This is one of the most successful vocal training programs
available today. It contains a huge amount of content - 12 CDs, 1 DVD, and
an accompanying workbook - packaged as a series of 17 vocal lessons from
Brett Manning.
Singing Success uses a "Karate kid" approach to teaching
- essentially it takes you through a whole sequence of what seem to be really
simple exercises. But if you keep practising with them, you gradually and
steadily improve your vocal skills as your muscles "learn how to sing".
The course starts off at a relatively simple level - which
is good if you're just beginning, but also has lessons on more advanced techniques
- focussed mainly on "extending your vocal range" - if you're further along
in your singing. The book has some quite good explanation of vocal topics
including breathing, registers, vocal health, resonators, posture, even good
nutrition for singers. And it's not too long either (16 pages...) so can
be read and digested in a couple of hours (actually it's best to treat it
as a resource book as you're going through the CDs and listening to the vocal
tuition lessons).
Each lesson focusses on a singing exercise that you can do
to improve some vocal technique. So it's a very methodical approach with
step-by-step instructions on what to do as you progress. Some of the vocal
tuition needs a bit more explanation (you'll be hitting the skip-back button
on your CD player...) but the book is useful there as well to help in understanding.
The complete package costs $199, which is relatively expensive,
but considering the amount of teaching material that you receive it is very
good value if you are serious about improving your singing and prepared to
spend the time practising. That last point is probably quite critical - if
you don't practise, you won't improve, no matter what kind of singing tuition
you follow.
In addition to the lessons and video, Singing Success has an
online community where you can get further lessons from Brett Manning and
other vocal coaches (this requires an additional subscription of $34.95 per
month).
Cost
Singing Success Full Program - $199
Singing Success Online
- $34.95 per month or $199 for one year
Also various other videos for sale for a range of prices
I just noticed that they're now advertising a "Six month Money back
guarantee" - it must be getting tough selling these things... Actually
I'd say that they're pretty safe with that - after six months anybody should
be able to improve their singing pretty well if they've gone through all
the lessons on the CDs - especially if they've been practising like they
should :)
