I understand what you’re getting at. Maybe you want to play the piano to improve your singing or maybe you already play the piano and now want to see if it’s a viable solution to learn to sing better.
Yes, playing the piano can definitely improve your singing, given that you practice the correct things. Playing the piano helps to improve your voice by providing you with a good musical foundation to start with. Developing these foundations will definitely improve your voice.
Let’s read on ahead and see what other benefits playing the piano has to offer to learn to sing. By the way, knowing how to play a digital piano also counts.
Can It Improve Your Singing? Only If You Want it To
Will learning the piano improve your singing? Of course.
But the catch here is that you must practice in such a way that it does. It can’t just be that you practice piano and just walk away with better singing. That’s obviously not how it works. It works when you practice singing actively along with your piano playing.
Nothing is possible in music without practice. You have to put in the hours when you are trying to acquire a skill.
Byproducts of Learning Piano
All is not lost. There are still tons of benefits that will help you to master singing that will be byproducts of learning the piano.
Learning to Read Music
Learning to read music is going to help you tremendously as you will be able to decipher not only what the notes are but also how they relate to each other (intervals).
Learning the piano will enable you to understand how to play what’s written which allows you to listen and match your pitch. If you’re given written music for your singing you can easily play it on the piano first and start matching your pitch to the melody to start singing it.
Ear Training
When you are able to understand how notes relate to each other, then you’re also training your ear to what the sounds actually sound like and that allows you to have a strong ear.
Having a strong ear is probably the biggest superpower you can have in music. If your ears are able to discern between two sounds then imagine what you can do. The possibilities that open up after having a good ear are limitless.
These possibilities aren’t limited to composing, producing, and even recording well and better.
How Playing The Piano Can Help You Sing Better
In all honesty, these are all just points that are going to help you practice more effectively than before. The more effective your practice of singing the better you become. Read this article to know how much practice and how you ought to be doing it.
Matching Pitch
Matching pitch is one of the most fundamental skills you have to pick up when you are starting out to sing and the piano is very direct in its approach to that as well.
You can see exactly where the middle C is and you can start practicing immediately.
Extending Range
The piano is the best instrument to go for when you are thinking of practicing to extend your range. Why?
Because of its simplicity of it. There is a reason why this instrument has remained unchanged for so many centuries when it comes to its structure and how it’s laid out.
The simple and plain black and white keys represent the notes perfectly. It’s a fairly small thing but it goes a long way because improving on your current range and trying to extend is going to be one of the most important things a vocalist can work on.
The pianos just help you with that.
Why Mixing Singing and Piano is Amazing
Scales
Hypothetically you have to master playing scales and you need to incorporate it into your singing as well. If you learn one scale on the piano, you can start practicing it with your voice as well.
Singing your scales out loud is going to help you understand how the notes of a scale relate to each other and help you internalize sounds. Which is basically the groundwork of your musical education. It’s ultra-easy at this point to practice.
Intervals
The same goes for practicing your intervals. Intervals are the distance between the notes. It’s essential for getting your ear to a point where you can rely on it to compose and want to compose even more complex and oftentimes better than you have before.
These intervals are studied theoretically under music theory and practiced to improve your ear. Singing is going to allow you to internalize these sounds, just like scales.
Using the piano to get better at intervals is the same as getting better at scales. Both are highly important for getting good at music.
Do You Want to Learn to Sing?
Whether you’re a veteran singer or someone who is contemplating whether or not you ought to take singing lessons, I think you definitely should.
There are close to no drawbacks to learning how to sing. If you want to become a holistic musician in today’s day and age then I suggest that you do. Very strongly.
I wrote an article on why you should have at least one online singing course. The benefits are fleshed out in-depth in that article. You can read it here.
However, if you are interested in getting a course for yourself then you ought to pick this one, ‘The Four Pillars of Singing‘, as this course is personally owned by me as well. Your purchase will include the book along with it, I just own the digital course.
The price is good and it gives you a lot to work with. Especially if you’re a beginner. I would ask you to exercise patience with your practice as you might not notice results immediately. I am saying that because I went through the same.
There are other courses and you can see the full list of courses here, pick the one that fits your budget and your needs.
I recommend everyone to have such a course in their library because the knowledge base required to understand the basics of singing is probably never going to change.
All the best in your learning and I know you will succeed!