The best online singing courses: a singing teacher’s pick

In this course I teach you mostly what NOT to do. Most of what we do while singing interrupts our airflow and limits our vocal instrument! One you get bad habit out of the way, you realise your voice was there all along.

Bad habits can be mental (thoughts that stand in the way, wrong judging system) or they can be physical (muscle tension or air pressure). So I operate in two main channels: improving the mentality of singing and featuring bodywork in our singing.

After that - any technique you have learned anywhere is 1000% more likely to work.

About bodywork
Bodywork is crucial for a free singing or speaking voice. Any method which gets your body to organise in a relaxed and grounded way - will empower your voice. And lack thereof will make everything more difficult!

A few examples of such methods are Yoga, Alexander Techniques and Pilates. I use them all in the course to troubleshoot singing difficulties and refer you to experts/tutorials who teach those methods.

interactive tutorial for every chapter

This is not just a theoretical course where you watch and get wiser. Every few lessons you will have a tutorial, where I sit at the piano and guide you through vocal exercises implementing everything you have learned in the chapter. A fun and practical way to put things in your system!

The course has 5 modules.

1. First module is all about the mentality of singing and practicing: replacing self-deprecating habits with productive ones: choosing a suitable song for you, and providing a motivating way of practicing.
2. Second module teaches anatomy and conducts a full-body scan to identify your main vocal issues. Then you send me a clip of your singing for analysis, and I point you to the relevant lessons in the course, which will solve your issues.
3. Third module teaches how to solve the vocal issues you have found with your teacher and/or through my feedback, going through the body parts one by one and releasing them. 
4. Fourth module teaches the most popular vocal skills such as range, power and support. At the end of which you are asked to send a second video for analysis.
5. Fifth module talks about the stage and gives career advice.

I'm a classically trained professional singer, and have toured internationally.

For 18 years I have been teaching voice and coaching singers of all styles and levels, working on their stage skills as well.

My goal is to cure singing insecurities and disrupt the weekly voice lesson business model.

Included are three online singing courses for beginners, by three different teachers. So you get three beginners' courses for one. You can do them all, or choose.

Each course can take 30 days and be divided into 4 weeks, building up from the fundamentals (like posture, breathing, warm-up) and finishing with performance advice. Like a crash course. You can, of course, take longer, and are encouraged to take your time.

• Beginners' course by Jon Statham
  It's an intro to the entire course platform.  personally would follow Jon's course for theoretical and musical knowledge.
• For vocalisation I recommend Camille’s and Jonathan’s vocal exercises.
• Beginner’s courses by Camille van Niekerk and Jonathan Estabrooks
  The two teachers use the same syllabus, but they deliver the material a bit differently, naturally. It’s nice to have two approaches to the same content, and also to be able to follow a male or female teacher, if you want their voice type to be more similar to yours. Also nice to see the instructor and the keyboard/guitar they are playing simultaneously displayed. Only in Camille’s beginner’s course: every time you are given an exercise in a lesson you will get an audio track of that exercise (or complete warm-up) you can follow. Each track comes in four versions: Soprano, Alto, Tenor and bass. 

There are two other sections: Advanced Level and Tricks & techniques. 

In the advanced section there are 18 tutorials, which are actually mini courses of about 4 lessons each! They include: how to sing in different styles (and your own style), sing in a group, Christmas carols, extending range, runs&riffs, belting, combining singing and playing (popular request amongst my students), performance advice. The tutorials are taught by multiple different teachers.

Tricks/Techniques
14 mini courses (called tutorials). Breath, range, tone, vibrato, harmonising, pitch. 

The advanced section seems to be focused on style and performance advice and the trick/technique is more technical voice tips-oriented. They are both essentially extending to further technical elements they want to teach, and then adding musical and presentational topics.  

Common topics between the advances and tricks sections
There are a couple of topics on which you will find tutorials in both the advanced and the trick section. What’s the difference then?

Taking the Belting tutorials from both sections:

Mark Mekailian (in advanced): nice yelling exercises and baseball pitch metaphor (throwing from the back). A couple of vocal exercises meant to create the belt quality sound. 

Camille (in techniques): starting with body breath exercises. Chest vs. mixed voice belt. Caution about vocal health. A couple of vocal exercises meant to create the belt quality sound. 

*The 2 tutorials are two individual approaches to belting. They have some common principles, but give different exercises and ways to achieve the belting quality. But I don’t see a difference in the sense that one should belong to advanced and one in tricks and techniques. Perhaps they want to make sure we don't miss this important skill!

Same goes for the range tutorials: we have Camille (in Advanced) and Abram Poliakoff (in techniques). Different exercises but same principles.

This online singing course is accessible on your laptop, but also on an app on your phone called Kajabi, which allows you to use the material quicker. This makes smartphone access more handy than usual. 

