I have been doing the exercises religiously for a week now, and I believe that my technique is good, but I sing live 4 nights a week, plus practice, and I do not notice any improvement at all in the way I sing. Now I know that this is not something that happens over night, but I guess what I am asking is this: Should I have noticed any improvement at this point in time, or does it come later? When is the largest leap of improvement? I just want to know if I am on the right track as of now, or if I need to go back to the drawing board.

Also, I can visualize my core of resonance, and that is fine, but even if I visualize my vocal cords zipping up, that does not mean that they are going to. I wouldn't know what it feels like to have my vocal cords zip up because I have never experienced that. Is it something that develops while doing these exercises? Will I know when they do zip? Thank you.

Ahhh the impatient student;) Say you wanted to become a body builder and look like Mr. Olympia. Well, doing bench presses and curls for one week isn't going to quadruple your muscle mass.Read the book figure what bad habits you've had, practice correcting them during your practice time, make sure you warm up before you perform, and let nature take it's course.

It is sometimes tough for a professional singer who is already playing out steadily, to correct vocal faults. If you are playing out 4X a week, then I am sure you've got your voice down to a point, you just want to fine tune the engine and maybe gain a few notes:) Don't fret, it still takes time. Don't let it worry you or control the singing process. Just practice, then apply the techniques as the become comfortable to you. Don't thinking about the zipping process. I won't discuss RYV techniques in detail on this board, but if you wish to email me personally, i will tell you what you should concentrate on.

Peace,

Jaime Vendera

Jm,

I can't really say either way if you're doing them correctly since I am not right there with you, nor have I heard you sing. What I CAN tell you is that you probably WON'T see any extreme changes within the first week. It'll take some time to build that muscle memory before these things really start to change.

Lemme ask you though, you said you perform 4 nights a week. Obviously, you're not new to the singing game, which means you probably had a specific reason for purchasing RYV. What was that reason(s)? What I'm asking is...is your primary focus to expand your range, or to improve your breath support, or perhaps to learn how to sing raspy without hurting your throat? These are all just examples, and I'm sure that all of the above are applicable, but I wanna know what specific improvements you're reffering to.

Another question I have is are you following the specific order of these exercises? Jaime will be the first to tell you that he specifically designated those exercises correspondingly for a reason. (Well, he WOULD'VE been the first to tell you if I hadn't gotten to it first;)

Anyways, there are a million things to consider.

A) What specific improvements are you looking for already?

B) Muscle memory takes time to build.

C) Are you doing everything in order?

D) Are you following along with the other guidelines, not just the 3 exercises?

E) Are you drinking plenty of water?

I could go on and on, but I'll spare you.

Regardless, just write back and tell me (us) a few more specifics on what you're looking for, and we'll all be happy to help in any way possible.

Also, welcome to the board, friend.

First of all, let me say thank you to both of you for timely responses and the will of assistance. And though I may be impatient student at times, I am also one of the most dedicated students, and I do not ever believe in giving up. I am not new to the singing game by any means. I consider myself to have a great voice, but I am a self taught singer, and like many others, I have obviously been singing incorrectly over the past couple of years. By Monday, when four 4 hour shows are over, I tend to be severely hoarse, leading me to believe that I need to learn some proper techniques.
My main focus besides learning overall technique, is to expand my range as far as possible. Belting out some of those Brent Smith vocals can be tough for me, and though I am not far off, I still strain to reach them. Jamie's email is in the book, correct? If so I will sending a couple brief questions along if this is alright.

venderaj@msn.com

thanks Jamie

Also, if you consider yourself a dedicated singing student, be careful not to over think the exercises. It will make everything worse by over stressing your muscles. Relax your tongue, throat, muscles around the jaw bones, larinx etc... It all should feel natural. While you do the RYV exercises, try to feel and visualise what happens to your vocal chords. Remember: don't stress yourself! Also, if you know of a good vocal coach in your area, try to get a few lessons to make sure you're on the right track. It would make no sense to develop muscle memory if you're not doing the exercises properly...

Hey Jm, I'd suggest (with overwhelming conviction) that you get a good coach to go over RYV with you. I was doing four shows a week a few years ago, up until last year, destroying my voice with improper technique. It's been 11 months now since I bought RYV and my voice has gone through an excessive aamount of changes. My range has increased by a little under an octave going up AND down, and the quality of my voice has improved tenfold. But while that has happened, I've run into messes like not monitoring my larynx height, taking in too much breath, tensing my neck, all this small stuff that has a big impact. My voice a few months ago sounded like a buzz because of all the tension in my jaw and tongue. It sounded fine in my head, but recorded, I heard that it came out with no 'body' at all. Pinched and disgusting!

With a good coach, you'll be able to avoid such things. Even without one though, the exercises in RYV are pretty much bare essentials, the only way to mess them up is to overdo and overthink them.

It is not so easy to find a good vocal coach. I am in Arizona and have looked and can't get any referrals to a good one, especially one that subscribes to ryv. The teachers I have been able to find are speach level singing teachers. I would love to use Jaime but do not have a camera so the virtual lessons will not work at this time. If anyone knows of a good teacher in Arizona - around Gilbert, please let me know or if there is some kind of site that you could recommend that has teacher profiles on them??????

thanks to all for the information. I think I am just overthinking what is going on here, and I am just bugging out. I am not even past the transcending tone exercises yet, and I believe that once I get to the siren things will be alot different.