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A Voice
Ah cricket 20122 (7364759010), Owen Lucas from Bath, UK · Public domain

Voice · voice

Voice

Learn the Voice with a teacher who plays it. Most people are playing a tune they recognise in about 1 week, at 20 minutes a day.

E2-C6 · about 3.7 octaves

Voice teachers

Every teacher sets their own hours and their own prices. Many offer a free first conversation. Take it, and see whether you get on.

  1. Gustavo Piqué TorresNew here

    Solfeggio

    OnlineIn Person

  2. daisy nyasoreNew here

    English

    Online

How a Voice makes sound

Hover to watch it, tap to hear it

The Voice sounds because breath passes through the vocal folds and the throat, mouth and nose shape what comes out. It is the only instrument you cannot put down and pick up again, and the only one that already knows every song you do.

A Voice note lasts as long as you keep feeding it. You control the middle of every note, not only its beginning.

Overtones you can hear
8
Loudest overtone
×2
Speaks in
60 ms

What learning the Voice actually looks like

At 20 minutes a day. Short and daily beats long and occasional. That is not encouragement, it is one of the most replicated findings in how people learn physical skills.

  1. Week one

    You make a sound on purpose. It will not be a good sound. Everyone’s first one is bad, including your teacher’s.

  2. About 1 week in

    You play something another person can recognise. This is the moment most people say it stopped feeling like homework.

  3. Around six months

    You choose the next piece yourself, and you can hear what needs work without being told. The plateau usually lands somewhere near here. It is normal, it passes, and it is why having a teacher matters more now than it did in month one.

  4. A year

    You play with other people. That is the point of the whole thing, and it arrives sooner than almost anyone expects.

The honest specification

Getting started
●●●●
The first month
The messy middle
●●●●
Months three to nine, roughly
How far it goes
●●●●●
If you keep at it for years
Can start from
age 7
Chords
One note at a time
Portable
Fits on a bus
Tuning
Always in tune
Practice volume
85 dB
About as loud as conversation in a busy room.
Recommended practice
20 minutes a day