People always admire others who have achieved success in a particular area, whether that person is a businessman, artist, politician, athlete, scientist, or a participant in any other field of endeavor. One such person that I admire is Brett Manning. He has devoted his life to helping singers develop their talents. He has been a successful voice coach for many professional musicians including Taylor Swift, Keith Urban, and Mark Kibble of Take 6. But, because he truly has the heart of a teacher, Brett has the desire to help amateur singers make the most of their talent as well. He has developed a vocal instruction course called Singing Success that has enabled him to meet his goal of helping thousands of people with a wide range of abilities to become the best vocalists they can be. So, who is Brett Manning, and how did he create such a unique and effective product?
Brett began his career as a frustrated singer himself. He says on his website that he was “turned down cold” when auditioning for a job as a deliverer of singing telegrams. He couldn’t even sing “Happy Birthday” on pitch! Like so many people, however, he still had the desire to sing well, so he kept searching for a way to improve his skills. He took lessons from many expensive instructors, but was usually taught more about breathing than about singing. Maybe you have heard teachers give you the same advice that Brett heard: “Sing through your eyes.” “Imagine there is an egg in the back of your throat.” “Use your diaphragm.” It was all a lot of rhetoric with very little substance.
Other teachers that Brett tried advised him to just “belt it out” when trying to reach the higher notes in his vocal range. This led to a tone that was pinched-sounding and also caused real pain and strain of the vocal chords. Even after spending thousands of dollars for singing lessons, Brett was no closer to achieving his goal; until he met an old gentleman he calls his “Yoda.” He was nearly 70 years of age and had been advising professional singers for many years. He was able to give Brett some tips during his very first session that lifted the strain from his voice and gave him the ability to control the sounds he produced.
Brett says that this master teacher was able to help him in ways that no other voice coach could. He began to absorb tips and tricks that helped him to increase his range. At the beginning of these lessons, he could only produce about seven notes of a scale without having his voice “break” into a falsetto. But after using new practice techniques, he acquired the ability to sing more than five octaves…an incredible range by any standard. These lessons also taught Brett Manning one more important thing: his true gift was as a teacher and not a singer.
Gifted as a Teacher
According to Brett’s own testimony, he became so excited by the methods he was learning that he couldn’t wait to share the information with others. He took the principles of an instructional method called “Speech Level Singing” and expanded and enhanced them. He began doing research into the structure of the human vocal chords and developed his understanding of the physiology of singing. He was able to invent some new technologies to use as voice-training tools and came up with more exercises to help his students increase their vocal range and ability. After years of work, he is able to guarantee that his students will add at least one full octave to their singing range.
Brett began to instruct many students in singing and was employed by several well-known recording artists. Singers with contracts from labels like Columbia, Atlantic, Capitol, Dreamworks, Epic/Sony, Word, Embassy and many more asked for his help. He was a consultant for the vocalists in Broadway musicals like Les Miserables and Jekyll and Hyde. His resume now includes employment by singers who have won nearly all widely recognized music honors such as the Doves, CMA Awards, and even the Grammys.
The Development of Singing Success
When Brett Manning realized that his methods of instruction were leading to success for so many professionals in Nashville, he wanted a way to share them with even more people. He realized that the world is full of folks who love to sing for fun, or as a hobby, or as a way to serve in a church or community organization. Those would-be musicians would not be able to afford his $150 per hour private lessons, but he still wanted to offer average singers some help. His teacher’s spirit prompted Brett to come up with a way to transfer the same principles of singing he used in his private lessons to audio CD’s. After adding a disc full of DVD video enhancements and an illustrated workbook to the package, Singing Success: a Systematic Vocal Training Program was born.
After examining Brett’s methods in the Singing Success course, I have come to the conclusion that he is very different from most vocal teachers in one important way. He really wants to help people become good singers in the shortest amount of time possible. Many singing coaches would prefer to keep their students coming back for lessons year after year. Brett, on the other hand, understands that anyone who learns his techniques and practice exercises can do a lot to develop a great singing voice in a relatively short amount of time without attending hundreds of expensive private lessons. That’s one of the things that helps me realize Brett is a true teacher. He gets his reward from the fact that people are learning and improving, and not from the ego-boost of having singers become dependent on him.
