Whatever you end up doing wrt tutoring, prioritise now your vocal health, and your singing (?) while you are young.
Ask HN: I'd like to learn vocals, any suggestion on how I can do this?
21–30 of 90 posts
Re: Ask HN: I'd like to learn vocals, any suggestion on how I can do this?
#22I've been playing Piano for ~28 years, almost went professional (Jazz) but ended up doing engineering. My advice would be to find a teacher, if you know nothing about it you need a teacher that corrects you so that you don't develop bad habits. Once you're no longer a novice, you can start learning other things on your own. When looking for a teacher, I wouldn't try to find "the best" or "most virtuoso" around, but w…
Where does one even begin to look for a teacher? Where do these guys publicize their services? For context, I'm an amateur guitarist with an interest in singing Sufjan Stevens songs.
Check local churches. If they hae a good choir, the director might teach people or know of teachers in the area. (Growing up, my local church the director of the choir was a first tenor in the US Army chorus for 30 years.)
Re: Ask HN: I'd like to learn vocals, any suggestion on how I can do this?
#23Part of it is ear training. GNU Solfege helps with that part.
Re: Ask HN: I'd like to learn vocals, any suggestion on how I can do this?
#24I've been playing Piano for ~28 years, almost went professional (Jazz) but ended up doing engineering. My advice would be to find a teacher, if you know nothing about it you need a teacher that corrects you so that you don't develop bad habits. Once you're no longer a novice, you can start learning other things on your own. When looking for a teacher, I wouldn't try to find "the best" or "most virtuoso" around, but w…
Where does one even begin to look for a teacher? Where do these guys publicize their services? For context, I'm an amateur guitarist with an interest in singing Sufjan Stevens songs.
In addition to the other excellent suggestions, you can check in with the music department of a local college or university.
Re: Ask HN: I'd like to learn vocals, any suggestion on how I can do this?
#25Try calling it "singing" for starters.
Re: Ask HN: I'd like to learn vocals, any suggestion on how I can do this?
#26Plug for my friend’s “start-up”/company that I’ve used to find online piano teachers to great success, but they also do vocals as well as many other instruments: ToneRow.com.
She is a piano prof at Juilliard and I believe runs one of their startup/business courses, so she’s put a lot of careful thought into this (but I’m sure would appreciate feedback).
Disclosure: I am completely unaffiliated with her company, but have been using it during this period of SIP. If you have any questions or feedback about TR, feel free to reach out.
Re: Ask HN: I'd like to learn vocals, any suggestion on how I can do this?
#27Singing is not something that someone teaches you, it's just something you do because you're inspired to in the moment.
You need to just sing. Sing along with your favourite songs, sing with heart.
Then ... you may either want to get a bit of coaching, possibly sing with a choir.
Most singers were really quite good before they had formal coaching, and many have never had any coaching at all.
One of the more challenging things is pitch ... some people sing out of tune, have no idea, and it sounds bad. Oddly, this is something a 'voice coach' will have difficulty fixing. This tends to be something that people 'have' or they 'don't' - it can be learned surely, but it's oddly not a 'singing specific' issue. Playing around on a piano, singing the notes, trying to get them to match. So if you have a pitch problem, it will be a separate can of worms, but the more musical exposure you have, via anything, the better you'll get.
Re: Ask HN: I'd like to learn vocals, any suggestion on how I can do this?
#28Are you looking to improve in one area specifically? Placement? Range? Sight-singing ability? I agree with another commenter that a voice teacher will help get you started. I studied contemporary musical theatre in college, studied music and took classical voice lessons from a young age, and singing/harmonizing with a group was the most impactful on my own experience. Take a look at local colleges offering sight-sing…
Personally, I just sing or hum along with music, and if there was one thing I could improve, it'd be the ability to sing in tune. I do the "finger in your ear" trick, but it's still quite difficult to hit a note right, or move between several without sounding like a trombone (glissando).
I absolutely marvel at what pop singers can do with ornaments, seemingly hitting a whole series of notes in rapid succession, in tune. Maybe they're using an autotuner? :-(
Re: Ask HN: I'd like to learn vocals, any suggestion on how I can do this?
#29Find a teacher. Generally as a rule Classical/Lyrical/MT styles require more technique than Rock or Jazz (they require technique to not hurt themselves but the style aspect is personal and harder to teach) so I'd recommend getting a teacher who knows the former well.
Re: Ask HN: I'd like to learn vocals, any suggestion on how I can do this?
#30Singing is not something that someone teaches you, it's just something you do because you're inspired to in the moment. You need to just sing. Sing along with your favourite songs, sing with heart. Then ... you may either want to get a bit of coaching, possibly sing with a choir. Most singers were really quite good before they had formal coaching, and many have never had any coaching at all. One of the more challengi…
This is bad advice. Pitch does seem to be something you have or not (research suggests most kids are pitch perfect and lose it to various extents) but the other parts of singing well are highly technical skills and a teacher will help significantly. Larynx placement, anchoring, muscle relaxation, breath control... etc are all difficult skills to master.
There's a reason that so many pop/rock singers ruin their voices, it's because they don't get training.