The answer to this may surprise you but I think I have a fair share of reasons why I believe that it is true. Music is so many things and singing is just an amazing field to pursue.
Singing is not genetic. It is an artistic endeavor and is something that can be learned by anyone who has the time to give to practice. Through knowledge and understanding of how singing as a whole and how the techniques works, singing is not something that is only reserved for people with the right genetics for it.
There you go. It really isn’t for people with genes. This isn’t sports, having a longer upper or lower body doesn’t affect your singing. Unlike sports, music is also not about competition.
Genetics Is Equal to Talent
When you ask if singing is genetic you are making it equal to talent because genetics and talent imply the same thing.
That somebody is born with the ability to do something without having to practice for it. So, before we begin I would like to say that what you are referring to as genetics is referred to as talent in the common tongue.
It Never Is
Singing is not genetic because everyone has to learn the techniques that are required to perform the correct way.
It doesn’t matter when or how you were born on what environment you were exposed to. The fact that you are to practice the techniques in order to make the sound come out of your mouth the way it’s meant to come out cannot be genetic.
It is the same thing as saying if a professional bicyclist has a child then that child ought to be able to cycle from the day their legs are able to reach the pedals but it is not possible and we also don’t refute that.
There are so many things like stamina, shifting the gears flawlessly and posture that must be learned and we somehow don’t question these things to be genetic.
Techniques cannot be inherited but only be practiced.
Natural Talent Versus Environment
People who are good at music are raised in an environment where music is ever present and that is true because when children are exposed to a certain kind of environment they tend to inherit the qualities of the people they are surrounded by.
But you are in that scenario practice is required regardless of whether you are born into a musical family or not, practice is necessary but even a talented child who is really good at music at very young age practices naturally because the environment around them prompts them to do so.
They are prompted by the environment to take certain actions that end up in active or passive practice.
Maybe they are taught music theory and ear training on a regular basis or they are exposed to a lot of genres and in their brain, they are able to pick it up like any other language. Active or passive. I believe that it is both for whom you may say that there is some innate ability for music.
This kind of natural practice at a really young age gives them the edge in what we call today, talent.
Very rarely people are ever born with inborn or innate talent.
If you can trace back to their childhood you will always find roots of that skill being developed by someone they were influenced by actively or passively.
Practice Trumps Genes
Practice trumps genes in artistic endeavors because practice is the only determining factor of success when it comes to getting good at something.
Genes rely on your natural ability. Practice does not.
As stated above practice happens actively or passively, the only difference between a talented person and someone whose not ‘talented’ is how much they have practiced yet.
Even children who develop perfect pitch need to practice relative harmony.
Which is what I was not really good at, but I practiced for it and became better with time.
If I can become better at it by just working hard on it and developing a practice routine and being deliberate about my practice then so can you!
Practice will always trump genes because anyone who does something every day and becomes better at it even at the rate of 0.5% a day will find themselves to be twice as good at least within a year! Even if they took breaks! That’s great progress!
Just because you are not able to do something right now in an artistic field, especially in music doesn’t take away from the fact that you ought to be able to sit down and achieve it through practice.
Not having the ‘genes’ for it is not an excuse. Go and become better.
Why Competition Is Not What You Think It Is
Competition in sports makes sense. Who’s faster? Who can knock who out? Who’s stronger?
But, who writes a better song? Ah, no one conclusion. Do you listen to one band? No.
Is there someone you can say that has come up with a proper way to measure competition in music? No. It’ll never happen.
There are opinions and then there is taste. That’s it.
The artistic field doesn’t run on genetic favor, which does exist in sports. Thought it needed to be mentioned for someone to have a positive outlook on music and other artistic endeavors.
Time and Practice
So the more you practice the better you will become.
The more you know the better you will practice.
The better you practice the more effectively your time is spent.
Let’s break this down.
Practice Will Make You Better
The more you practice the better you are the only difference between a child who has been practicing since a very young age versus you is that you have not started to practice yet and that’s it.
They have far more time accumulated over something than you.
But music is not about competition! Who is better than who? Don’t care.
Even the simplest of songs are sometimes the only thing that I want to listen to than something that is very rhythmically intense and very heavy on arrangement. Simple works in music and in art in general.
Knowledge is Important
The more you know the better you practice obviously you need to know what you want to practice and how it is performed so that you are able to perform what you want to perform and even practice as well.
At the end of this article, I will provide resources from which you can learn where to be better. Not just in terms of how to learn to sing but also in singing as a whole. Even this article is a little addition to your knowledge.
Time is Money
The better you practice the more effectively your time is spent.
I don’t believe that you should practice four hours a day I believe that you should practice consistently over your life, in general, rather than sitting around and trying to waste time in time to make sense of it.
You should have a practice plan or a practice schedule and what you want to practice how much you want to practice and what the end goal of that practice is.
If that is not something that you think you need you are very honestly wasting your time.
Don’t Practice things you don’t need and don’t practice at all if you think that it is based on talent. But practice because you want to get good at something and have it for the rest of your life.
Speaking of Time
I believe in online courses and I will not waste any time for you to know more about them here.
My personal recommendation is Robert Lunte’s courses.
All of the courses, that I think you can benefit a lot from which will allow you to understand and learn singing from day one.
Take your time and go through them to understand which course you’d like but try having at least one on your website.