0

I am bad at singing, but very motivated to learn. I have started some singing lessons, but I find the pace to be very slow.

What are some best practices when learning to sing? Can anyone give me their idea of efficient ways to learn quickly to sing well (well as in it is nice for others to hear, unlike what I do now which make people cringe).

DevShark
  • 473
  • 5
  • 11
  • (By the way, note that requests for software or other outside resources are not a covered topic here. This question is attracting some close votes for that reason, but delete the sentence that starts with "I wonder," and this is just a question about approaches to learning. Also, you'd probably benefit from some of the advice on this question. – Andy Bonner Feb 11 '22 at 21:56
  • Thank you Andy, I have edited my question as you suggested. Thanks also for the link. – DevShark Feb 12 '22 at 01:34
  • I wish this was reopened, as I edited according to Andy's comment. – DevShark Mar 08 '22 at 11:54
  • Great edit! Unfortunately, I feel like this might attract some new close votes as "opinion-based," for asking about "THE BEST method." Every teacher does what they think is the best method, and they vary widely. IMO if you edit to "What are some best practices when learning to sing," it's valid. But also you might want to just start a new question since the existing answers are so different from that question. Also see existing questions especially by impatient adult learners—lol, I was about to link to the "french horn" question but I see I did so earlier! – Andy Bonner Mar 08 '22 at 15:05
  • I'll also give a sneak preview of my answer: Learning fast ain't everything. There is such a thing as too fast. And adult learners are generally much more upset about rate of learning than kids, and much more likely to underestimate the pace they're actually making. I'd suggest a different metric: ask yourself each week "Am I having [more/less/the same amount of] fun doing this as last week." Are you getting benefit. Unless you're registered for a competition or audition, there's no deadline. – Andy Bonner Mar 08 '22 at 15:07
  • That's a great point. It's hard not to feel anxious about results, but I think you're right that the fun element is important to stay motivated in the long term. – DevShark May 31 '22 at 17:28

2 Answers2

2

The history of music is of a communal activity. It is at its best when a group of people get together to make music. The best way to enjoy music while learning is in a communal setting. So, join a choir. You don't have to be religious to join a church choir and, unless you live in a country which restricts religious freedoms, you shouldn't have any trouble finding a choir near you.

That, by the way, will also help you find a new and better teacher if that's also what you want.

On the subject of your current teacher remember the old saying "(S)He who pays the piper calls the tune". You are paying for lessons. Talk to your teacher about your wants and needs. Most of the time they will be happy to accommodate your wishes. Maybe your teacher needs to communicate better with you. There may be very good reasons why they are going slowly. Ask.

Brian Towers
  • 5,620
  • 4
  • 21
  • 43
2

There isn't really any piece of software that can do a better job of teaching you than a human (unless you pick a really incompetent human). That's for a number of reasons. The task of hearing and assessing what we hear is an incredibly detailed cognitive accomplishment; training an algorithm to recognize "good tone" would be an incredible task. And then, being able to intuitively diagnose poor tone is even harder. Do you need more air? different posture? different mouth shape? lower your tongue? lift your chin? Experienced teachers spot all the usual culprits in an instant, either visually or in nuances of timbre, but to build an AI to perform similarly would approach the Singularity. And finally, knowing how to communicate instruction requires human social intelligence—ideally, a good teacher even realizes that they must convey the same information in different ways to "get through" to different students and "make it click."

Of course, most resources that exist right now don't make any attempt to leverage AI in this kind of interactive way (at most, perhaps a bit of pitch recognition to see if you're singing the right notes). That means that you can learn from them the same way you learn from a book: you go in search of your own information, harvest it yourself, and apply it to yourself as best you can. This highlights the main difference between self-teaching and having a teacher: the teacher can correct what you don't know you're doing wrong. And chances are, that's what matters. Sometimes, after a student plays a piece, I ask them what they think they need to focus on. They're usually thinking most about something much less important than what are in fact the biggest, glaring, emergency issues—if they were aware of them, they wouldn't be problems.

Try not to get frustrated with your progress. In fact, try not to set any expectations on it at all. You're learning at the speed that your body and your brain allow you to; getting dissatisfied with that is unrewarding.

Andy Bonner
  • 17,026
  • 1
  • 27
  • 75
  • Thanks a lot Andy for the very thoughtful answer. That makes sense. I was thinking maybe an app could be a good addition to the teacher. – DevShark Feb 12 '22 at 01:36