How much work does it take to learn to sing?

[Hygro]

Having a marketable voice might be a matter of talent, but being a good singer is purely skill. You can't ever know if you really have that talent unless you have enough skill to show it.

I plan to learn how to sing--it's been on my lifelong to-do list. I have about cumulative 10 hours experience since the puberty changed my voice 6 weeks ago 8 years ago. But to know how I want to pace my music-vocal education, I want to know:

How much practice and how long does it take to be a reasonably competent singer--one that if it was a stranger in a public singing place (like say church) you would say: "hey, that person is pretty good"

 

[King of Town]

Probably a couple years to get your range expanded so that you could hit some good notes, and be able to hold them. You'll have to practice quite a bit. It helps if you have a piano or keyboard to play the notes and then sing them, as I'm sure you'll do in music lessons.

You could learn some basics of how to sing certain sounds, and breathing technique in the first couple lessons though probably. Those alone are probably enough to make you sound decent enough for people to think you're good.

 

[Gigaz]

I'd absolutely recommend lessons in singing. The initial effect of some training tricks on your voice is awsome even though you won't be able to immediately use it for singing.
I guess you must choose between Rock/Pop and classical singing. I've only tried the latter so far.

 

[Bigfoot3814]

Singing is really just sustained talking. I think anyone can learn to sing.

 

[Shekwan]

I've been singing for years and I still suck.

 

[musekick]

Anyone has the basic ability to sing. My family has home videos of me singing melodies before I could even speak. I sang solos in school and church and was a wedding singer years before I took lessons. However, if you're trying to train your voice to improve its quality or extend your range I would suggest taking lessons and planning on dedicating at least a few hours a week to doing vocal exercises and learning the songs.

Edit: The amount of training you'll require depends to a certain extent on what kind of music you want to perform.

 

[Masquerouge]

Anyone has the basic ability to sing.

Not really... you haven't met my family on my mother's side, all of them tone deaf.

 

[Veritass]

It takes as much work as you are willing to put in, to get as good as you wish to be.

I have been singing semi-professionally for about thirty years, having been in a rock band, major chorales, church choirs, a capella Christmas quartets, and solo work. For the last few years I have been doing mainly musicals in community theater. This doesn't pay much of anything, but it is a really fun hobby.

Training in singing is much like training in a sport, let's say tennis. You can get a few tennis lessons, even from someone who isn't a pro, and get good enough to hit the ball around and have some fun. You can take a few singing lessons or practice with someone who has experience, and get good enough to have some fun at your local karaoke night. On the flip side, you can train in either one for years and get better and better, capable of doing more things.

Remember that your vocal cords are a muscle, and that muscle is capable of being trained to be stronger and more adept; also, if you don't exercise it, you will lose that fitness and have to train up again. Also, you can injure yourself by working it incorrectly, just as swinging a tennis racquet incorrectly too many times can damage your shoulder.

Training in singing has many subtleties that you can explore once you get the basic training on how to use your instrument (your voice) well. An opera singer typically cannot sing soul music, and a blues singer typically cannot sing barbershop well. Beyond the stylistic aspects, there are many areas of musicality you might want to explore. I have taken courses, for example, in:

• sight-singing, the ability to sing from sheet music a song you don't know.
• musical theater singing.
• songwriting.
• choral arranging.

All of this depends on what you want to do with your singing.

One last note: singing for other people is acting. I have seen many professional singers who are technically excellent, but are not feeling the song or have no soul. I have seen others who are not technically proficient, but sing with such heart that I get goose bumps. There is a big difference between "singing well" and moving your audience.

 

[Veritass]

Not really... you haven't met my family on my mother's side, all of them tone deaf.

This may be true, but there is really only 1-2% of the population that are actually "tone deaf", meaning they lack the ability (even with training) to match pitch. A much larger percentage "think" they cannot sing, because someone told them in the second grade that they were not a good singer and they believed it. My first wife would not even sing "Happy Birthday" in a group if I was around, because she was convinced that she could not sing. She actually sang just fine, and it was all in her mind.

 

[Masquerouge]

This may be true, but there is really only 1-2% of the population that are actually "tone deaf", meaning they lack the ability (even with training) to match pitch. A much larger percentage "think" they cannot sing, because someone told them in the second grade that they were not a good singer and they believed it. My first wife would not even sing "Happy Birthday" in a group if I was around, because she was convinced that she could not sing. She actually sang just fine, and it was all in her mind.

That's very true, but it doesn't change the fact that when my mom, her brothers, or her dad, sing, it's AWFUL
It's kind of sad actually. They like to sing, but... urgh.

One last note: singing for other people is acting. I have seen many professional singers who are technically excellent, but are not feeling the song or have no soul. I have seen others who are not technically proficient, but sing with such heart that I get goose bumps. There is a big difference between "singing well" and moving your audience.

I think you've just summed up American Idol

 

[tycoonist]

One last note: singing for other people is acting. I have seen many professional singers who are technically excellent, but are not feeling the song or have no soul. I have seen others who are not technically proficient, but sing with such heart that I get goose bumps. There is a big difference between "singing well" and moving your audience.

yeah, this is completely true. many frontmen these days for rock bands aren't technically brilliant, but it is there stage presence that really matters, and is what makes them so successful and popular live. confidence, charisma and a bit of ability can go a long way to creating a good vocal performance

 

[Veritass]

That's very true, but it doesn't change the fact that when my mom, her brothers, or her dad, sing, it's AWFUL

The good news is that the fact that you can hear how bad they are probably means that you are not tone deaf.

 

[Trajan12]

Depends entirely on your goals. If they're more ambitious, and you need to screech and flutter and vibrato around and all that jazz, it takes a lot of hard effort. If you want to be one of those look-at-me-I'm-so-monotone-and-ironic band singers it would be considerably less.

 

[Newbunkle]

Just take a couple of lessons and go on American Idol.