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Can anyone learn to sing? The answer to this question depends on what kind of singing you’re talking about.

Obviously, to reach a professional level requires many years of consistent effort and practice. Anyone earning their living as a singer will tell you that it didn’t happen overnight. Most people wishing to become a full-time working Vocalist get some formal training along the way.

Singing as a hobby, or just for fun, likely won’t require you to work as hard at it, or to put in as much time. You could still benefit from studying with a private lesson teacher, working with a Vocal Coach, and singing in community or informal music ensembles, a chorus, choir, or in church, which is where many young Singers get their start. Many schools and colleges offer music programs or classes which may be open to the public.

Anything worth doing is worth doing well. Learning to sing will challenge you personally, technically, and artistically. Anyone with even a tiny amount of natural ability can learn to sing better. Follow our advice and see yourself improve. We’ve also included some terrific videos that will entertain and enlighten you.

To learn more about the art of singing, we talked to three of the country’s top Vocal Coaches:

  • Matt Farnsworth (Sara Bareilles, Carly Rae Jepsen)
  • Kevin Richards (Rod Stewart, Bette Midler)
  • Justin Stoney (Tony Shalhoub, Kevin Bacon, and Founder of New York Vocal Coaching)

They share advice and experiences based on their careers coaching celebrated Singers working on Broadway, in the film/TV industry, in opera theatre, and on concert stages.

If you’ve always dreamed of a singing career but have yet to dive in, or are already well along in your journey, this blog article is for you.

If you’ve always dreamed of a singing career but have yet to dive in, this blog is for you.

Learning Singing Basics

Why should you warm up your voice before singing? Warming up your vocal apparatus before singing is important, to avoid injury, loosen the vocal folds so they can produce a warm tone across different registers, and to prepare for singing in different musical styles.

What are ways to warm up your voice? There are many different methods for warming up the voice, as practiced by professional and amateur Singers alike. Most involve humming, gentle stretching, performing vocal slides, lip trills, singing part of a scale while moving up and down in range, or singing through a straw. It’s also important to “warm down” the voice after singing.

For more on warming up the voice, see Mark Baxter’s YouTube videos.

Here’s a great short video from Mark Baxter with a brief warm-up routine you can do.

Learning how to warm up and warm down the voice before and after singing are crucial skills for all Singers. Find instructional videos online from reputable voice teachers, or study privately with a teacher or Vocal Coach to learn how to do this properly.

What is a singing voice?

Tom Stein

According to Merriam-Webster, a singing voice is “the sound of a person’s voice when singing.” Another way to think about singing is that it is using the voice to produce musical sounds. Someone who sings is usually called a Singer or a Vocalist.


What are the 4 types of singing (vocal ranges)?

Tom Stein

i. Soprano: A high female (or boy’s) voice
ii. Alto: A low female (or boy’s) voice
iii. Tenor: A high (adult) male voice
iv. Bass: A low (adult) male voice


What’s the difference between vocals and singing?

Tom Stein

In popular music styles, the words vocals and singing can be used interchangeably. In classical music, a Vocalist usually sings the lead and has a powerful voice, while Singers can provide background parts or sing together in a chorus. Singers and Vocalists must sing in tune and be able to blend with other musicians singing or playing instruments.


How can I learn to sing?

Caleb J. Murphy (CareersInMusic)

One of the most critical factors in learning to sing well is proper breathing because it gives you more control over your pitch and how long you can hold a note. The most efficient route to learning how to sing and how to breathe while you sing is to hire an experienced vocal teacher. They will give you the tools, techniques, and attention you need in order to learn the basics of singing. That being said, you can learn a lot of info as a beginner singer on YouTube. 

Here’s a great short video with a breath-control exercise you can do.

Building Skills as a Singer

Do you need a vocal coach? If athletes at the peak of their game invariably work with a coach, so should Singers. A Coach will teach important techniques to avoid injury while singing, and also teach how to produce a good sound efficiently and consistently. There are many kinds of Vocal Coaches and finding a good fit is important. Some Coaches focus on a certain style of singing or can help with technical aspects such as breath support, posture, diction, or stage presence.

