Is Singing A Gift or Skill?

Before we begin, lets review a quick science lesson on nature vs. nurture.

Say you have two plant seeds that are identical, but instead of planting them together in the same environment, you plant one seed in a sunny spot with nutrient rich soil and you plant the other seed in a shady spot with dried up nutrient poor soil. The seed with sun and many nutrients will obviously grow much better than the seed in dried up nutrient poor dirt without sun. Even though the seeds are the same, they will grow differently due to the environment in which they live! This is the basis for nature vs. nurture in humans. If you take two identical twins at birth (with the same DNA) and put one in a positive environment while putting the other in a negative environment, then they may grow up to be completely different people based on learned behavior, personal experiences, etc.

OK, good point. But why does this matter?

This is important because if you were "born with music in your blood" but you were raised in an environment in which music was not a big part of the culture, then you may have never had a chance to bring out the music in you. You might think right now you aren't a great musician, but maybe you just never had a fair chance to bring it out. Maybe once you get familiar with your voice or instrument you will start to notice that you really did have talent all along! You will never know unless you try.

Now lets take the other side of the story. Say someone wasn't "born with music in their blood" but from an early age they were surrounded by music. They would obviously have a much better chance at becoming musically inclined due to the constant exposure. Maybe they weren't necessarily born with singing as a gift but just got off to a good and early start. Maybe you were the one "born with the gift of singing" but never got a fair chance to express it as a child. Who knows...

Bottom line: You DO NOT have to be born with singing as a natural talent!

Learn from my mistakes.

I used to be so bad at singing that I nearly gave up for good. I was convinced that singing just wasn't for me. I was starting to believe that maybe it wasn't true that anybody could learn how to sing. Then I came across a proven and effective vocal technique from a man who had transformed hundreds of singers before me. After working with him, I started to understand how my voice actually worked. What I discovered amazed me. I didn't sound so bad anymore!

I realized that the reason I was such a bad singer wasn't because I wasn't "born with a singing gift" but because I didn't understand how to use my voice correctly. I quickly discovered that I actually had a pretty good sense of music once I learned how to use my voice. This switched on that light bulb in my head and I instantly felt the need to begin enlightening people about the truth of singing. You just have to learn how to use your voice! I had a good singer hidden inside of me the whole time, but I appeared to be a bad singer because I didn't understand my voice.

So when you see those "bad singers" on American Idol auditions or on YouTube, don't be so quick to label them as "tone deaf" because maybe they do have a good singer hidden inside of them, but they do not understand how to use their voice yet!

Would you ever expect someone to pick up a guitar for the first time in their entire life and begin to jam like a pro? Absolutely not!

So then why would you expect to be able to sing like a pro without deligent practice and training?

Think of it like this: what if someone sat down at a piano and started bashing the keys with closed fists because they didn't know how to properly play the piano? You would say they aren't very good at pian, right? Pretend someone shows them how to correctly play the piano and it turns out they are actually pretty good! They just didn't sound good at first because they didn't understand how to play their instrument, but once they figured it out they became good at it. It is the same with singing! Keep reading to find out how.

Lets insert you and your voice into this example...

Now lets say you start singing and you are straining and someone says you don't sound very good. Well now pretend someone teaches you how to correctly use your voice without straining and it turns out you actually sound pretty good. It is just like the piano example above. You didn't sound good at first because you didn't understand how to use your voice, but once you figured it out you were pretty good!

KEY POINT: You may actually end up being a very good singer once you learn how to correctly use your voice. If you don't sound good then you aren't using your voice right, because when used correctly, anybody's voice can sound very pleasant.

So don't give up, ever! You will discover your true and natural sounding singing voice. Singing isn't a gift, it is a skill you can develop.