Customer Reviews

Secrets of Singing: Male (Low & High Voice) [With 2 CDs]

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the best instructional book on vocal technique that I have come across. I do a lot of singing at church and I already have many exercises that I do, but the manner in which the author describes how your vocal instrument should feel, the shape of your lips, the imaginary route that the air takes on its way out your mouth, up to the imaginary target for the projection of your voice is outstanding. I feel much more confident of my own voice when I have been practicing the easy to understand techniques that the author furnishes. Novice and pro alike can benefit greatly from this book.

I'm a singer from The Netherlands. I bought this book in order to sing better. I did all the exercises and read the complete book. I have to say: it gives an answer to a lot of questions about singing. But when I decided to take lessons, my vocal teacher had to begin all over again with me. I thought I was doing things right, yet I had created a lot of tensions in the larynx area instead. So my experience is that you definitely have to have a coach who corrects you. This book is a good manual for experienced and trained singers, but not for beginners! It also speaks to much in imaginary terms like 'singing into the mask', etc. I also think that the yawn-feeling, as described, can be interpreted very quick in a wrong way, so that it causes very easy extra tensions. That sort of things is for beginners very hard to understand by themselves. I was trained in Europe by the Koblenz-method (abspannen = let go of the belly muscles in order to fill with air automatically) and the Pahn-methode (Nasalieren = singing nasal as a tool in order to use the larynx area relaxed). This kind of things I don't find in the book. At the moment I am researching the Speech Level Singing method (SLS) by Seth Riggs and I am still waiting for a good book about the EVTS-method. I heard a lot of good things about it.

I haven't even mastered one of the tens of excercises on the included CDs, (you pick one of two depending on your voice), but already I can tell my singing has improved. Allen takes a scientific approach to singing, focusing on sound flow, breathing and other physical ways to project sound. He also looks at singing from a curiously metaphysical (is that the right word?) point of view. He takes it beyond the mental aspects and talks about "imagining" the flow of sound. Controlling the movement of sound waves with your mind, mentally focusing sound waves-he takes an interesting approach that makes learning to sing intriguing, as well as fun. Once you grasp his ideas, you almost immediately hear a change in your voice. His many pointers and tips and tricks and exercises (vocal, breathing and physical) are often times a lot to remember, but at no point does he rush the learner. Nor does he mince words. Many of these kinds of books are filled with random, useless banter-the reader is left questioning why he or she wasted money on it at all. Not Jeff Allen's book. He is clear and to the point, and his studies are actually based on his experience-techniques that actually work.
I highly recommend this book for anyone who really wants to learn how to fine tune their singing voice. From professional singers to those looking for Karaoke confidence it is a great tool to have.
There is a lot of info in this book but you won't get better overnight. Simply reading it will not improve your voice. You have to dedicate yourself to the exercises and techniques to see a change.
That said, though, I give this book 5 stars. Thanks for the tips, Mr. Allen.

I have tried a dozen books/audio sources seeking instruction to improve my voice. This is truely the best by far, especially for improving range. The CDs should not become the only source of learning. No book or audio is a substitute for a carefully picked teacher, who should help especially with proper placement of larynx and with getting your swallowing muscles out of singing's way. However the piano accompaniment on the CD along with instructions are valuable to give your throat muscles the workout they need for development of a well anchored voice. I had lost the CD so I ended up ordering another one. My volume, quality and range have improved significantly in the last 6 months of use. If you are consistent with your practice the higher notes that feel difficult at the begining start to fall into place. If you are already a good singer the CDs will be a great source for vocal warm up. The theory covered in the book is also quite good but that can be found in any other book on singing. I have not known Jeffery but he has had an impact on my voice.

I am a vocal method aficionado, and Jeffrey Allen has put forth an impressive effort. He groups each of the exercises into a section dealing with a different part of vocal technique, along with visualizations. The visualizations are probably the most interesting part of his program, and they actually work. This is a big book, that actually applies to all styles of music from rock to musical theatre. The idea behind this book is that it gives you a solid foundation of technique to tackle any vocal challenge. The appendices that go into detail on the different aspects of the voice are invaluable and explain how the singing voice works in a detailed way. Buy It!

I bought this book over a year ago and have regularly used the CDs to practice. Comes in very handy on my way to my teacher to warm up whike driving. Since this book I have bought over a dozen books on singing most of which came with some form of audio. By far this is the best of the bunch, though no book is "Everything you wanted to know but were afraid to ask" level. The two instructional CDs are quite well done and are truely helpful for the right student (assuming you have the ability to match pitch with the piano key). Of course no amature singer who is serious about his/her voice should ever totally rely on printed and/or recorded material to realize his/her pottential. A well chosen teacher can never be replaced by a book. That said the scales on the Cds and the accompanying explanation in the text which is in an every day language can be of a lot of help. For the right person this could work as a whole bunch of lessons in between lessons from the teacher adding speed and confidence to the process of learning.

