Can Anyone Learn to Sing?

Yes, depending on your definition, anyone can learn to sing. If you definition of singing includes 'sing with accurate pitch,' then it's more like 96-98% of us can learn to sing. If your definition involves singing diva high notes, brilliantly, then the answer is still 'probably, yes' and it mostly comes down to how high your instrument will let you go, with work, and how long it will take.

What are some smart goals around learning to sing?

I think there are three very broad goals people should consider when they want to learn to sing:

1. Basic technical/stylistic singing: For complete beginners, 'learning to sing' will mean building some basic vocal and/or musical skill, at least for starters.

2. Skilled technical/stylistic singing: For singers who already have decent basic vocal and musical skill, 'learn to sing' tends to mean 'sing with more expert / advanced skill, vocally and musically.'

3. Authentic Singing: This is a crucial goal for all levels of singer, and the more you can sing authentically, the more debatable it becomes whether you require any technical or stylistic skill, whatsoever, to consider yourself a singer. Conversely, if you can't sing with authenticity, you might have all the technical and stylistic skill in the world, and people might even call you a great singer, but no one will be affected by your singing, not even yourself. I break down what I mean by authentic singing, below.

Learning to sing for beginners:

This article is for beginners who may need to build some basic skill and confidence. I'll get into 'skilled technical/stylistic singing' in another article. If you're already a good singer, you may still wish to read about They may have bigger dreams of becoming exceptional singers, but either way, they want to know if they can even get good at the basics, for now.

Most people's definition of singing involves an expectation of at least basic technical and stylistic skill. We might make some exceptions for incredibly gifted songwriters, but we'll expect most people we call singers to, in addition to being good communicators, be able to sing the right notes, and do it in a musically satisfying way.

Tone Deafness and Pitch Matching

I'll expand on these topics in other articles, but these deserve quick mention here, as they are two of the three most common hurdles to being able to sing at a basic level.

Tone Deafness:

The clinical term for tone-deafness is amusia, and how it is best defined and tested for is still in flux. This is partly because the vast majority of people who *think* they're tone deaf, are actually not.

Around 15% of people *think* they're tone deaf but only 1.5-4% of people actually are. This means about 75-90% of people who think they're tone deaf are actually 'false amusics'--and they can improve their musical ear, often dramatically, with practise.

If you think you are tone deaf, but really want to sing in tune, there are are few things you can do, one straightforward, one completely bizarre:

1. First, you can take an online test for tone deafness by searching for 'tone deaf test' to see how tone deaf the test thinks you are. Second, regardless of the results, you can practice by taking the test once or twice a day, for several weeks, and/or with various apps available, to see if you improve. If you improve... that means you're not tone deaf!

2. If you don't improve, but are passionate and rich enough, there is published research documenting how--DO NOT try this at home--running low-frequency alternating current through the relevant area of your cranium can stimulate the region responsible for detecting pitch differences and seemingly remove the condition! It might be tricky and/or costly to find right clinician who can help you with this. There's also the issue that you might need electrodes stuck to your head, sending current, any time you want to sing in tune, but... my point is, if you're truly clinically tone deaf, but really want to sing badly enough, there may be a way.

Hopefully it won't come to this. Most people who say they're tone deaf just have trouble with a skill called 'pitch matching.'

Pitch Matching

Most people who swear they're tone deaf are actually just bad at pitch matching and not tone deaf at all. I've seen it many times.

Pitch matching challenges are usually easy to make a lot of progress with or outright eliminate relatively easily. If you have trouble matching pitch, you often just need some specific tips to help you 'talk' to the muscles in your throat that control pitch, better. Humming with a 'cartoon witch' kind of sound is a good quick thing to try. That tends to engage a key pitch adjustment muscle fairly reliably and easily. From there you can learn to let the adjustment happen with more normal sounds.

How long does it take to learn to sing?

Most people who aren't tone deaf can become good basic singers, or likely better, with effective lessons and practise, within a year or two.

*Most* people, that is. There's no single one-size-fits-all answer for everyone. Some people become skilled professional singers from 'just' singing in Church, and never taking a single lesson (in reality, these singers all likely sung and listened a *lot*, even if it doesn't *seem* like they worked hard). Some people take lessons and practise for years, but if the training and/or practise isn't effective, they don't see much progress.

How to find effective singing lessons?

My one quick tip for finding effective lessons is to just book a lesson with the teacher you're considering and see if they can get you to sing high powerful-yet-easy high notes in the first lesson. If they can, that's a good sign that your singing will improve a lot by working with them.

There is a lot you can do to figure out which teachers are most likely to deliver this result before you spend money on a lesson which I will dive into elsewhere.

If you're looking for a singing teacher in Vancouver or nearby, feel free to take advantage of my free intro lesson offer (December 2020) to experience an immediate change in your ability to access high notes, yourself.

How to sing authentically, regardless of how skilled you are.

You can be a singer right now, with these three things.

1. Identity

2. Vulnerability

3. Something to Say