Colin's Blog

This is my new blog. I'l be chronicalling my musical and other career endeavors here over the next year.

Name: Colin Darling

Monday, July 17, 2006

Piano Lessons turned to singing

In my last post, I mentioned that I'd started taking piano lessons with Bob Murphy. Well I hurt my hand a bit (no big story..just bad luck)and substituted a singing lesson with Bob for a piano lesson. Also in my last post, I posed the question of how you know if you have talent and if you should dedicate yourself to your craft and sacrifice more stable and conservative pursuits. So Bob prefaced his comments on my singing with the statement that he was known as being very opinionated and that he was not one to mince words. I had prepared myself for the worst when he said something to the effect that I had the potential to be a great jazz singer. THis man has played with Sarah Vaughn so I take his opinion in very high regard. What does this mean? I'm not great now, but with work (and potetially a lot of it) I could be. Hmmm. We started the second voice lesson with the brutal process of recording and analyzing my singing of a tune, assessing it's strengths and weaknesses, and trying again.....brutal and unforgiving. In this process I found and interesting parallel to my wife's progress as a competitive cyclist: as she works on one area of weakness another area of strength suffers. (see her blog http://www.leedarling.blogspot.com/ )
As we worked on my rhythmic weaknesses, the vocal technique and the melodic interest suffered horribly. It truly opens up your mind to how complex music can be. Just when you think you've got a pretty good handle on it someone teaches you something that shows you how little you actually know. wow. I'll try to post some mp3 files of the recordings we do at our lessons to document the progress.

1 Comments:

Blogger Brett Manning said...

Brett Manning :: Singing Success

*If you grapple with trying to hit high notes, have a need for more vocal power, or experience vocal strain, you'll want to read my story here.

I went from blowing an easy "singing telegram" audition... to having a beautiful 5-octave range, all because I discovered the right vocal method.

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Because of this limitation, you sometimes drift out of tune, especially in the upper registers.

You've tried to belt through to a few higher notes, but have either felt the strain (and pain) and given up, or...

You have persisted and injured your vocal cords, or you are in the process of self-injury...

You've visited a vocal "coach" who has talked more about breathing than about singing, or more about "support" than about sounding better.

And now you may be dissatisfied with your tone as a result of all of these.

On my search, I found that I had a combination of all the above! Are we somewhat alike?...whatever your vocal limitations are, mine were probably worse, but...

Your singing life could change right now

My name is Brett Manning, and thanks to my painful story, I now lead singers out of their vocal difficulties all day long. The good news for you is, you don't have to live with these challenges ever again.

I'm no miracle worker, though my students often joke that I am. That's because I regularly "hand" singers a full octave or more in as little as a couple lessons, and in the process, they lose all vocal strain. So it's no wonder they use words like "magic," and "automatic," when describing my method.

Visit Brett Manning :: Singing Success

I created a fool-proof system that literally "erases" the range limits for 99% of the singers who use it! I've discovered and invented a series of simple, easy exercises that "trick" the voice into working as it was designed to--effortlessly, "shifting gears" as it moves over a wide range of notes.

How wide a range? The normal range of a singer should be AT LEAST 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 octaves. Most of the singers who come to me arrive with about an octave and a half.

Three Things that Changed My Musical Life

Thing #1: On my quest, I took a lot of high-priced voice lessons and saw no real results. I visited countless vocal coaches and, with each voice lesson, I only saw my range AND my bank account shrink.

Some only gave me more "stuff to remember" while I was singing ("Sing from your diaphragm!!", "Picture an egg in the back of your throat!!").

Others taught me to just belt it out as I went higher, until it caused that old familiar strain and then pain. Still others gave me the "proper" way to sing, making me sound like a misfit classical singer. (Classical singing is wonderful, but it wasn't my style at the time.) Sometimes frustration is the mother of invention.

Something had to happen...

Thing #2: I met an "old master" voice coach, nearly 70-years-old. (Imagine a vocal "Yoda," but without the light saber.) In just one singing lesson with this aging pioneer, everything changed.

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I became a star pupil and a star teacher! I ended up with a 5-OCTAVE VOCAL RANGE!!

Visit Brett Manning :: Singing Success

I also found out I was gifted to teach, diagnose, and "fix" voices like few others on the planet. I invented new voice-training technologies and exercises, and came up with my unique method that lets me guarantee a full octave increase to anyone who uses it! The truth is...

Most of my students eventually out-sing me


Thing #3: In the past 10 years, word has gotten out about my method, and I've had the privilege of training both new singers as well as some of the best professionals in the world. I've worked with recording artists from Capitol, Columbia, Atlantic, Interscope, Dreamworks, Lyric Street, MCA, Epic/Sony, KMG, Word, Embassy, Gotee Records, as well as countless independent record labels.

I've been privileged to work with the casts of the Broadway productions of Les Miserables and Jekyll and Hyde, as well as the Broadway tour of Elton John's Aida.

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-Keith Urban
Grammy-nominated
Country Singer, 2005
CMA Male Vocalist
of the Year, 2004 + 2005!



My method is the "secret weapon" used by some of the winners of the world�s most prestigious vocal awards, including the Doves, the CMA Awards, and yes, the Grammies.

Over the years I've taught my students these best-kept secrets, learned from my "Yoda" master (and a few I discovered on my own). And it's been the most fulfilling work I've ever done. They've gotten the results they were looking for. Maybe you're looking too.

Not everyone can afford to work with me personally (My teaching time is very expensive)...and I realized that I would never be able to teach everybody these techniques--it would take multiple lifetimes. I put my method into an instruction program called the

Brett Manning :: Singing Success �

Systematic Vocal Training Program



In this course, I've revealed:

The one mistake even professional singers make, that drains away 3 times more vocal energy and yields only half the needed vocal power.
How classically-trained singers can get their natural tone back, even after years of "unnatural" teaching.
The 3 simple exercises that allow even a "beginner" to make rapid increases in range (this also eliminates vocal strain).
My secret for "dissolving" your break, so you'll never have to flip into falsetto again, but you'll still sing as high as you want--in full voice.
The "two-edged" technique I perfected for one Grammy winner, that magically added "bite" to her tone and at the same time relieved all her fatigue!
The package includes 12 audio CDs (packed with 17 repeatable lessons, including both technique--the simple, yet powerful exercises, and style lessons for building vocal licks and trills); a workbook for illustration; and a DVD for visual reference and demonstration. It's a complete course, that reveals my entire proven method, step-by-step.

This is over $3000 worth of lesson time with me on these CDs. (I spent over $10,000 with "Yoda" himself, learning the foundations of this breakthrough method). You'll get all the secrets I paid so much to learn and perfect.


We haven't raised our price in several years so you still pay only $199 (for now, at least)

Visit Brett Manning :: Singing Success �

"Brett has given me the keys to get the most out of my voice."
Mark Kibble, Take 6
10-time Grammy Winner



By the way, you can't lose with my risk-free , ironclad, "coffee-stain resistant" guarantee.

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Don't decide based on just reading about it. Get the program, use it, and see what everyone's talking about. If it doesn't give you the results you want...Send it back for a full, no questions asked refund.


Visit Brett Manning :: Singing Success �

3:38 PM  

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