Teaching Methods
Any good teacher requires several qualities to be successful at imparting what they know to someone else. First, they must have a passion for their subject that comes through to the students. Second, good teachers must be able to communicate clearly and effectively so that the listeners understand what is being taught. Finally, top-notch instructors need to use humor, action, and/or story-telling to engage the students fully in the subject at hand and keep them interested. After watching Brett Manning at work with a classroom full of singing wanna-be’s I can confidently say that he possesses all of these qualities.
The Singing Success program comes with a full-length DVD so that you can watch Brett at work teaching people to sing. But if you would like to see his methods for yourself before you buy the complete program, go to the Singing Success website and click on Free Stuff. Here you can watch a cut from the video called Brett Manning Live! which is sold separately from the Success program, but still gives you a great feeling for his skills as a teacher. After only a minute or two of viewing, it is obvious that Brett has the necessary passion for his subject. He has a friendly and engaging manner, and uses his personality to convince everyone in the audience that his methods will work for them. It is easy for Brett to do this, because he truly believes it himself.
You can also see that Brett is a good communicator. His lessons cover some fairly technical aspects of learning to sing, but the explanations he gives for things like larynx structure, and “head voice versus chest voice” are easy for even a lay person to understand. He uses charts and diagrams to make anatomical features comprehensible, and he calls volunteers from the audience to the front in order to demonstrate the principles he is teaching.
The lessons that Brett gives are peppered with jokes, imitations of movie and TV stars, and stories of people he has worked with. All of these techniques keep his listeners involved and eager to hear what he will say next. He also has his audience try many of the techniques he uses during the lesson, so that folks can see for themselves that the methods will work for them. Any time a teacher has you laughing, anticipating the next topic, or performing the actions you are hearing about, you can be sure you are receiving quality instruction.
Member’s Forum
Another way that Brett Manning helps people who want to become better singers is by participating in the member’s forum at the Singing Success website. There is an FAQ section there that Brett uses to answer questions from novice and advanced singers alike. This information is available at no charge to anyone who is surfing the web, and that fact tells me that Mr. Manning is not simply trying to make as much money as possible from his business, but is really hoping to help musicians enjoy singing as much as possible.
For example, when someone wrote in to ask how to improve his/her tone quality, Brett could easily have answered, “Buy my Singing Success system.” But he didn’t. Instead, he gave a comprehensive explanation of how the human anatomy produces sound and the best ways to make that sound pleasing to the ear. He talked about the muscles in the jaw and throat and the importance of using the correct ones while singing so that you do not cause harm to your voice, but produce free and beautiful tones.
There is also a complete answer to a question of interest to most male vocalists: “Are falsetto and head voice the same thing?” In his answer Brett gives definitions for the two terms to show that they are indeed different. He also has some tips for men to learn to sing with a head voice that will be enjoyable to listen to, and protect the singer’s voice, as well.
Brett answers another question that many singers have: “Is it OK for me to sing when I have a sore throat?” Since just about everyone who sings has had to face this problem at one time or another, the answer can be of great benefit to lots of people. Brett discusses the many reasons that people have sore throats and explains that the cause will determine the best way to treat the problem. He says that if your throat is sore because you have been in a dry climate, or not drinking enough water, you should treat it very differently than you would if your pain has been caused by vocal abuse or an infection of some kind. He lists helpful websites that will aid singers in determining the cause for their ailment and finding proper solutions.
Many more topics are covered in the Singing Success FAQ, such as how to sing properly in front of a live audience, how to warm up your voice, the best way to develop your own style as a singer, and what to eat before a performance. Brett Manning answers each question thoroughly and treats each one as if it were of utmost importance to the author. This kind of respect shown to students of singing is just one more way that Brett demonstrates his love of teaching.
Core Beliefs
Brett believes that anyone can learn to sing. That may seem like an unbelievable premise to some people, but it is true in Brett’s mind. The world is full of folks who have been told they are “tone deaf,” that is, they think that they cannot tell the difference between one note and another. But the reality is that less than 1% of the world’s population is truly tone deaf. Most people can hear musical notes in their heads without a problem. The trouble comes when they try to reproduce the sounds they hear. They have never been taught to use their voices properly; so all notes come out sounding the same. Brett believes that good coaching can help anyone develop the skills needed to become a singer. Since singing is an activity that provides untold joy for millions of people, he wants to share those techniques with as many folks as possible.
Brett Manning also believes that the human voice can be conditioned for optimum performance just like any other part of the human body. When you see an athlete or artist with unbelievable talent, you admire his skill, but you also understand that he or she has probably spent hundreds of hours over several years developing those abilities. Singers are no different. The more a person learns about his vocal function, the better he or she will be at controlling it. Studying and practicing with a method like Brett’s will help people from all walks of life get their voices “in shape” and learn to be good singers.