Working with a coach can help you to improve in all areas of your singing, and avoid damaging your voice.

Here’s a simple exercise you can use daily to avoid damaging your voice.

Is singing a talent or skill?

Matt Farnsworth (Sara Bareilles, Carly Rae Jepsen)

Singing is a natural gift and talent. However, singing can also be improved on any level. When is difficult to teach a Singer, it is usually because the person attempting to sing cannot match pitch. That does make teaching singing very difficult. However, people are born with different levels of ability. Some are just natural Singers where others need to practice more and spend more time learning.

Justin Stoney (Tony Shalhoub, Kevin Bacon, and Founder of New York Vocal Coaching)

That’s an easy one because absolutely it can be learned. We see people all the time who start from absolute scratch. I’ve had people who think they’re tone-deaf and can’t even match one note properly, then given some time, work, and training, they become–in some cases–professional-level Singers.

It’s true that some people have more of an aptitude or a talent for singing than others, just like anything else. But for somebody who’s starting off with almost nothing, they can, if they work hard enough, become a very good Singer.

Kevin Richards (Rod Stewart, Bette Midler)

It’s a little bit of both. There has to be some innate musical ability there. There has to be some sort of connection between what the ears hear, and what the brain translates and tells the larynx to do. Generally, if someone can speak well, they can sing well. It’s down to their interpretation of pitch–how they can hear pitch and reproduce it.

That’s built into some people more than others, just like playing basketball or some other instrument. Someone picks up a guitar and it’s their thing. They wouldn’t be a great drummer. For some reason that instrument just appeals to their brain. All of it can be developed, it’s just how far it can be developed.

It doesn’t matter how many years I practice, I will never be a major league baseball athlete. I’m not built that way. It’s just not part of who I am.

I get this a lot: “I have a lot of passion for it.” Well, passion isn’t enough. It’s good, but you can love the dream and it doesn’t have to love you back. Your best may never be good enough. And that’s a sad thing to tell somebody.

We’ve got a lot of people out there who have little or no training who are fantastic artists because there is some innate quality in them that just appeals to others. You could say, technically, they’re not an amazing Singer. Mariah Carey is a “technically” amazing Singer, but some people don’t like her voice. All the acrobatics don’t really impress them.

Then you have someone like Adele, who’s not as technically trained as Mariah Carey. But there’s something organic, something visceral in her voice that makes you want to listen over and over again. It has nothing to do with vocal exercises and scales. There’s just something about the way she sings a song that draws you in. That’s something that’s built into somebody. You can’t train that into somebody. If they have that ability, you can train that ability more. But it has to already be there to some degree.

In my 15 years of teaching, I’ve only ever turned one person down and said, “This isn’t for you,” because they just didn’t have it. They had absolutely no innate musical ability. None at all. They were attempting to write songs and I was like, “Have you ever actually heard music? Because that’s not how it’s structured and that’s not how it works.”

They wanted it so badly but it just wasn’t in them. And that’s the only person I’ve ever told, “Singing isn’t really for you.” Everyone else I’ve told, “You have something there, we can develop that.”

So there has to be something there that can be trained, and then how much that grows is dependent on many factors. The ability to be open-minded and train a lot. To do the work. To do the process. Do they have something to offer? There’s not a lot of music that’s unique today, but do they have something to say? That has to come through in the song.

You can have all the technical ability in the world, but if you can’t communicate, if you can’t sell that song to somebody else … it doesn’t matter how many hours you train a day or how many years you put in if nobody wants to buy what you’re selling. And that’s most people. There are only so many people at the very top. You can be just under the top, but even that’s a very selective amount of people. That’s the unfortunate part.

The odds are stacked against you even more now than they used to be. There are so many more people doing it and the access is so much easier. You can just throw yourself on the internet and everyone can see you. So the market is flooded with a lot of very subpar people. You have to rise above the noise. You have to work really hard to do something that catches somebody’s eye.

So again, it has to be partly there and it can be trained. There’s always something there that can be developed. It’s just how far do you want to go? People have different levels. You may be able to achieve it, you may not. But you have to try.

