How long will it take for your singing to improve? The answer may surprise you.
When I first meet with a new student, I’m often asked, “How long will it take for me to see results from voice lessons?” While I completely understand that singers want to see results from lessons (after all, if you’re not seeing improvements in your singing, then what’s the point?!), the answer can be complicated. The truth is this: everyone’s singing journey is different, and everyone’s progress is going to look different. You can’t compare your timeline to someone else’s!
Don’t get me wrong: Every student that I work with makes SOME amount of progress in each lesson. Sometimes we achieve a major breakthrough in their singing that is truly transformational! Other times, we take baby steps forward. But one thing that always makes the difference in how much a student progresses in their singing is how often they actually practice the things that they’re learning in lessons with me.
I will never tell a student how much they “should” practice in between lessons. After all, we’re all different people with different lives, schedules, and abilities. But as I mentioned earlier, the more often that you sing in between lessons, the more you’re building muscle memory in your body. Building muscle memory is one of the things that helps you become more consistent in your singing technique!
I want to emphasize something here though: you can’t put a timeline on your singing progress. Even as you put in the time and effort to build muscle memory that will improve your singing, there is no crystal ball that will tell you how long—in weeks or months—it’ll take for specific singing techniques to truly make sense and become second nature for you.
For example, I was working with a student this week who has been studying with me for almost a year. This student’s singing has improved immensely in the time that she’s taken lessons from me, and in this week’s lesson, we were working on her airflow. At one point in the lesson, she says, “Oh wow, this FINALLY makes sense. I know you’ve been talking about this for a while, but it just clicked for me.” We had been working on her airflow for almost a year! But sometimes the brain & body just need time to process the changes that you’re trying to make in your singing.
My point here is to be patient with yourself. Like I’ve mentioned several times now, you cannot put a timeline on progress! That may be frustrating to hear, but understanding this may actually help you be kinder and more compassionate with yourself as you journey through your singing progress.
