What is the Best Age to Start Singing Lessons?

One of the most common questions I receive is: “What is the best age to start singing lessons?” The answer isn’t as straightforward as one might think, as it depends on various factors including physical development, emotional maturity, and individual goals.

Ultimately, as with any skill, it is always easiest to acquire it earlier in life. This is down to brain and body plasticity, but also down to having more time and energy to devote to new skills. Nevertheless, here’s a broad-brush view of what I generally do with people at different ages in sessions:

Early Childhood (Ages 5–9)

Children in this age group are highly receptive to musical concepts. At this stage, lessons focus on:

• Developing a love for music and singing
• Basic pitch recognition and rhythm
• Lay down basic vocal technicality
• Fun and engaging musical activities

It’s essential to ensure that the child is interested and enjoys the process. Forcing lessons at this stage can lead to resistance and burnout.

Pre-Adolescence (Ages 10–12)

As children grow, their ability to focus and understand abstract concepts improves. This is an excellent time to introduce more structured lessons that include:

• Introduction to vocal techniques
• Understanding vocal registers
• Developing musicality and expression

It’s also a period where children can start to explore different musical styles and genres to find what resonates with them.

Adolescence (Ages 13–18)

During adolescence, the body undergoes significant changes, including the voice. It’s crucial to adapt lessons to accommodate:

• Voice changes due to puberty
• Building vocal strength and stamina
• Performance skills and stage presence

Proper guidance during this period ensures that the voice develops healthily and sustainably.

Adulthood (Ages 18+)

Again, it’s never too late to start singing lessons. Adults bring a wealth of life experience and emotional depth to their singing. Lessons for adults often focus on:

• Developing extended range with the final post-puberty voice
• Expanding vocal flexibility
• Interpretation and emotional expression
• Preparing for performances or personal enjoyment

With dedication and practice, adults can achieve significant progress and fulfillment in their singing journey.

As we get older, other things become important too, and this is covered in my article “The Journey of the Voice: What happens in each decade”.

Conclusion

In summary, the best age to start singing lessons varies for each individual. The key is to ensure that the lessons are tailored to the student’s age, development, and personal goals. Whatever age you are, with the right approach and mindset, anyone can embark on a rewarding singing journey.

Learn More: Related Articles

• The Perks Of Being An Older Singer
• Four Facts About Singing As You Get Older
• The Journey of a Voice: What Happens In Each Decade

There are many things that most inexperienced singers don’t grasp. As I was falling asleep a few nights ago, my mind was going over this particular topic. Over the years, I’ve heard a lot of comments from students who are learning to sing, others who can already sing, and still further comments from singers who are out there performing regularly.

“Oh I don’t struggle with stamina, I mean my voice is often tired about 10 minutes into singing, but that’s fairly normal”

“I gave up on that song. I tried to sing it once and it sounded bad.”

“I can’t hit the note in practice, but I definitely hit it while at the [loud] gig”

“I’ve got about 100 songs I do exceptionally well”

If you’ve found yourself ever thinking any of the above is normal, please do read on. Real pros grasp why these things aren’t true. The sooner you can grasp the reasons why, the sooner you can leverage the parameters of good singing to your advantage, (for very little work!).

1. Practice makes permanent, not perfect

People often say “practice makes perfect”. But that is not true. PERFECT practice makes perfect, but most of us don’t practice perfectly. What practice of any quality does, is train the body to do something in that way. Practice makes whatever we are doing permanent, for better or for worse.

Some singers practice too little, thereby not leveraging the power of practice to make things permanent. Some practice imperfectly too much, thereby ingraining bad habits deeply and making them hard to remove. Continue reading “Six Things Most Inexperienced Singers Don’t Grasp”

This was a topic I covered with a client recently, so I wanted to share the discussion with you here.

With some singers, if I add even half an octave of range to their voice, they naturally sing into that range as a matter of course. But with other singers, I can add an octave of useable range, but they sing more or less exactly where they did before. Why would this be? Does this imply there’s more to singing high than JUST range extension?

The short answer is ‘yes’. Here’s the longer version.

Brief Summary

The way the technique I teach works is this: by improving someone’s vocal function, the automatic by-product is extending range, better tone, stamina, etc.

Here’s a brief summary of what I mean by good vocal function, so that you don’t need to read a myriad of other articles I’ve written on this:
– To sing low notes the vocal folds need to contract and thicken; and to sing high notes they need to stretch and thin.
– The vocal tract also needs to shape the vowels precisely to enable good interaction between the folds and the tract.
– The more precisely and smoothly these two aspects are co-ordinated by a singer, the more range/tone/stamina arise as a natural result.

There’s a little more to it than that, but this covers the basic underpinnings. Continue reading “Why some never learn to sing higher, even if they increase their range”