Vocal singing lessons are not magic. You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear! Singing lessons will develop whatever talent is there, but you can’t teach a tone-deaf person to sing. For best results you should start with children singing lessons.

I realize that their voices will change, but the basic principles of breath control, vocal production, mouth shapes, and use of resonant cavities won’t change. If they learn to read music that too will help them for the rest of their lives, but reading music is easier to learn than reading words so can be done at any age.

What To Expect

beginner singing lessons will help you to start singing at any age.

From teenage upwards you have to decide what is your target. Do you want to make a career out of singing, or do you just want to have fun. I just want to have fun showing-off, so I don’t have to reach the standard of the three tenors.

Your voice teacher can’t make you a world-renowned singer if you don’t have the vocal equipment or the determination to reach your goal. However teachers can show you how to sing well enough to have fun and give pleasure to your listeners, if you can sing in tune.

What You Must Supply

You still have to have the determination to learn what is needed, and put in practice time each day. The Bach family practiced for over 8 hours per day as children, and I was brought up on one hour music practice each day. You might be able to skimp by with half an hour each day if you have what it takes, but you’re not really trying hard.

Don’t be too impatient. A good teacher will probably start you with breathing exercises, and scale passages, then move on to production of vowels and consonants. If you ask when you can start singing songs you’ll be told "when you are ready". If you sing too soon you could ruin your chances of ever being a top singer.

Singing Vocal Lessons

You could try private singing lessons with a voice coach, or you might prefer online singing lessons, or learning from a book. Or your voice training could come from singing classes. The problem with singing classes is that when the coach tells you about a singing problem you don’t know if they are talking to you. You only know that someone is doing the wrong thing in the group.

I have got most of my training from choir masters and from barbershop musical directors. It is free, but I never know if he is talking to me or to someone else in the singing group. There is nobody to tell me if I am doing it right. One visiting trainer coached me for an hour or two and showed me how to breathe properly. I hadn’t learned from all my choirs and barbershop singing.

The answer to my question about do you need vocal singing lessons is that you do. Even if you are only singing for fun, anything that helps you to improve can be regarded as a lesson – even if it is only following exercises in a book, or teaching yourself to read music.

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