Can people be taught how to sing?

[Bundlebuns]

In Sept my last DC will start preschool, which will give me a little free time during the week. I've always wanted to be able to sing, and am considering having some singing lessons. I'm not good, I cannot hold a tune unless it is very basic. I simply want be able to sing along to the radio etc without sounding terrible - I know I'll never be a professional singer or anything! The question is... do singing lessons only help when there is some innate ability, or can "bad" singers be trained to sound half-decent? I'd rather know now if singing lessons would be a waste of money.

You can absolutely learn to be better. You’ll probably never be Beyoncé but the vocal cords are a muscle like any other and they can be trained!

Definitely. The first important thing is to find your real pitch - loads of women think they can’t sing because they can't sing high...
Good luck!

I have a terrible singing voice and would love to improve it to just below mediocre (the best I could possibly hope for) but I would be mortified at a stranger hearing my warbling 🤭.

You can hold a basic tune, therefore you can learn to sing better than you can.

A singing teacher will be able to help you improve your voice, but as to whether the lessons are a waste of money or not, is down to how much you enjoy having them. Music lessons should be fun, and you should enjoy exploring new songs so finding a teacher that suits you, that you like and can enjoy leaning with is the most important thing. Learning as an adult is very different to learning as a child. You are doing it for you.

I love my adult students, they range from the serious want a grade 8+ to the want to play a couple of pop songs and escape the OH for half an hour.

I'm a terrible singer, but in the 18 months since my DD was born, I've noticed a clear improvement through nothing other than practice singing nursery rhymes. Don't get me wrong - I'm still a bad singer, just less bad than I was!

So if it's possible to improve just with practice, you should definitely be able to make some strides by having some training.

Yes, give it a go!

My family are good singers but wince in horror should I attempt to sing. Apparently I keep changing key, whatever that means. After a funeral one said quite kindly that my singing sounded like the keening of a small animal, at least i didn't get shushed!
I have just joined in a pub singsong with `Greensleeves’ and ‘Scarborough Fair”. It was led by the conductor of a local choir and I loved it!

Go for it OP! Sing along to anything and everything - practice makes perfect after all 😉

When I first met DSD she couldn't hold a tune in a bucket (as the saying goes) and she was really down on herself about it.

I love to sing (even though I'm mediocre at best) and I encouraged her to join in. Eight years later she's a better singer than I'll ever be and it's lovely to see the joy it brings her 😊

Wow, such an encouraging and positive response! Right now I'm embarrassed singing hymns in assembly and church as I'm so self-conscious of what the people next to me must think. I really feel singing lessons are worth a go then if there's scope for improvement. I'd love to be able sing along freely.

There was a really interesting podcast about this with Malcolm Gladwell. It was about whether anyone could become a pro at somehing if they just practised enough or whether some skills Couldn’t be learned. A woman who could not sing at all learned to sing like Christina Aguleira (after lots of practice obvs). It was amazing!