Any singing teachers?

[grasshoppergreen]

DS is 12, and has been given a big part in a school production, mostly off the back of his acting ability - but as it’s a musical, he needs to sing a couple of solos. He’s never had any voice training, and is struggling to get his pitch consistent, plus there a few notes just beyond (below) his range. He’s getting limited help from the teacher. He’s got around 7 weeks to go - is it worth setting up a few singing lessons to work on breathing etc? Or working through some vocal coaching YouTube videos? Not sure how frequently he should be doing this if so, and whether it will make any difference in the time. TIA!

If your schedule and finances allow, it would be a very good idea to arrange a few singing lessons. Make sure you are absolutely clear with the teacher about what your DS needs to achieve in the timescale. Don't rely on YouTube!

It does sound like some private singing lessons in preparation for the production would be a good idea. Rather than working on general singing technique, I'd suggest focusing only on the songs your DS has to sing for the production and making sure he can sing those well enough. If you don't already know of any singing teachers, I'd suggest trying to book some ad hoc lessons with a singing teacher at a local performing arts school. Don't try to DIY from youtube videos as that's a recipe for learning bad vocal habits.

With respect to the notes just below his range, it sounds like he'd benefit from singing the song in a slightly higher key. A good singing teacher will be able to work out what key would work best with your DS's voice, and transpose the music accordingly. Will he be singing to a backing track for the performance or to a live accompaniment (e.g. piano)? If it's to a live accompaniment, a lot of online sheet music stores allow you to download song music transposed into another key, so it might be possible to provide the school with sheet music in the "correct" key for your DS's voice.

Dh is a vocal coach but its impossible to say what your ds should be working on without a teacher hearing and seeing what he is doing. It might be that the song is too low for him, or it might mean he just needs to ease off the breath pressure a bit for example.

Thanks all, it’s really encouraging that you all think it would still be worthwhile to get some lessons - good idea to just concentrate on the songs he needs to sing. Have started googling options!

Will look into the possibilities of transposing once we see if the song is just too low. It seems to me to be just within his reach, but I don’t really know!