Ken Tamplin (Ken Tamplin Vocal Academy) vs Speech Level Singing (SLS) - The Truth Revealed!

If you're like me, you first met Ken Tamplin and Ken Tamplin Vocal Academy when you were searching for a singing lessons on YouTube. In case you're not familiar, Ken Tamplin is a very popular YouTube vocal coach with almost 1 million followers.

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Ken Tamplin is also one of the most popular critics of a well renowned singing technique called Speech level singing, or SLS. Having taken lessons for years in speech level singing, it's really funny to me that Ken Tamplin is such a vocal opponent to this fantastic vocal technique.

The truth is, that SLS and speech level singing lessons work! The reason I know it is because it personally transformed my own singing voice. However, I think it's funny that Ken Tamplin and so opposed to speech level singing training because it's obvious that his own singing technique is directly influenced by SLS.

One of Ken Tamplin’s most famous videos is called “SLS-Speech Level Singing- Does Not Work - 5 Big Reasons”. In this video, Ken discusses 6 reasons why speech level singing does not work and elaborates on each. This is really funny to me because each one of the reasons that Ken gives that for speech level singing not working are either factually incorrect, or the exact same thing that Tamplin himself teaches.

So today, I'm going to discuss each of the six reasons that Ken gives why speech level singing doesn't work and I will show you how each one is either factually incorrect or the same thing that Tamplin teaches.

Tamplin’s first reason that speech level singing does not work is because he says that speech level singing was designed for speaking, not singing. This is an interesting place to start because the founder of speech level singing, Seth Riggs, has dedicated more than 50 years of his life to the teaching of singing with very little emphasis on the speaking voice. Speech level singing is actually called “speech level”, because the idea is to keep the voice as relaxed when singing as it is when it is speaking. I could understand how this could confuse a lot of people, however all you need to know is that Mr. Riggs has really left his mark in the singing world for his ability to transfer the ideas of the Italian classical style of singing bel canto, to more modern vocal music. And since Seth has been teaching for at least 20 years longer than Ken Tamplin, it's likely that Ken has had some influence from SLS.

The second reason that Ken Tamplin gives that speech level singing doesn't work, is that speech level singing doesn't teach the brightest vocal sound required to grow the voice. This is also a funny place to start, because speech level singing is really well known for its use of weird bratty and bright local sounds.

In fact, Seth Riggs was one of the biggest proponents of the pharyngeal voice which is exactly the same thing that Ken teaches except that Ken teaches at on the word “law”, rather than more front vowels like “Ae” and “ay”.

The third reason that Ken Tamplin gives that speech level singing doesn't work is that it teaches early bridging. By this Ken means that speech level singing teaches singers to start transitioning up to their head voice too early, which weakens the chest voice. Again this is a strange place for Ken to go because Seth Riggs is so well known for advocating that Men start bridging around an E4. And women will start bridging around in A4. So where does Ken recommend that men and women bridge? At E4, and A4. So you can see how this was taken directly from SLS.

The fourth reason that can give stats SLS doesn't work is that it doesn't teach the bright to ping in the head voice which causes the head voice and chest voice to sound completely different. Again this is totally false because speech level singing is really well known for teaching bright and ugly sounds which will help connect the different vocal registers together. In fact the whole point of speech level singing training is to unite the chest voice in the head voice registers into a mix.

The fifth reason that Ken Tamplin gives that SLS doesn't work is that it is bogged down with vocal exercises with no practical application. This is the first point on which I totally agree with Ken. The problem is that every singing technique has tons of weird vocal exercises. That's because they tend to work well. And if you can do these vocal exercises well, then it becomes easier to allow your voice to do the same thing in a song.

The sixth and final reason to Ken Tamplin gives that speech level singing doesn't work is that SLS doesn't show its teachers or its students singing. This is by far the most absurd claim by Ken, because it's a very easy to tell which singers have had SLS training. You just need to look at Seth Riggs’ clients and you'll see a list of the most popular singers in the 21st Century.

The most important vocal technique is the one that works best for you.