I get a lot of clients come to me because they’ve been told they sing out of tune, or are not especially tuneful. Many of these believe they are “tone deaf”. Can you learn to sing if you are tone deaf?

What is tone deafness?

True tone-deafness means a total inability to distinguish whether two notes are the same or different. I often test this with clients by playing two notes on the piano and asking if they can tell that they sound different. In 99.99% of cases, people respond they can obviously hear they are different. If you can tell that some notes are higher or lower than others — even if you can’t actually hit them — then you are not tone-deaf.

True tone-deafness is the aural equivalent of colour blindness. This means someone’s brain or body lacks the actual ability to see or hear certain things — it’s literally a physical or neurological issue that isn’t something that can be overcome with training.

Fortunately, for most people, that isn’t the case.

So if I’m not tone-deaf, what is the issue?

If someone’s inability to hear the difference between certain notes is like colour blindness, then the ability to hit certain notes is more like dyspraxia.

This is a condition where someone’s ability to finely control their body in space, throw or catch a ball, or judge spatial distance accurately, etc, is not especially good or well co-ordinated.

The important thing is that this is a co-ordination issue, NOT a functional obstruction. People with dyspraxia start off with less inherent fine motor control. As co-ordination is a learnable skill, this is good news! Such skills are improved through specific, targeted practice.

Exercises designed to breed better neurological and motor control of their bodies are prescribed, and they become much like anyone else. In many cases, they become more skilled than people who always found it easy to co-ordinate (and who never had to learn), because now the ex-dyspraxics are equipped with the tools to improve, and they know how to dial in increasing amounts of fine motor control in their bodies.

So, it’s down to motor control?

For the most part, yes. Good singing, good tone, fine control over pitch, stamina in singing are all traits of a voice that is functioning well and correctly. Good singing (and pitching) is a by-product of well co-ordinated vocal function.

The more precisely you can control and operate your voice, the better you will sound. Also, the more accurate your pitching will be. This then removes “how to hit the notes well” as a barrier to singing, and singers can focus on learning to “play their instrument well” within songs.

Then why am I often sharp or flat?

With less co-ordinated voices, there’s often a problem with the singer (essentially) randomly flinging their voice at whatever they are trying to sing rather than intentionally picking notes out. Of course, per the above, often such singers need to have their function improved before they’ll be able to do this, but nevertheless, there’s an operator error at play. There’s a lack of intentionality in selecting the notes to sing and executing them.

Now, assuming that a singer is not just randomly flinging their voice at notes, generally singers will either tend to lean towards always being sharp or always being flat. It’s rare that singers are sometimes flat AND sometimes sharp.

Too much contraction = Flat

To sing low notes the vocal folds need to contract and thicken — i.e. they need to get shorter. To sing high notes the vocal folds need to stretch and thin — i.e. they need to get longer.

If someone has an excessive amount of contraction, this functional issue means the vocal folds tend to remain too short as the singer tries to ascend to higher notes. This means the vocal folds never quite reach the correct longer length, and therefore end up pitching flat (under the note). This tends to be more of an issue with male singers or weightier-voiced female singers.

Too much stretch = Sharp

When there is too little contraction in the vocal folds we have the opposite problem. This means the stretching component over-lengthens the vocal folds, and singers tend to find themselves too sharp as the vocal folds can’t contract/shorten enough to reach the lowest notes. This tends to be more of an issue with female singers or lighter-voiced male singers.

Similarly at the very top end, the lengthening can get excessive and singers often end up hitting random notes which are much, much higher than intended. They may be happy they can hit those notes, but they generally sound very light and weak, and find they have very little control over that pitch change.

The more in-balance and functionally correct a voice is — i.e. not too much contraction/stretch, nor too little — the more these tuning issues tend to decrease in magnitude, eventually disappearing as a noticeable trait.

Remember, we all hit bum notes from time to time

I hope this satisfies you as to why some people find themselves flat/sharp, and how this is remedied. This is generally why people tend to think they are tone-deaf, but often are not. It’s also why we all tend to be sharp or flat as a tendency, and how training to improve our voices can address these issues.

Despite all this, I want to remind all of you reading this that it’s fairly normal to hit bum notes from time to time. We should obviously work to eliminate as many wrong notes, and such that any wrong notes are minimally out. But we do need to recognise the voice is an organic instrument, and as such can never be 100% perfect, 100% of the time.

Do you feel you struggle with these pitching issues? Want to learn to sing if you are tone-deaf?

If anything we’ve discussed above makes you feel like “YES! That’s me, I really struggle with being off pitch”, then this is something we can help with in sessions. It really is as simple as assessing your voice, identifying the functional issues that are affecting you, then prescribing appropriate exercises to address that functional imbalance. You should notice a difference within the first session, and even within the first week.

All my clients report dramatic changes in their voices between each session, but especially in relation to vocal tone and pitch control arising from the first few sessions.

To experience these benefits for yourself, please do book yourself in via my booking form right here. I look forward to helping you with your voice soon.

This question gets asked a LOT. In fact, I can see it’s one of THE most searched for terms on the internet. And understandably so… how long DOES it take to learn to sing well?

People have set their sights on improving their voice, and rightly so. They want to know what’s involved, how long it’s going to take, how much time do they need to commit, etc.

Short answer: Most people can make significant improvements in 3 to 6 months with consistent training, while developing a truly polished, confident singing voice typically takes 1–2 years. The key variable is not talent — it’s focused practice, guidance, and how efficiently you train.

Long answer: Of course, I’m sure most reading this will grasp that there isn’t a single definite answer, as the nature of progress in any skill is dependent on many factors. But even accounting for all those “it depends” factors, there is a lot of predictability in the process of training the average voice.

