Everyone Can Learn To Sing

By Pat Wynne

Pat Wynne has been teaching voice privately in her studio in San Francisco's Mission District since 1980. She's a performer and composer and also the director of the Rockin' Solidarity Labor Chorus. Find this longtime OPEN EXCHANGE lister in our Music category.

I hear it over and over again: "I can't sing!"

   "They used to tell me to move my mouth!"

  "My family always told me to shut up."

  "During choir, they told me to clean the board erasers."

  "You don't want to hear me sing."

On and on!

In elementary school they always offered remedial reading and math but never remedial singing. Think about how many children could have been helped.

Well, it's not too late!

Everyone is entitled to sing. In many countries, singing is a part of life; everyone does it. Children learn from the earliest age. Singing is one of our emotional expressions, like laughing and crying. Why is it that so many people feel they are not entitled to it?

One of the problems is that the arts have been commoditized. Singing is seen not as a form of expression, but as a cultural product, to be packaged and sold. Only sing-ers with a recording contract are validated. The rest are told, explicitly and implicitly. Don't even try.

Don't sing if you can't get on American Idol! If you can't be a star, forget it! Go to the mall, and buy music!

So people don't try.

I disagree. I believe that the arts are for everyone. We are all creative in something and we are entitled to get satisfaction from the things we do—art, music, writing, dance, and acting.

As a teacher, I help people to reclaim their voices. I teach techniques that help you to be effective. Singing is fun. Why shouldn't everyone have fun?

True, some folks have pitch problems. We can work with that. Not all people can sing without accompaniment but just about everyone can sing with an instrument and stay in tune. It just takes practice.

There are so many kinds of songs to sing. Give yourself the chance to sing Gershwin, folk songs, the Beatles, the blues, Italian, French and German art songs. Bob Dylan—the list goes on and on.

It doesn't matter what you sing. What matters is to sing, to enjoy the experience. Do you know that singing, like running, releases endorphins in the body? After a voice lesson, everyone feels better.

Once you start singing, all kinds of opportunities open up. There's karaoke, piano bars, choruses, amateur musical theater, folk clubs.

I guess you could call me a believer. I believe that you can sing, and it will bring joy to your life.