How many of you have taken singing lessons...

Of those of you that have taken vocal lessons...

Did you enjoy the lessons?

How long did you take lessons for?

What did you find most valuable about them?

What didn't you like about them?

Was there a reason you took lessons? (Meaning were you struggling and took them, or just knew you wanted to sing so you took them.)

Not me. Well, technically I had ONE lesson when I was 14 (so about 18 years ago), and I didn’t like it so never went back. She was this totally round-shaped woman with an operatic voice who just wanted me to do scales and boring songs. I didn’t care for these (or any) limitations, so didn’t pursue it. I was also shocked by the sound of my own voice on tape, as I’d never heard it before. So I didn’t like that either. Lol.

They were reasonable. A few moments of fun. It helped that the instructor was a young, cute female.

One month. 30 minutes per week.

Learning about vocal breaks and the difference between chest, middle, and head voice. Learning how to approach the edges of my range to extend them a bit.

Pretty much everything else. 80% of what we did seemed completely pointless, even if she explained the purpose of the drill, which she didn't always bother to do.

Part of that may be that I had no trouble with pitch or breathing (or so she said), so we didn't spend any time working on that, but just kept doing these weird drills.

I wanted some formal training before embarking on a serious effort to become a front man.

At some point I may find another instructor. But unless/until I have specific problems, I'm just going to spend a few months gradually strengthening my voice and expanding my repertoire of songs, and then revisit the whole idea at that point.

Never. I practiced and over the years I gradually noticed improvements. I had to figure everything out on my out through trial and error. I set small goals and consistently squashed them 'till I was doing things that I previously believed to be impossible. I mean, it's not easy for anyone to see themselves at point E when they're at point A.. I knew it was a process and I had to climb the ladder.

Yep, SO true, Rob!!

I used to believe virtually NOTHING was impossible, and why put unnecessary restrictions on your own abilities? My best friend, who had many lessons, couldn't do vibrato (she said it just wasn't something she was able to do and left it at that...gave up!!), and also said it was "physically impossible" for most people, let alone a 16 year old girl (when we had this discussion we were 16), to sing the highest end note in the Phantom of the Opera...and yet I could do it. I never restricted myself. I just kept trying.

...and you're awesome, Grace. :poke:

I had two voice lessons from a state college instructor. She told me I didn't need lessons. She was wrong... My tone sucked. My pitch was off (maybe not with her at those two lessons, but in more complex stuff, definitely). My pitch is still off once in awhile, but I'm a lot closer to where I'd like to be now.

I still am trying to figure out the difference between head and chest voice, and all the other technical terms. I just try to listen and make the tone sound full and hit the pitches properly at this point.

If I could find an incredible voice teacher, I'd consider taking lessons again. I see too many people offering lessons that I'm just not that impressed by. For now, I just use my own ears and try to improve from there. I've come a long way doing that, for sure.

Yeah, I'd LOVE to have even just a handful of lessons IF I knew the instructor was gonna fit with me, you know? I don't have the money or the time to waste on going through dozens of teachers who don't get what I want, aren't on my wavelength, aren't suited to my voice and what I want to do with it, can't explain stuff properly, and so on...

I took lessons for 1 year at college. They were kind of fun, I guess, but they would have been more enjoyable if my teacher could actually teach. He could sing great, but he couldn't teach. Rather he would just give me some tips like "don't raise your shoulders when you breathe in" and "sing from your stomach." He couldn't really pinpoint what problems I was having and help me to fix them and didn't really give me all the proper instructions.

I did learn some basic stuff from it though. And from taking those lessons, I started taking singing more seriously and realized there was a whole world of stuff that I didn't know about in singing, so that was good.

I didn't like that he couldn't teach and that he seemed to look at my singing problems and inadequacy as just something that was a part of me rather than in a way that I could improve. He was also kind of patronizing at times which irritated me. The reason I took them was that I liked singing and wanted to become better.

Thanks everyone for the great feedback!

I wish I took lessons!

Nope I remember it well though.

It was 1st grade...Couper Perine played the piano

in the talent show and I wanted so badly to play too.

Music was always in the house (I think it's vital in a youth's life

to be surrounded by music)

My dad is a musician, guitarist, and writer.

I got a beat up mini organ at a yard sale and

started watching TV, while playing it.

Soon things clicked, I realised one octave repeated

consecutively. I took music theory as a senior

in high school but it was too late.

...and you're awesome, Grace. :poke: I had two voice lessons from a state college instructor. She told me I didn't need lessons. She was wrong... My tone sucked. My pitch was off (maybe not with her at those two lessons, but in more complex stuff, definitely). My pitch is still off once in awhile, but I'm a lot closer to where I'd like to be now. I still am trying to figure out the difference between head and chest voice, and all the other technical terms. I just try to listen and make the tone sound full and hit the pitches properly at this point. If I could find an incredible voice teacher, I'd consider taking lessons again. I see too many people offering lessons that I'm just not that impressed by. For now, I just use my own ears and try to improve from there. I've come a long way doing that, for sure.

