Hi,
Welcome to The Voice Connection. My name is Jaime Vendera
. I am the owner of The Voice Connection and author of
Raise Your Voice. I have been singing since I could talk,
and started playing in bars in 1986 at the tender age of 16, but I
didn't start studying voice until 1988. Around that time, I was
singing in a rock band, and doing fairly well, but I was having
trouble hitting all the high notes. I listened to the popular rock
singers of that time, and was awed by their vocal ranges. I just
couldn't figure out how they sang so easily, especially night after
night of touring. I kept at it though, singing songs too difficult
for me; and the day after a gig, I could hardly speak as a result of
the strain on my voice. I could always sound great that first night,
belting out the songs and not worrying about the consequences. Of
Course, if we played the next night, I definitely struggled. I tried
cheating by singing songs in falsetto instead of full voice. This
made it easier for me to sing night after night, but my voice lacked
the quality I had from belting out the tunes.
So I thought to myself, “What should I do?” Push myself to sound
great and vocally suffer, or settle for the weak sound of my falsetto
just to save my voice? Then I realized that I didn’t have to settle
for either choice. If other singers could sing with ease, then
anyone should be able to attain the same results. I was determined
to find an easier way, so I researched any available information that
I could find about the voice. And believe me, there was very little
information at that time for developing the rock singer’s voice, but
I was determined! I became obsessed with learning as much about the
vocal mechanism as I possibly could. I took private lessons,
dissected books, watched videos, and tried various vocal exercise
routines. I even moved to Hollywood, California to study voice at
the Musician's Institute. In fact, M.I. recently did a success story
on me.
I realized at the age of 11 that I wanted to be a rock singer after I
heard Def Leppard’s Pyromania. I soon discovered a whole new world of
vocalists. Like most singers, I have my influences. I’d have to say
that my 3 biggest influences are Jim Gillette of Nitro and Organ
Donor, Steve Perry of Journey, and Michael Matijevic of Steelheart.
Any others, you ask? Well, I’ve probably been influenced by every
singer I’ve ever heard, due to the fact that I was so curious about
the qualities that individual singer’s produce. Here is a small list
of some of my other favorites; Tony Harnell, Terry Ilous, Prince,
Mark Slaughter, Steve Augeri, Robert Fleischman, Robert Plant,
Steve Walsh, Seal, Sebastian Bach, Sahaj Ticotin, Brent Smith,
Amy Lee, Alanis Morissette, Marq Torien, Ray West, Brad Delp,
Chris Cornell, etc…
Although singing is definitely my gig, I have found time to learn to
play a few instruments along the way. I have played piano for over 18
years, and every once in a while, I’ll break out the old saxophone,
flute, or harmonica. I have also spent plenty of time honing my
songwriting skills. I have played in several original bands, including
a band called AMRA, which was a cross between Nitro and Iron Maiden.
Eventually, I’ll write something I like, and release it on this
website!
Through years of experience and research, I have acquired an
abundance of information about singing and the voice. There are
multitudes of misconceptions about singing, and I've been through
just about all of them. After over fifteen years of seriously
studying the voice, figuring out what did and did not work for me, I
decided to write down everything I could ever want to know about
singing, in a book. Although, I intended this to be a journal for
personal use only, positive feedback from those people with whom I've
shared my findings finally convinced me that this journal was too
important to be kept to myself. The result – Raise Your Voice.
I needed an outlet to release Raise Your Voice so I decided to create
a website just for the book. After several months of searching the
web, I discovered there was a bigger need for my website than just a
place to sell my book – a place to share information about the voice
and voice related products – and - as you can probably tell by my
favorite singers, specifically a place for ROCK SINGERS. Nowhere on
the net could I find such a website – thus The Voice Connection was
born.
My goal at The Voice Connection is to share information about the
voice and rock singing with as many people as possible. I will
continue to gather as much vocal related information as I can find,
for your entertainment and benefit. Join our MAILING LIST to be
notified of all updates such as; free lessons, reviews, and interviews
with professional singers and vocal instructors. I find the
interviews to be VERY informative. Who else better to ask about rock
singing, then the singers themselves!
You can never learn too much about singing. I encourage you to read
and learn everything you can about the voice. Feel free to share any
information about singing you have on our MESSAGE BOARD. If you have
any questions, or are interested in participating in The Singer’s
Spotlight, where I review tapes and CDs from unknown singers, drop me
an email at info@thevoiceconnection.com or call 740-574-9917.
Best Regards,
Jaime Vendera
The Voice Connection