My vocal situation: advice needed

[colin040]

My situation at this moment: Right now I'm still really lost vocally...so I'm sure that a teacher will get me on the right road again. I still often have no idea what I'm actually doing and just sing on feeling. My idea is that ''if something hurts, it's wrong.'' Not sure if that's too narrow minded but I definitely try to take care of my voice and not push myself if my voice doesn't allow it. I'm not really worried about increasing range: I'm most likely able to hit a F#5-G5 without strain during exercise) however what's really missing with me are the basics. Breath support is REALLY missing here (it doesn't help that my old teacher eventually said that there's debate on whether this is actually important or not. I should have left once she said that right away probably) and I still have no idea of the right way to go for high notes. (Yet I feel pretty much no tension when singing scales through my ''second break'' which is already an improvement compared to myself months ago) During songs in the A4-B4-C5 area however I still feel like I'm either:

1: Yelling almost. This will eventually hurt. Sometimes this also means pulling chest.

2: Able to sing with lacking resonance (more on that later) which feels easier but sounds pretty shitty.

3: able to sing with a very light tone with feels alright but doesn't sound too good.

4: Somehow manage to get shit together, maybe able to sing in this ''vocal area'' that FEELS comfortable for me. Not sure if it actually is however. The power is also definitely there.

Resonance is something I also have trouble with. I can apply it sometimes but makes my voice REALLY unclear (I've been told to sound like James LaBrie in the late 90's when it comes to this) and I'm just not happy with the outcome of that.

After months of having no vocal teacher I finally found one again. So the 27th I'll have this free starting lesson. Considering it's my first again it will only unfortunately take no longer than 15 minutes. (and no, I don't have to pay for it) however I was wondering what should I expect again? What should I DEFINITELY ask for? If anything, I'd love to get the basics of singing just right. E.g breath support, resonance, how to work on my vowels and more. I'd like to know when I do things correctly and when not. I definitely do not want to get a teacher again that makes me doubt a lot like my previous one did. I really love to sing but the fact that I keep pushing myself vocally a lot doesn't work at this moment. All the clips that I've recorded are things that are most likely not smart to attempt now.

So this my situation when it comes to singing. Also do you guys have any basic routine that I could start again? Stuff I can prepare for before I have my first lesson again?

Sorry for the long post. I just needed to get this out. : - )

edit: here's the link to my clips: http://soundcloud.com/colin040 I'd say the ''Some Wounds'' is the most representative of my regular clean singing. I'm aware that most of these are probably quite flawed vocally.

[Owen Korzec]

I wouldn't worry too much about it now. If your teacher is any good they will quickly and accurately identify what the issue is and how to start fixing it. You don't need the help of a billion opinions from a forum unless you want to, because in the end your teacher will probably just have you do what they think you need to do.

I'd also recommend sending those clips to your teacher ahead of time so he or she can have a head start in identifying the issues.

[colin040]

Fair enough. And yeah, I'll let my upcomming teacher hear these clips. I just hope things will click.