Why Voice Lessons Aren’t Working (For You)

You’ve taken a few lessons. Maybe you’ve even taken months of singing lessons. But you’re not seeing any big changes. You’ve tried the free lessons on YouTube or the one-off tip here and there from watching The Voice or American Idol. How come it’s not really working for you? You’re wondering, am I just not meant to sing well? 

Well, it could be the way that your teacher is communicating.

Maybe you’ve only heard a principle taught one way. Like you’ve heard one trick to producing a certain sound and you think that’s the key. Only problem is that key doesn’t unlock anything for you.

You need more thorough communication and possibly more examples. Perhaps your teacher doesn't have multiple analogies for something, the semantics don't line up. You need clarity and you need lots of examples and lots of angles to reach the same result. So you want someone who can communicate in a way that you will understand.

Another problem could be that you're not asking enough questions. You can ask, ask, ask and your teacher should be able to modify and course correct and help you understand the semantics between the two of you and not rest until it makes sense to you. However, it’s a two way street. If you are not asking questions, then how is your coach supposed to know that you're not aware?

Another thing that you might not be getting is a true anatomical breakdown of the voice in a way that matters. Something I see a lot in voice coaches is a misunderstanding or lack of mention entirely of anatomy. Maybe your teacher didn't or doesn’t understand the anatomy themselves and therefore doesn't know how to teach you and this is very, very common. I call it flying blind coaching. Flying blind is a very real thing in the vocal world, and it can be downright scary. If you're not understanding the anatomy, you don't know how to manipulate it. And you could very well be damaging your instrument. We want to be able to visualize what we can't see, so that we can start to change and use it to its maximum potential.

The other thing that could be leading to you not getting results from your singing lessons is everything in your learning has been very vague and ambiguous and sensation based. It’s been about how things feel or vocal colors or how things even sound can be misleading. Teachers who teach this way are always just asking you to sing and then trying new tweaks and hoping you understand what their words mean. We’ve all heard this: sing brighter, sing less pressed, sing more pressed, sing darker, sing the color red. “Go ahead and sing this for me and then let's talk about it” as opposed to a teacher asking for specific demonstrations of physical concepts like use your vocal folds to produce a pitch then target these resonators and intensify the vibrations with these muscles and move your tongue this shape. Everything your coach says should be explainable by science. If something is working or not working for my students, they are very used to me saying “Let’s talk about the science behind that.” It’s very important for me to make sure my students know why they are getting the sound they are getting, so they can reproduce it or avoid it at will. 

This is one of the reasons why people think they can only ever be taught one on one. Because they think that the coach has to hear them in order to tweak them and work them like clay into the right magical sound. And the truth is that we all have such similar equipment, that there's a very clear cut formula for success. There are a set number of exercises and things that will actually change your instrument. And get you to sounding not only the way that you desire but that is also healthy. So if you think that your issue is you need to be listened to, it's probably because you've been working with people who have to hear things in order to help you. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be heard. It’s just often times a lot more about your comfort level than it is about your actual success. Most people can really benefit from tested, understandable, universal things that help everyone and getting you to a place where you understand your instrument so much that you don't need to just throw out how you sound that particular day. 

A voice coach’s goal should be that you can assess your own problems and pivot as you sing. That's one of the most beautiful things about what I've seen in my lessons is because I'm empowering my students so much with the knowledge of their bodies. They start to be able to almost self teach and they're able to in the moment make a lot of course correction. They know when they're not sealing and then they have a proven set of exercises to get them sealing or they know when they're not strengthening and so they work on strengthening they know how to practice and they know when they're doing the right thing, as opposed to hoping and throwing something at the wall and then hoping in our next session that I'm happy with it. 

Which leads me to another reason you might not be getting results… I remember from when I was taking sessions, I would practice a certain way and then I would hope that my teacher was happy with it… as opposed to hoping that I'm happy with it. And so I think sometimes people aren't getting good results from their singing lessons because they're trying to please their teachers. And in the session, they do everything right and their teachers are praising them but then they go home and they don't know how to translate anything that they learned in their session to like their actual singing and singing for their art. They don't enjoy their own voice. But they sure know how to do what their coach wants. Comment and like if I’m hitting home, I have seen this so much. So when you are empowered to understand your own anatomy when you are clear on what you're not doing correctly, physically, you know how to course correct and so you become such a better advocate of your own growth. Way beyond a simple private session. And so empowerment is huge, and you may not be getting that.

