How to Become a Singer | Measuring Your Progress Week by Week

Learning how to become a singer — whether you dream of selling out large arenas or simply want to feel more confident at karaoke night — takes time and patience. If you’re wondering how long exactly, read on as Orange, CA teacher Adri-Anne R. shares her insights…

When students start voice lessons, they will often ask me, “How long will I have to take lessons before I start to get better?”

I have to ask them, “How often and how long are you willing to practice?” In my experience, some techniques will make an immediate difference in a student’s voice, but most often, it requires weeks of consistent practicing — and I mean five to six days a week for between 20-60 minutes a day (depending on what your voice teacher has assigned you) — for students to start feeling and hearing significant changes in their voices.

Based on my experience, a beginning student at my studio who practices consistently can expect something along these lines:

One Week

After one week of consistent practice, you should start to notice that your voice does what you want it to do more fluidly. You should notice that your tone is a bit more even, that your pitch is better (if you didn’t have major pitch issues to start with), and singing in general feels more smooth. This is a big part of the process of learning how to become a singer.

Two Weeks

After two weeks, you should feel like your range is expanding a bit. Notes that you felt were too high or low for you, or just on the brink of being too high, should start to come out more easily. Your voice should feel stronger, and your tone should be improving in the “out-of-the-comfort-zone” ranges of your voice.

Four Weeks

After four weeks, try a song that you previously felt was too hard for you, or that you felt you didn’t sound very good singing. You may not sound as good as the recording yet, but you should be noticing that some notes that used to feel difficult feel quite easy!