What Do You Learn in Singing lessons: Find Out What to Expect When You Take Up Singing Lessons

Like with all private lessons, of any kind, a student will expect a higher level of attention and, well, a more personalised experience. With private singing lessons it is no exception. You may have already started taking lessons with a vocal coach or you may be wondering exactly what you will learn if you do begin down this path. You may be considering whether paying for singing lessons with a professional teacher is an exchange that makes sense for you. Wherever you are at, this article will break down exactly what you will learn in private singing lessons.

Compared to attending a group singing class, or a choir perhaps, a private singing tutor will be able to find out exactly where you are at with your vocal training and develop a roadmap personalised for your success. In other words, they will create a plan that will make your voice, in particular, better. Let’s look at the key areas that a private singing teacher will cover, we will then take a closer look at important techniques for your voice and breathing exercises that will likely be covered in your singing classes.

Assessing your voice:

The first key role of a private singing tutor is to make an assessment of your voice. They need to understand your current vocal ability without giving you any tips or exercises to follow. A singing teacher will usually ask you to sing a few notes or maybe a section of a well known song to hear what your voice is like at the moment. Your teacher will be listening attentively to all the details and qualities in your vocals. A common initial step that you will take with your singing teacher is to ascertain your vocal range. Your vocal range is quite literally your voices’ lowest pitch to its highest pitch. 

Assessing your posture:

An important element of being a good singer is not only the sound of your voice but also the technique used to deliver your voice. Standing with the correct posture is of paramount importance to ensure that you are giving your voice the best chance of hitting the notes the way you intend to. Your teacher will pay attention to the way that you are standing and will be observing your technique when you deliver your voice out into the world.

Assessing your technique:

Following on from the last point, your vocal coach will be observing your vocal technique which in a sense comes from watching how you use your body when you sing. Using proper breathing techniques is possibly the most important aspect of being a great vocalist. For example, breathing in and lifting your chest is not considered good practice when preparing to belt out that high note. Instead breathing in and filling the lower stomach region with use of the diaphragm is much more effective. These movements in either the chest or stomach region can indicate whether a person who is learning how to sing is practicing with good vocal techniques or not.

A private singing lesson environment needs to provide an atmosphere where the student feels willing to let go and deliver their voice without restraint. Your teacher will need to of course hear you sing, that is, assess where your voice is at the moment. They will then lead you through some simple exercises and ask you to sing scales, often with the use of an instrument such as a piano, so that you can hear the notes that they would like you to sing. Next we can look at some of the common exercises that you are likely to engage in while in a private singing lesson.

Using Correct Breathing technique:

Before being able to navigate your voice around a complex melody, it is clear that a singer needs to know how to deliver a single note first. Once they can nail one note supported by the right breathing technique they can then apply this same technique to all the other notes in the melody or song. So what exactly is the correct way to breathe when singing. Well, a singer needs to breathe into the lower abdomen region and when they do so their diaphragm will effectively move downwards. When the diaphragm moves down it allows more space for your lungs to fill up with air. This is the perfect preparation just before delivering your voice in whatever style you might be singing in, whether it’s jazz, pop, funk or classical. After breathing in and allowing your lungs to fill up to their maximum potential you need to be able to support the voice as it comes out of your body too. This is something that you will learn in Dorthe Eggertsen’s Free 5 day Vocal Course, go ahead and get yourself signed up for that - and yes it’s completely Free.

Navigating Your Vocals:

You may be asking what ’navigating your vocals’ actually means. Well, imagine you’re singing the line ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow’. Let’s take the word ‘Somewhere’, there are 2 notes that need to be sung here - one note for ‘Some’ and a higher note for ‘Where’. ‘Where’ is in fact a note that is 1 octave higher. When singing these 2 notes you need to be able to get your voice from one note to the next without singing any of the notes that lie in-between them. This is what is meant by navigating your voice. A singing teacher may ask you to sing scales with a keyboard or piano as accompaniment so that they can help you navigate your vocals from one note to the next with ease. Voice Lessons have some fantastic articles on this.

Singing with control:

Once a singer is able to sing a tune comfortably while using the correct breathing techniques, a vocal trainer will usually then work on how to sing with control. What is meant by singing with control? Well this is all about being able to sing and hold the notes for as long as you need while also being in charge of the volume of your voice. Often, singing a song requires a big powerful chorus where the singer really lets it all go and perhaps the verses are sung in a gentler way. To be able to do this effectively takes practice and this is what your singing teacher is there to help you with. You may go over a particular part of a song or melody where you are required to go from a soft voice to a strong voice and you may also need to hold a note for much longer. By applying all of the correct techniques that your teacher will show you, you will be able to sing better, more in tune and with more control.

So to wrap things up, singing lessons are about teaching you not only how to sing better in general but to find the best path for your voice in particular. A good singing teacher will be able to quickly see what things you need to work on in order to reach your desired goals. They will be attentive to your needs, they will understand what you would like to get out of the singing lessons and they will help you get there. If you’d like to know more about how Speak Sing Deliver might be able to help you reach vocal success, get in contact with us today.