Rating: 
Summary: An excellent systematic approach to singing!
Review: Seth Riggs' speech level singing technique is incredible, it can dramatically improve the singing voice of any motivated person. The book singing for the stars is a great overview of this technique and is the next best thing to having a Certified Speech Level Singing Instructor. People spend thousands of dollars buying instruments yet so many are skeptical about spending anything on your voice! why not spend a little on your voice, this book in conjuction with lessons (or phone lessons) by a certified teacher will bring about dramatic results, it is definately worth the cost. This technique has proven itself time and time again.
Rating:
Summary: Complete program to use with voice lessons
Review: The content is good although too much space is given to testimonials, and more space should be given to explanation and theory.The CD is very well laid out with instructions from the author, a singer demonstrating the exercises and the exercises themselves laid out on different tracks, which make it easy to skip to the essential bits. You can practice while driving for example. I have been getting speech singing vocal training for over a year. Unless you are already a well trained singer with good technique, you should not use this type of course without also getting lessons. A vocal coach can identify how to improve tone, breathing etc and point out technique errors. It is so easy to damage your voice by using incorrect technique or overdoing the exercises. After using this for a few days and then applying the technique to sing along to a recording, I was able to do so without straining and hitting higher notes than usual with much less effort, which was amazing. I feel that I am now on my way to a voice that I did not dare to dream was possible. The principles behind this book involve using exercises which educate you to sing without the larynx rising up which actually interferes with good singing, and to sing with a connected voice from chest voice into head voice, without breaking into falsetto. The second CD is more about applying the exercises and producing the speech level singing tone, and runs through song examples using those passage areas with very useful tips to avoid splattering the sound. This is a great investment, which I highly recommend.
Rating: 
Summary: Method is perfect but book shouldn't be a substitute teacher
Review: The technique is awesome, allowing you to sing without strain, and I doubt the validity of the other reviewer's claim on Madonna's voice. I couldn't find any information on the actual event and if it was true, there are many other factors that could have lead to it. Anyways, the book is very infromative and is great in addition to lessons, but you *NEED* to get a CERTIFIED teacher (it does make a BIG difference, I've had two teachers before who didn't get me anywhere and then one lesson with a certified and I'm already a few notes into my head voice). It's really easy to "do" the exercises wrong. The book is extremely informative and the only reason I'm giving it at a 4/5 is because there are WAY too many testimonials from singers.
Rating:
Summary: A must-have for singers
Review: This is a brilliant book for anyone who would like to sing. Seth is a singing coach for the BIGGEST names in music business and he presents his training very concisely on the pages and on CDs. Practical, useful book!
Rating:
Summary: Buy It Now, You Need This
Review: This is the best vocal instruction you will find and I've owned them all. Over the last ten years I've bought every book/CD vocal instruction course I could find and this one easily improved my voice more in one to two weeks than anything else I've ever tried, including three private vocal instructors. There is very little instruction on breathing so if thats what you want get the Jeannie Diva tapes to go with this. With Riggs method I actually have been using less air while making a bigger, fuller sound. This course focuses on getting the throat muscles out of the way of the sound in order to sing louder, higher, and without straining the throat even while belting(yelling). I've only actually been using seven or eight or the exersizes and they work like a charm. If you experience any tightening in the throat muscles while singing with a loud band or for expended periods of time do yourself a favor and order these CD's. By far the best you'll find on Amazon.com.
Rating:
Summary: Could have been easier...
Review: This is the first voice book I've read, but I'll probably end up reading some others. I have a musical background, have played guitar and piano for years, but just recently decided to make an effort to improve my singing. I found this book helpful in some ways, but I felt it could have been easier to understand. The book essentially details the speech level singing method, in which the chest voice and head voice are successfully bridged. As a newcomer to singing, I found some of these concepts a little difficult to understand, and felt the book never really explained things very clearly. It reminded me a little of a instruction manual that assumes you have certain parts that have not been included. Also, I felt it was a little odd that there was so much ink spent on celebrity testimonials. If the method is really that good, it should be able to speak (or sing) for itself. It's been a couple of months since I read the book and listened to the CDs, and I can say that my singing has improved considerably (that's why I'm giving the book four stars). Although I don't feel I came away with a full understanding of everything the book was trying to teach, I feel I must have osmotically picked up some concepts that have been helpful.