I've never bothered with scales, but try doing those and just sing along to your favorite songs until you can do them pitch perfect.. For me, I sort of envision the pitches before I even sing them.. Have you ever tried doing that? Once I hear the pitch/tone, I can instantly match it and I have it logged in my musical/muscle memory. Even doing simple songs can help tremendously with the fundamental stuff, which is just as important if not moreso than flashy technical stuff like range and power, so make sure you work on vibrato and pitch/breath support and all of that stuff with songs that don't push you.. It's easier to focus on that stuff.

By the way, the difference between chest and head is that chest is basically your speaking tone. Once you start raising the pitch of your speaking tone past a certain point, it'll start to mix with your "falsetto" voice I think.. But it won't be falsetto, it'll still be your actual voice, it just resonates in your head rather than your chest so it sounds much brighter/higher pitched..

It's ironic.. I go on a forum full of vocal nerds who obsess over all sorts of technical, range-related extremities and any other aspect you could think of.. And oddly enough, a lot of them actually have some large ranges, but most of them have pitch problems and other stupid things that they could and ARE slowly fixing.. So, even if you HAVE a lot to work with, doesn't mean you ARE working well with it.. And even the best singer will sound horrible if they're off pitch or don't use enough air to hold notes with strength..

Your cereal is disgusting.

What? Cereal??

If you think you can sing, then get a good instructor, good in your gender, not some crazied opera singer that wants to make you bleed! Then you will learn to use your tools in the best way possible, with consistency, and without hurting yourself.

Bottom line, good, professional vocal lessons will help you sinf better.

Rod

Count Chocula?

Lessons help so much it's unbelievable, assuming you practice while taking them anyway. I've been taking lessons for almost 6 months and seriously, wow. I'm not saying I'm good by any means, but I went from very amateur garage punk vocals with Nirvana-ish range, to singing along to Alice in Chains records comfortably.

A big thing is just finding a teacher who fits your style and keeps you motivated. I can't imagine I'd have stuck with it this long if I was working with some opera lady who wanted to do nothing but scales.

Sidenote- I took bass lessons every week for almost 6 years. I feel I would be a much less competent musician had I not done that. One cool thing about lessons is that they can make you feel more connected to the singing community, bass playing community, etc. There's also something really inspiring about learning from people who play music for a living.

I wonder if they'd help me much...like, would I really improve a LOT from what I'm like now...?

AAHH, Count Chocula. I get it now. We don't have that cereal here in Australia. I do know of it, but it wasn't at the forefront of my mind. lol

I fully agree with this...I think you NEED to have the lessons from someone with a PASSION for singing and music in general. This will help encourage you on a soulful / spiritual level with the love of music...not just someone who teaches the technical and has no passion, you know?

I took lessons for a while last winter and I enjoyed them. I took them for about 6 months, going twice a month.

The most valuable thing I found was getting professional feedback on my voice. Learning what my vocal range was also helpful. And getting exercises to practice. Just like playing guitar or any instrument, having exercises that are geared to improve technique helps when it comes to actually performing a song.

I took them because I started playing guitar more and was singing more when I played. I wanted real feedback on how my voice sounded. I also had a bit of a country twang that I wanted to get rid of and lessons helped.

The instructor recorded all the lessons and burned a CD of each lesson. This was useful for practicing the exercises, but also it gave me a recorded history of my progress. I went back and listened to my first couple of recorded lessons and then the last couple and I could hear the improvement.

I'll probably go back this winter and take some more.

Shaemless promotion on my part here: I do teach online (via Skype) if you're interested. You can get a glimpse of my teaching style on my youtube videos; this is my website:

www.voiceyourselfforsingers.com

Good luck with your singing lessons if you do go fo it!

Val

I took lessons for about 3 months many years ago when I was playing full time in a big club and hanging on for dear life. It was a loud group and I was a pretty weak singer. I read about this guy in the paper helping a local pop singer save her cords from the knife and I called him immediately.

He was a jolly old opera singer who respected Linda Ronstadt and Grace Slick so he "got it." I loved going to lessons, went twice a week for awhile. He helped me get rid of the breathiness I though I needed to sound "nice" but I stayed pretty much in chest voice. He tried to get me to sing in blended upper and lower registers, and showed me I had a big potential range, but he refused to use any terms like "mixed" or "head voice" or "mask" which might have helped me.

We worked on Italian art songs over and over, like Caro Mio Ben, and I just felt stooopid..that part I hated. I loved working out the entire range and just letting it hang out and talk about my insecurities that I did not want to share with the band because things were so cutthroat. It was like having a great fun shrink.

Got a coach now who is not as pop oriented and does not work me out quite as much. We spend too much time talking. But I still like going and feel better afterward, though I am in the dumps about everything at the moment. I am singing more mixed now than ever before, though that's more because of the Roger Love CD than anything else.