Frequently Asked Questions

Singing Teachers and Singing Lessons – Sydney, Hollywood, Los Angeles, New York and Elsewhere.

I get a lot of questions from people everywhere like: "How do I find out about singing teachers in my area?" or, "Where can I get singing lessons?" or, "There's hundreds of singing teachers in Sydney; how do I know which one to pick?".

These are tough questions to answer because there are so many variables. For example, it's true that there are more than 100 singing teachers in Sydney, Australia. The real problem is that there is no licensing board or governing body that requires people who give singing lessons to have a minimum amount of education, singing or stage experience. Some singing teachers have a Ph.D, while some have been a backing singer on somebody's recording back in the 70's. So, how do you actually find a singing teacher you can go to for lessons when you don't really know what kind of a track record a "singing teacher" has? Incidentally, the situation is the same whether you're in Sydney, Paris, Hollywood, Rome, Los Angeles or New York.

Well, it's 2006; so start with the internet! It makes sense that the only people who should be giving lessons are 'career' singers.

Find out which full-time career singers actually do give some lessons. Go to their websites and have a read. Sure, there's a lot of unreliable information on the net, but in the case of professional performers, it is very unlikely that there are incorrect facts on their websites, because an artist's website is open to criticism from the whole world. Among the people who look at artists' websites are journalists, managers, investigative reporters, PR companies, etc, etc… a whole bunch of people who the artists have to work with. So these websites have to be absolutely correct in the details that they offer up, because, in the case of a singer, facts which turn out to be incorrect can lead to a considerable loss of income.

What if an artist doesn't have a website? Well it is the 3rd millenium … what good artist doesn't have one? Or at least a considerable presence on the internet.

You might be able to contact your prospective singing teacher at their website; or you might even find a phone number. Get in touch. THEN the most important question you should ask is: "How are your CD sales/downloads going?"

And at that moment you will find out if that person might be the right singing teacher for you! And don't be afraid to approach them even if you're a complete beginner. Artists know that it's generally quicker to train complete beginners… and let's face it, you'd rather be studying with someone who has a reputation. If you can manage to get singing lessons from an artist, then it's going to be a much quicker process to get you up and running, because professional, career singers know what to do… they don't have to guess.

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