I love learning new things. In 2009, I embarked on a journey to learn to sing. Ever since I was a kid, I knew I couldn’t sing in tune when our secondary school teacher passed over me for the choir instantly after my short rendition of the major scale using Do, Re, Mi. When I finally decided to learn to sing two decades later, I tried many different techniques. One that seemed like it had potential was a PlayStation game called SingStar, which shows your pitch as you sing popular songs (really fun game by the way). I quickly saw what our music teacher had heard two decades earlier: I could not sound many of the notes. When I tried, there were many holes in my range where the sound I tried to reproduce went up or down to the next note; I couldn’t hold my pitch on the correct note in the middle. In the meantime, I also got several voice training books and CDs with lessons that I started practicing in the car during my commute. I soon realized the voice lessons did wonders for the quality of my tone, but I still couldn’t tell if I was in tune or not. Realizing pitch was still an issue for me, I started looking for apps that would deliver voice lessons the way games like SingStar and RockBand deliver songs. To my disappointment, there was nothing. I spent several hundred dollars on professional pitch correction software and spent countless hours to see if I could combine their pitch tracking ability with lessons from CDs, but the whole setup was very cumbersome, and I could not see myself using it for any practical training. Then two years passed by, and I googled again for a software product that would deliver voice lessons with pitch tracking. Still seeing nothing, I decided to create one myself. Before I knew it, I quit my amazingly well-paying job as an engineer leading teams building advanced embedded software products, and I started building Erol Singer’s Studio.

Once the core of Erol Singer’s Studio was ready, I found the best voice teacher in town and met with her to demonstrate what I had built and to describe my plan to have training programs that start easy and gradually become more advanced. She was on-board and created the amazing voice lesson programs that exist today in Erol Singer’s Studio.

While the app initially started its life as Windows software, it wasn’t until 8 years later that I released it on Windows after a full year of polishing up. Instead, I ported the code to iOS in 2011, and released the first version in the booming market of iPhone apps.

It’s been a long journey since. While colorful copycats that look flashy but lack the quality and depth get featured on the App Store, voice teachers and users have been raving about Erol Singer’s Studio ever since its first release in early 2012. It’s thanks to their recommendations that Erol Singer’s Studio has been picked up by countless others to improve their voices, and continues to be downloaded despite minimal marketing (I know, I’m terrible at marketing and sales, but I’m an engineer; I find building quality software exciting).

How’s my singing now? I improved my pitch skills quickly after I built the app, but more importantly, the quality of my voice improved tremendously. I even have natural vibrato now, which used to seem impossible. I first thought people must be faking it by wavering their voices. Now I know better. On that note, if you want natural vibrato, focus on the breathing lessons in the app, along with the various lip and tongue trill exercises that are staples of voice training. Take advantage of Erol Singer's Studio's unique two additional pitch detection modes that automatically turn on in trill lessons. Also, always follow the cued instructions of the voice teacher as you go through each exercise. They come from an experienced vocal coach / award winning singer who knows what mistakes you’ll be making.

I hope you find the app as useful as I have. It was built to be helpful, instructive, and fun. Happy singing!