The search option in this course is very handy: you can look for a word and it will point you to the relevant lessons. 

Tracking your progress:

1. A quiz at the end of the chapter is mandatory, and will unlock the next stage. 
2. Peer review of lessons: you are encouraged to share your clips with the community of students and get feedback from them. Great way to be held accountable and get things done.

TVS is also supported by a book (a massive, impressive book), also called The Four Pillars of Singing, which you can either buy as a hardcopy or read online through the course. 

The start is about the set-up: recommendations about how to build the practice environment, gear and products for amplification.

Style orientation

Most instructions in the course point towards contemporary singing. However, the technique is applicable to all singing styles. Even classical singing will use the same principles and techniques (without the need for most of the gear, obviously), especially anything to do with vocal cord function, free sound mechanism and support.

This is a long and thorough course. There is extra emphasis on vocal onsets (the beginning of the sound, which determines the quality of the rest of the sound); visualisation of singing vowels with colors (!); creating combination of vocal techniques as singing setups (as in, what you need to have in mind and in your muscle memory before starting the sound).

First 1.5 chapters include set-up, terminology and principle lessons. Vocal elements such as jaw positions (embouchures) and tongue positions, vocal fold mechanisms. Exercises and warm-ups are introduced in the middle of chapter 2.

Super helpful stuff:

• Laying the foundation of how often and how long to practice.
• Showing how to work with a mic to prevent tension - good, important!
• List of vocal terms definition used in the course.
• Sign language! Robert’s way of communicating certain vocal instructions in the context of an online singing lesson, the signs are also used in the course.
• ITRs: Integrated training routines: combinations of exercises for different vocal goals and making your own routines.
• A long library of additional vocal exercises
• Vocal effects such as distortion, screaming
• The training page: another way to quick access all the routines and exercising, along with reminders for the practice structure. Robert is demonstrating - just sing along!
• Audio files for practicing the exercises: Female and male versions (starting in different keys) as well as different speeds.

Robert teaches in a flow speech, improv-style yet coherent manner. He also demonstrates the techniques he teaches, sometimes performing for the camera (which is much fun).

His style of presentation is extroverted, charismatic, sometimes amusing. 

TVS teaches science-based up-to-date vocal techniques. He obviously takes his methodology very seriously, making it structured in his unique way which will get you sucked into his studio language.

Important to know:

Robert will tell you when you need to sing along with him, or when you just need to watch. If he’s demonstrating and not inviting you to join, don’t. You might have not prepared properly for that yet. Jumping straight to singing along difficult exercises is not good for your voice. So take it step by step: When Robert teaches a certain technique or exercise which involves a few elements - Those would all be separately explained either on that lesson, or on another. Make sure you have covered all the lessons which teach all the elements, then go ahead and follow the exercise. 

The course is concentrated on selected exercises for specific vocal skills. Dr. Dan guides you to give each of them time so they can sink in properly.

You are also encouraged to record two songs of your choice in the beginning and end of the course, and there’s a Facebook group where you can (but don’t have to) share these. That's a great idea, you can see you improvement after going through the course!

The technique taught here is indeed essential, and quite fundamental, and the practice is guided steadily. The "building blocks" taught in each lesson are built up so you are sure to make a lot of progress.  

Holding you accountable, making sure you succeed

You are not just one-sidedly deciding what and when you are watching which part of the course. There is a way of doing the course, and it will check with you if you are indeed doing it.

Intro to every module instructs the new relevant length and frequency of the practice, you start with a short practice and add time to it every week.

The course demands feedback on your practice progress, and which exercises helped you or were most enjoyable. This requires accountability from you to do the course properly, practice and not skip important things.

Each week you get a "friendly reminder" through email, showing you your progress and what you still have left to do.

The interface and design is very cool: you get a main video giving the main lesson, then value-adding and supporting videos for extra guidance. Supporting audio tracks of the exercises and pdf of the lessons. A quiz to sum it all up. 

The first module is free, to give you an impression of what the course is like. The other modules are constructed similarly to the first.

Every module starts and ends with a mandatory quiz, which makes sure you pay attention and follow the course. If you get the answers wrong you are corrected and can then retake the test, which guaranties you cannot fail.

Vocal technique
All the vocal techniques in the course are built up gradually. The next one in addition to the previous one, etcetera. Extra attention is given to twang, belting and breath management. 

While gradual and focused, the course is quite demanding. It brings you to quite extended abilities,  if you follow the exercises. 

Areas of focus chart - UNIQUE to voice essentials
This chart, which is featured in every module, tells you on which vocal aspects you should focus on with the exercises given. The chart will show you on a scale to which degree a certain aspect is important. 

The vocal aspects indicated in the chart: Body Alignment & Tension), Breath Management, Channel (Vocal Tract), Phonation (Onset & Core Tone), Resonance (Registers & Placement), Pitch (Intonation), Loudness (Dynamics & Management), Articulation (Consonant & Vowel).

