If you look online for answers to this question, you'll probably come across checklists and ways to analyse your singing. Can you follow pitch? Do you have a good range? Are you singing right? These are all great things to understand, but let's step back for a second.
As voice teachers and vocal coaches, we encounter students at all levels of learning voice. We work with people who doubt they can sing at all, people who have just begun to sing, and people who have been singing for years.
One of the questions that quite often comes up with students who are relatively new to the world of voice lessons is : Can I Sing?
There are two parts to the answer to this question, as on face value it's an easy answer.
Quite simply, if you can speak, you can sing.
The act of singing is dependent on the same muscle coordination as speaking, the same breathing mechanism, and the exact same vocal instrument.
Singing is a natural part of human expression and communication, so natural in fact that babies often sing before speaking.
As long as you have nothing physically, medically, or psychologically to bar you from singing, you can sing and would be more than welcome in our singing community!
The more difficult part of this question to answer is the inherent question in the unspoken final words.
Can I sing (well)?
Can I sing (beautifully)?
Can I sing (with good technique)?
Can I sing (like Beyonce)?
The answer to these questions starts with one very important truth: to be a singer doesn't require you to be born with some mysterious gift. Contrary to what seems like a very popular belief, great singers don't all have exceptional vocal abilities and technique from day 1. Many (if not all) of the most well-known singers in the world still regularly work with vocal coaches to challenge their voices and keep developing their sound.
Although it's true that your vocal sound is in some level dependent on your voice itself, training and developing that voice can guide you to release a much more beautiful sound than you knew you was possible.
The act of singing is fundamentally reliant on the coordination of a collection of muscles, a coordination that may or may not come naturally. Every singer starts with both strengths and weaknesses - whether that's following pitch, struggles with range or other - the difference is made when we choose to treat today's abilities as our starting point rather than our ending point.
At the end of the day, will you like your sound? Nobody can guarantee you this, and many singers across the world have found it difficult to love their voices at various times (myself included!). Society conditions us to think that specific voices and sounds are 'beautiful' and others are 'bad', but the truth is, all voices are beautiful. Your voice is a part of you and tells your story without the need for words.
Ultimately we sing for love, for passion, for connection, we sing because we can't help but sing. If you have ever wanted to sing, you are welcome to join us. You can sing.