I had my first singing lesson/coaching session last night...

[Muttley]

Good luck with that Twinfan.  :)

I used a lady vocal coach in Reading and it was really useful.

http://www.helenbolton.co.uk/

She was very good and helped me with the basics of breathing, range etc etc

Once funny outcome - First exercise we did was to pick a song and sing along to a backing track just to get an idea - we did Summer of 69 - her comment was "God, you are LOUD!"

Not sure if that was a complement or not...

That's interesting, I found her website ages ago and have been meaning to get a few lessons.  Good to hear you rate her.  :)

By default I've been the singer in every band I've ever played in, mainly because of our total ability to find a singer who A) Could actually sing, and B) Wasn't a complete dick.  :lol:

Unfortunately, this has meant all my guitar parts for the songs we wrote were dumbed down to a certain extent as I'd have to be singing at the same time.  I do enjoy singing though, and these days when I don't get much chance to play with other musicians, I'd like to improve my voice a bit so I can do some acoustic stuff on my own.

[Tellboy]

Good luck - it would probably take at least 6 years, not 6 months, to show any improvement on my voice.  :(

[dheim]

Dave and Dave, clips are essential on this one!

I'd also really like to hear some "before" and "after" clips, even though you might feel a bit embarrassed about making the "before" clips public.

it might give possibly give me (and others ?) some hope that I could improve my voice.  At the moment I'm loathe to spend the money on lessons as in 25 years of singing BV's and even fronting a band a few times, I don't think my voice has improved one tiny little bit. I suppose I'm really not convinced that any amount of training could improve it.

if you can't sing or/and have got a bad voice there's nothing you can do with lessons, IMO. if you are already a singer a bit of training can improve sensibly your vocal performance...
i've never taken lessons but i've noticed how my vocals got better every time i fronted a band and sang with some continuity - so the simple act of singing is a training in itself... i've made some real leap forward when i had to sing things i wasn't used to.

so i think that this kind of practice can be really useful even if "forced" through a pre-organized programme.
maybe you should try to do something "new" with your voice, you will surely notice some improvement after a bit.

[Twinfan]

Quick update for everyone who's interested!

I've just had my second session this afternoon, going through vowel sounds and how to 'place' the voice correctly for higher notes (something I was struggling with).  We also checked my range again after 10 days of basic practice.

I've gained 4 notes on my range already  :o

She reckons in 6 months I should able to hit an A5, which is 15th fret on the top E string of a guitar(!)  Currently I can hit the 10th fret D.

So far so good.  I'm really enjoying it and can feel the benefits already, even though it's early days.  After 6 months I'll be next David Coverdale  :lol:

[Philly Q]

After 6 months I'll be next David Coverdale  :lol:

As long as you don't develop a ridiculous Shakespearean speaking voice and start slowly turning into a woman after you hit 50. 

[MDV]

Dave and Dave, clips are essential on this one!

I'd also really like to hear some "before" and "after" clips, even though you might feel a bit embarrassed about making the "before" clips public.

it might give possibly give me (and others ?) some hope that I could improve my voice.  At the moment I'm loathe to spend the money on lessons as in 25 years of singing BV's and even fronting a band a few times, I don't think my voice has improved one tiny little bit. I suppose I'm really not convinced that any amount of training could improve it.

if you can't sing or/and have got a bad voice there's nothing you can do with lessons, IMO. if you are already a singer a bit of training can improve sensibly your vocal performance...
i've never taken lessons but i've noticed how my vocals got better every time i fronted a band and sang with some continuity - so the simple act of singing is a training in itself... i've made some real leap forward when i had to sing things i wasn't used to.

so i think that this kind of practice can be really useful even if "forced" through a pre-organized programme.
maybe you should try to do something "new" with your voice, you will surely notice some improvement after a bit.

My mum would disagree, being a singing teacher and having taught at least one person I know of that was previously tone deaf and utterly incapable to sing at least a few notes with ok technique in their first lesson.

We all have the required gear to be able to sing: vocal folds, mouth, toungue, lungs, diaphram, brain etc etc etc. It is purely a matter of training. Saying some people cant, at all ever, is like saying that you cant play guitar at all ever - the most important thing is a good attitude to learning and practice.

[dheim]

My mum would disagree, being a singing teacher and having taught at least one person I know of that was previously tone deaf and utterly incapable to sing at least a few notes with ok technique in their first lesson.

We all have the required gear to be able to sing: vocal folds, mouth, toungue, lungs, diaphram, brain etc etc etc. It is purely a matter of training. Saying some people cant, at all ever, is like saying that you cant play guitar at all ever - the most important thing is a good attitude to learning and practice.

i think that persons that are completely unable to play or sing exist. most of them don't even try so there's no problem for them or for who tries to teach them, but some yet manages to escape the boundaries of logic and common sense and ventures into the perilous world of notes and beats... :)
of course we've all got the physical ability of producing sounds, but i believe that a great part of the matter, when it comes to artistic expression, is wether you've got or not things like creativity, taste, sense of melody and rhythm (and i'm just talking about music, but this applies to every kind of art)... i'm not sure if many graduate classical players are really able to make music or are just the product of a neuronal rearrangement due to years of practice... most of them can just play the music they read, in fact. and of course they do it with amazing precision, but machines can do it as well!
i'm going completely off topic, i know...

BUT

i know myself a guy who firmly believed he could sing, and decided to do it after he saw "the doors" movie... of course initially he sounded like a bee's fart, but with lessons and an indistructible faith he managed to become a passable singer. not really good but at least nice.
so your mum is right, after all... :)

[MDV]

Good, I'll tell her :lol:

I think she did say something about some physiological thing once, about the structure of your throat or something, I forget exactly, that does preclude about 10% of people from singing. But anywho

Since I started playin at about the same time as a bunch of people, have seen many other people start and taught a few I have noticed that there are many degrees of speed that people learn with, and some people arent going to get all that far in one human lifetime, but I dont think theres a single person that has doesnt have some neural defect that cant learn music to some level. There are degrees of aptitude, and degrees of expressiveness and degrees of affinity for expression through music (as per, I imagine, other arts), but anyone can learn it. Those that say they cant in my experience, are those that get bored or frustrated because they dont sound how they want to instantly, and then the make excuses about incapability later to rationalise quitting.