Has anyone tried any of these vocal programs? Please give your opinion

Early on in my career, many years ago, I was taking SLS lessons, then called 'The Seth Riggs' method.  While being very diligent with my lessons every week, that method wrecked my voice.  I had nodes 3 times in 3 years!  I thought I was going to have to stop singing and lose my career, then I was referred to a teacher who saved my voice.  He taught a method based in Bel Canto, really opposite of the principles in SLS, and not only did Bel Canto get rid of my nodes, but I never, ever had a vocal problem again! 

Find a teacher who is familiar with Bel Canto singing, no matter what style you sing (I sing Pop/Rock/Musical Theater, not Opera), and see how singing becomes effortless - like it is meant to be!
Best of luck!  Beth Lawrence, Viva La Voice

It sounds like you had an unfortunate experience smpzpirate, with a bad teacher!  There are 'bad' teachers in every type of vocal instruction, I guess the trick is to find someone who is knowledgeable, compassionate, intuitive, sings multiple styles themself, and knows how to adapt their teaching style to each unique voice.

Standing rigidly, tensely puffed up with air is ridiculous, and old school.  Forcing people out of a comfortable register is counter-productive and not necessary, especially for most singers, even at a professional level.  Who needs 4 octaves?  You barely need three, in my opinion.  There's far too much burden put on a singer to have a gigantic range.  In the real world, a strong, functional range will rarely go above a F for both women and men unless you're a virtuoso classical/opera singer.  Having anything above that is good for the occasional 'money note', but rarely does anyone sing in a high tessitura and stay there.  That's uncomfortable for both the singer and the listener!

For my whole professional career, I never sang Opera, and my voice was saved by a teacher who taught me Bel Canto.  So I can't agree with you on Bel Canto and 'commercial singing'.  I sang jingles, soundtracks; hardcore R&B, never classical, and my style was not impacted by Bel Canto singing.  If anything, it freed me to get rid of uncomfortable constriction that kept me from pushing too hard and reaching for notes, while still maintaining my pop style.  It all became effortless!

As far as 'mix' what I have love about Bel Canto is that you don't even think about that stuff!  You have ONE voice from top to bottom, bottom to top without any break, no chest, no head, no pharyngeal tone - you just open your mouth and sing because you have learned to get out of the way and let  your natural vocal production take over- everything just flows out without manipulation or strain.

Without learning Bel Canto singing principles, I wouldn't have had a career.  In finding a good teacher, the best advice I can give is that while singing/studying with someone - if what they are asking you to do does not feel easy; if you feel strain or tension - then it's not right.  In Bel Canto, everything moves towards opening, relaxing, and ease of singing.  Don't give up just because of this bad experience!  Beth, Vivalavoice.com

I am very excited at the moment cause i have reached the point in my singing and speaking where i can call myself a voice doctor. I have studied many schools of voice training, including most of the ones listed above. Here's my story.

I been interested in singing from a very young age and had indeed sang alot as a child. My mum still sings in church and whereever she likes really and she is 63. I am 43 and started singing for a living at the age of 28ish. Before that time i was singing for about four years unprofessionally. I used to go to karaoke and sing my heart out, at one point i went seven days a week to different karaoke's. to say i'm a singerholic would be an understatement. Anyway I could at that point sing anything from opera to soul to rock to reggae, to some female songs in their key, i had a really strong voice and still do. one of my songs that would just seal it in karaoke competions was always and forever by heatwave.  And i used to hit that high note effortlessly. thats how strong or right my voice was. At this point i had never heard the word support or bridge or had never had vocal lessons. I was what you'd call a natural. Well my troubles started when i did become a professional singer and started doing the pubs and clubs. singing for many hours started to produce fatigue in my voice, i started to feel abit hoarse the next day and the always and forever high note started to be a little harder to produce. by the way this was not from doing two 45 minute sets, this was from 3,4,5,6 and even 9 hours of almost continuous singing over a few years. before the hoarseness and croakiness started becoming worse, i used to pride myself on how bullet proof my voice was, cause it pretty much was to a certain extent.

As the vocal issues got worse i started to study voice in an effort to fix my voice and strenghtnen it. i looked on the net as one does, for vocal exercises and techniques and after reading so much conflicting information, from places which i don't need to mention cause they all had one thing in common. i found a site about perfect voice which talked about the use of the back of the tongue muscle called the hyo glossus muscle.

well at this point i purchased the course and started doing the main exercise. doing this exercise gave me my voice back, but more about that later.

after getting fantastic results with this course, my curious mind almost killed my voice altogether, cause i continued to look and practise other contradictory information about the voice, which compounded in me getting nodules, a singers worst nightmare. Now i was faced with a horrible dilema, stopping singing for six months or so to let them go down, or having them cut out and risk never having a smooth voice again. My word this is one of the most deppressing times of my life. Meanwhile i had a very busy calender of gigs to fullfill and didn't want to let anyone down for their wedding or birthday that i'd been booked for.

So to cut an already long story short, after all the wrong focus on breathing and forward placement and singing in the mask and lip bubbling and vocalizes, and larynx dropping,which if done the wrong way will give you nodules just as sure as singing for too long will without rest. i was left with one thing, the little muscle in the back of my tongue, which as i have observed in myself and others,if it is being used and controlled well, brings about the voice you've always wanted, or the good voice you used to have, and repaired my nodules, without the neccessary vocal rest period supposedly needed. I didn't cancel one gig for my voice, and i did every single one, every weekend 2 to 3 times per week, for the next few years after that. And my voice is stronger than ever. i must admit i'm still a singer holic and need to rest, which will give me great bennifit. i mean tired musles don't work as well as refreshed ones. and when ever i do rest and drink water my voice handles the always and forever high note. my tone is so much fuller now than it was back in the early days of singing and i owe it all to perfect voice tongue attack technique. i challenge anyone in the world to prove me wrong.

God bless from voice doctor