The course feels personable and engaging. Dr. Dan is speaking very professionally and approachably.

The level of physiological description here is very high: I as a voice teacher learned a lot. The quiz is a good reminder of all the terms and functions you learn.

There’s a discussion section on the side! People can post a question and Dr. Dan answers.

Important, to make the best of the course
It seems like this course gives you what Dr. Dan finds to be some fundamentals of singing. Giving a mixture of teaching forms (video, text, charts, worksheets). I believe the sum of the parts will give the desired outcome. Do exactly as told. 

It is vital to watch the videos, not only listen, and read the descriptions on the screen and under all exercises. They give important pointers. 

More potential to advance
If you follow down the rabbit hole, every video leads you to more videos dealing in more detail with necessary and relevant tips. For example: after giving a twang on vowel exercises, Dr. Dan warns this exercise may cause one to use unnecessary tension, and points to a video about tension management, leading from there to a 10 video playlist on releasing different muscle tension in the body! Now that's thorough work.

Dr. Dan has twenty years of teaching experience and 25 years of performance experience. He is specialised in contemporary singing.

The premise of the course is that when you get to know your instrument intellectually - that helps with the execution of vocal technique. Also, Matt, the instructor, claims that you can learn to sing any style if you know the vocal components. I couldn't agree more with both points. 

The course gives a detailed, easy to follow layout of the vocal anatomy and function, pairs it with additional resources and some unique features that we'll go over below.

There are short modules for the main structure, showing and teaching about the different parts of the instrument. 

In the first introduction to the instrument structor, Matt uses a deer grunter and demonstrates how different parts of the voice impact its quality and pitch. It’s actually funny, loved it.

After explaining the overall structure of the vocal instrument, Matt goes on, very wisely, to show the posture and how it affects the voice. You know how much I agree with that approach... He also gives a list of methods which help align the posture and release muscle tension. 

Larynx is by far the best anatomy lesson I have ever seen. The model is beautiful, and the explanation was easy to follow and made all the sense. 

Singers: everybody needs to know this stuff - and Dr. Edwards explains it perfectly and in an accessible way. 

Combining vocal exercises

Along the course there are breath and singing exercises, which in the context of understanding the body make a lot more sense than introduced separately. 

For example: explaining about the ribs and diaphragm + practicing extended exhalation. Or: explaining about the larynx and vocal folds, then teaching belting, head voice, mixing etc.

[one thing I slightly differ from the course strategy - is that I believe one should start by working on the vocal cords and then move on to the diaphragm area. The course taches the diaphragm/rib area first, but they do make it clear that the vocal cords have a role in regulating the breath, too]

Towards the end we get a quick lesson about the effect microphones have on the voice. Important to know.

Additional resources

At the end of every chapter there is either a document with more information or a video with a lecture on the topic that was taught, with even deeper exploration. 

Bonus material

There are 5 bonus modules, including a guide to finding a vocal coach and an assessment on how you sing, which is very extensive.

To wrap up there is a TON of vocal exercises - in their own app! The exercises are divided by categories of high and low, female and male. A very generous library of exercises for different purposes. So they don’t just give the theory, they make sure you can take action and start applying what you learned.

In addition to illustrations and animation movies to demonstrate how the body behaves, the course includes some very helpful and unique softwares and tools:

1) Zygote Body. A program which shows you the human body, removing one layer at a time and exposing the inside of the body. Pairing it, of course, with the names of all the parts and organs. It’s an amazing way to get to know the body. I think I’m stealing this idea 🙂

2) Gorgeous anatomy models. To name a few, Matt shows the body parts on large, detailed 3D models of the torso, the larynx and on a real size skeleton - which is always fun to work with. The larynx may be called 4d (?) because it moves around to show its parts' behavior. 

3) The Pink Trombone - A diagram of a cross-section of the vocal tract (including top of throat, mouth, tongue and nasal cavities). A long click on the mouse makes it sing (!) and by sliding the mouse in different direction on a scale you can change the quality of the sound. 

4) An app with access to all the vocal exercises which are, by the way, very good! I might add this to the singing app article, even though it's not a stand alone app

What I love about Matt's teaching is that he is showing something on the skeleton, or a model, and then instructs you to experience the different parts and notice how the body moves and is influenced by posture. So you get the cognitive understanding, but then also the kinaesthetic understanding of your body. 

Matt is very coherent and speaks in a calm, patient voice. He is serious, all the time, but that just makes the lighter moments funnier 🙂

Most importantly, Matt's teaching style is gradual and thorough - which makes him a very good teacher

Matt is an Associate Professor of Voice and Artistic Director of the CCM Vocal Pedagogy Institute at Shenandoah Conservatory. His students have performed on and off Broadway, on national and international tours, on TV/Film, and front bands throughout the world.