As the uncle/mentor/surrogate grandfather that I never had said: “If you’re going to do this and you feel you really need to do this, you need to do this 100%.” There’s no 90%. Give it 100%. That’s what I tell all my students. You have to want to learn. Because I’m going to challenge you a lot.


What is the best age to start learning how to sing?

Matt Farnsworth (Sara Bareilles, Carly Rae Jepsen)

I don’t think the kids who are less than ten years old have the attention span to be in a technical singing lesson. (They for sure can be in a lesson where they’re singing for fun.) It is usually best to allow children to sing naturally when they are young. Real singing lessons can start around twelve years old.

Kevin Richards (Rod Stewart, Bette Midler)

Teens. Mid-teens. Before that, your voice is too unevolved and there are too many unknown factors.

Your voice changes as you go through puberty. The larynx physically grows and all that. Attention span is kind of limited under fourteen. Especially now. It’s really hard. I don’t take any students under fourteen. I tried, for hour-long lessons. Ten-year-olds who want to do thirty-minute-long lessons, that’s fine. That’s about the limit of their attention span before they’re thinking about what games they want to play.

Teens are where we start to understand that process of achievement. Especially if they play extracurricular sports and things like that. You understand the team gets better the more you practice and the more games you play. The more you do the thing. People have tried to bring me students at age seven and I’m like, just let them sing at home. Save your money.

Teens are the best time because their attention span is starting to get a little bit longer and they can think in more abstract terms. They’ve been through school long enough to know about processes and to know that it takes time to learn something and you don’t learn it right away. You don’t learn it overnight.

It’s also really good if they’re learning or have learned another instrument because they understand that process. You don’t immediately pick up your guitar and know how to play it. You have to learn to look at the book and move your fingers. Just like everything else, there’s a process involved. And it takes time because you’re learning a physical skill.

With a cognitive skill like learning math, it goes up exponentially. Whereas learning a physical skill, it goes in stages. You have a flatline for a while where you feel like you’re not really getting any better, and then you get this uptick in abilities where something you couldn’t do last week, now you can do. That’s physical.

A lot of people don’t understand that. Once they get on that plateau, they think they’re not gaining anything from the process. They don’t understand that their brain is figuring this all out in the background, then one day it goes, “I got it!” And then you get that uptick in ability.

You have to wait for that uptick. A lot of people lose interest when they plateau. You kind of have to love the plateau. Kids don’t really think in those terms until fourteen or fifteen.

Justin Stoney (Tony Shalhoub, Kevin Bacon, and Founder of New York Vocal Coaching)

My mindset for this one is kind of funny because it’s when you’re ready. The reason I say that is I’ve had 4-year-olds come through my studio that were ready. They get it and they practice and they do the exercises and they’re driven. They record their lesson and they come back and they’re better. Then I’ve had 30-year-olds that weren’t ready for whatever reason.

So there isn’t really an ideal age. It’s when the person is feeling passionate about singing and they say, “I want to dial in and work on my voice and make this a craft.”

If we’re talking muscularly, there are lots of changes that go on in the teen years. So teens sometimes struggle because their body is changing. You ask somebody out on a date and your voice cracks and you’re like, “What happened?” A teenager is sort of running into walls, and lanky, and things like that because their body is changing all the time. Their voice is also changing all the time. In that sense, those years can be tricky because there can be some inconsistencies.

On the other hand, that’s a great time because it’s when you’re finding your identity, and the voice is one of our greatest tools for self-expression. When we develop our voice, at any age, we start to find new kinds of confidence and new ways of being in touch with our personality and who we are.

In that sense, even if there’s some rockiness physically in the teen years, there’s this great opportunity to find oneself through singing. That’s the only thing I would consider muscularly. You have your voice when you’re a kid, and then it changes in those teen years and there’s some flux. Then you’ve got your adult voice and all is well. Anytime is good if a person is ready.


What's the highest note you can sing?

Caleb J. Murphy (CareersInMusic)

The highest note ever sung by a human was technically not a musical note but rather a frequency. The record-holder is Georgia Brown from Brazil who hit a G10, according to Guinness World Records. She also has the greatest vocal range, going as low as a G2. The goal as a singer, though, is not to sing the highest note possible or even have the greatest range. The most important thing to focus on, other than hitting the right notes, is to convey emotion as you sing.

