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Devin Burns

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Just wondering how long it usually takes people to make progress in certain areas. :)

 

Bridging?

 

Connecting?

 

Getting a "chesty" sound in the head voice?

 

I'm not meaning significant progress, just some noticeable progress.  I've been training with the Four Pillars for the past couple weeks and I've successfully bridged a handful of times.  (You have no idea how excited/shocked i was when it happened). So i feel i'm making pretty good progress there.  I can get a connected sound in head voice pretty easily when practicing.  It's a little harder to maintain the connection when singing actual lyrics.  But the last part is what really gets me.  When singing phrases ranging from, let's say, C4-A4, I feel i can get in and out of my chest voice fairly decently, but while there's not a noticeable "break", it doesn't sound like the same voice at all.  I'm definitely not expecting this to be a quick process by any means, but does anyone have any idea when i might notice my head voice starting to sound like my chest voice? And i don't necessarily mean my head voice sounding meaty, just more like my chest voice in general. (hope that makes sense!)

 

I've been trying to practice at least 4-5 days a week.  I usually do the foundation building routine, then add some bonus scales and sirens afterwards to get more practice with my onsets (mainly Dampen&Release, Wind&Release, and Contract&Release) and bridging. When i get more comfortable with my bridging I plan to start working on the other exercises in the program.  :)

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Hmm?

 

Good TVS Student... way to go! Getting off to a strong start and really committing to it... just great. 

 

If you recently purchased, be sure to download the ebook again, I uploaded some more updates tonight... 

 

 

You are impatient, but that is ok. It takes a long time for the best of us and a lot to training... just keep at it. Based on the individual, if your using "The Four Pillars of Singing", you will begin bridging in about 2-6 weeks and your head voice will begin to get beefy and full in about 4-12 weeks. It also depends on how you are using that content. You have to be really smart and understand what the onsets are doing for you. 

 

I like your routine... good start... but I want you to work this routine as well... I just put it together.... My students will understand how to read this!

 

Makes me proud... !    ;)

 

 

A BEST Practice Routine for Module 2 & Module 4: 

(assumes you have trained and understand all the onsets in Module 1)

 
- Module 2 = Nasal Consonant / Resonant Tracking Routines.
 
     - 2a - Track & Track
     - 2b - Track & Release 
     - 2c - Release & Sustain
 
- Module 4 = Onsets & Sirens.
 
          - 1st Set for Coordination, Compression, Respiration & Formant Tuning.
 
            Recommended Vowel Modification Formulas: 
 
          - eh/ah < > a (cat)
          - eh/ah < > uh
          - eh/ah < > ou < > uh < > a
 
               Bottom Onset = P&R, T&R, Q&R & W&R
 
               Top Onset = D&R, A&R, C&R, “Yeah!” & “Ya!” (Supplemental Edging Onsets)
 
          - 2nd Set for Resistance Training, Belting, Anchoring/Modal Voice Strengthening.
 
            Recommended Vowel Modification Formulas: 
 
          - eh/ah < > a (cat)
          - eh/ah < > uh < > ah
          - eh/ah < > ou < > uh < > ah
          - ah < > uh < > ou < > oo
 
               Bottom Onset = D&R, A&R, C&R
 
               Top Onset = D&R, A&R, C&R, “Yeah!” & “Ya!” (Supplemental Edging Onsets)
 
 
secret...  A&R... lots of A&R Onsets, with amplified energy into the upper, forward hard palette. Trust me... that will get your head voice belting...  ;)
 
 
Glad to have you on board Devin... you make me proud... keep going!!!  To really get the head voice to sound chesty, consistently, its going to take a BOAT load of practice on your TVS training content and singing songs... Don't forget, to sing songs... work out the parts. Figure out the vowels and the anchoring for every hard note. Work them slowly... teach the voice/body how to phonate "that" note... then teach it to phonate that next note... and on and on.
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Devin,

 

Look at it this way if you are serious..."You are going to get good for the rest of your life."

 

You have to realize sometimes you will realize gains you weren't even expecting nor could you have assumed.

 

Some will be Ah Ha! moments and other might simply be less difficulty on a continually difficult song.

 

The best part is figuring out what you did to make your voice do what it just did so you can do it more and more.

 

Have fun (though easier said than done) on the journey.

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In an interview, Geoff Tate mentions that he had six direct lessons with David Kyle. This was back when dinosaurs still roamed the earth. That was all he could afford and he was already on a mac-n-cheese budget. One lesson a week for 6 weeks. Plenty of practice in between, already in a band (way before Queensryche), and retaining those lessons in his practice and warm-ups for a really long, long time.

 

So, give yourself some time. Don't worry about the "clock tick, ticking away, my face grows longer every day ..." (sorry, gave myself an earworm.) We tend to worry too much about time and gradiated marks of our progress.

 

For example, in traditional kung fu and karate, there was no belt rank system. The more time you spent practicing and getting thrown to the dirt, the more dirt your uniform and belt absorbed. Having a belt so ingrained with ground-in dirt that it was nearly black meant you had been a serious student for a while. The concept of belt rank in class is an american obsession, I mean, invention.

 

Though, I think most anyone might say that you should have some improvement after a few months.

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.... if you are really into it and have a good coach and good training content and are singing a lot... the first 80% of improvement for students is comparatively rapid... its the final 20% that takes the rest of your life to continually improve on. 

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Thanks guys! Really means a lot! I'm like to think that I'm not impatient, just anxious! Excited for the results after seeing, or i guess hearing, what's possible!  :D And Robert, we are lucky to have a place like this to get advice. Just wish I'd found it sooner! :)

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Devin,

I've been working with a student for approx. 5 months based on my own method. At the start he was unable to hit G4, now he can go as high as Bb4 (in a chesty sound). Actually, he'd had many problems before we began.

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It all depends on how much you practice and practice correctly. Meaning do you understand why you do certain exercises. If you do exercises the wrong way or don't know why you you are doing them you will get very little results. However if you know why you need ir don't need a certain exercise you will have more success. Every voice is individual

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Apparently it takes 21 days to break a habit

 

Dr Maxwell Maltz 
Brain circuits take engrams (memory traces), and produce neuroconnections and neuropathways only if they are bombarded for 21 days in a row. This means that our brain does not accept ‘new’ data for a change of habit unless it is repeated each day for 21 days (without missing a day)."

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Apparently it takes 21 days to break a habit

 

Dr Maxwell Maltz 

Brain circuits take engrams (memory traces), and produce neuroconnections and neuropathways only if they are bombarded for 21 days in a row. This means that our brain does not accept ‘new’ data for a change of habit unless it is repeated each day for 21 days (without missing a day)."

 

Cool... thanks for sharing this. 

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I haven't encountered the word "engram" since I read "Dianetics" from L. Ron Hubbard's Church of Scientology stuff. No, I am not a scientologist, I just read way too much. And I am a fast reader. And I have a bad habit of remembering what I read.

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