I always thought I had a good voice. I was always picked for the solos in the school musical and the jazz choir. I managed to belt out some pretty cool covers with the band I joined while on student exchange in Germany. And I did the same with a band in music school. I'd always been told I had a good voice. And although I loved to sing as child and teenager, as I got older and tried more and more challenging things, I was never happy with the top end.

I wrote challenging songs for myself, but I found I always had to strain on the top end. I had to lift my neck in order to get the notes and this made it harder to play guitar or keyboard and keep good microphone technique.

I got some singing lessons in music school, but they didn't really help me much. I learned instead to not have much faith in voice lessons and I sure as heck wasn't going to pay for them.

But luckily for me, after moving across the country to Ottawa from Vancouver, I found myself needing to get work in order to pay the bills. And so while I did a part-time temp job, I decided to try music teaching as well. I interviewed and got the job and before I knew it I had vocal students, piano students, and guitar students. Well, I figured I could pull off the piano and guitar lessons easily enough, but the vocal lessons? All I had was the duo-tang of handouts I'd gotten from the voice teacher at the music school.

So, I went online to see what was available there, and I came across Per Bristow's Sing With Freedom. I had a powerful double reason to buy it and so I did.

And I went the distance. I found ease in my singing and in my top range like I never imagined possible. It took me 6 months of dedicated work... I did exercises while going for walks on my lunch breaks, I did exercises while driving, I even did breathing exercises while behind the computer on the job.

All I can say is, it's worth it. Do this and you've got it for life.

Imagine knowing your voice is there for you - singing powerfully with freedom and ease, all your songs on stage. Your voice doing what you want. Your voice as good as you always imagined it could be. You, with a professional singing voice.

It's just one of the best damn things I ever did. So I highly recommend it if you want to uplevel your singing. It will make a huge difference for you. It will empower you. It will help you believe again.

Look around online and compare, maybe get some samples from a few different programs. But if you need this, do this. It's a game-changer.

I had a membership in the Pacific Music Industry Association - I'm not sure it's still called that - but they announced an event on email - a guy called Tom Jackson, Live Music Producer was presenting a workshop that they were sponsoring. So I showed up. After all, the membership in the Association had cost me $50, and maybe there was something to learn?

Well, Tom Jackson talked about how to put together a show and how to use the stage for maximum impact and how to maximize the attention of the audience. The key importance of visuals from the stage, in addition to emotion and the actual song content. How to move and what to do so that you have authority on stage. And the whole idea of creating moments for the audience - that the whole show should be designed as a series of moments that you create for the audience, and how to create these moments... it was great stuff.

But what really did it for me is when he brought a band up on stage. The band played through their song, stood up there just like you would imagine, and it was a pretty good song. But then Tom Jackson went to work. He rearranged the intro a bit and some of the leadup to the chorus and he placed the different band members differently on stage and had them move to different places on the stage at different moments... among other things.

Anyhow, when the song was played again, I felt it the second time. I got that shiver. I felt the impact. It was the same song. I was a musician, an audience member in-the-know, and I still had that reaction. I was convinced. I didn't have a lot of money. But I lined up with the others who saw and felt what was possible and pulled out my VISA and paid the $300 on the spot.

What I got was a 7 set DVD series called "All Roads Lead To The Stage". I studied it and I designed my next show as best I could with everything I learned. And I haven't looked back.

No matter where I'm playing and how many songs, my performance will never be the same. It is thousands of times more professional than it ever was before or ever could have been before. But not just professional, I know what to do physically with my body and how to arrange my songs for live to hold the audience's attention, keep their interest and create moments for the audience, during songs, between songs, for the whole set.

I've developed more and more ideas for show design since, some of which you'll find at makefansnow.com, but Tom Jackson's stuff formed the foundation, and I can't recommend it highly enough.

Again, this is another game changer. It's going to save you tons of time and anguish. It's going to bring your dream closer, fast.

Get this.  Study it.  Find a way.