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Improving as a Singer

What are signs that your singing voice is getting better? It’s important to record yourself when singing. Listening to the recordings will give you a good idea of where you need to improve. While nobody can sing absolutely flawlessly, there are ways to turn technical weaknesses into assets, or at least covering them up.

A Vocal Coach, music teacher, or fellow musicians in a band can also give you some feedback. If you sing in front of an audience, you will get visual cues from them about your singing in the form of facial expressions and body language, and sometimes they will talk to you afterwards and give candid opinions of your performance ability.

If you are working consistently on improving your singing, studying, and practicing most every day, and getting out on stage to perform, you will definitely notice progress over time. Everyone progresses at their own rate, so try to avoid comparing yourself to others. Remember that “persistent practice leads to perfect performance.”

Be persistent and consistent with your effort and you will see yourself improve over time. Emphasize your strengths and learn to hide weaknesses, while also learning how to practice the right things.

Here’s a great video by Gospel Legend Yolanda Adams explaining and demonstrating some ways to sing better instantly.

How can someone improve their singing voice?

Justin Stoney (Tony Shalhoub, Kevin Bacon, and Founder of New York Vocal Coaching)

There are lots of different ways to improve the singing voice, but how we usually like to work is through really good vocal exercises. These are best done if they are designed for the individual because it’s just like working out.

There’s a serious muscular and athletic component to the singing voice. It really is, at the end of the day, training a lot of little muscles. But they’re not big, obvious muscles like what we do at the gym. They’re all these little muscles on the inside that need the training.

You might have different strengths or weaknesses with your voice physically, and different exercises can help you work out those areas. There are exercises for improving the range of your voice. There are exercises for improving the strength, agility, resonance, tone. For the freedom of the instrument. For the stamina and longevity. Some people will just be naturally stronger or weaker in different areas. But if they do the right vocal exercises, they can develop strengths in those different areas.

Finding good exercises (or working with an instructor to guide you to what those exercises might be) is always a good thing. Also, doing lots of listening to artists that you really like. It’s not a bad idea to find aspects of what they’re doing and basically copy. There are some limitations to that because you want to be singing with your own voice and not just a mimic.

But a lot of Singers actually get really good by playing their favorite artist, identifying what they like, and trying to get those things down. It might be riffs and runs, or vibrato, or a certain kind of tone quality they like. There is great value in doing a lot of listening and then doing healthy mimicking. Again, not trying to change one’s voice from what it naturally is, but identifying those stylistic elements that make good Singers great.

I would say from there, [it’s] finding repertoire and songs that are appropriate for where you’re at as a vocalist. Not pushing yourself too far to things you’re not ready to handle, because that can build some tension and strain. Not feeling like you have to sing “Happy Birthday” or something, but pieces that are an achievable goal, a moderate challenge, and building from there. Instructors can obviously help with that, but some Singers can figure that out on their own and select good material to be practicing.

Folks are often looking for, “Well if I just do these 5 exercises or these 10 exercises then I’ll be a great Singer.” It doesn’t work that way. If I wanted to be a great athlete, it’s not like I go to the gym and do my bicep curls and my bench press. I can’t just follow a routine and expect to be a great athlete. I have to know something about what my voice needs, and that can change over time, and [you can] target those areas with good exercises.

That’s where a Voice Teacher comes in, much like a Personal Trainer, to say, “What’s going on with your body? Let’s do these exercises to make sure you become this kind of athlete.” That’s how it works with the voice. And people have different goals. Somebody might want a lighter pop mix. Somebody might want to be an Opera Singer. Those are all different kinds of athleticism, and you need to do different exercises and different work to make sure you’re achieving that kind of sound.

Matt Farnsworth (Sara Bareilles, Carly Rae Jepsen)

Your singing voice can be improved with some very simple steps. The first is learning how to breathe correctly. Learn about the diaphragm, and the larynx and the way they function together. Any good Teacher should be able to help you with this.


How long does it take to learn to sing well?

