Brett Manning

Brett Manning is an American singer and vocal coach noted for a self-proclaimed five-octave voice, which he alleges makes use of the high-range whistle register. He worked under the guidance of numerous vocal coaches until he met with vocal coach Seth Riggs, developer of the "Speech Level Singing" method of instruction.

He later became a teacher, operating as a Riggs associate for more than ten years. He was also a founding member of Riggs's Speech Level Singing Association, starting at the rank of a Level 5 Speech Level Singing instructor when the organization was founded in 2000. Manning served as a member of the organization's Education Management Team, which is responsible for training teachers in "Speech Level Singing".

After 10 years of teaching, Manning developed his own singing techniques as he felt that "Speech Level Singing" wasn't enough. Using Speech Level Singing exercises as a template, he created additional lessons for teaching vocal style, supplementing the "Speech Level" exercises with his own exercises. He later decided not to renew his membership in the "Speech Level Singing" organization in 2002. He currently teaches using his own method, which he calls the "Brett Manning Method". However, Manning continues to publicly assert Riggs as his coach, though only on his program, on his website he does not mention Riggs by name, citing him only as a "guru" who helped him.

Manning is a vocal coach in his Nashville studio to singers of various genres, both independent and commercial. He regularly addresses seminars and workshops nationwide.

Manning works with artists from Capitol Records, Columbia Records, Atlantic Records, Interscope Records, Dreamworks, Lyric Street Records, MCA, Sony Records, KMG, Word Records, Embassy Records, Gotee Records, and various independent record labels. He has worked with the casts of the Broadway productions of Les Miserables and Jekyll and Hyde, as well as the Broadway tour of Elton John's Aida.

Manning now spends most of his time with private coaching for professional singers and aspiring artists within reach of his Nashville studio. Manning is most famous for producing "Singing Success", a collection of CDs with basic to advanced exercises he uses in his lessons.