Another reason you’re not getting good results with singing lessons is that you’re not practicing correctly. Are you practicing in your car? Are practicing without a mirror? Are you practicing in short spurts between doing other things? Are you relaxing in a chair or couch but practicing for an event where you’ll be standing? Are you practicing without recording yourself? Are you practicing without a guided routine? I’ve even had clients (more than one) tell me they’re practicing in the shower. So practicing incorrectly is a huge one. If you're not seeing results from your singing lessons, your teacher could be doing all the right things for that hour or half hour you’re with them, but you aren't reinforcing any of those concepts in your body. Remember, muscles have memory. How you practice will be how you show up to sing.

And so if you don't have someone keeping you accountable or some kind of very clear routine, you're probably just kind of treading water at that point. And so you show up to your lesson. And you are basically at the same exact spot that you were at the week before. So when people are not seeing success in voice lessons, at least with me, it's usually because they're not actually 1.) understanding what we're talking about and not asking questions, or 2.) they aren't implementing what we're talking about in their personal practice time. 

Another reason you might not be seeing results is you don’t have a realistic practice routine. So you may have been handed all of these targeted exercises that are really good for you. But if you are too overwhelmed by the sheer number of them, then you're not going to do any of it. So the best thing you can do is make 3 practice routines. Take all your goals and the exercises related tgo each goal and go okay, what’s a short, medium, and long practice routine that is realistic for me. If I have 10 minutes, here’s the list of exercises I should do as it relates to my goal. And maybe you cycle different goals on different days. If I have 20 minutes, I’ll add these in. If I have 30 or more, I’ll do all these. But every day you should be doing something. There should never be more than 2 days in a row that you completely skip. Just like the gym like you if you really actually want to build a body. You're going to be working out every day, you're not going to have days where you just don't work out at all. For my students, I ask five days a week as opposed to every day. Because I want it to be realistic. When I was practicing my hardest, in high school and college, I was putting in over an hour a day. But by no means do you need to do that if you’re doing the right things often enough. 

The next reason you may not be seeing results in your lessons is that you’re not practicing the things you’re actually struggling with, you’re practicing the things you know how to practice. We’re all good at certain exercises and not great at others. It’s tempting to spend time doing the things that we enjoy doing, or that we feel like we can execute well and leave the difficult or less enjoyable things for the sessions with a coach. Realize there's a hierarchy of needs when it comes to the voice and if you are catering to things that are not on the right priority level you could be seeing very little progress in your voice lessons. 

Another reason you’re not seeing results is if you don't believe in yourself. If you don't believe in yourself, then you're not going to see a result. So you could say yes I believe in my teacher. I believe that singing can be learned. But I okay I'm going to sign up for singing lessons and I'm going to hope that it's done for me. Your teacher is not going to do the practice for you. But they should walk with you step by step and help fill all the gaps. But if you don't believe in your power to implement and your actual ability to grow, then you're not going to grow. So lack of belief in yourself is a huge one.

Another reason you’re not seeing results is that you’re taking lessons from someone who has very little proven effective results from their students. So what I would do if I was looking for a vocal coach, I would look for someone who has gotten other people results. So you want to look around and say, Does this person have testimonials, does this person have references? It often doesn’t have to do with having a degree or any type of formal schooling. By the way, do you like the way  your coach sounds? It’s like that quote: those who cannot do, teach? Well, with singing it has to be both. Like you have to enjoy the person's sound and hear the versatility in their voice if they're the type of teacher who can only do one thing there are kind of a one trick pony, that is not what you want.

So I just shared with you several reasons why you could be lacking results, your homework is to target which one of these is yours, and there probably are more than one. That's exactly my heartbeat. My heartbeat is to serve people who have not had good experiences with singing lessons in the past and therefore don't really believe in singing lessons. Because in doing so, it’s like I’m talking to a former me. Let’s break through that barrier together. If you enjoyed this, please like and subscribe so I can share it with more people! And comment or message me to chat about how I could help you on your singing journey.

-Dianne from VoiceBuilders