How long does it take to be a good singer...

How long is the proverbial piece of string?  Many people will tell you that they "Mastered" and instrument in a few years, while others, believe the Malcolm Gladwell hypothesis that it takes 10,000 hours to fully master an instrument.  10,000 hours?  That's really YEARS!!! 

Well, it will not turn around overnight, and you will not grasp a new instrument in weeks, or even months really.  But plugging away at the new skills that you've learned and practising the technical, will eventually pay off, with persistence.  Sometimes, you really need to fight through the bad days, to keep the flow going, but those bad days will get less and less, as your skills improve.  With any instrument, you can trundle along for a long time, apparently not moving forward, then one day... BAM, you're able to do something that had once eluded you, and you've no idea why!

When learning something new, don't try to compare yourself to the masters of the craft.  You'll only annoy yourself that you're not that good yet, after all it's been 3 months!!! I can assure you, that they didn't master their craft in 3 months, and many professional musicians, will spend hours every DAY perfecting their instrument.  That's not really practical for most, who are learning as a hobby, even those who aspire to be semi or fully professional would struggle to fit in the kind of hours that the touring musician can!

Singing is a unique craft to learn.  While most other musicians have the need to learn where to place fingering, breath control, scales on an instrument, singers need to learn how to be singers at the same time... A guitar already knows how to be a guitar, but how do you know, right away, how to use your voice?  Some have a natural grasp, which usually comes from a specific learning style, but it still makes learning to sing difficult.  Why?  Because learning to sing, isn't easy!

Remember to practise regularly, and to concentrate on your technical skills during scales, but when it comes to singing a song, enjoy it.  Let your mind go, and your body will follow! 

How does smoking affect my singing?

This is a great question, I get asked frequently by singers if it's ok to smoke and sing!

Truth is, smoking is not the best for you in any way, shape or form.  There really is no way to beat about that bush, it's bad for you!  If you want to be a singer, it's just not going to help you advance your career, and may very well do just the opposite.

So what does it do?

Breathing: - First and foremost, smoking affects your breathing, and as we know, breath is the fuel for your voice.  The lungs contain little fibres, called Cilia, which help to move debris from the lungs.  When you smoke, these fibres are damaged, so they don't work, debris sits in your lungs and you have to work extra hard to cough it out, hence, smokers cough.




 

The Vocal Cords: - The vocal cords are what create the pitch, their resonance is what creates the notes as the air from your lungs passes through.  They are pale in colour and covered in a slight mucos, which helps them to vibrate.  In a healthy voice, this movement is effortless.  If you smoke, you can disrupt the blood flow in the vocal cords, and they can become inflamed, a-symmetric and dry. 

 

 

This is when you notice changes to your voice, you sound hoarse, or dry and no matter how much water you drink, it doesn't go away.  The swelling in the cords and the a-symmetry, (as seen in the diagram), mean that the cords cannot vibrate together freely, and do not come together cleanly, instead there may be airy gaps in the process, which can alter desired pitches, or may make a note sound like it has an overtone as two pitches can be created.

It's not about fear, but if you want to sing, best to drop the ciggies!

Breathe a healthy voice...

Did you know that your medication can have an effect on your voice?

Even over the counter medications can affect the way that the vocal chords work, drying them out, thinning the blood, or causing fluid retention.  All of these things will affect the way that your voice works.

Your vocal chords have a protective mucosal layer covering them, and drying them out can make speech difficult.  So it's important to make sure that you know how to look after your voice and keep it hydrated.  Well, that's easy, just drink water and be careful of diuretics like Tea and Coffee, which can dry you out!  But did you know that medication can have an effect.  Anticholinergics (or Asthma Medication to you and I), can dry out this mucosal layer, and so Asthmatic singers need to bear this in mind.  Of course, Asthma is a very serious illness, often overlooked for it's severity.  Students with Asthma should be mindful that the control of Asthma must come before singing, because singing isn't potentially life threatening.

However, the breathing exercises that we cover at our tuition for Singing in Edinburgh can help you to improve your respiratory health and therefore you're need for reliever inhalers.

*VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Medication should always be monitored by a doctor, we are not advocating self medication.