Question 1

What do I need to do in preparation for the lesson?

Accepted Answer

No preparation is required, though you are advised to test your camera and audio setup in advance, and if you booked a CVT vocal coaching session rather than singing tuition, you are advised to prepare a song to work on.

You will also need to configure the Zoom audio settings to be suitable for voice lessons / vocal coaching. With the default settings, Zoom has an unfortunate tendency to mangle the audio quite badly. To learn how to set up the Zoom audio settings, visit this page: https://www.voicestudioeast.com/zoom-audio-settings

Question 2

Do you have any special discounts for music students?

Accepted Answer

I'll do you one better! I offer not merely a discount but a free voice lesson to anyone enrolled at a music school, and to anyone who has graduated from a music school. To learn more, simply head to this page: https://www.voicestudioeast.com/music-student

Question 3

I have been told I am not talented. Can I still learn to sing?

Accepted Answer

Yes! Absent a few rare conditions such as bilateral vocal fold paralysis, anyone can learn to sing. Singing does not require any special anatomy, and intonation (pitch), timbre (tone), and rhythm can all be improved with training to the point of outright transformation. While psychometric research has shown that people do differ in overall levels of talent, singing is an area where this manifests as different rates of progress when learning, rather than as different absolute limitations.

Question 4

Can you help tone-deaf singers?

Accepted Answer

It is important to distinguish between being unable to sing in tune and having genuine tone-deafness in the sense of the medical condition called amusia. Singing is in many ways analogous to playing a bowed string instrument like the violin, and just as beginners are unable to play violin in tune, nobody is born with the ability to sing in tune. Apparent exceptions are merely those who learned it during childhood.

There is also such a condition as genuine amusia, for which there is no known cure, but as this consists of the inability to discriminate pitch at all, people with this condition are generally not very able to appreciate music. If you are interested in learning singing at all, you are exceedingly unlikely to have true tone-deafness.

Question 5

Do I need to learn vocal science to sing?

Accepted Answer

No. All skilled singers must have some sense of what they are doing, but such knowledge can consist of a web of metaphors or kinesthetic sensations. What is important is to have an "internal map" of what you can do with your voice; it is not important whether this map is formulated in terms of acoustical and vocal science or whether it is formulated in terms of intuitive colloquialisms. Where vocal science is most useful is in clearing up confusing aspects of vocal technique and revealing a wider range of possibilities in singing.

Question 6

Can I learn to sing like my favourite singer?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Tone, range, etc., are more determined by vocal tract shaping than the anatomy of the larynx, and the vocal tract can be shortened or lengthened by moving the larynx, not to mention narrowed or expanded at virtually any point along its length. Vocal fold length and thickness may however constrain the fullness and power you can achieve in the low range, so while a high soprano can learn to sing in the low bass range, she will probably never be able to do so with the same richness as that of a natural low bass.

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