# Ken Tamplin Vocal Academy?



## NeubyWanKaneuby

I've watched a bunch of his videos and was wondering if anyone here might have purchased his course. Or, does anyone here know anyone who's purchased it?

I'm thinking about buying it, and just looking for some opinions.

Ken Tamplin Vocal Academy


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## JohnIce

Haven't tried his course, but I'm getting some warning signs from his youtube page. He sounds fantastic, no questioning that, but he also seems biased towards his own sound, which favors belting pretty much as much as humanly possible. That takes a lot of energy and stamina, which is on a lot shorter supply on a 2 month minivan tour, than it is for him in his vocal studio. The whole "how to sound like xx singer" clickbait gets me skeptical when he sounds exactly the same whether he's teaching Bono or Kurt Cobain and sounding nothing like either because he falls back on the one technique he always uses instead. He says: "Singing a heavy rock song often requires incredible strength and stamina" which is only true when you belt as high and often as he does, which frankly is what most young and inexperienced singers are doing naturally anyway  He's just way more experienced with it. And he advocates "stress management" over "stress free" technique, and while it's true that most singers are not stress free, by choice for tonal reasons, it's not the kind of advice I'd pay for especially not online. There's no way for him to gauge whether your stressed vocals are "managed" or not over webcam, or from a DVD.

His obvious competition, just like any other online vocal coach, would be Brett Manning. And I can't even count how many great singers I've heard who've taken lessons either with him or used his DVD's. Contrary to Ken, they absolutely geek out over mixed voice and stress free singing, which feels to me like a better thing to pay for coaching in. Because if you can sing with perfect, effortless technique as a starting point, you can then experiment and "degrade" your technique for tonal reasons as much as you want and still make an informed decision about how much you're willing to struggle to get a cool rock tone. This is especially good when you're touring and might need to regulate how much "strength and stamina" you can afford to spend on each note if you're gonna make it through the next 30 shows with half the tour van full of snoring band members keeping you awake every night and your only energy source is fast food burgers and gas station hot dogs every day.

So yeah, haven't tried his actual lessons, just skeptical of the value of them compared to other coaches.


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## NeubyWanKaneuby

Thanks for the feedback! 

I'm not in the market to sound like someone else, as much as I'm trying to find a good spot for my voice. I watched the Zen of Screaming lessons, and they stressed technique over just belting, but I don't really want to be a screamo anyway. I just want to have it available if I decide to go crazy with the cheez whiz every once in a while.

I'll definitely check out Brett Manning. I've never heard of him.


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## JohnIce

NeubyWanKaneuby said:


> Thanks for the feedback!
> 
> I'm not in the market to sound like someone else, as much as I'm trying to find a good spot for my voice. I watched the Zen of Screaming lessons, and they stressed technique over just belting, but I don't really want to be a screamo anyway. I just want to have it available if I decide to go crazy with the cheez whiz every once in a while.
> 
> I'll definitely check out Brett Manning. I've never heard of him.



Yeah the Zen of Screaming is interesting in that it's mostly about what NOT to do but not so much about what TO do.

Brett Manning is great, but keep in mind he's all about isolating technique and exercises, and doesn't waste lesson time with trying to show off and sing "well" to sort of prove how good he is. So if you judge a vocal coach's usefulness by how "good" they sound you probably wouldn't look twice at him, but it's what he says and shows that's the gold.


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## youngthrasher9

I actually own the DVD course.

He actually (like first lesson IIRC) tells you NOT to belt. He's not a belter. He's just a very powerful bel-canto-esque singer. His DVD lessons are legit, and if you have the drive to do them every day you will become a way better singer. Even some of the warm-up techniques helped me immensely. I wish I had stuck with the lessons, but I got distracted by work, school, and social life.


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## highmtn

I own both KTVA and Singing Success, as well as Singing Success Mastering Mix. The singing success products just don't produce much at all. I tried them diligently for over two and a half years. 

KTVA works. You have to do the work that is given to you, and some of it, like stretching your chest voice up several notes, is not easy and takes a lot of time and effort. KTVA is worth every penny and more.

I'm a working musician, and KTVA has taught me to preserve my voice and to prevent hoarseness. My voice gets stronger as the gig goes on, and after 4 or 5 hours, I'm just continuing to get more warmed-up.


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## JohnIce

highmtn said:


> I own both KTVA and Singing Success, as well as Singing Success Mastering Mix. The singing success products just don't produce much at all. I tried them diligently for over two and a half years.
> 
> KTVA works. You have to do the work that is given to you, and some of it, like stretching your chest voice up several notes, is not easy and takes a lot of time and effort. KTVA is worth every penny and more.
> 
> I'm a working musician, and KTVA has taught me to preserve my voice and to prevent hoarseness. My voice gets stronger as the gig goes on, and after 4 or 5 hours, I'm just continuing to get more warmed-up.



Good to know!

Though I disagree with you about Singing Success, I've learned a ton from those guys. But maybe it all depends a little on what sort of technique you had before taking the lessons.


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## NeubyWanKaneuby

Ok, so now I guess I need to figure out which one I want to go with. 

Appreciate all the feedback!