So in this article, I’m going to get a bit more precise with the phrasing of this question. Then I can tell you how long certain things tend to take based on certain conditions. All this is based on my experience, and is based on the average rate of progress for the average voice.

A more precise question

When someone asks, “how long does it take to learn to sing?”, this is actually several questions all packaged up into one. Here’s how we break them apart:

• Point A – where is this singer presently at with their voice?
• Point B – where is this singer looking to get to with their voice?
• How quickly can we cover the distance between point A and point B?

To clarify, if all we are talking about is singing songs at all, then anyone who can sing in tune can sing. What we are going to get specific about today, is singing well. We’ll define this by both the singers’ standards, and the wider music world’s standards.

Point A: Where is a singer’s starting point?

In every initial consultation, we conduct an assessment on a singer’s voice to identify where their voice is at presently. All tone, range, power, control, etc is a by-product of good vocal function. Once a sufficient level of functional ability is a given, then a given style or aesthetic outcome tends to drop out without too much effort.

But EVERY singer starts out in a different place. I’ve worked with totally untrained singers, who have barely sung before, whose instrument is doing so little wrong that they are on their way to singing quite difficult material very early on. Their starting point – their point A – is way in advance of the average.

In contrast, I’ve worked with professional singers who are incredibly musical, and with plenty of training, but the way their voice is put together means their point A is sometimes behind the average point A… it’s their musicality that covers over this.

Most singers are generally biting off more than they can chew. Guitarists and cover artists are notoriously bad for this, insisting on singing songs in the original key, even when they don’t sound that great. Remember, there’s no prizes for singing a song in the original key, badly, only for sounding great.

So we must know where someone is starting out, and we must be realistic about what they can do at that stage to both continue to sing their desired material, while also deploying that material in a way that keeps their voice progressing.

Point B: Where does a singer want to get to?

This hinges heavily on their musical goals.

If I get the average male singer coming in, wanting to sing something like Buble, Sinatra, etc, then it’s going to be a shorter time frame. This is because the range demanded by the desired material is high but not excessively so.

For the average female singer wanting to sing Karen Carpenter, lower Adele pieces, etc, I’d expect a similar time period. Again, this is not saying such aspiring singers would be at their absolute best, but access to notes and a reasonably even tone could be expected within that sort of time frame. It’s an initial standard we are aiming for.

In contrast, if a male singer wants to sing substantially higher material, ala U2, or classic rock material ala Journey, or maybe even Stevie Wonder, Bruno Mars, etc, we’ll be looking at a much longer time-frame to acquire that more advanced standard. Same would be true for the higher ranged equivalent female artists.

Bear in mind that if a voice is weightier than the average, it will take longer, as the extra depth and power in the voice gives more raw material we need to shape and hone to build a smooth and useable instrument. The lighter the voice, the less time it will take to access the notes, but the more time will need to be spent in making the voice sounding full enough to not sound weedy or thin.

How fast can we move from point A to point B?

This is down to frequency of practice, duration of practice, how accurately are they practicing the material they need to be practicing, and how receptive is their body to the new training regimen.

Some people practice extensively, but do not practice well, e.g. not doing strict voice work, insisting on keys that are too high, doing it whilst distracted, etc. Such singers are usually ingraining bad habits despite the long practice hours.

Others practice less often but are more effective and productive with their practice. Even 10–15 minutes of targeted, intentional practice a few times a week can move a voice forward enormously.

Some people’s bodies are incredibly responsive to being shown good technique, and their voices can advance rapidly because of how fast their body seems to take on new muscle memory. Others find their body is more stubborn, and it takes a LOT more repetition (done correctly) to elicit the same kind of response.

Conclusion

Short version: The simpler the material, and the more close-to-the-average someone’s voice is, the less time it takes to sing material well.

If I’m working with someone every week/most weeks, and they are putting in a few hours practice a week outside of sessions, I’d expect them to be getting to that initial standard in a year or two. Their tone would need improvement to do the material justice, but in terms of access to the notes and having an even consistent tone, I’d expect this within that time frame.

To be clear, most will acquire the notes (at least in exercises) far sooner. Typically this happens within the first few months of starting work on their voice. But to make those notes feel comfortable and sound/feel as easy as pie, that takes time… it’s totally worth it, but it’s not an overnight transformation.

To get to the more advanced standard, e.g. jazz, classical, rock, higher pop, etc, will typically take a few years more, sometimes many more years of work, as we need that initial standard as a foundation to build from. Remember, we are not talking about just squeezing out notes, grinding or blasting out those climaxes. We are talking about truly training the voice to acquire and never relinquish the range, because it’s done correctly and easily. As such, there are no shortcuts.

Caveats

All of the above is based on an “average voice“, though no voice is truly “average“. Everyone’s is lighter/weightier/fuller/smoother/more biting/more textured than the average voice. If anything, the more “average” the voice, the less interesting it is to listen to.

Furthermore, most people who work on their voice regularly become hyper-aware of what they struggle with. Even when no-one else hears it or feels it. Singers who take their voices seriously become even more dedicated to improving their voice. They end up ironing out all the things that bother them about their voice.

Even when they can sing much much higher, they are still lingering in the range that is most manageable for them. This compounds their vocal quality in a useable range so that no sing ever sounds bad or feels wrong in their voice.

I trust that these rough time-frames give you an understanding as to the speed at which we can acquire notes. But please note that it takes longer to truly own those notes and your voice, and to make them feel as effortless as speaking. Believe me when I say, that feeling is an amazing one. It really is wonderful when you can have a bash at almost any song and figure out a version that makes you sound great.

If that’s something you’re looking to get to, and you’d like to start work with me, you can book yourself in right here.