AIBU to ask how I can learn to sing?

[loveyouradvice]

I love singing - but people don't love listening to me - YET!

Told as a child of 11 just to mouth the words because I was putting people off, I then took glorious singing lessons several years ago and did learn. Sadly my teacher - who specialised in the "not good enough" voice, with great exercises and confidence boosting - moved to Brighton.

Life got busy - and now I am keen to learn again and I've joined a weekly singing group. My ambitions are modest - just to sing happily at home or with friends and know that I am singing in tune. Alongside my weekly singing group I would like to practise at home, and ideally find another singing teacher.

So two questions:

• What can I find online that provides really great and fun exercises for someone like me?
• Any other advice?

Can people teach singing over Skype?

If you can sing in tune and have a musical ear then you've something to work on.
You need to be able to sing in tune though

You could be me! I love singing, but no one else loves me singing. I've often considered whether singing lessons might help - just to make it less painful for others!

Or would I be a lost cause?

Ooh, watching with interest.

I can sing in tune, but I'd love to be able to use my voice 'better' if that makes sense. I play an instrument to a high standard, so have all the basics but would love to access proper voice training.

Maybe ask in the music section? There's lots of musicians hang about there.

No such thing as a lost cause! Any singing teacher worth their salt can offer a degree of improvement for even the most untrained or tone deaf singer (but I'm sure you are not tone deaf!!)

However, more often than not, it's a confidence issue and again, a good teacher will help you to build up your confidence as well as your ability.

Make sure you find a teacher you feel comfortable with. Go on personal recommendations. Perhaps your choir leader might know someone or someone else in the choir.

Skype isn't an ideal medium, you need someone who can really see what you are doing physically to avoid overworking or damaging the voice especially as a beginner and whilst you are learning your craft!

All the best and if you're in the Dorset area I can recommend a good number of fantastic singing teachers. Singing is one of the best hobbies out there, great for confidence, making friends and stress relief!

I'm tone deaf, my singing sounds beautiful to me but awful to everyone else. My brother is an amazing singer and has sung with some of the best choirs in the country. He told me I'm a lost cause and to not bother trying to improve because there is nothing to improve. I took his word for it but don't know if it's true or if it just depends on how shit you are to start with?

To be honest, once you've got the basics, most of it is just keeping up with practice and making sure you keep the muscles exercised.

It's always useful to have a vocal coach though as they can teach proper technique which is really important for keeping your voice healthy as well as making it sound the best it can. As a PP said, there are a lot of vocal coaches who work via Skype now or video clips.

There's some good vocal warm ups on YouTube that if you do at least once a day you should find you slowly improve and it will keep the voice utilised.

Good luck

happy are there any tutorials on YouTube or something similar that you'd recommend or is one to one tuition the only way iyo?

I'm about to go back to work after mat leave, with 2 small children, so I've very little in the way of free time.

@Houseonahill there's no such thing as a lost cause. There's levels I suppose in the sense that, if someone is struggling to sing in tune, they're never going to sound like Christina Aguilera no matter how much training they have but they will be able to improve.

Any decent vocal coach should be able to help someone with their musicality. Understanding and keeping pitch etc so that someone can be taught to hold a tune.

No one is beyond help, just realistic expectations. Also, your brother might just be a bit full of himself and putting you down because he thinks he's better than you, I'm sure you're better than he's making out!!

Great to hear from all of you and I am going to browse Youtube. Sadly not in Dorset so will be looking for great teachers local to me

Hoping someone might know either a great person to follow on Youtube or any other app that is great for beginner's voices - and fun!

And yes I believe we can all learn to sing - so many other cultures it's just assumed to be natural like learning to walk.

Thanks for all the encouragement and to those like me - in 2019, we will get there - and have fun doing so!

www.tutorful.co.uk lots of online singing teachers there, they have reviews also.