I'm 50 this year and have struggled with my voice more than you can probably imagine. I've been to hell and back with singing - resolving many times to give up and never sing again. For some crazy reason I keep coming back to it - even though I know I'm facing ageing and I will never make a career as a singer. It pulls me back like gravity. I know about music - I'm a professional guitarist and have a very high level on guitar, piano and composition and I also teach college level music theory. So it's not that I'm musically naive, but I've struggled with my voice and my throat my whole life. It has simply never done what I've wanted it to do. I've hurt it by trying to force it. A rational person would have given up this pursuit that makes me so miserable much of the time, but time and time again I come back to voice. Why? Because I realise on some level that for me, singing is the ultimate expression of music. As advanced and proficient as I am on instruments, they still miss the mark in terms of the primal musical experience. They don't speak from the heart the way singing does. So, despite the unfortunate fact that I was not blessed with a great throat, and that it's never going to give me what I want from it, I know that I will always be drawn back to singing. I am as much a singer as any professional - not in terms of ability, but in terms of how important it is to me. That acceptance is what needs to carry me through into my later years. I'm not dead yet, I've got plenty of years left to live, and I need to find a way to be comfortable and grateful for the voice I have. Thanks for your perspectives, Timo. Your channel helps me to be more accepting of where I am with my voice. Maybe I'll have a lesson with you some time.
Hi there! Sorry for the late reply somehow your comment didn't show up on my end until now. Thank you for sharing your story I really appreciate it! 😀 I agree with you the voice is a very special instrument. Nothing can come close to the emotions you can feel from someone singing with a great voice. And also let me tell you that you are not alone on your journey. There are a lot of people out there who share a similar story to yours. Singing is a difficult skill to master without guidance and knowledge (like any skill). But what makes it even harder is that you can not see or touch the instrument. You can just feel it from the inside and the first step is to build an awareness of how certain ways of singing feel. If you top it up with some anatomical knowledge you will be able to create a formula that works for anyone willing to train their throat muscles persistently. Sure, whenever you feel ready for a lesson write me an email or visit my website (link in the description). 🙌
Timo thank you for doing this video, I started singing around 15 yrs old but I didn't think I was any good lol, played in a few bands thru high school and in my 20s then started singing when my next friend died. Sorta as a tribute to him I think. I always sang in chest voice not knowing about head voice or different placements until I started taking Sing Together with Chris Liepe here on You Tube since last Nov 2022. Even this whole last year I focused on finding my head voice, didn't start finding it until 2 months ago, then I found your videos a couple weeks ago and I had a moment of realization that I needed to sing from my lyrnix. I always thought head voice was higher in my throat, but now if I sing from my vocal folds and really tighten them it's nice and clear with hardly any force and no air. Now I need to implement this technique with everything else I learned over the years but my point is it's taken me almost 25 years by myself to learn to sing and only a year with a teacher to finally figure it out. It was so much simpler than I ever thought😂 but it makes so much sense now.
Thank you so much for sharing this with me. 😊 I am so glad to hear that my videos could support you on your singing journey. It can be really hard to find your way around the instrument (voice), especially if you don‘t have prober guidance. Good on you that you stuck with it and didn‘t give up and I hope that your new discovery will be the beginning of a new journey with lots of improvements! 😊
@@timoparker yes!! I actually just had class today and I asked about changing my placement to using my vocal folds for singing in head voice and I am on the right track 😆 th-cam.com/video/m6GZ2_0s524/w-d-xo.htmlsi=JX8nvT5nPKeoADQK If you wanna hear I use it in the first part of this song
Hi Timo, thanks for making these videos! I'm sure they're gonna be a good help for those who try to learn "the Instrument". Personally I like the way you talk about singing technique: it's informative and different from other youtubers (which I think is a good thing. It makes you stand out). Do videos of you signing songs with a band, with a piano/guitar or smth like that exist on the internet? And if yes could please share a link to those? You made me very curios about your way of singing and I'm curios to see your real performances. Probably there are other curios people too.
