Are good singing voices just genetic - or, is singing REALLY a learnable skill? Let's find out - can singing be learned, or are good singing voice just genetic?

Let me start by saying that I was an absolute AWFUL singer to begin with, so bad that I really didn't even want to sing - it was just a stopgap because we couldn't find a singer for my band in the late 90's.

I didn't even care about singing at all, I was a guitarist and wanted someone else do deal with this singing shit so I could just focus on my guitar playing.

But after a few rehearsals, I have to say I was absolutely HOOKED.

I still absolutely SUCKED.

But, hooked nonetheless. 

So I took singing lessons, over and over.

For almost TEN years.

And still sucked.

At this point you would probably expect someone to just give up and say "whelp, I just don't have what it takes to be a singer" and chalk it up to genetics or something.

Until I met someone that absolutely changed my life forever, both as a person, and as a singer too.

Old Rick.

My final vocal teacher.

...The grumpy old bugger that he was.

(I mean that in the most affectionate way possible).

Basically the first thing he said to me when I asked him for the cost of singing lessons with him was "no fucking way, piss off Kid!".

I'm not even joking, the guy simply didn't want to work with me at all.

Whether this was just some advanced form of reverse psychology, or whether it was genuine - after 12 years or so I still haven't exactly worked it out.

But someone having "the key" to great singing, and absolutely refusing to work with me one way or another, was absolutely infectious and about as INFURIATING as could be.

Until 'ol Rick explained what it would take for me to have the opportunity to work with him.

I'd spent 20 minutes bitching about the dozens of vocal teachers I'd worked with and the kind of money I'd spend on vocal training to this point.

"You want the keys to a Ferrari when you don't even know what a steering wheel is" - or something to like, is what he said to me.

In my early 20s at the time, I didn't think much of this - but now with my own successful voice teaching studio, three albums out and students all throughout the world on every continent, it rings so true that I could just kick myself.

I kept asking him for the secret to great singing... without arriving to the party and offering anything myself.

Thus is the dilemma of being a teacher or student.

He told me that if I could perfect a lip trill from G2 to G4 with no break, no cracking and no 'weird shit' as he used to say, then he would work with me.

Of course I could do a fucking lip trill, right? What was this old bugger talking about?

So, off I went try this trill from a G2 to a G4 - and I noticed all kinds of weird flips, breaks, cracks and creaks in my voice.

"Is it good enough for us to work together now??" I kept asking?

"No" he said with a grin.

This shit was truly HARD.

So I really buckled down and went through all the previous training I'd had in the 10+ years I'd been throwing money at my voice - placement, the palate, tongue position, support; the whole works.

And after a few weeks, I managed to work it out, a perfect trill from G2 to G4 with no breaks, no cracks and no "weird shit" as he used to say.

I went back to him beaming from ear to ear showing him my meagre lip trill from G2 to G4 and asking "when do we start"

And the answer was still "fuck no!"

He sent me away with another task - which I nailed.

Then another after that - which I nailed.

And another - nailed.

Until he finally said "I just can't fucking get RID of you, can I??"

And we started working together.

I have to say that these sessions absolutely changed my life.

They weren't exercises, and drills, and warmups, and scales at ALL.

They were GOALS.

They were EDUCATION.

I was shown exactly HOW, the WHY, the WHEN, the WHAT of the voice - which has allowed me many years after this training to add to my arsenal of understanding about how the voice works and how it applies in a practical sense way past those few sessions that I paid (at the time a retarded amount of money to spend on singing lessons - we're talking hundreds of dollars in the early 2000's).

Understanding "why" I need to modify my vowels has absolutely educated me on how and why I should be shifting my first formant.

Understanding the "what" of harmonics has totally changed me approach to singing with grit and drive in such an incredible and effortless way.

Understanding that there's more than one tone that the vocal folds make when you sing has absolutely changed my approach to things like forward placement and mixed voice and has really shown me that there's more to the question of "can singing be learning" or whether it's just genetics and luck.

So before you start asking whether "can singing be learned" or not, let me give you your first "What/What/When/Where" lesson of the voice with this tutorial on how formants and frequencies really work within your voice: