Voice Lessons

To access the voice lessons, tap the Training tab at the bottom and expand the Voice Training section unless it’s already expanded. Each entry you will see below it is a training program with multiple voice lessons inside of it, intended to be practiced as one integral unit in one sitting.

If this is the first time you’re using Erol Singer’s Studio, select Introduction first to go through an orientation program. After that, go through the Breathing Essentials program, and move onto a new program only after you’re completely comfortable with all programs that precede it. Try not to skip ahead; breathing technique is crucial to singing well. We recommend practicing only one program per day, and repeating the program until you’re comfortable singing all the lessons within it.

Note that if your selected vocal range is very narrow, the lessons may not take long to finish, as the app won’t be able to play through many keys in your range. In this case, you can repeat each lesson within a program multiple times before you finish the program. Just make sure that you always start with the warmup lessons and finish with the cool-down lessons; just like the rest of your body, your vocal cords need these to reduce risk of strain or injury.

If you have difficulty matching the notes in a lesson or have difficulty in some parts of your range, you can use the piano keyboard at the bottom of the lesson to practice in a single key. Simply press your finger on the keyboard to select the key (root note) and slide it up to change the tempo.

When you first open a lesson, be sure to hit the i button on the bottom bar and read the instructions for the lesson. You will also find both male and female audio examples for most lessons, which you should listen to before you try the lesson yourself. We have selected musical theater students for our samples in order to demonstrate good technique and attainable performances for you. The audio samples go through three key changes to give you a clear idea of your cue when the piano is playing, and how to form the vowels and other sounds. It is highly recommended that you use the same vowels/consonants/sounds you hear, since these are all carefully selected sounds that ensure you utilize certain muscle groups and relax others. We encourage you to read the instructions often so that you know what to practice to develop your vocal technique.

When you are comfortable with all the lessons in a training program, be sure to move on to new programs. Although it may sometimes be easier to stay in your comfort zone, for progress you will need to practice new material and not keep repeating what you’re already comfortable with. You can (and should) also review older programs every once in awhile to make sure you’re keeping the skills you’ve already learned.

A Special Note on Lip and Tongue Trills

Due to the nature of lip and tongue trills, the sounds you make contain a wide range of frequencies, without necessarily a definitive note. The goal of trills in vocal training is to improve smooth, tension free transitions between vocal registers, and therefore your focus during the trill exercises should be a relaxed throat and tension free muscles.

Although trills contain a lot of non-musical sounds, they also contain a hum in your throat that has an average pitch buried under all the noise from the trill. The app can do a good job of picking up the notes in your humming if the microphone is placed properly (e.g. close to the throat, away from the lips to eliminate any puffs of air hitting the microphone). However, we highly recommend that you don’t worry about your pitch in lip and tongue trills, or having the app detect it accurately. Instead, focus on smoothly transitioning from note to note while keeping your throat as relaxed as possible. Worry about your pitch in all the other lessons, which contain vowel sounds that have a well-defined pitch that the app will display very accurately for you.

43 thoughts on “Voice Lessons”

  1. I would like to have these same exercises but graded with “points, stars, levels” or something to encourage me to achieve a better performance as in games, so it becomes fun and challenging and help me to aim for constant improvement or even preventing me from advancing to harder levels if I’m not ready yet

    1. Thanks for your feedback “Happy User”. The app does give you a score based on your performance and displays it in the lesson lists. The score is updated only when you complete a lesson though, so it may not be apparent right away. However, stay tuned for the next update, which will include even better feedback during the lessons.

      As you use the app, you’ll have more surprises. For example, the second time you start it (assuming you’ve completed at least one lesson), you’ll be introduced to a vocal range history blob on the main screen. The blob gives you feedback on all of your past performances and how you’ve been improving, so it’ll definitely give you things to strive for.

  2. I notice that I often come at a note from below its pitch then raise the pitch to get it right. How can I hit a specific note accurately each time?

    1. The key to that is to use the app regularly. When you practice regularly, two things will happen: 1. You’ll be able to tell what note is playing more easily, 2. You’ll build the necessary muscle memory to replicate the note you’re hearing. Both of these are essential skills and will only come with practice. One thing you can do to speed up your learning is to start humming for the first note while the intro chord is playing. When you’re at the right pitch, you should notice your voice blending with the piano’s sound. Pay attention to how much louder the sounds get when the pitch of your voice matches the root note played on the piano (usually the first note to sing on most lessons). I also highly recommend wearing earphones, so you can hear the piano clearly. Small ones that let outside sounds in work the best, so you can hear your own voice clearly too.

  3. I absolutely LOVE this app!
    But I think you should add at least two songs for us to try. I know you said it isn’t a karaoke song but I think this could help us a little bit more.
    For example, if u add ‘Amazing Grace’, us users will try to sing the notes displayed so we have more of an idea on how to be able to sing songs that we have on our iPods and stuff.
    But I do love this app! 🙂

  4. I would like to see each session displayed in a percentage graph so I can more easily define my improvement. The points do not seem to match the percentage scores. For example, I received less points for my 99% scores than I did for my 47% scores. I’m not sure what the points even mean.

    Overall, I love the program.

    1. Hi Sally. Scoring voice lessons is very different than e.g. scoring a song. With voice lessons, the range of an exercise depends on your vocal range, unlike songs in a karaoke game where each song’s range is always fixed. Take this example: Let’s say you practice a pattern in a single key and achieve an accuracy of 99%. That’ll correspond to a score of “99 / 1 key”. Now, let’s assume you get better and practice the same pattern again in 10 keys. Let’s also assume you now achieve an accuracy of 99% for the first, second, third and fourth keys, 74% for the fifth key, and 0% for the remaining five keys. Because you did poorly in the last 5 keys, this corresponds to an overall accuracy of 47%. But this 47% is much better than the 99% you scored by singing the pattern in a single key. After all, you scored 99% in four different keys and sang in a much wider range. Erol Singer’s Studio will correctly rate this as a higher score than your first performance, and display your score as “470 points / 10 keys”. Although you can calculate your overall percentage by dividing the first number by the second, we don’t recommend doing that. Your total points, 470 in this case, and the number of keys you sang in, 10, are a much better indication of your performance and current skills.

          1. We’ll look into displaying the total percentage just at the end of each lesson to help you guys — a feature we had that in our earlier beta versions but removed because it was misleading at times. However we’ll keep the scoring on the score lists the same. The problem with displaying what you ask for in the score lists is that your score could then drop as your range expands, which would make no sense to most users (we’d get a lot more questions if we did that). The current scoring system ensures that the better you sing, the higher your score gets.

  5. One word… “perfect!” I am blown away with the capabilities and quality of this impressive tool. I might have a chance to build my voice to sing along with my guitar playing! Execelent, excellent work erol studios…. Thank you.

    Ps – I’d pay $200 bucks for this app…..

    1. Dave, reviews like this make our day! Please recommend the app to your friends who might find it useful, so we can continue to keep our prices low. We also highly appreciate 5-star App Store reviews, as potential customers unfortunately don’t see all these amazing comments on our forums.

      Have fun building your voice!

  6. Amazing app guys I love it!
    It would be cool if in the next update you could include an option for when you select a key for an exercise. Say I wanted to practice on a C on a particular pattern, you press the C and it plays through once. It would be cool if you could make it play 5, 10 times trough.

    Sorry for the awkward wording, I hope u get what I mean

    1. I see what you’re saying. Currently in manual mode, the app plays the pattern once, and you’d like it to play the pattern multiple times in the same key without having to press a piano key again. Would a repeat last key option help? That may be more intuitive from a user interface perspective.

      1. A repeat last key button would help. Also a ‘continue to repeat’ key would be great so we may practice a selected pattern continuously without having to repeatedly push a button.

