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.
Well, as the summer has begun to slowly slip away, I've made some improvements with my voice, although I haven't ever done any really hard-core RYV stuff. I've just taken some tips from it, and used the Ultimate Breathing Workout.
I'm pretty proud of how far I've come over the past year and a half, since I started voice lessons.
But, I ended up in the 'non-audition' (ouch) choir at the university that I was accepted to as a voice major. Granted, my choir audition was before I had several major breakthroughs two weeks ago, but I was told, after sight reading a song in my usual vocal range, "You have a rich voice, but it's only because you're pushing down on the sound, and it's not free."
OUCH!!!! For someone like me, comments like that are a blessing. They really sting, but damn do they motivate me to try harder! I've been trying harder since that day, and made huge progress. But it's still not enough!
I'm going to start jogging (I -hate- jogging), lifting weights seriously (I am not a huge fan of weight lifting), and training with RYV every single day. Every. Single. Day. (Well... except for one day off per week :p) I've promised myself that I would before, but now I am REALLY, SERIOUSLY GOING TO DO IT!!!!!
My real motivation, and goal for the Spring '08 semester, is to make it into the elite 30 person choir that gets to go on tours. That would be kickass!
Not to sound all emo, and sad (okay--maybe just a little ;)) but my family is NO HELP AT ALL! I'm -teaching- my mother voice, helping my dad with his voice between his lessons, and my two sisters think that I'm already unhealthily addicted to voice. 
You guys, and my once-weekly voice teacher are the only real support group that I have!
I may be singing, 'Il Mio Bel Foco,' rather than, 'The Hand That Feeds,' but I'm 100% certain that if I can buckle down to this, Jamie's methods will open up my 'opera' voice further 
. As he likes to say, technique is technique!
Wish me luck!
(Just as a post script, my singing range right now is from F2 to F4, and my vocalizing range is from A1 to A4#. I'm hoping that, by the end of the summer, I'll be vocalizing up to the tenor C and singing up to that A4, at the very least!)
By the way--the reason I'm even posting this is that (aside from feeling like I just need to let this out to a group of people who will actually -understand- my motivations) is that I post here already.
I intend to continue posting here.
After having said all of this, there is NO WAY I would feel comfortable continuing to post here and not actually following through with this!
Whooo guilt trips! 
Keep up your good work! And remember to be patient and most importantly kind to yourself. It doesn't matter how long it takes to get there, time is not important. Believe in yourself and you will make it happen 
P.S.: Just to support what Jaime said, my first comment to him after I read RYV was how consistent it was with the classical training I had received in university.