The book includes all the usual excersises. A great book for beginners or for those who just want to refresh their memory. It covers nearly every aspect of singing. The visualization analogy is interesting but personally I find other methods more useful.
As a heavy rock singer this book was a bit of a disappointment. The word falsetto is mentioned only twice in the book and in negative context both times. Also I find the book a bit boring to read, it has everything in it but it just doesn't inspire that much. The methods in the book aims at bringing out the natural voice of every singer and his/hers vocal caractheristics, that is, if you want to copy a specific singing style or want to develop a voice which is far from what you naturally sound like the book is not very useful. However it teaches the basics very well and yes, even I found a few excersises that I might adapt in my everyday training.

To keep it simple, I think this book is pretty good, it sure did an excellent job with me, I can sing much longer without getting hoarse, more clarity and so forth. The reason why I am only giving it 4 stars is because it's pretty hard to get a grip on these imaginary stuff, like singing through a hole in the wall, face mask etc., it took me like 3-4 months, till once I grasped the actual method of projection he was talking about. But at least when I got it right I was able to identify it as being the correct way.

I did gain much clarity and ease of singing by using the exercises on the CD, and can easily sing a 2-3 notes higher than I used to be able too, and I am still going for more. But you MUST practice if you want to see results, and make sure that you are doing things the right way, and if you feel any stress on your vocal cords, then obviously you are not singing correctly.

The book also has many illustrations with a pullout of the complete vocal atonomy, which definitely makes it easier to understand to understand the whole concept.

Being a non-singer my self and very curious if this Book/CD will help me, I purchased it couple of weeks ago. After 2-3 wks of practice, my voice changed and it got better (no kidding). What I did, I dubbed the CD to a cassette and bring it everywhere I go. Thanks Mr. Allen for the great help. : ) I really recommend this book to everybody, novice (like me) or professional alike.

For years and years, people kept telling me, BruceMeister you're a great songwriter, a great record producer.... but my singing sucked they kept telling me. It hurt. So I went out and hired one singing instructor after another... spending a lot of money... and still no results. I began to think I was stuck with a bad singing voice. So then I started buying a lot of singing instruction books. I got the Seth Riggs book (I imagine actually taking lessons from Seth Riggs would work) and many other books and still... I was not improving very much. Until one day while on www.amazon.com da... da da daaaaa I FOUND THE BOOK! It is "The Secrets of Singing" by Jeffery Allen. Then when the book arrived in the mail... stupid me I let the book sit there basically unopened for two months! (I was thinking this book and CDs came out in 1994.... it's probably outdated.)

Then one day I opened the CDs and put one of them on. I started doing the exercises. Oo... I'm thinking these exercises are kind of hard. Maybe they're good for me. Then I started highlighting one or two pages a day (the book is 377 pages and very easy to read... and there's some blank
pages in there... oh got through that page in a hurry :) Anyways the combination of doing the exercises AND absorbing the knowledge has transformed my singing voice! I am so happy! Yet, still feeling kind of dumb that THE SECRETS OF SINGING book has been out since 1994... I could have gotten this book years ago and saved myself a lot of money... but most importantly
my music career would have benefited much, much earlier.

The only thing I don't like in the book is where it says something like "you'll do your best singing between the ages of 35 and 55." Uh... I'm 53 and I guess I only have a year and a half left. (:

The bottom line is if you are a singer get the book. You will be thrilled! You will learn for example: when you are singing in your upper one-third of your register you want to modify (or darken) your vowels a tad. Like on the EE vowel you add a little IH to it. That takes away the shrill-like sound. Try it. Think about it like this. Say you want to paint your room the color WHITE. But if you paint it totally WHITE, it will be too bright and unattractive to the eye. So in your bucket of WHITE paint... you add just a few drops of a different color. Mix it all up and you've got a more rounded comfortable color for your room. Now for your singing voice as you sing the EE vowel in the UPPER ONE-THIRD of your register you add a little IH to it. Your sound on the EE vowel becomes more rounded and comfortable to listen to. Remember to only do this in the upper one-third of your register. Sing the EE vowel pure in your lower registers. That is just one tip from this amazing book "Secrets of Singing". But remember it takes time to let the flower grow. In other words, you let these concepts gradually infiltrate your body. The author really gave singers a gift with this book!