Kevin Richards (Rod Stewart, Bette Midler)

Minimum a year. You’re probably looking at two years. Again, because it’s a physical skill. It’s a physical skill you can’t see. Learning piano or guitar is a little bit different. You can actually see your hands moving and when you go to play a G chord, you know you’re going to get a G chord when you hit the strings because you see your fingers in the right place.

With the voice, it’s all invisible. So it’s a very weird instrument to train. It’s odd because you have to describe a sensation to people. “It feels like this. Do you feel it here? Do you feel it there?” And people feel proprioception–their proprietary perception of something might be different from how I feel it. If the sound you just made is correct, however you felt that: remember that. And just keep doing that.

I always tell people you’re looking at a year at least. If you take someone from bare-bones nothing, then that timeline will either expand or shrink depending on their innate ability. I’ve had people come to me who’ve never had a vocal lesson before and told them, “You’re actually a really good Singer.” They had no idea. I said, “You actually sound better than you think you do, and it’s not going to take as long as you think.” They just have to learn better.

I have people who come to me who’ve never had a vocal lesson, don’t seem that great, and who see pretty good improvement over a short amount of time.

More than people who had natural ability, but were resistant to learning to sing differently because they were always singing in this natural way without knowing what they were doing. Now they have to do it as a process and it’s kind of throwing their brain into disarray.

People who have been singing for a while or taken lessons before have built-in, predetermined ideas about how things should be done. Someone who’s a blank slate is a lot easier to teach.

But it’s always a year minimum. In the grand scheme of things that’s a short amount of time. For how long you’re going to be able to use that skill, taking a year to learn the basics is no time at all. It’s going to take you a year to learn to fly a plane. So give it time. It’s worth it in the end.

If you play an instrument, did you learn how to play your guitar amazingly in a short amount of time, or did it take a year to get fairly good at it? Same amount of time. Same brain process.

Matt Farnsworth (Sara Bareilles, Carly Rae Jepsen)

It depends on the natural ability of the Singer. But I would say that with weekly lessons you should see an improvement within six months. If you are not seeing an improvement with your Teacher I would seek another Teacher.

Also if anything ever feels bad or hurts in your throat you should definitely trust your own instincts and stop with that Teacher. Don’t ever let someone tell you that if it hurts it’s correct. Also do not stay with any Teacher that cannot answer your questions and makes you feel as though you not improving is your own fault. It is the Teacher‘s responsibility to make sure the student improves if indeed the student is practicing.

Justin Stoney (Tony Shalhoub, Kevin Bacon, and Founder of New York Vocal Coaching)

I like to give people reasonably five years if they want to become a professional-level Singer. And that’s five years of serious work. It’s practicing four, five, six days a week. Studying. Really putting time and energy into it.

Some people come and they’re naturally gifted. But it’s a myth that people can just sort of one day sing — you come out of the womb and you’re just fantastic. That doesn’t happen. Or you’re like, “I’ve never thought to sing before, let me try that out!” and you sing and you’re just amazing. People think that you have to be born with it; nobody is ever born with it.

Some people use their voices very freely from when they’re a child and maybe sing in school, or church, or a place of worship. They sing with their friends, or they just don’t have any hangups about singing and they get off to a good start. A person like that can expect to have a very high-level singing voice in as little as a year.

But that’s not common. That’s your outlier. Most of us need a solid five years to get to an advanced level, and two to three years to get to a place where you start to feel like you really have your voice.

It’s funny how people don’t grasp this about singing. As a society we think, you want to be a great Pianist? Let’s put you in lessons. That’s gonna take you five to ten years to be a great Pianist, practicing all the time. People have that expectation.

But with singing, we think either you can or you can’t. Let’s hear it. Do we like it? Nah? Well then you can’t sing; singing isn’t for you. But it works like any instrument. If you want to be great at it, you have to learn that craft and develop it.

Here are some great tips for beginners from an online voice teacher.

How many hours a day should you practice singing?

Kevin Richards (Rod Stewart, Bette Midler)

No more than one. I get that all the time. There’s science behind this. The human brain can only take concentrated thought processes, training like that, for 20–25 minutes. Then it starts to shut off. It doesn’t want to absorb any more information.

