Do Musicians Who are Trained on Other Instruments Automatically Acquire Singing Ability?

Question

I watched a guitarist on YouTube discuss some concept about harmony, and he played a note and sang an interval above. He prefaced with "now, I am not a good singer but...", and proceeded to sing notes with excellent pitch accuracy.

Obviously there's more to singing than just hitting the right notes, but hitting the right notes is a big part of it! Musicians who have been playing for a long time, or went to college, who have developed an excellent musical ear and relative pitch; are they automatically good at singing?

Answer 1

No way. Even if they can hear the right note in their head it does not mean the have developed the muscle memory to generate the correct note.

Singing is not automatic, and does not come automatically for trained musicians. I was "lucky" in my opinion in that several of my private teachers on guitar and classical bass required me to be able to sing parts of the music I was playing or going to play in order to provide me with well rounded training. I now take classical voice lessons and there is a lot involved. For example, the practice I got in my private lessons was sufficient to get notes in tune for a short range but I would lose my breath fast and get a headache. Knowing how to support with my core keeps that from happening and my range is about twice what I thought it was.

But before those early lessons I could not even find 2 notes vocally. And I would not have been able to without help from those teachers.

Answer 2

A trained musician should know what note he's aiming for when singing. Whether he has the vocal equipment to actually produce it is another matter!

My experience it that musicians can generally hit an accurate pitch, if it's within their physical vocal range. It may be a pretty horrible SOUND though.

Answer 3

Possibly look at it diametrically? If someone already has the propensity to sing in tune - not necessarily with a quality voice, but that's not in your remit - then there's probably more chance of them becoming a musician who plays an instrument (or two).

So, the concept could be turned on its head. There must be plenty of singers who don't know their intervals, but still sing in tune in any key, but if they also play an instrument, that may well help them understand intervals, for example. I've never got my head round how easy it is to play an interval on an instrument - it's a physical thing, as in how many frets/ how many black and white keys - that sort of thing, whereas with one's voice, there's no physical reference...

Answer 4

In my experience, no, not automatically. I have met very, very skillful musicians that have much trouble with singing in good pitch. It seems to me that some people are naturally very good singers and some are not, even though those who are not might spend years and years training with voice teachers, they may still not achieve the same voice and pitch as someone who just naturally sings 'right' (= great "grounding" of the voice, singing (and speaking!) in the mask, good air flow in the voice...).

I have also met musicians with no experience at all that have become very, very good singers in a short time (the best example is from my former choir: a person has been selected to our choir through auditions, with only a little singing experience and no experience in playing any instrument; in less than half a year he is able to sing with a beautiful voice and great pitch in a quartet of singers, so he is singing his voice alone and matches every note with great pitch).

Answer 5

Musicians who have been playing for a long time, or went to college, who have developed an excellent musical ear and relative pitch; are they automatically good at singing?

Obviously not. Having an excellent ear is necessary to being a fine singer, violinist or trombone player (all instruments where the musician has to get it exactly right to make the right pitched note). But it is certainly not sufficient. You also need a fine instrument. Give an excellent violinist a plywood violin and it will sound like a plywood violin when (s)he plays it.

Similarly, it doesn't matter how wonderful a person's ear is if they have a voice which is the singer's equivalent of a plywood violin. Think Janis Joplin.