  7. Hi!first of all thanks for this great app! I’m a guitar teacher and performer, and this app is REALLY helping me a lot because i always wanted to lead sing and play guitar at the same time.the constant use of this app (1h per day) has improved greatly my pitch-the blob is light green! However i’m finding difficulties on improving the quality of my timbre and the resonance.. i’m pretty sure i’m not doing something right for this argument.
    may i give a general suggest?in my opinion would be great to include short video examples of the excercices, in order to imitate the correct movements and so on..iwould surely purchase the extra video set. i think they could help!
    Greetings from italy!

    1. Dear Fabio,

      We’re so glad that you are having a good time using the app. I’m sure your devoted practice is paying off. For developing timbre and resonance, the key elements to focus on are:

      1. Breathing
      – Review and practice the abdominal breathing section. Practice the other breathing exercises and be aware of always using relaxed, low breaths while you sing.

      2. Relax the throat
      – When you do any of the exercises, be aware of any tension in your throat and consciously choose to let go. The yawning warm-up helps with this. Breathing more efficiently also helps you be able to do this because your sound becomes more supported in your lower body.

      3. Allow space in the jaw
      – Make sure you are opening your mouth as you sing and not clenching with the jaw. As you sing higher in your range, allow your jaw to fall further open (this is really important!).

      4. Cultivate resonance using the m, n, v and z sounds
      – Excercises using these sounds allow the resonance in your face or mask to wake up, which helps lift strain off your throat. It also brings out the overtones in your voice which create a fuller resonance. It feels and sounds like a buzziness in your face when you’ve found it.

      If you would like, we can arrange an individual lesson via skype to work on any of these aspects. A voice coach in your area should be able to help you as well (look for one who uses Bel Canto or Appoggio techniques).

      Have fun and let us know how it goes!

      1. Hello!
        Thanks for your accurate and precise answer!I really appreciate it.I will follow your advices very strictly.in the meanwhile the constant use of your app makes me feel much more secure about my voice, and the results are becoming tangible even for the ones who listen to my daily excercice schedule.
        Obiouvsly I have already reccommended your app to everyone!!
        If it’s necessary i will contact you further for a skype lesson!
        Have a nice day, and thanks once more!
        FABIO

  8. I think it would be great if the program would design personalized exercises that focus specifically on weak areas so we may spend more practice time there toward targeted improvements.
    The application is terrific; I look forward to many enhancements.

  9. Just started using this app. I found u on the net while looking for help with my pitching. Already improving within a few days!
    I sing jazz so any help with chromatic intervals would be if great assistance. I would certainly pay for an exercise that had varations that involved the chromatic scale.
    I am also looking for ways to test my accuracy with notes in my jazz songs. Would there be some way of being able to sing the notes of my song and the showing what notes I was hitting?
    Thanks

    1. Great to hear the app has been helping you improve quickly. We don’t use the Chromatic scale for voice lessons, but we already have a Chromatic scale exercise in our “Ear Training for Singers” add-on, so you can start practicing that right away. It has a linearly ascending pattern of notes followed by a linearly descending pattern (if you’re on an iPhone or iPod touch, I recommend holding your device in landscape orientation for this exercise). If you have alternative way(s) of arranging the notes of the Chromatic scale for ear training purposes, send us an email or post them here, and if we find them suitable for the app, we can most definitely add them to the Ear Training section for our next release.

      As for testing your accuracy for your own jazz songs, we do have plans for a free-style exercise that you could use for that purpose, however the details are not finalized yet. If/when we have more news about it, we’ll post it on our Facebook page.

  10. Hello Erol Studios!

    First off, I just wanted to say that I am completely in love with your app. It is so well thought out and designed and I am thankful I made the decision to invest in it.

    There’s just one thing that would make it absolutely perfect for me! I would love it if you could make the “slow down” settings apply to the entire lesson. I noticed someone else suggested a “repeat last key” option, but I think the ability to have it apply to the whole lesson would be extremely helpful as well in developing accuracy!

    I hope the developer is still reading these comments and working on the app, as it has been a while since it has been updated, but I will gladly post a 4-star review on the App Store just in case and bump it up to a 5 star review with a new update! Thank you again so much for making this app.

    PS, The girl’s speaking and singing voice in the instructional video is so lovely to listen to! Great pick. Take care!

    1. Hi Alex, yes, we are still actively developing the app and will be releasing new features later this year. I’ve forwarded your comment to Heidi, the voice in the video. She’s a very talented singer and vocal coach.

      1. Such a prompt response! Truly professional. I look forward to future developments! Thank you for all of your hard work and for a great product 🙂

      2. Hey guys, love the app! I never had the confidence to sing (thought I didn’t have a voice) but this app is giving me more and more confidence every day.

        I would also love the slow down feature of the entire lesson.

        PS: already gave you a 5 star review on the Romanian app store.

  11. Hi,
    Let me first say that I love this app. I am 51 years old and just started singing a few months back. Along with some signing lessons and your app, I am doing really well.
    My question is related to the “five not MA”
    That is the one that is giving me the most trouble with a consistent 1800 out of 2800. Can this be set up to complete the whole MA session in a slower speed. I have used the slower speed but it lasts only for one time.
    Regards,
    Paul

    1. Hi Paul, glad to hear you’re finding the app effective. Each lesson in the app is designed to build a specific vocal skill, and the speed of the lesson is critical to achieve the desired results. So, although there have been some requests for it, changing the tempo of a lesson is not a good idea. But, you can practice the “pattern” of a lesson in any tempo you like, slower or faster than the original, one key at a time. To practice at a slower tempo, press a key on the in-lesson piano keyboard, and slide your finger up. The number you’ll see is a percentage relative to the original tempo of the lesson. For example, set the number to 50% and release your finger to practice the pattern at half speed. Hope this helps. Good luck with your vocal training!

  12. The developers of this have created a very useful tool. I have only used it for a few days, but the future training benefits are already clear. Having read some of the comments in this section quickly, I did not notice mention of an issue I have noticed. The real-time visual representation of pitch accuracy appears to be spot on when it registers – it seems to be very sensitive to tiny details of onset fry, swoops, vibrato, etc. I still have an anomaly on some notes sometimes that I am pretty sure I am not singing much out of line with others that are registering well. Perhaps there are some limitations with iPad and iPhone microphones or maybe it is acoustics, but does the microphone get confused with overtones? I don’t have an particularly developed voice, however sometimes the white line jumps to a consistent pitch above what I am singing (at the blue/green marker).

    As I just wrote the above paragraph, I just thought of my own solution of standing back a bit. Of course I want to see what is happening with immediate on-screen feedback and have been singing only mp/mf at reading distance.

    The possibilties of fine tuning intonation and vibrato are fantastic. My suggestion or request would be a programming challenge for sure – how possible would it be to have an add-on where a bar or two of real repertoire could be entered in order to check the accuracy of a particular phrase that could be transposed and slowed down to practice?

    I love the app and have recommended it to friends already. Hope you have more to come!

  13. Firstly, I’m loving this app. It’s well worth the money. 5stars!

    I have a feature request…
    The only time I have available during the day to practice is in the car on my way to work (40 min drive) and on the way back. Yes, I know sitting in a car isn’t the best place to practice standing and singing but it’s all I’ve got at the moment.
    Obviously, using this app whilst driving is a bit dangerous because of how much I need to be looking at and tapping the screen in order to get from one exercise to the next and to hear the examples.
    It would be great to be able to program a ‘workout’ where you press play at the beginning and the app gives you an example of the exercise then you do that exercise, then moves on to the next exercise, you get the example and then you do that exercise.
    I understand that this kind of feature wouldn’t use the full benefits of the visual aspect of this app but it would be very helpful nonetheless.

    1. Hi Daniel, we’re very glad you’re loving the app. We completely understand your desire to practice in the car. We’ve been planning to have a special car mode that automatically advances the lessons and disables scoring temporarily, however we have been busy with some higher priority features. Rest assured, this is on our list of features to add. I hope this answers your question. Cheers.

  14. Thank you for a great product, I started using it 2 weeks ago, and have been every day since. I have a question concerning lesson progression:

    You mention I should move on when I feel “comfortable” with a program. I am not sure what that means. To begin with, I optimistically auto-detected my range to span 54 keys. Since my voice was strained and hurting a bit after “beginner 1”, I’ve narrowed it by about 8 keys, but that means “beginner 1” feels comfortable (doesn’t strain my voice?) with scores 80%-99%. does this mean I should move on immediately or extend my practice range? I have no idea if I qualify as beginner, intermediate or advanced, I’ve been singing for years with no formal training.

    Thanks again.

  15. As a general rule, do we do each exercise during a training session just once ? I notice it prompts you to repeat the exercise, but then doesn’t mention how many times…

    1. We’ve added a new Practice Goal section under the Settings tab. Once you set your goal based on the app’s recommendations for your skill level, try to meet the recommended duration on each day you practice by adjusting the number of times you repeat the exercises within the program you’re following on that day. In general, try to repeat the exercises in “Step 3. Vocal Skill Building” section of each program, but you can also repeat some of the other exercises (e.g. ones under “Step 1. Breathing Skills”) if you believe you can benefit from more repetitions. Try not to exceed your maximum daily recommendation, so you don’t hurt your throat. It’s also better to practice a little 3-4 times a week, as opposed to one long practice session per week.

  16. This is a great app, I use it to improve my voice to go along with my guitar playing, but I have a question, when I use the voice detection system it says my voice is a baritone, but I’ve had a few people tell me that my voice is alto, and I can hit a mid/low c5 note regularly on the warm ups which is in the alto range, so I’m a little confused?

    1. Voice classification takes into account many factors beyond your range (such as the quality of your tone in different parts of your range, where your vocal breaks are, etc.). A person can possess a range that’s wider than their voice classification, which is merely a system to identify your ideal role in classical music, such as opera. Also, this app does not classify your voice (it never says you’re a baritone, tenor, etc.). Instead, it shows your current vocal range, along with your accuracy for each note within your range, and allows you to compare that to classical vocal ranges. It is normal for a tenor to be able to sing baritone notes, but that’s not where your tone would shine. Treat voice classification as a way to cast singers for a quire or opera. You want each singer to sing in the best parts of their vocal range. For you, this seems to be the tenor range.

  17. In the interval exercises, I know you can slow down the speed at which the notes are played for one set of intervals and then stops.

    It would be nice if the whole exercise can change speed (slower or faster)

    just a thought!
    thanks

  18. A very useful app. Thank you. Well worth the money.
    I would suggest a training mode where the person hears the piano, then a singer (male/female), then sings, then the pitch moves up a half step. I find that I can improve by listening to the example once or by practicing with another app that just lets me play the same notes at my own pace. But if there were a super-competent model voice built in between the key changes, it would be a helpful tool.
    Also, I wonder about the piano as the guide for a singer. Wouldn’t it be better to have a model singer that you sing with instead of a piano? Why a piano? I know that’s the tradition in vocal training, but maybe it’s not the best model.
    Finally, I would suggest a mode where you hear the piano (or whatever instrument is chosen), then sing without the piano going. This would seem to be closer to the goal, which is to control your voice without any external help.

  19. Like nearly everyone else here, I LOVE this APP and have recommended it to several people – who love it too, now. I am wondering if there are guidelines as to when to move ahead in the programs. I have seen what I think is tremendous progress, but should I be waiting to get 100 percent on all the notes before moving foreward? Also, this is just an idea for future versions, but there could be a note when you hit a certain level to go ahead, move up, instead of staying in a comfort zone.
    A second suggestion – which might only be necessary for beginners like me, is to have the male/female examples on the ear-training exercises as well. But that’s being picky. This is such a wonderful app.

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