Grade School Teachers know this as well. That’s why they change the lesson plan about every 20 minutes within a period–because the kids’ brains can’t maintain a state of concentration for longer than 20 minutes. Singing is fine motor control. After about 20 minutes, your brain starts to go into gross motor control and it’s not doing the fine movements.

There’s a process called chunking where you learn things in little chunks; 15–20 minute chunks of time. I’ll tell my students, you can practice for an hour, but don’t do an hour in one shot. Break it up into little 15–20 minute sessions over the course of the day. So that you can really concentrate during that 15–20 minutes. Really dig in. Really concentrate.

Because if you’re going to do an hour, you can’t maintain that kind of level of concentration for an hour. But for 20 minutes, you can really focus on a couple of things and then leave it. Let your brain absorb it, work on it, and come back to that same thing or something else later in the day. Really concentrate for 15–20 minutes, then leave it alone. Another 15–20 minutes, really concentrate–next thing you know you’ve done an hour.

People think if they sit and do two to three hours, they’re going to get so much better so much faster. It doesn’t work that way with physical skills.

You can do that with a language, a cognitive skill. You can sit there for two hours and you’ll get better at it at the end of two hours. Physical skills though? Your brain can only absorb so much information in a short amount of time. So you have to chunk it into little bits. And then leave it alone for a day or two and come back to it.

That way your brain has time to absorb all that information and coalesce it and put the puzzle together. The longer you move away from the thing that you did, the more you remember it. Which is a weird thing.

They’ve actually done tests with this and studies where you give people a paragraph to learn, and then another group, and tell them to try to remember everything they can about that paragraph. The people they come back to it four days later remembered more than the people from two days later. It’s a weird part of our brain.

So I tell people, put a day in between. Or if you do something on one day, do something else on the day between. So on Monday and Wednesday do the same thing. On Tuesday and Thursday, do different things.

It’s just like what bodybuilders do. They train one muscle group on Monday, another muscle group on Tuesday, then come back to the first muscle group on Wednesday. So there’s that day of rest in between for the different muscle groups. Do that same thing with singing.

Sing on Friday. Take the weekend off. Let your brain relax because it needs that vacation. Come back on Monday and repeat the process. With those two days of rest, they [bodybuilders] do something else like swim or run. So just sing. No warm-up, no nothing; just sing. Do something musical. Play an instrument and do whatever you’re going to do. But do something else away from the training so your brain can get a break to absorb all of it.

This is part of the way I teach. I bring in some neuroscience and some of how our brains function to speed up the learning process. A lot of Teachers don’t go that route. They have the book that they teach out of. My thing is, adapt to the student, how they learn, how they absorb things, and the rate they want to learn at.

You can’t force them to learn faster than their brains want to learn. You can’t force an exercise on them if their brain isn’t ready for it. Switch gears and go to something else and maybe come back to it later on.

That’s what I do and I’ve always been interested in how our brains work and learn. So when I started to teach, I brought a lot of that information into it. I spoke to Neurosurgeons and Psychologists and people like that to understand how we learn.

Justin Stoney (Tony Shalhoub, Kevin Bacon, and Founder of New York Vocal Coaching)

One could practice for one, two, two-and-a-half hours and that wouldn’t be wrong. But the cool thing about singing is it doesn’t take as long as people think. It’s more about consistency than it is about time. If I was going to devote three hours per week to my singing, it would be so much better to have it be six days a week for half an hour per day, than one day a week for three hours.

If you can check in with your voice for approximately fifteen minutes to an hour, if you can do that between four and six days a week, that’s a great practice schedule. If you want to go for an hour-and-a-half to two hours sometimes, that’s totally fine.

But again, it’s muscular. You don’t want to work backward by singing to the point of exhaustion, because then you have diminishing returns. It’s best to be checking in with the voice up to six days a week, and taking that one day off. That, and targeting the skills you want to improve day after day. You see growth from not overdoing it, from having some rest, and having time to develop.

Matt Farnsworth (Sara Bareilles, Carly Rae Jepsen)

I would say no more than one hour a day.

Vocal Coach and Voice Teacher Ken Tamplin has some excellent videos for beginners and intermediate learners you can find online, here is an example:

How can I practice singing at home?

