Beginner Singer from Australia

[ICantSing]

Hi everyone, I have been lurking around the forum over the last few days trying to figure out where to start in trying to learn how to sing well. Over the last few years I have learnt to play guitar and want to add my voice to the guitar, mainly for my own entertainment and that of my friends and family (I have no aspirations to be a performer or give up my day job ).

I am what you would call a total beginner in terms of singing technique. I wanted to know what the best program for vocal training is for a complete beginner. I tend to learn well from a structured program with specific goals. As an example with my guitar playing, I tried a few teachers, but didn't really get anywhere with it until I bought Learn & Master guitar by Steve Krenz which is a well structured course.

The style of music I want to be able to sing is general pub acoustic songs (pop, rock, folk). I have a friend who has the Singing Success program he would be willing to lend me (don't think he got that far with it). After reading some opinions on here though, it sounds like this may be a little outdated? After watching some youtube videos of the program, the marketing seems a little over the top for my taste, but I am more wondering about the quality of the course. Certainly this would be the cheapest option (free) for a full course.

I am open to suggestions, but I am wary of spending too much money in the short term. I would appreciate any advice

Thanks

[VideoHere]

there are so many great, great programs. but if you are just starting out, it might be best to get personal instruction.

personal instruction on a budget is always an issue. try your local church, the university, maybe there's a learning annex with programs on voice.

[ICantSing]

Thanks for the reply VIDEOHERE. I guess I was hoping there was a program that was taylored for beginners. I was really hoping to be able to learn in private as I did for the guitar. When you say there a lot of great programs, are any well suited for beginners and people not longing for a huge range, but just wanted to have good tone and sound good singing along to a guitar?

To clarify about budget, it's not that I don't have the money, it's more that I want to get my ducks in a row before investing time and money into a program that doesn't take me in a direction I don't want to go. Perhaps I am overthinking it? Maybe I should just try this Singing Success and see how it goes?

[rfcorange]

Ahoy fellow australian noobie! Ive tried SS also and it is one of the most incomprehensible learning systems ive ever had to endured. Dont bother with it.

I got robert lunte's Four Pillars of Singing after finding out about it in this forum. But seems a lot of people here also like Complete Vocal Technique a lot as well. Besides that, maybe get at least two or three basic singing classes first with an actual instructor.

[ICantSing]

Thanks rfcorange. How did you find your vocal teacher in Australia? (assuming you have/had one). Seems like all the great coaches people mention you can get skype lessons with are in America or Europe. Maybe i'll need to ask around the local area. I was really hoping to learn the basics with a well structured program, but everyone seems to recommend at least a few lessons at the start.

[rfcorange]

Yeah no problem!

Unfortunately the teacher I had for a year was pretty bad (I cant recommend her lol), but at least she taught me the VERY basics. I'm talking breathing using your diaphragm, a little bit of where to resonate from, and trying to relax the throat/tongue. This is all very very basic stuff, but still not basic enough for a lot of people to figure it out naturally. Most of this you can get the general idea of after about 2-3 lessons I think, and the rest you can try to pick up yourself, until you can have one of the better Skype lessons with Robert Lunte or something haha.

You can do a google search for some local teachers, anyone should be fine. But when you get past your first few lessons, you have to be careful with which teacher you have, because you may just end up like me spending the next 1+ years learning complete crap and knowing nothing about bridging/connecting/passaggio/head voice - not all the teachers know about this.

Welcome to the forum! and dont give up! i'm still struggling with a lot of stuff myself, but no one said this stuff was easy :)