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.


The Voice Connection - Sound Off
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Re: Should I give up singing?

Well yes, but lately this whole thing has been wearing on my mind pretty hard.

Re: Should I give up singing?

I've started to feel this way as well...but I'm still doing slides daily, might start TT tomorrow.

Re: Should I give up singing?



So you say you aren't able to apply the technique correctly and so you want to give up?

I reckon it'd be a wiser decision to try and learn the technique properly instead of just giving up at the first hurdle.

Success comes from pushing past barriers by learning how to push past them. Not by running head first into the wall over and over and then giving up.

if something doesn't work, it means you need more knowledge on how to get around it and make it work.

I remember being in your situation many years back. If i had given up back then I never would have got the voice I dreamed of. Not saying my voice is perfect and I'm a master or anything but it is the sound I wanted and I can hit the notes I want. I now have a new level of expectation in my head of where I want to be and in a few years I'll achieve that too.

I will say that again in another way in case you missed it:
Time will pass regardless of what you do. You can emerge in 4 years with the voice you want, or you can give up now and in 4 years be no different. Or worse, you can keep banging your head on the wall for 4 years and be in the same spot.

in 1 year you shoudl be able to sing quite well. after that it's about really developing you into a great singer.

What you need is direction, not to give up. You need knowledge on how to get past the hurdle.

Jaime, Oiselle, and I are teachers and I'm sure we could sort out your issues through lessons.

You can contact them both here. If you want to contact me, my address is phil.moufarrege@gmail.com

Yes that means you have to spend money.

If you're serious about your craft then it takes an investment, an investment of your time/energy/money. So far you've invested a year of applying it incorrectly and haven't got the results you expected. Now it's time to learn how to invest properly in your craft so you can glean the results you seek.

Blessings,

Phil Moufarrege
http://www.grow-the-voice.com
http://www.bushido-self-improvement.com

Re: Should I give up singing?

Well stated Phil.

Re: Should I give up singing?

I'm going to be frank.

If you like singing, keep singing. If you feel negative about it all the time and feel as though you need validation from people online that you should continue to do something you're supposed to love, then I think you have a decision to make.

If you need the help, the help is there as Phil said above. I know this is a supportive place but people just need to singing if they love singing and not just do exercises only or all the time. Sing some songs, write some songs and feel the vibrations.

Re: Should I give up singing?

First of all, you have to ask yourself "Why do I sing?", "Who do I sing for?"

For me, I enjoy singing. I enjoy the spiritual act of singing. I don;t care if you are an atheist or worship Pazuzu (ancient winged desert demon that was worshiped in antiquity.)
The point is - singing is a spiritual aft, that is why it physically makes you feel good to do it - if you are doing it correctly.

If you are tensing up, there is something that you are associating with singing that you need to sit down, meditate, and consider. Singing is a state of being where you need to just relax and ;let it flow out of you, don't try to force it out.

I think that the key to vocal training is to "exaggerate" to some degree, so that when you do perform, you can do it in a completely relaxed state. That is why I always want to be able to hit a few notes higher than whatever I actually intend to use - it just makes it that much easier to hit if I know I have a few extra notes in reserve.

Yes it takes dedication - I recently gave up caffeine, soft drinks, and I had already given up most of my alcoholic intake. I used to take all sorts of drugs - not to get high, but to kill pain. I smoked cigarettes for 20+ years. (I sat down and averaged it out and I smoked over a quarter of a million cigarettes as a cigarette smoker.)

Next week, I am giving up solid food for 60 days.
Why? to completely detoxify my system, and get myself in the best physical shape I can be in. I'm going to be living on the juices of kale, celery, lime, cucumber, green apples, and a piece of ginger processed in a juicer. It is called "Mean Green Juice", and let me tell you - it is some nasty stuff.... it tastes like drinking spicy grass out of your yard.

It definitely is not a pleasant thing to drink. So why am I doing it? Because last month I just turned 45, and I want it all, and I intend to have it. I'm doing two workout sessions a day - right now there is not a spot on my body that is not extremely sore to the touch. I just get the shower as hot as I can get it, and i go in and stand under the blazing hot water. In a week or so, I'll have toughened back up so that the pain will go away. In the past, when I lifted like this, I took prescription pain killers - yes, illegally - so that I could continue working out while in pain, and at one point I collapsed a blood vessel in my right arm while using steroids. The point is, I was abusing my body for the sake of being strong. I didn't even look good - I just looked like a hell's angel, but man was I strong.

Now I decided to start over - everything. I want to be in the best physical shape that I can be in. So, for the first time in many years, I've finally got my head on straight.

So, who do I sing for? I sing for myself. If other people enjoy it, great, if they don't - that's no skin off my back, I'm not going to allow their opinion to sway me from the fact that I enjoy singing.

You don't need tens of thousands of dollars of lessons to sing - in fact, that is exactly what Jaime doesn't want from anyone - he tries to teach in a way that you need the fewest lessons possible, he teaches you how to train yourself on a daily basis, just as he teaches you how to figure out as much as you can about your voice functions as a singer so that you can take care of your voice. A lot of vocal maladies are actually caused by us doing something wrong, and we can do something else to correct a large portion of them.

If you enjoy singing, I think it is stupid to quit. Just Warm up, Relax, and let the music FLOW out of you, don't force it out, and Sing for yourself!

And PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!


Tim