Give the gift of music this year. Get your holiday gift cards here.
Online singing lessons are a great way to learn how to sing the music you love.
Or to perfect your singing. Or even prepare for an upcoming audition or performance.
When we think of taking a singing lesson, we may envision walking into a room, and meeting your voice teacher at the piano.
But taking a voice lesson from home online may seem strange to some.
You may wonder if the quality of your singing lessons will diminish if they are done online instead of in person. Will you get the same results? Will you develop the same relationship with your voice teachers? Are they hard to do?
The good news is that online voice lessons are just as effective as in-person lessons. In fact, they can be even more useful if done the right way.
Here’s how!
Taking online singing lessons gives you a chance to study music and improve your voice without having to leave your home.
Some students prefer feeling comfortable at home. And online lessons are very secure, and very private.
You’ll save the time and money on your commute to and from your singing lesson. That will give you more time to focus on your practicing. You’ll also have more time to get other things done as well!
Another way our voice students benefit from online is their warm-ups. Some of our in person students tell us they do their warmups as they are driving their car to our school. (We are worried they are distracted!)
With online lessons, instead of spending time on the commute, singers can do their warmups before their lesson starts. More on that below.
This way, your teacher can do less vocalizing you and warming you up. And spend more time on the music you want to learn!
Learning from home is obviously very convenient. But can it really give us the same quality experience as going to see our voice teachers in person?
Admittedly, learning from home might lack in important part of in person lessons…
…a focused learning environment.
A focused environment for any activity is crucial to your success. It’s why we go to the gym to exercise, or to the library to read. Sure, we can exercise and read at home, but the gym and library provide a focused environment that helps us to have greater success with those activities.
If you are taking singing lessons from home, you’ll need to make sure you have a focused and dedicated environment in your home for your online singing lessons.
It can be anywhere at home: a whole office or study if you have the extra room, or even just a corner of your bedroom.
This is easy to do!
All that matters is that the space is clean, distraction-free, and everything you need for your lessons––meaning your equipment, like your music stand, and the laptop, smartphone, or tablet you’ll use for your lessons––is easily accessible and within reach.
By providing yourself a focused environment for your online singing lessons, you’ll be setting yourself up to give the music you are learning and singing, and your vocal instructor your undivided attention.
Learn how to set up for your online singing lessons here.
Research has shown that learning information in the same place that you apply it increases your ability to retain that information. (You can read the synopsis of a study performed at Iowa State University on the effectiveness of studying and testing – or learning and applying knowledge – in a similar environment..)
When you take lessons in the same place that you practice, it helps your brain recall the information from the lesson.
It also give your teacher the chance to help you set up your practice space. This is something that can’t be done well with in person lessons.
When you’ve created a focused and dedicated environment for your online singing lessons, then you’ve also created a focused space for practice between your lessons.
You’ll reap the benefits of having a focused learning experience, and a focused place to recall what you’ve learned.
It’s also easy to preserve the quality of your learning by making sure that you can see and hear your voice teacher clearly. And (perhaps more importantly) that you can be seen and heard clearly by your voice teacher.
Do this by taking your voice lessons with:
It’s recommended that you use a laptop, desktop, or any electronic device with a large screen.
Why? Because this ensures that you are able to see as much of your teacher as possible.
It’s also important that your voice teacher can assess your posture and give you valuable feedback about how to produce the best sound with your voice.
So you’ll want to stand far enough away from your camera that your teacher can see you posture. Now imagine standing far away from a small screen! That’s why larger screens are better.
If you are using a smaller device, just be sure to attach it to a tripod of some kind. Then, you can adjust the height of your camera to an optimum position. You can also move the camera further back so that your voice teacher can see you well.
You’ll also want to consider the right microphone, internet connection and room setup. For full details, learn how to setup for your voice lesson.
WIth these things in place, nothing will stop you from having a successful singing lesson with the right teacher for you, from anywhere in the world!
When you take singing lessons in person, you’re not often able to properly warm up beforehand since you’re too preoccupied commuting. You can spend up to 15 minutes warming up with your voice teacher once you arrive.
Warm-ups are absolutely essential to vocal instruction.
If you are a beginner, or if your voice teacher is teaching you a new technique, you should absolutely always take the time to warm up with your teacher no matter what.
That way, you can be sure that you are doing the warm up using good habits. And you can be sure to get the most out of the warm up, as warm ups teach you the technique you will use while you sing your repertoire.
But let’s say you are completely comfortable with the warm up exercises. You and your vocal instructor are sure that you know how to do them using the best habits.
With an online singing lesson, you can go through your warmup on your own before your lesson starts. You’ll be prepared to jump into singing at the start of your lesson. And you’ll have more time to work on your songs with your voice teacher during your lesson.
With in-person singing lessons, your voice teacher will likely never see you in your natural practicing habitat, so to speak. They won’t be able to offer any specific advice to help you have better practice sessions at home.
In an online voice lesson, however, your teacher has the unique opportunity to observe you in your practice environment.
If you’ve found a teacher who you’d like to learn to sing with online, hopefully, you’ve also found a teacher who cares about giving you an amazing lesson experience.
A great voice teacher won’t let anything stop them from helping you get the most out of your time together. And also your time apart. That is, your practice between your lessons!
If your voice teacher is knowledgeable, and professional, they will be sure to offer their feedback on how you can have the best learning experience. In all the ways.
During in person lessons, it’s common for students to feel how a voice teachers body moves while singing. This is something that you can’t do in an online lesson.
But a great teacher can help you solve those problems on your own. In fact, that’s a better way to learn. And that’s the goal of our music learning course, the Sage Student. It will turbocharge your practice. And it’s a level of instruction you won’t get anywhere else.
As we’ve previously mentioned, deciding to take your singing lessons online gives you access to teachers all over the world.
That can make it hard to find the right teacher for you. But not if you know where to find the best teachers!
Sage Music is the place to find knowledgeable, professional, and helpful voice teachers who are all about helping you reach your personal singing goals and learn to sing in the best way.
Staff