND OFF

Welcome to The Voice Connection Sound Off; a forum for users of books like Raise Your Voice, Melody to Madness, The Ultimate Breathing Workout, and Unleash Your Creative Mindset, as well as a place for Vendera Vocal Academy members to interact.

This message board was created so that singers could come together and "sound off" to help support each other during vocal development and the creative process of unleashing the creative spark that occurs when writing and producing music. Currently, myself and vocal coaches Ben Valen, Ray West, and Ryan Wall are here to respond periodicially to your questions, with new vocal coaches coming soon. But, feel free to help each other too:)

This board is here for you to ask questions about my and my fellow coach's books, videos, and MP3 programs, as well as offer others help with our vocal techniques. You may also post videos of yourself and your band to share your music and ask for critiques.

Please refrain from negative comments, profanities, spamming, and inappropriate criticisms of vocal methodologies, vocal coaches, and singers. All negative posts will be deleted and subject to banning without question. I will not respond to negative posts, because, as Mark Twain once said, “Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.” With that said, positive criticism is welcome because that is how you'll grow as a singer during the training process.


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I have excellent breathing but HORRIBLE SUPPORT help me please!

I have the ultimate breathing workout, and raise your voice by jaime vendera, the 3 stages (ktva) by ken tamplin, and singing success and mastering mix by brett manning. I started learning all this stuff around 4 years ago, i am a natural baritone and my range has been increased a little bit (C2-E5), but i have a problem, i breathe perfect, but i have ZERO SUPPORT. Everyday when i train or sing my neck burns in pain, i can make it through that and sing without damaging my voice, but i think that is dangerous and the pain.. is SO painful that i am just tired,.. 4 years, a lot of money, time and energy, and i sometimes think that there is not such a thing like support, i mean, i can breathe with my diaphragm, have my ribs expanded, my back straight, i can sustain a tones, etc.. but it has no point at the moment to make scales or sing... its painful. and only with the excercices from singing success (speech level singing) i can feel certain freedom on my higher notes, but i really dont like the sound that that kind of methods teach.

I need support but it seems impossible to get.
Is easy to breathe correctly, but to use that breathing to influence my voice, eliminate the tension on my throat, sounds impossible

Re: I have excellent breathing but HORRIBLE SUPPORT help me please!

Correct breathing/support feel like blowing candles on a birthday cake. It sounds like you are focusing too much pressure in your neck as opposed to sending it down as to propel your voice from the floor. My video on this topic might be helpful to you:

http://valeriebastien.com/VY4singers-vocaltips.html

If you need further guidance, I'd be happy to help you via a Skype lesson. Then, we can really figure out what it is that you are doing wrong.

Val

Re: I have excellent breathing but HORRIBLE SUPPORT help me please!

As on of Jaime's students and a person who just started to understand the connection between vocal placement and support i will try to help as much as i can. I started 2 years ago. I sucked too. I tried every possible singing method but nothing worked. Then i met Jaime. From Jaime i learned that singing should be a easy thing. The basic is: Support + vocal placement. First support. Since your breathing is mastered , the only thing left AFTER you inhale with your diaphragm is to LOCK DOWN with your stomach muscles while keeping the ribs expanded. When Jaime says support low , really low what he means is tight up your muscles right above the penis lol. These muscles get tight when you blow 20 candles at once. Now the most important THING EVER! I HAD VOCAL PROBLEMS BECAUSE I DIDNT UNDERSTAND THIS AT THE TIME. Whenever you tight the stomach muscles down there there shouldnt be ANYTHING TIGHT ABOVE YOUR STOMACH. In other words you must learn to tight the stomach without tightening the throat (grunting). Never hold your breath when you support and never lock your throat like bending over to pick up a box. By locking down you create electricity which proppels the voice directly into the soft palate. The tone of your voice should always be felt in the soft palate. Take a quick breath with your mouth and you will notice the back of the throat getting cold. That is the area where the voice should be focused. THAT IS THE KEY. Whenever you start singing higher the TONE will TRY to drop down in your throat and cause strain , but that is why you have support in here. By supporting the tone you are shooting him in the soft palate and he stays there.I think that you , just like me , look for too much information. Bret Manning , Ken Templing , you look for information from every vocal coach. You think and worry too much. I did too. I suggest you start with Isolation Method and keep it that way. Read Raise your voice twice and after that NO MORE READING. Just practice. I went thru hell till i finally made progress. Just never give up and never worry. What you think is what you get. If you worry all the time , worry is all you are going to get :).
Hope it helped, Peace!

Re: I have excellent breathing but HORRIBLE SUPPORT help me please!

Gerardo, send me an email on phil.moufarrege@gmail.com with a recording of you singing the AH vowel, on a scale.