In answering this question the concepts can sometimes be confusing, but this depends on your level of music knowledge. I've attempted to break them down so that you can make sense of it no matter what level you're at!
So, can you learn to sing by listening to music?
No but you can improve your ear which results in better singing habits.
Let me unpack this statement:
You can improve your ear.
Anna, what on earth are you talking about. My ears don't change. I can't change my ears! Ears stay where they are forever!
We musicians talk about ears in the auditory sense, not the physical. You arguably need hearing to be able to sing or play music and the size of your ears does not impact this.
Here's a step by step guide in the ear training process for the non musician:
When we listen to sounds: speech, nature, noise and music we are training our ear to hear and categorise what it is we are listening to.
Those songs are either made up of instruments and voice, or purely one or the other.
Instruments and voice are half melody, half rhythm (broadly speaking).
These melodies are made up of a series of individual musical notes.
When you sing a simple "la la la" you are singing 3 musical notes. Now I'm not there and I'm not with you while you try it, but you might sing (or speak) the same 3 'la's', or you might move your voice higher or lower. Whenever you use your voice you're arguably uttering a musical note but this moves into physics and this isn't the place to delve into that! Book a lesson to know more.
If you uttered the exact same 3 la's then you uttered the same 3 musical notes.
If you moved your voice you've uttered 3 different musical notes.
It is in the singing of these musical notes while deliberately trying to match the song you listen to that you improve your ear!
basically trying to blend your voice with the singers (just their notes, not their pronunciation).
If you want to improve your singing and you simply listen to music without the singing it's kind of like watching Masterchef with mute on: you're watching them move their bodies, and put ingredients in things, and it results in stuff that you assume is food because people eat it. There's no context, no titles, definitions, explanations. You're not learning how to cook.
Please! Listen to music, but listening alone will not improve your singing.
Improving your ear improves your singing habits.
When your voice isn't matching or blending with the singers you are out of tune with the singer.
Singing out of tune is simply your ear not knowing what is a correct musical note.
By singing to songs you improve your ears gauge of what is correct.
correct will be different depending on the nationally recognised music system - what is correct in the West is different to what is correct in North or South India for example.
It is only "correct" in that it sounds good to you and this is dependent on your upbringing (but again, this gets complex so book a lesson to know more!)
Singing to songs in an effort to match your voice to them is a good singing habit.
So there you have it - listening to music can improve your awareness of correct sounds! And if you can recognise the correct sounds you can learn how to sing them.
Learning how to sing them is the next challenge, but I would argue that training your ear is the bigger challenge!
If you've read this and you would like to trust me as your guide in your music learning journey please visit the contact page or call 0433 091 995 to book in your initial consult.
Anna Tero
BMus (Hons), TAE
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