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## Borgus Weems

While I appreciate the comments made here respectfully, Ken Tamplin Vocal Academy program is the only program that I've seen where the vocal coach sings well himself and shows a bunch of students singing well also. I have just about every singing course out there and they didn't do very much for me. When I got the KTVA program I immediately experienced the difference. I'm sure some of those other courses are right for some, but for me and my money I don&#8217;t see anything that even comes close to Ken Tamplin Vocal Academy.
____________________________________________________


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## TonyFlyingSquirrel

+1 for the Brett Manning courses, especially for pure singing techniques.

Zen of screaming is geared for hardcore, but, I will say this, dumping the 2nd cd with the exercises into my iTunes library and having this on my iPod for warmups is very useful.


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## phsopher

I would just like to point out for the benefit of anyone stumbling across this thread in search of info on this subject (as I just did) that the posters who wrote the most glowing reviews only have one post to their names and seem to have registered specifically to advertise this product. In fact, the post of Borgus Weems is identical word for word with a post under the name Elizabeth Compton from a Quora thread regarding KTVA (linked below).

https://www.quora.com/Is-Ken-Tamplin-Vocal-Academy-worth-the-money-for-singing-lessons

In that thread the most positive reviews again seem to come almost exclusively from people who registered specifically to promote KTVA and who haven't posted on any other subject at Quora. This leads me to suspect that Ken Tamplin or someone employed by him systematically goes around the web and posts fake reviews, which is a major red flag.

As far as my (admittedly unprofessional) opinion goes, I actually like how Ken Tamplin and his students sound but out of any large pool of singers who work diligently at their voice there will be at least a handful of talented ones who sound amazing no matter what their program is. A handful of good singers does not demonstrate that the program is good. What would demonstrate the quality of a program would be a large (and at least somewhat random) sample of singers or testimonials thereof -- exactly the sort of thing that these apparently fake reviews are obscuring.

This is not to say that Tamplin's program is necessarily bad, perhaps it''s not. But for anyone like myself who is trying to make up their mind the above is something to consider.

P.S. And yes, once I post this I too will only have one post to my name but I hope it's clear that I do so in good faith and that I registered specifically to share my observations.


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## Borgus Weems

phsopher said:


> I would just like to point out for the benefit of anyone stumbling across this thread in search of info on this subject (as I just did) that the posters who wrote the most glowing reviews only have one post to their names and seem to have registered specifically to advertise this product. In fact, the post of Borgus Weems is identical word for word with a post under the name Elizabeth Compton from a Quora thread regarding KTVA (linked below).
> 
> https://www.quora.com/Is-Ken-Tamplin-Vocal-Academy-worth-the-money-for-singing-lessons
> 
> In that thread the most positive reviews again seem to come almost exclusively from people who registered specifically to promote KTVA and who haven't posted on any other subject at Quora. This leads me to suspect that Ken Tamplin or someone employed by him systematically goes around the web and posts fake reviews, which is a major red flag.
> 
> As far as my (admittedly unprofessional) opinion goes, I actually like how Ken Tamplin and his students sound but out of any large pool of singers who work diligently at their voice there will be at least a handful of talented ones who sound amazing no matter what their program is. A handful of good singers does not demonstrate that the program is good. What would demonstrate the quality of a program would be a large (and at least somewhat random) sample of singers or testimonials thereof -- exactly the sort of thing that these apparently fake reviews are obscuring.
> 
> This is not to say that Tamplin's program is necessarily bad, perhaps it''s not. But for anyone like myself who is trying to make up their mind the above is something to consider.
> 
> P.S. And yes, once I post this I too will only have one post to my name but I hope it's clear that I do so in good faith and that I registered specifically to share my observations.




Hey Bucko, my name is Elizabeth Compton.

Just because I sometimes use my internet "handle / username" doesn't mean I'm not real. As a woman I choose to protect myself from internet trolls who go looking up people's FB accounts. Creeper. 

Do you always register everything you do under your own name or do you use a "user name"?

Whether you do or not, I do. In fact most of my postings are under Borgus Weems (my username) not Elizabeth Compton.

I've been doing KTVA for several years and there is no better course that i know of.

And I disagree, having used many/most all the major courses, not all information is created equal.

If what you said is true: "I actually like how Ken Tamplin and his students sound but out of any large pool of singers who work diligently at their voice there will be at least a handful of talented ones who sound amazing no matter what their program " why do basically none of them post any actual students singing like Ken Tamplin? Why do the coaches not sing themselves? 

THIS in my mind, IS the question that should be asked.

I am also active in Ken Tamplin's 10,000 member singers forums. You may want to check it out. Or are you suggesting those 10,000 people don't exist either? (hey, do you work for one of these other coaches?)

Your "call out" is your opinion which you are entitled to.

As is mine.

As for posting the same comment my opinion is unchanged. Why would I reinvent the wheel? That doesn't seem very intelligent, does it, creeper? I'm not going to find you on my front porch, am I?

And, so what if I only posted on Quora once? I posted on what is relevant to me. Suspicious, much?

Elizabeth Compton (aka Borgus Weems)


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## Columbo

so you say you are active on Ken Tamplin's member forum? Is that because you are his social media manager? https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-compton-33b14181


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## prlgmnr

Columbo usually works a bit quicker than that.


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## TedEH

Today I learned that KTVA seems to have attended the Kiesel school of using social management strategies that make you look worse than if you had said nothing at all.  Hopefully/maybe that doesn't actually affect the quality of their product, but it's hard not to be leary of dealing with a company that calls their potential customers "creepers" for identifying an obviously biased endorsement.


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## sezna

These one-post accounts praising his school. lol.


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