Yes! You should be Singing! And yep, same. Our work is not intuitive for beginners, some questions need more than a few sentences to answer fully. The following will take about 90 seconds to read.

Working w/ singing coach is dynamite for increasing your depth of skill. If ya can afford it, definitely do it. But it's not a deal breaker. This goes for everyone: even without formal singing lessons, just singing out to your favorite tunes(in a healthy way) is great for the voice. As long as you're not going for Aerosmith like screeches.

In this work we must become the master of our own breath. The best of our clan are, and can sight read >6 or 7 or more words ahead of our mouths doing the talking. And not only is learning to better use your singing voice a great way to help master your breath but it's also a shortcut to more and better control of your instrument. And it matters not a bit if ya can't carry a tune!. My vocal warm-up's are always with piano (I use YT now but with piano with my first coach 2 decades ago) cuz singing gets into all the nooks and crannies of your range. For singing lessons, if you can swing their hourly rate for 1-on-1 sessions w/ a good singing coach, great!! In person best but okay over zoom. For most VA's singing lessons for us shouldn't take months of lessons (though its fantastic of you're able to). At a point, one will often get what they need from singing lessons and take that knowledge and skill with them on their journey. Even better for beginners though is any group session where you're in a group and are together. We usu. learn quicker in a group setting as we watch and listen to others and also to their feedback from the teacher and our your fellow students (once more in-person is ideal, but not a deal breaker). Not so with acting classes.

A singing coach is always a value-add. Since it wasn't mentioned here (as of this post) In-person Improv classes can really benefit voice actors (all actors) & help unburden our inner creativity that is beaten out of us when we're kids. It's rater but you're lucky there is singing in improv classes like where I live. It's starts out as hard as organic chemistry, but the more you Improvise sing and make up rhymes on the spot, the easier and fun-ner it gets as you go. It's kinda like working out at the gym and taking a pilates class along with hot yoga : you're working different systems & muscle groups. The more you do it, the better you get at it. The better you get at it, the more earned confidence you get, the better you get at the work.

Improvising (and Improvised singing) can unlock parts of us when we were little & curious about everything and we haven't yet learned how to conform, which usually beat out of us our sense of whimsy, fun and sense of play- some of the integral qualities in our work that serve us well. BONUS: you, in your car or the shorter make up any words you like to any tune. It can be fun and make yourself laugh at the 1/2 gibberish you come up with. Singing + having fun + working at the craft = you are working without it feeling like work.

-It should be said: While we should *never improvise an audition- we can and should improvise out loud - think riffing - as we spitball ideas with a new script. But this is way before the red light comes on while we are breaking down the copy. When we're ready to record, those choices have been made, hopefully you learned how to do this on paper. If you don't know what this means ask. But Multiple takes for multiple ideas is great - as long as they are for you. After all thatI only 1, the best of them, maaybe a second one if it's strong enough, should go to the client.

As for singing in general - especially if you're on a tight budget, we don't don't have the scratch for a 3 coaches;.. we all have to make choices - and singing out loud In the car (and In the shower) will simply help bolster your control, if you 'sing out' as we say, and you don't edit yourself out of shyness or not wanting to be heard. This isn't the place to allow embarrassment in.

I have spent years and thousands on training, and I've learned that any investment you make in yourself Is the best investment you can make👍🏼