My Voice is really mehh 8/

I've heard Seth Rigg's is pretty good

www.sethriggs.com/

Kim Wood-Sandusky has a pretty great DVD set. Maybe a little biased since I worked on it a bit, but I also used it with great results.

I would rather hear a songwriter sing their stuff with conviction and their own phrasing over a hired gun...Be confident...Try and emulate the people you love and let your own limitations shape your style.

I recommend trying to channel your inner Elvis. Everyone has one lurking inside.

Seriously though, bravado is a part of performing. I am a fairly confident guitarist, and am working on bringing that with me when I sing. I'm also trying to learn to sing/play at the same time. For some reason, I find this really difficult. I guess practice makes perfect.

Hey man, I struggled with my voice for YEARS and never went anywhere .

Then I started taking Voice lessons from Mark Baxter and he has helped me tremendously !!

Take Lessons from him , trust me , you will improve your voice and learn a ton !!

Mark's in Boston and also teaches in L.A. and New York ,  but I'm in California . So I do video Lessons . He also does Skype and its pretty much the same thing as being there in person . 

The video lessons that I do (not Skype Lessons) started with me sending Mark recordings of me singing songs . Mark then listened to it and heard what problems I was having , pitch , singing through the registers......all that stuff . Then he gets his video camera and films a 30 minute Lesson explaining what he heard and how to improve my voice . He then plays on the piano the exercises and sings what I'm supposed to do  . After that he mails me a DVD of the Lesson . I then practice for a awhile along with the DVD and whenever I want to , I record myself singing the exercises and send him the file over the internet . He then listens to the file I sent him , how I did with the exercises and hears where I'm struggling . And so on..........

I've done 19 Lessons over the course of some years  . I sucked big time at singing ,I was a horrible singer . But now I feel I can pass as a singer .  

To sing good you have to get rid of all the extra muscle tension , in the throat ,  Tongue (this is still what I struggle with) , face , neck.........all the extra stuff we do thinking it helps us to sing , when it doesn't , its what makes us sing bad , off pitch , have bad tone . 

The other important thing is Exercises and stretching the vocal folds everyday . The voice is a muscle . What happens when you don't use a muscle ?? It gets weak , stiff and not flexible . Exercises are VERY IMPORTANT . Its exactly like the athlete going to play a sport , if he doesn't exercise , when he gets on the field , hes gonna struggle and not do good , even if he has natural ability , if hes out of shape ,  hes not gonna play good .  

Heres a link to Mark Baxter's site www.voicelesson.com/html/lessons/index.htm

He started a youtube channel recently with short videos of singing tips www.youtube.com/user/voicelessondotcom


This video right here is from my personal video Lesson . Mark edited out the parts where he mentions my name , and is talking to me personally , and then uploaded it to youtube . 



This video is not my actual Lesson video , BUT , he did get on this subject and filmed this right after he filmed my video  . I told him I needed help on singing those powerful rock screams . So this is the same exercises he sent me , but he filmed this video as a youtube video right after he did mine . 

Oh I didn't even see that !

Cool , Ward ! So do you take lessons from Mark too ?


Another cool thing about Mark is he is the Vocal coach for many professional singers , like Steven Tyler from Aerosmith and Scott Weiland from STP . A member on gearslutz who knows Mark from way back said during the 90's when Aerosmith made their big come back , Mark was the guy that helped Steven Tyler get back in shape . 

Theres no set number of Lessons or any big amount of money you have to pay up front . He just goes Lesson , by Lesson , what ever pace you want , once a month , once every three months.....whenever . I'm usually broke , so I just do lessons whenever I have the money . 

Mark recommends to sing into a device so you can monitor your volume and also into a tuner to monitor your pitch .

When you vocalize , the number one thing is to maintain the exact same volume as you go through the exercise . So if your singing a scale  , A - B - C# - D - E...E - D - C# - B - A.......all those notes need to be the same volume . And as you go higher , singing that same scale all through out your vocal range , you need to stay at the same volume , from the lowest part of your register to the highest . Your volume can be  soft , med  , or loud , but you pick what volume level you want to sing at first , then do the exercise .

So number one focus when vocalizing is maintaining the same volume and releasing all bad muscle tensions , ( throat , tongue , face , neck ) . Once you can maintain the same volume and you've eliminated all the extra bad muscle tensions , you sing into a tuner to help you monitor your pitch . 

So this is my setup I use to vocalize . I posted a picture so you can see my setup . I have a Pro Tools Session with all my voice lessons . I just unmute whichever Lesson I wanna do . I sing into a mic that is sent to an AUX track in Pro Tools . On that AUX track I have a digirack trim plugin and that is what I use to monitor my volume . As I go through my exercises , I watch the input level on that trim plugin . I never change the settings , so everyday I know where my voice is at instantly . 

The tuner has a built in mic , which works "ok" but not that great . Its pretty annoying . So I feed the tuner my mic signal . "After" the trim plug , which I use to monitor my volume , I then have a compressor SLAM my vocal , you don't want any dynamics , you want the tuner to get a solid steady level . Then after the compressor I put another digirack trim plugin and adjust the output level to -18 that I send to the tuner . The tuner gets all messed up and reacts slow it the level feeding it is too loud or too soft . I've found about -18 , is the level it likes and the tuner will react fast and follow you as you sing . I then stick it on a mic stand . 

So heres a picture so you can see , when I sing in the mic , I can monitor my volume and pitch at the same time . Also its good to record yourself alot and as you play back your recorded vocal track you can watch the tuner to see where you were flat or sharp . 

I play and sing a lot. My big failure is that I cannot sing, play rhythm and then pop out a solo as needed. For some dumb reason playing lead and leading (playing and singing) are two different mindset a for me.

I hear guys do it and I am amazed. I hope you nail it all.