Thank you so much for your feedback I really appreciate it! 😀 I have some performance videos planned and I will share them with you all once they are ready. 🙌
Also the feeling change was hard to accept, not knowing if I was ever in the right placement, then when I did find it I thought it sounded weak or not full enough but it's my true voice. I just need to get used to it and use everything I know so far too build it again
Hi Timo. Thanks for your videos. They are really helpful for me as a singer, but I guess even more helpful for me as a transwoman and my speech. I had the thought that the big difference in the modes of speaking for female and male voice may lie in pulling the vocal folds and putting pressure on the vocal folds. I've never heard of that idea from any speech therapist or trans voice teacher here on youtube. So I tried your method of pulling the vocal folds within my speech exercises in the last couple of days and I feel more and more confident that there's something to that idea. My voice has lost volume for now, but became quickly much more dynamic with a natural flow to it. thank you! without you i would've never thought about this and I actually feel that it might be something worth sharing with other trans woman too.
Thank you so much for sharing your experience with us. I am so happy to hear that this video/channel can help you on your journey. I am definitely not an expert when it comes to trans women but at the end all humans have the same anatomy regardless of gender and gender of choice. Please keep me updated if it could help other trans women you know of on their journey. I would love to get more feedback on this! 😊
@@KelseyHigham stretching is the word I should’ve used. Hm in retrospect I would assume it was the „increase for voice to 4 octaves“ one. The second video on the channel. But I guess he talks about it in almost all the videos. I hope that helps
I'm 50 this year and have struggled with my voice more than you can probably imagine. I've been to hell and back with singing - resolving many times to give up and never sing again. For some crazy reason I keep coming back to it - even though I know I'm facing ageing and I will never make a career as a singer. It pulls me back like gravity.
I know about music - I'm a professional guitarist and have a very high level on guitar, piano and composition and I also teach college level music theory. So it's not that I'm musically naive, but I've struggled with my voice and my throat my whole life. It has simply never done what I've wanted it to do. I've hurt it by trying to force it. A rational person would have given up this pursuit that makes me so miserable much of the time, but time and time again I come back to voice. Why?
Because I realise on some level that for me, singing is the ultimate expression of music. As advanced and proficient as I am on instruments, they still miss the mark in terms of the primal musical experience. They don't speak from the heart the way singing does. So, despite the unfortunate fact that I was not blessed with a great throat, and that it's never going to give me what I want from it, I know that I will always be drawn back to singing. I am as much a singer as any professional - not in terms of ability, but in terms of how important it is to me. That acceptance is what needs to carry me through into my later years. I'm not dead yet, I've got plenty of years left to live, and I need to find a way to be comfortable and grateful for the voice I have.
Thanks for your perspectives, Timo. Your channel helps me to be more accepting of where I am with my voice. Maybe I'll have a lesson with you some time.
Hi there! Sorry for the late reply somehow your comment didn't show up on my end until now.
Thank you for sharing your story I really appreciate it! 😀
I agree with you the voice is a very special instrument. Nothing can come close to the emotions you can feel from someone singing with a great voice.
And also let me tell you that you are not alone on your journey. There are a lot of people out there who share a similar story to yours. Singing is a difficult skill to master without guidance and knowledge (like any skill). But what makes it even harder is that you can not see or touch the instrument. You can just feel it from the inside and the first step is to build an awareness of how certain ways of singing feel. If you top it up with some anatomical knowledge you will be able to create a formula that works for anyone willing to train their throat muscles persistently.
Sure, whenever you feel ready for a lesson write me an email or visit my website (link in the description). 🙌
God! Although is a good video; a bit " repetitive, sorry.