Rating: 
Summary: Will ruin your voice - look at what happened to Madonna
Review: Well, this "techinque" book is shakey at best. For serious people in voice, as everyone knows, there needs to be diaphragm breathing. In this book it says it doesn't matter if you do that or not. In fact, there is no discussion or breathing at all. Since bad breathing is usually why people get voice problems like nodules or vocal nodes which can end your career, you would think they would have a little more responsibiity to the singing student than that. Star student Madonna recently came down with these and had to stop her tour. And the thing where 50% of the book (literally - it's half of EVERY page) is people from Hollywood or "stars" saying "thanks for helping me with my voice" makles me really question the legitimacy of the book and also whether it would be worth me paying for such an advertising campaign (aimed at someone who already purchased the book) even if the other content was good. I mean, for $ I want a little substance and I do NOT want to pay for advertising space which, after a certain point, you have to wonder who he is trying to convince of the legitimacy of this "method". The person who bought this book? And if so, why? Because the techniques seem questionable? The real reason seems to be to sell you voice lessons. At the end of the book he states that reading the book and doing the exercises is no replacement for actually taking lessons from him pesonally (God help you!) and he charges like $$$ an hour so this book is YOU paying HIM to convince you to give him MORE money. Very clever! And the thing with the Grammy Award winners? That's totally misleading. According to my calculations, 100 winners of Grammies translates to about .5% of all Grammy winners which would mean that 99.5% of Grammy winners did not study this method. So that is why they do not list the percentage - because if they did then people would realise that other techniques are not only safer (qv: Madonna incident) but also more effective. Ok, and for my final irritation with this book, I will note that one of the "stars" who endorses this technique as safe and effective, Madonna, recently had to pull out of her tour because of severe damage to her vocal cords - vocal nodules (also called vocal nodes - look them up online if you wanna see something scarry). So you decide if this "franchise method" of voice "instruction" is something you want to subject your vocal cords to or if you might think more along the lines of it being - say - a vulgar attempt to capitalise on your dreams and aspirations. Sign up for voice lessons with someone respected and they will recommend good books to purchase through amazon.comn I am sure! But avoid this book if you are serious. PS if you already bought the book and cd - I have some advise - the cd makes a great mirror for doing your makeup/shaving/making cool reflections on the ceiling with!
Rating:
Summary: Not a user friendly book but a great technique
Review: When I first saw that term "Speech Level Singing", I didn't think I could learn to develop a strong or powerful voice because the term itself SUGGESTS a technique designed for a thin and easy voice. The truth is that SLS is designed for all singers and all genres from Opera to Pop and all the in between styles as well. So don't judge a technique by it's name. The reason I've been using this book is because Billy Purnell recommended it for further study in his program "The Ultimate Voice Training for Singers", also a Speech Level Singing based home-training program. I've occasionally gone back to 'Singing for the Stars' as it's jam-packed with information on the technique and it did help me at times when I felt I was going wrong in the other program. The average singer should be able to get through the first CD within a few weeks (practicing about 4 times a week) once a good effort is made and you understand the "head voice" concept. Your voice will sound like a girls voice....unless of course you ARE a girl (: in which case it will sound..well, weak and wimpy.
You've got to get used to that and accept it. The second CD is where you are likely to experience some challenges to say the least. You'll feel like you've hit a wall and there's no way around it. I've hit a lot of walls and I've somehow been able to get around them and move on. I'm still hitting them but now I can see the last one or two. This is why I advise a few lessons at this point. It will put a smile back on your face and you'll be nearing your speech level posture as Seth calls it.Even if you keep it a mix of 75% your own home study with the program and 25% lessons, then you're still bound to save a lot of money. Overall I would like to say that this book could have been a lot more user friendly. The author should have anticipated problems, the student is likely to have with the exercises, and given solutions on how to overcome the problems. Instead it is presumed that you will have no problems which is very wrong. If you want to try go it alone then I recommend the Speech Level Singing programs: 'Singing Success' or 'The Ultimate Voice Training For Singers'. These programs are far more user friendly. However, you've still got to practice a lot and stay positive.
Rating: 
Summary: I'm a 30 year product of this method
Review: When I met Seth Riggs in 1970, he was my 14th voice teacher. I had a minor third wobble in my voice and couldn't sing over an F at the top of the staff. After studying with Seth and utilizing his patented "Speech Level Singing" technique, he entered me in the So. Cal. Regional Metropolitan Opera Auditions. I won 1st place there and went to NYC to the National Met. Auditions where I won co-first place. This launched my operatic career in the U.S. and in Europe. I sang the lead Baritone roles in more than 25 operas in the major opera houses in such places as Vienna, London, Chicago, San Francisco,Amsterdam,Russia, South Africa and South America.
Seth's technique is so broadbased that it allowed me to return to my 1st of love of Musical Theater where I starred in more than 60 productions. I still sing in night clubs, musicals, concerts and churches. My voice is as healthy and strong as it was 30 years ago because of this technique. I have also been faithfully teaching the technique for more than 25 years around the world.
I am featured in Seth's book, "Singing for the Stars" as his 1st Met winner. This book is the best introduction to singing and continuing healthy voice production ever written.
Tom McKinney...Houston, Texas
| 
