Tag Archives: can you sing

Would you sing on The Voice?

The Voice begins on Monday 25th April

Who won The Voice in 2021? Have you listened to her music recently? Yes it was a girl who won – Bella Taylor Smith. A beautiful and talented singer who was able to win a singing competition in the midst of a global pandemic. But did it guarantee her success? It depends on what you classify as success. She won $100,000 and a recording contract. Has she gone on to do great things with her music. She might think so. Is her name well known? Probably if you watched the Voice, but outside that circle, I don’t think so. What about the winner in 2020? He is a more well known name: Chris Sebastian. What about his music career? Do you think it is much different because of the Voice? Maybe a little bit, but he hasn’t become a household name like his brother.

Singing competitions can be a lot of fun, or a lot of stress. They can give you opportunities to perform in front of an audience and develop your stage craft. You can win money and maybe get a music contract. My concern with a show like the Voice is that it focuses more on the back story of the singers and the judges are given a lot of focus. If you check how long the singers actually sing for, it may be a little over a minute.  How can you truly gauge the skill of the singer in that amount of time?  Does it guarantee success, wealth and the opportunity to tour the world and perform – for the very few, yes.

I think singing competitions are worthwhile, if you treat them as an opportunity for you to improve as a singer and musician. Focus on how you can take this opportunity as a way to grow as a musician. But don’t go into these thinking it will bring fame and fortune. That will only come with hard work, constant, consistent practice and persistence.  Make sure you watch The Voice, even if only for one episode. Appreciate the courage it takes for these singers to get on stage in front of a nation wide audience and then enjoy the singing.

Why have a singing teacher?

I have been visiting various singing websites lately and have found many of them to have great ideas and ways to help singers.

One thing I have noticed on a couple of the websites is their claim that you don’t need to have face to face lessons to sing well, just watch my videos and you can become the greatest singer.  For me this is a one way street.

My comment to this is if you don’t know what you are doing wrong, you can never know what you are doing right.

Feedback is integral to good progress.  Feedback is the rocket fuel that propels the acquisition of knowledge and without it, no amount of practice or watching videos is going to get you there.

A singing teacher is not merely there to offer encouragement and assessing levels of concentration, they are also on the lookout for small technical glitches that may have escaped the attention of their student.

You can get the basics from reading material or watching videos, but I would highly recommend you seek out a singing teacher or at least a mentor who can give you appropriate feedback and guide you on your musical journey.

teaching singing

Can anyone sing?

boy singing with mic cartoonThe answer is yes.  If you are able to talk then it is possible to sing.

Singing is a skill that can be taught just like any other instrument or any skill actually.

I have worked with many students who wanted to sing but didn’t have the skills. Over time with study and practice these students became very good singers.  These students wanted to be good singers and they put in the time and effort required to get good at it.

I am an ok dancer. I can move in time to the beat and when I take time to go over a dance routine I can learn it reasonably well.  But I will never be a great dancer.  That is because I like dancing, but not enough to want to do it all the time and take the classes to become really good at it.  My daughter loves dancing, goes to classes, practices a lot at home and is becoming really good.

But I love to sing.  I have had lots of lessons and performed quite a lot and I have developed skills I need to be a good singer.

I will never be great at violin because I don’t have an interest in playing it. I would like to learn cello though.

I love to teach but I would be pretty useless as a nurse as it is something I don’t want to do.

They say it takes around 10,000 hours to become an expert at something.  I think that this is pretty close.  If you were to ask anyone who is an expert at something, they would probably tell you these sorts of hours.  They would be working on their craft every day over a long period of time.

Learning how to sing well is like any instrument.  You can’t expect to become a concert pianist with a weeks worth of practice.

When you look at the lives of some of the famous singers who are really good at their craft –  you would discover that most have been singing since they were young children. They sing all day every day, listening to music and singing along, they probably go to voice lessons and are involved in any performance opportunity they can.

If you would like to be able to sing reasonably well, in tune, yes you can learn.  You probably don’t need to spend 10,000 hours.  Maybe 100 hours would be a great start.

How good you get depends on how much you want it. How much is your desire?  Are you willing to do what it takes to get really good?

 

Here is a video of  Jessie J at 15. You can tell she has been working on her craft for many years already.

Another video of a young Jessie J

A more recent live acoustic performance.

 

Dream!