Timo thank you for doing this video, I started singing around 15 yrs old but I didn't think I was any good lol, played in a few bands thru high school and in my 20s then started singing when my next friend died. Sorta as a tribute to him I think. I always sang in chest voice not knowing about head voice or different placements until I started taking Sing Together with Chris Liepe here on You Tube since last Nov 2022. Even this whole last year I focused on finding my head voice, didn't start finding it until 2 months ago, then I found your videos a couple weeks ago and I had a moment of realization that I needed to sing from my lyrnix. I always thought head voice was higher in my throat, but now if I sing from my vocal folds and really tighten them it's nice and clear with hardly any force and no air. Now I need to implement this technique with everything else I learned over the years but my point is it's taken me almost 25 years by myself to learn to sing and only a year with a teacher to finally figure it out. It was so much simpler than I ever thought😂 but it makes so much sense now.
Thank you so much for sharing this with me. 😊 I am so glad to hear that my videos could support you on your singing journey. It can be really hard to find your way around the instrument (voice), especially if you don‘t have prober guidance. Good on you that you stuck with it and didn‘t give up and I hope that your new discovery will be the beginning of a new journey with lots of improvements! 😊
@@timoparker yes!! I actually just had class today and I asked about changing my placement to using my vocal folds for singing in head voice and I am on the right track 😆 th-cam.com/video/m6GZ2_0s524/w-d-xo.htmlsi=JX8nvT5nPKeoADQK
If you wanna hear I use it in the first part of this song
@@timoparker this video was for class and before I knew to lean into using my folds with less air
Hi Timo, thanks for making these videos! I'm sure they're gonna be a good help for those who try to learn "the Instrument". Personally I like the way you talk about singing technique: it's informative and different from other youtubers (which I think is a good thing. It makes you stand out).
Do videos of you signing songs with a band, with a piano/guitar or smth like that exist on the internet? And if yes could please share a link to those? You made me very curios about your way of singing and I'm curios to see your real performances. Probably there are other curios people too.
Thank you so much for your feedback I really appreciate it! 😀
I have some performance videos planned and I will share them with you all once they are ready. 🙌
@@timoparker That would be awesome!
I think you meant "overriding" old behaviours.
Thanks for the tip! 😀
Also the feeling change was hard to accept, not knowing if I was ever in the right placement, then when I did find it I thought it sounded weak or not full enough but it's my true voice. I just need to get used to it and use everything I know so far too build it again
It can be really confronting when you discover your natural voice, but acceptance is such a vital part of building a solid foundation.
Hi Timo. Thanks for your videos. They are really helpful for me as a singer, but I guess even more helpful for me as a transwoman and my speech. I had the thought that the big difference in the modes of speaking for female and male voice may lie in pulling the vocal folds and putting pressure on the vocal folds. I've never heard of that idea from any speech therapist or trans voice teacher here on youtube. So I tried your method of pulling the vocal folds within my speech exercises in the last couple of days and I feel more and more confident that there's something to that idea. My voice has lost volume for now, but became quickly much more dynamic with a natural flow to it. thank you! without you i would've never thought about this and I actually feel that it might be something worth sharing with other trans woman too.
Thank you so much for sharing your experience with us. I am so happy to hear that this video/channel can help you on your journey. I am definitely not an expert when it comes to trans women but at the end all humans have the same anatomy regardless of gender and gender of choice. Please keep me updated if it could help other trans women you know of on their journey. I would love to get more feedback on this! 😊
@@timoparker I will! ☺️
@@SnetremAipwhat's Timo's method of pulling the vocal folds? which video is that from?
@@KelseyHigham stretching is the word I should’ve used. Hm in retrospect I would assume it was the „increase for voice to 4 octaves“ one. The second video on the channel. But I guess he talks about it in almost all the videos. I hope that helps
thank you for this video!
Glad it was helpful!😀
Whats your band called i want to check it out
I am not singing in a fixed band at the moment. Will make an announce ment when I start a project 🙌
@@timoparker I am so keen to here you sing. 🤙