Can I teach myself to sing?

[h0rsewithn0name]

A question for any singing coaches or teachers out there.

For context, I'm pretty tone deaf, but I've often heard people say that this doesn't really exist. I definitely enjoy music, both singing and listening.

I attend church, so while I don't want to perform or to sing in front of people, I do enjoy singing along with the congregation. What I've noticed, is that when I'm surrounded by people who are singing in tune, then I can sing along reasonably in tune. But as soon as the crowd becomes smaller, or quieter then I'm totally out of tune. I mean really out of tune. I also can't sing in tune to a piano, flute or to recorded music.

So is it possible to teach myself to hit the right notes? Are there any online tutorials that could help?

Sounds exactly like me. I would love to be able to sing. Like you when I'm in church in a big crowd I think I am okay(ish) but I want to be able to belt it out like everyone else

Glad I'm not the only one @LennyBalls 😂

Place marking. I can't even sing along when there's a big group, I still stand out with people looking at me with surprise and horror at how bad it is 🙁

Would absolutely love to be able to just not embarass myself!

Why did this title make me think of Coca-Cola?

If you enjoy listening to music and you're OK at singing fairly accurately in a crowd, you're not tone deaf and you probably just haven't found and developed the muscles that move the pitch of your voice accurately. So, yes - you could absolutely learn, but I would get some face to face lessons with a properly trained singing teacher to help you through it without injuring yourself. Online tutorials just aren't going to give you the right feedback. Singing teachers/ vocal tutors do this all the time. Alternatively you could find a community (no audition) choir run by someone who knows what they're doing, and you'd probably get a bit of vocal training that way.

The pitching really is a muscle memory kind of thing. Imagine if someone asked you to walk at a pace of 72bpm with a stride of a certain length, for a certain period of time, and you had no access to measurements/ clock/ metronome. It would be really hard. However - if you were asked to march in time with a group of people going at a certain pace, with a certain stride length, you'd probably be able to do it. If you carried on joining in with this group, eventually you'd be able to recreate it by yourself. Apply same to your vocal muscles.

That's really interesting @silversmith , thank you for that. So perhaps all isn't lost after all.

Need to think of next steps then. I'd love to have the confidence to sing properly.