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Is singing natural or learned?

Resonance Vocal Studio

The act of being able to sing is natural. It's said that humans sang before they spoke, but the jury is still out on that one. Singing is quite simply elongated speech. Say the word "win" and hold the vowel, you stretched the word, therefore you sang. The various movements of that vowel is how you get melody.


When people ask me the question, "is singing natural or learned?" or I see it asked I'm assuming what the person means is, "when someones singing voice sounds good is it natural or learned?"

And yet again there is no simple answer to this! Because it's both.

  • Some people naturally have a nice sound but they require training to truly "sound good".

  • Some people have an average, not so great voice but they can train it to "sound good".

But what do we even mean by "good", is that not subjective? And why are some people naturally able to have an appealing voice and others don't? The first question was answered in a separate blog, click on the sentence to be taken directly to it. The second question I answer here, with a whole entire blog! Excellent.


two babies learning how to speak through play
Children learning to speak

Physical and Developmental (what you can't change)

So, depending on how your body developed in the womb, and then as your body continues through the various developmental stages of life (puberty, ageing etc) the parts of you which make up how you sound are shaped. You have a few areas involved which produce and shape sound, namely your larynx (Adams apple), vocal cords, and everything in your mouth.


How you move these things is what's known as vocal placement. To achieve an appealing sound sometimes there are those born with their vocal anatomy in just the right place, at the right size, for the right sound. But to achieve certain songs they will need to adjust their vocal placement, and that's why even the best singers have vocal coaches.


person singing into microphone
Learn how to control your voice

Physical (what you can change)

Regardless of being born with the vocal placement for the "right sound" or the "wrong sound" you can alter it. That's right, your larynx can move, you can adjust vocal cord movement, and you can ultimately alter your sound. Do stroke victims not re-learn how to speak? and patients with brain trauma require vocal rehabilitation, therefore you can train your internal vocal anatomy to move.


So yay! You can learn how to move your vocal anatomy, or adjust your "vocal placement" to have an appealing sound. And if you already have the "right sound" but cannot achieve absolutely everything you ever wanted to with your voice, the good news is, get a good coach and you can! We've literally just watched hundreds of coaches with their athletes, and once again we've seen that it's not just teams who need coaches, but individuals too.

And I'll back myself here and say I'm one pretty awesome coach. Contact me to book in your first assessment session, I'd love to hear your voice!


If you want more updates head over to my Instagram page as I post more on these topics every few days and sign up to the newsletter on the home page.





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