Caleb J. Murphy (CareersInMusic)

First, you need vocal exercises you can practice at home. For these, you can work with your vocal teacher or head over to YouTube. Then just practice your exercises and warmups a little bit every day. Just make sure you take a break when you feel your voice getting tired. You don’t want to injure or over-exhaust your vocal cords.

Committing to a Career as a Singer

As with any career, nothing ever comes easy. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it! Becoming a professional Singer requires more than just learning to sing; one must also study and master other music topics, such as music theory, arranging, music production, music history, and so on. Equally important, career Vocalists and musicians must fully grasp the ins and outs of the music business, such as how music copyrights work, and where the revenue (money) streams come from.

Fortunately, there are many excellent college programs designed to prepare Singers for professional careers. If going to music school isn’t in the cards, there are also plenty of outstanding books available about how the business works, and it’s a good idea to read the biographies of famous artists to learn about what they did to catapult to fame.

Having the talent and ability isn’t enough to launch and maintain a successful career. Business savvy is also required, and artists and performers must also know about all aspects of how music is created.

What else do you want people to know about singing?

Justin Stoney (Tony Shalhoub, Kevin Bacon, and Founder of New York Vocal Coaching)

Singing works best when it’s a joyful process. We want to go on that joyful path. But so often what happens with people’s singing voices is somebody says something when they’re five-years-old like, “Oh, you don’t have a voice,” or, “Ugh, keep it down in there. We don’t like that!” or, “You’re not as good as so and so in school.”

Maybe it’s even something we say about ourselves. We get into this habit of thinking, “Why couldn’t I sing that note well,” and, “My voice is disgusting,” and, “I play it back and I just can’t bear to listen to it.” Then we start to place these negative thoughts or negative words over us, and nothing could be more stifling to the voice than that.

The encouragement I would offer is, don’t let that stop you. Whether it’s something that somebody’s said or you’ve gotten into the habit of speaking negative words about your own voice, we want to break that. That never helped anybody become successful as a Singer. If you’re feeding your voice joyful messages, positive messages, and encouragements, you’re going to make much more progress and you’re going to be much freer in the process.

To be clear, it’s not wrong to sing about pain and things like that. You don’t always have to be happy. There’s great value in letting it out when you’re feeling bad. Some of our best songs and best Singers are coming from a place of hurt or vulnerability. But when they do, they’re not thinking, “Do I sound pretty? Will people like this? Am I any good?” They’re singing from a soulful place or a joyful place and they’re not letting the messages block what’s within.

That’s my big encouragement. There’s the technique side, yes. We have to get good at the craft. But there’s also this freedom that we have to have one way or another where we accept our voice, we’re joyful about our voice, and we’re letting it come from the soul.

If you want to know more about perfect pitch, who has it, whether it is helpful or not, and how common it is, check out this famous video by Rick Beato about his young son with perfect pitch:

Rick is a great source for Music Theory topics as well.

In Conclusion

If you love singing and want to improve, commit to studying and practicing consistently over a long period of time, at least several years. It’s important to learn all you can about music along the way. The path of a career Vocalist and musician is one of lifelong learning, and it helps to have knowledgeable guides to show you the way. Therefore, most people who are serious about learning to sing work with a Teacher or Vocal Coach, attend music school, study, and develop productive practice habits to push themselves to improve.

It’s also important to maintain good health while singing. A voice that isn’t healthy won’t sound very good, or at least not for long. Proper diet, rest, exercise, and hydration are all important to prolonged singing success. No matter where you are in your journey as a Singer, it’s always possible to improve your technique, ability, range, and sound. Studying the music business will help you to find and create performing opportunities, whether live or in the studio. Improving your singing ability and making the most of your talents leads to tremendous self-satisfaction that comes from knowing you are doing your best to be your best.

As a bonus for singers, here’s Rick Beato’s Greatest Top 20 Vocal Intros Of All Time.

Vocal Coach Matt Farnsworth
Matt Farnsworth

Matt Farnsworth is an accomplished Voice Teacher and Pianist. He has been teaching voice since 1995 when he became the Consulting Coach on Broadway’s production of Rent. His students have been nominated and won Oscar, Tony and Grammy awards and can be seen performing in Film, Television, on Broadway, National Tours and Regional houses around the country.

