Can You Teach Yourself to Sing?
I had a call with a prospective client the other week, and they asked whether it was possible for someone to teach themselves to sing. Now, whilst every single client I teach is technically “self-teaching” when they practise at home with our session recordings, whether singers can “DIY-build” their voice in isolation is something I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about… and also trying for myself, in fact.
Self-teaching is exactly how I started out. I used DVD courses, online lessons—even the early days of YouTube. Surely those avenues could work well for self-tuition, right?
Well, as I found out, self-building your voice doesn’t really work that way. In my opinion, this is for three primary reasons:
1. A Guitar or Piano Is a Finished Instrument—Your Voice Isn’t
When we learn a traditional instrument, even an inexpensive one, it’s already complete. A guitar has frets, strings, tuners. A piano has keys, hammers, and has likely been tuned before delivery.
But when we try to learn singing, the “instrument” is incomplete. The voice hasn’t been taught to transition through registers. Many people don’t even realise such registers exist, let alone how to coordinate them.
So when someone thinks they can self-teach voice the same way they taught themselves guitar, it’s a flawed comparison. The voice must be built and played at the same time. That’s a massive difference.
2. Building a Voice and Using a Voice Are Two Different Skillsets
Continuing the analogy: the person who builds a guitar (a luthier) is not necessarily the person who plays it. The same is true of singers and coaches.
When someone says they want to “DIY-build” their voice, they’re effectively saying they want to be both the instrument builder and the performer. That’s a huge undertaking. As a professional coach, I can tell you most people grossly underestimate the physics, physiology, acoustics, and psychology involved.
Even getting a grip on the basics requires a huge investment of time and study. It takes the skill of an experienced singer and coach to guide someone to the right coordination.
3. You’re the Only Person Who Doesn’t Hear Your Voice Accurately
We’ve all heard recordings of our own voices and thought, “That’s not how I sound.” That’s because we hear ourselves through a combination of air and bone conduction—and it’s misleading.
It takes a lot of time and experience to mentally override this distortion. Even then, it’s a trick your brain performs—not an accurate perception. That’s why it’s so hard to self-monitor your voice effectively. You need someone on the outside who can hear what you’re doing—and what you’re meant to be doing—to give targeted feedback and correction.
If You’re Serious About Your Voice, Get Help
Just like you wouldn’t DIY your own surgery or legal defence, you shouldn’t try to DIY your vocal development.
Find someone who knows what they’re doing. It will save you a huge amount of time, effort, and frustration. I’ve gone down that road, and I’ve worked with many others who tried to as well. It’s a cul-de-sac.