Another of Brett Manning’s fundamental beliefs is that formal training as a classical singer is not necessary for you to become a good vocalist. Many colleges and universities offer degrees in vocal performance, but most of the graduates of those programs are not well equipped to become singers in today’s popular culture. This is because collegiate music programs are usually based on classical music. Singers trained in these methods may end up sounding like opera stars, which is great if that is their goal. But if a student really wants to sound like a vocalist on the radio that he or she admires, classical training is not going to do the trick. Brett understands the difference and his lessons allow students to sing whatever genre they are interested in learning, whether it is R & B, country, pop, or gospel.
Now that you know some things about Brett Manning and his beliefs, you may be curious about the details of the course he has developed. Just what is Singing Success? How does it work? How long will it take before I can see results? Will it work for me? Here is a detailed look at the product that Brett has worked so long and hard at developing.
Course Components
The heart of Singing Success is its audio lessons contained on 12 CD’s. The course has 302 audio files so that you will be able to hear examples of every single exercise and drill that Brett is teaching. The whole package is very user-friendly and tells you where to start, when to refer to something in the workbook that is included, and which tracks of the supplemental DVD will be most helpful at a particular point in your instruction. It comes in an attractive case that makes it easy to store, and easy to find what you are looking for. The recordings are studio-quality and make listening effortless so that you will not tire of hearing the lessons.
The first CD in the package provides a good introduction to the terminology and vocabulary of vocal instruction. Brett Manning also demonstrates his impressive five octave vocal range on the introductory disc, which should inspire anyone to want to learn more about his program.
CD number 2 is where Brett addresses the top ten problems most people have when developing their talent as a singer. Here he covers topics like developing vibrato, fixing a vocal “break” between the chest voice and head voice, and increasing power as a singer. This disc also features some interesting commentary by renowned vocal coach Dave Brooks. He discusses vital topics like the attitude of a singer and how it can affect his or her sound, and some tricks to stay mentally focused while singing. Dave also gives some valuable suggestions to singers who are trying to develop an individual style. He cautions against copying well-known artists and provides tips for becoming a truly unique vocalist.
When you reach CD’s 3 through 8, you will find the meat of Singing Success. These are the discs that contain the exercises and drills that will systematically help you to improve your range, tone quality, pitch, and vibrato. You will learn to use your singing muscles correctly so that your voice has the best sound possible. Each lessons builds upon the one that comes before it, so that you can feel yourself making progress. While there is no doubt that singing scales can become boring, Brett provides enough variety so that you are anxious to continue to the next lesson. When you feel your skills improving, it provides a lot of motivation for you to learn the material and advance to the next CD. Nearly all the people contributing to the Singing Success members’ forum remark about the increased range and power they had after just a few practice session. If it works for them, it will work for you, too.
CD’s 9 through 11 are completely unique in the world of audio vocal lessons. This is where Brett Manning helps each person to develop the singing style that he or she most wants to learn. You can find out how to sing the licks and runs that are common to whichever genre you are most interested in, whether it is rock, country, or blues. There are very few other resources available that really help you analyze and practice the techniques that will make your personal style yours alone.
Brett uses CD 12 as a kind of final test for his students. Here there are background tracks for two original songs that you can sing along with. They allow you to use all the techniques you have been studying throughout the lessons and put them together to make beautiful music. If you have been practicing diligently, you will pass the test with flying colors.
The workbook and DVD that are included in Singing Success provide some valuable complementary information for students. The book covers a large range of topics like breathing techniques, proper nutrition for singers, and a singer’s checklist for understanding his instrument. The DVD contains an interview with Brett that shows once again, his passion for his mission in life: to help people become better singers. There are also video clips of Brett working with many of his students to help them improve their voice, range, and power. It is an incredible experience to see ordinary people improve so much in so little time.
In case you are still wondering if Singing Success is the program for you, Brett Manning offers a money back guarantee that can’t be beat. He will allow you to use his entire system for six full months before you decide if you want to keep it or not. If you decide that it doesn’t work for you, you can return it for a full refund with no questions asked. A guarantee like that says a lot about the confidence that Brett has in his product. He is convinced that his method will work for you, and is willing to put his money where his mouth is. So, if you have always wanted to improve your abilities as a singer, you owe it to yourself to give Singing Success a try.
