I'm thinking of paying a tutor online, but I'm curious about other ways to go about it
Ask HN: I'd like to learn vocals, any suggestion on how I can do this?
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Re: Ask HN: I'd like to learn vocals, any suggestion on how I can do this?
#2Get a tuner app like you'd use to tune guitar then try singing something and check how close is your C, using a tuner as a cheat can shave years of agony compared to guessing.
Re: Ask HN: I'd like to learn vocals, any suggestion on how I can do this?
#3Yes, getting a voice teacher is both the fastest and healthiest way to go about this.
While there are plenty of resources available online and there are countless self-taught singers it's easy to acquire unhealthy habits, which in turn might also limit your progress and ability over time.
Latency can be a problem with anything music-related in an online setting, though. Apart from that, singing is very much a physical activity and some feedback from your body might be missed due to limitations of the medium.
Nevertheless, it certainly is a viable and tested approach (with many teachers and even well-known singers offering personal training online) and worth a try.
Re: Ask HN: I'd like to learn vocals, any suggestion on how I can do this?
#4learn vocals to do what? what are your goals?
Re: Ask HN: I'd like to learn vocals, any suggestion on how I can do this?
#5Are 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-singing and similar voice classes.
Re: Ask HN: I'd like to learn vocals, any suggestion on how I can do this?
#6Depends exactly what you want to do. As a singer/songwriter myself, I'd recommend checking Eric Arceneaux on youtube for some beginner lessons.
https://www.youtube.com/user/EricArceneaux
Start with the warmups, work on breath fundamentals, and sing for the love of singing :)
A good vocal coach in person is fantastic, but expensive.
Re: Ask HN: I'd like to learn vocals, any suggestion on how I can do this?
#7I personally got a lot of benefit from singing teachers who posted daily vocal warm-ups on Youtube that you can try and sing along to, and they tell you what to do and what not to do. Exercises to separately work on and develop your posture, airflow, vocal chord usage etc are useful as you can improve the individual parts. I'd never had any vocal training and am not trying to be amazing - just to improve and have some control and consistency.
Some also post classes, where you can see them coaching others and learn from them.
Particularly I'd mention Eric Arcenaux: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5hS7eukUbQ
Listening to podcasts by performers about their daily routine might be useful if you want to know what they need to do to care for their voice in order to be able to perform daily.
Re: Ask HN: I'd like to learn vocals, any suggestion on how I can do this?
#8I personally got a lot of benefit from singing teachers who posted daily vocal warm-ups on Youtube that you can try and sing along to, and they tell you what to do and what not to do. Exercises to separately work on and develop your posture, airflow, vocal chord usage etc are useful as you can improve the individual parts. I'd never had any vocal training and am not trying to be amazing - just to improve and have som…
Eric also has Udemy courses:
Re: Ask HN: I'd like to learn vocals, any suggestion on how I can do this?
#9I'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 what works for you. Try several teachers, get some sessions with 2-3 and find which one is the one that motivates you the most, and understands you the most. A teacher is like a coach and a partner in an adventure... the most important thing is that they can make you progress and keep you motivated.
Good luck :)
Re: Ask HN: I'd like to learn vocals, any suggestion on how I can do this?
#10Music is my life-long passion, and I took rock/pop singing lessons for some time so I feel I can relate to where you are and give some actionable advice.
There is only one thing you can do: find a good teacher. You don't have experience related to singing, so you are not even able to diagnose what you are doing wrong and start working on it. You accidentally start pushing yourself into direction opposite to what you should be doing as I did at some point. Also, it's important to find a good one: if a teacher suggests something, then you try it for a few weeks and nothing changes, then maybe it's time to find another one. I'm not saying you can learn everything in a month, but you should at least notice something is changing and and understand what exactly you are working on. If the teacher can't explain what exactly you should improve (and how) other than "sound better" then likely it's not a good teacher. I cannot stress how important is finding the right teacher. Two lessons with right guy I found were much more effective than everything else I did beforehand for years (youtube tutorials, lessons with other people, trial and error). Don't try to be cheap: few weeks with someone who knows what they are doing can take you further than months with someone who doesn't (obviously I'm not saying that all good teachers are expensive and all cheap are bad. What I'm saying is that there is SO MUCH DIFFERENCE between an average and a great teacher that it's often worth paying for example twice as much). One more thing about teachers is try to get demos of their students and see if you like how they sing.
Another piece of advice: get used to recording and listening to yourself. It's frustrating, but it's second best thing I did after finding a good teacher. I can't imagine making progress on singing without recording. And you can record yourself on a smartphone/laptop/whatever for practice purposes, no need to buy any audio equipment.