Voice lessons are not cheap. A skilled voice teacher is a highly educated individual, with training often equaling the amount of time it takes to go to medical school.
Voice lessons are a great investment, whether you are doing it for your career or for your joy, self-care, hobby. Here are a few ways you can save on your voice lessons, maximize your investment and make the most of the time with your voice teacher.
1. Maximize APPS for your musical training
Becoming a singer means becoming a musician, or in other words learning the language of music. One of these days I'll do an app review of the predatory "learn to sing" apps that require the user to subscribe and promise that you'll end up singing great. Steer clear from them. There are so many variables involved in vocal production that can't be addressed through an app. There are however apps that are tremendously helpful in becoming a musician that do not need the supervision of a voice teacher. These will end up saving you a lot of money. Train your hearing
It is my experience that singing well is directly related to hearing well. Not everyone hears well. This is something you can train on your own time. I recommend using a cheap or free app like Perfect Ear or Earpeggio, to train recognizing intervals. The more familiar you are with intervals the better your pitch will become. Train your music reading skills
Reading notes is just part of being a musician. Apps like Perfect Ear and Earpeggio are great to learn to read rhythm and music. Consider that a full subscription to Perfect Ear is only about $6.00 if you get the upgrade, and it contains basically the entire library of musical knowledge. Sight Singing
Currently I only know of the Ella app that is really worth your time. It helps you learn to sight read and check your pitch. Most of the apps where you can check your pitch are just nonsense, and so it is with this one, but for what you are using it for, it works fine.
2. PREPARE your assigned songs
These are the building blocks of a song: 1. Breath
2. Rhythm
3. Melody
4. Lyrics
Can a voice teacher help you learn all of the above? Yes of course. That is however a skill that should be in your arsenal as a singer. If you can bring your music learned and memorized, you can access your voice teacher's knowledge in how to master the technical and musical challenges. I promise they are just dying to teach you the nuances of how to shape a phrase with your breath, how to give the words weight, use your voice to convey emotion, etc. There is an app that can help you learn the music. Unless it is contemporary music, most songs are found on APPCOMPANIST. Not only does it contain the accompaniment to the music, but it also allows you to hear just your vocal solo line. While there are many benefits to this app that I won't go into right here, the ability to hear the vocal line is the one I want to highlight. I was a pianist before I was a singer, so I could easily learn my vocal lines. If you don't have that skill, this one makes it so you can learn your vocal line and even practice it at different speeds until you've mastered it completely. A full subscription costs $150 a year and is well worth it for professionals, but for students they have a $3.99 pick six option, that allows you to pick six songs to learn at a time. In addition to that steal of a deal all of the vocal exercises are free.
3. Practice
This should go without saying, but I'll say it again anyway. If you don't practice, you are not maximizing your investment. Spend 5 minutes on the musicianship apps above to better your hearing and musicianship. Then practice your vocal warm ups daily 5-10 min if you are a beginner, and longer if you are more advanced. Sing your song. Take it apart. Practice the parts that are hard. Sing it all the way through. Memorize the lyrics. Singing the song twice on the way to your voice lesson in the car is not considered practicing. I highly recommend the book Atomic Habits to help create the habit of practicing. 3. Use
4. Be on time
Should I even list this? Aside from not practicing this is probably the biggest money waster I see in voice lessons. Account for traffic, check the weather map. I can't tell you how many times I have students come late and miss out on their time, because they didn't and came late.
5. Youtube
When I was a student listening to new music meant a 45 min drive with bus and tram to the center of Zurich where I would go borrow CD's at the local music stores Jecklin and Hug. Nowadays you can access all this music on your phone. It is so fantastic. Listen to singers. Watch them. Take note.
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