Anyone had singing lessons?

PermanentWaves

After years of sitting in the background just playing guitar, I find I'm singing most of the songs in my new band.

None of us are singers. We can make passable noise and sometimes not even that!

I've listen to myself recorded and at sometimes I'm ok but not brilliant.

So, I'm wondering if getting some singing lessons would help.

Anyone here tried singing lessons? Did it help? Did you learn trick. techniques that really did make a difference?

Cheers
Mike

Danny1969

Yeah I had a couple from a really good teacher, He taught me the usual things and exercises but also taught me subtle ways to change the way  certain songs were sung to make them easier and where to find places to get a breath. One of the best things we covered was interval training where your taught to recognize the interval, major third for example and land on it from a root starting point rather than sliding you voice up or down to it. As a musician I could recognize the intervals anything but the ability to land straight on a note is quite hard and that's what makes real singers so good. They hit notes bang on with their voice like we fret a note

I took lessons mainly because I wanted to improve my backing vox and it certainly did that. I sing lead on a few songs but even with lessons I'm far from great. I was completely terrible before though so lessons are highly recommended 

Teetonetal

Yup, I took lessons, only for a few weeks and I presented a specific plan to the teacher.

I wanted 

• some warm-ups to help my voice 
  
• advice on getting a live setup to keep me in tune (wireless in-ear monitor was the answer)
  
• some exercises to help my pitching
• some exercises for breath control

now I have a small practice routine that I do before every gig and practice, the biggest difference it made is that my voice stays in better condition and long notes are supported better and stay in tune. I mainly sing backup and the occasional dual vocal, but also record my own stuff so it was a good thing to do.

digitalscream

I know @monquixote and @Drew_fx have recently...

monquixote

Indeed I did. 

I even wrote a couple of articles about it

http://thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/23413/i-wrote-a-thing-about-singing-new-part-3#latest

TLDR: I really enjoyed doing them and it's improved my singing a great deal. The single biggest thing probably being confidence as I now think of myself as a singer.

Drew_TNBD

Yeah I take one every few weeks. Have been doing so since Feb. It can take years for it to all properly sink in, so I'm told. Some people get it instantly, others take a long time like me. But I have noticed improvements.

PermanentWaves

Thanks everyone. Great advice as always.

I think I'll take the plunge.

ThePrettyDamned

Think I might, too.  

Considered it for a long time, but I can't quite seem to psyche myself up enough to do it...

monquixote

ThePrettyDamned said:

Think I might, too.  

Considered it for a long time, but I can't quite seem to psyche myself up enough to do it...

Doooo Iiiiiit 

bigjon

I had a few weeks of singing lessons when I started working full-time as director of music at a church, but I had spent a while already reading and practising from the book 'How to sing' by Graham Hewitt. I didn't reckon the lessons were adding anything significant to what I was gaining from the book, so I canned them.

bigjon

I've arrogantly started a blog thread at http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/29428/bigjon-s-top-tips-for-singing to share my wisdom on singing.