Matt most recently worked on the Netflix films Jingle Jangle and The Prom (directed by Ryan Murphy). In addition to these, the Aretha Franklin movie Respect, Amazon’s Transparent Musical Finale as well as Orange is the New Black and comedy Central’s The Other Two. Matt and his three Associate Teachers are truly grateful to be able to serve the arts community and help others achieve their goals.

Vocal Coach Kevin Richards
Kevin Richards

Hi, My name is Kevin Richards and I’m one of the most respected Vocal Teachers on the planet. With past & present students ranging from Broadway singers to Opera stars to music legends like Rod Stewart, I’ve carved out a unique niche among the world’s musicians.

With a career spanning over 30 years, I’ve sang to countless thousands of people while touring the world and worked with artists from all styles and genres.

I’ve learned a lot about being onstage, not only by toiling away on the local club circuit averaging 150 shows per year in the mid/late 1980s, but while touring the Far East and Europe in 1996 as lead singer in my original rock band. That tour that was highlighted by an appearance at an outdoor music festival in Seoul, Korea in front of 13,000 people. I learned what works and what doesn’t work pretty quickly with that many shows, in front of that many people; it ended up being a great classroom and proving ground for me.

With this multi-layered background under my feet, I definitely have something to offer other performers who simply want to be the best thery can be, not only vocally but professionally. I’ve learned by doing, and know the importance of connecting with an audience. If the audience doesn’t enjoy watching you, then what’s the point of them coming to see you perform?

I sum up my vocal teaching style this way; I want to help Singers and musicians of all types deliver the best performances they can by engaging, maintaining and delivering a great show night after night. I’ve learned a lot in my many years in this crazy business, and I’m excited about passing that on to any artist that wants to excel as a performer.

2010 saw the release of my groundbreaking 2 module vocal program geared for the Rock/Pop vocalist “Breaking the Chains”; now sold in over 90 countries. No other singing course out there was made specifically for the modern Rock and Pop Singer in a language that spoke to them directly. I feel I filled a wide gap in voice instruction with my flagship vocal course.

In 2017 I became the Vocal Coach for legendary Rock icon Sir Rod Stewart, helping him maintain his voice to deliver a great show night after night.

Vocal Coach Justin Stoney
Justin Stoney

Justin Stoney is the Founder of New York Vocal Coaching, an internationally-recognized Voice Teacher and Vocal Coach, developer of the NYVC Voice Teacher Training & Certification Program, and author of the book Sing Like Never Before. He has taught over 20,000 voice lessons to Singers of diverse backgrounds, levels, styles, ethnicities, nationalities, and ages. His clients also include Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony award-winning artists.

Mr. Stoney has been invited as a Keynote Speaker and Presenter both nationally and internationally for conferences and workshops including PAVA (Pan American Vocology Association), Vocology in Practice, and NYSTA (New York Singing Teachers Association) Professional Development Program. He has appeared on numerous media outlets including NBC, CBS, and ABC, and been featured in multiple publications including The New York Times, Esquire, and SELF. He is a member of NATS (National Association of Teachers of Singing), Vocology in Practice, VASTA (Voice and Speech Trainer’s Association), The Voice Foundation, Actors Equity, and SAG-AFTRA. Justin also collaborates with leading Voice Doctors and Laryngologists to help bridge the gap between vocal pedagogy and voice medicine, and participates in cutting edge research on vocal science, pedagogy, and technology.

Mr. Stoney studied classical vocal technique with veterans of the Metropolitan Opera, Musical Theatre vocal technique with veterans of Broadway, and contemporary vocal technique with industry-leading Pop/Rock/R&B instructors. He also holds a BFA in Musical Theatre Performance and a BA in English from the University of Michigan, where he graduated at the top of his class and was elected University Commencement Speaker. Justin is also certified in Yoga with a strong background in anatomy, Alexander Technique, and physical fitness.

Justin is also the creator and host of the popular singing shows Voice Lessons To The World and Quick Singing Tips.

He has featured in articles by Jezebel, SELF, and The New York Times.

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