Introduction
Singing is, quite frankly, a hobby like no other.
It allows you to use your body’s own natural instrument, the vocal cords, which are a magnificent product of evolution that can be controlled and contorted to make a wide variety of sounds.
In fact, some of the most popular shows in the world are based on purely singing: The X-Factor, American Idol, The Voice, and a ton of other spin-offs that air all across the world in their own native languages.
This is a testament to show you how unique a hobby like singing can be — it has the power to unite billions of people using only the power of the human body.
So, is singing a hobby, and if so, how?
To address the main question, singing is a hobby in the same way that other pastimes qualify as such: if you do something for enjoyment or for your own pleasure, then that makes it a hobby.
To expand on that, singing is a unique hobby that allows you to not only gain enjoyment and pleasure but can also help to define you as a person or lead to career developments that would not have been possible otherwise.
In fact, all of the best hobbies are multi-productive where they not only allow you to have fun but can also develop other important attributes such as fitness, intelligence, happiness, and may even allow you to help other people.
We Sing Because We Can’t Speak Anymore: 5 Cool Facts About Singing
1. Your voice is one of a kind
And no, we’re not just blowing smoke up your behind — Your singing voice, or voice in general, is totally unique meaning it’s impossible for anyone else to replicate it.
It’s true that they may be able to imitate your voice closely (which is a skill in itself), however, they’ll never be able to sound exactly alike and that’s because everyone’s vocal cords develop in a unique way from birth.
In fact, even if you aren’t sure whether your singing voice is any good, you could still offer something unique that can be used for a variety of opportunities which is why when you’re passionate about something you should stick with it — especially singing.
2. Singing can help you lose weight
Singing as a hobby isn’t just good for entertainment purposes or to teach you a skill, it can also help you to burn extra calories throughout the day.
In fact, it’s thought that singing, per hour, can easily burn an extra 150 calories which is nothing to scoff at when the average person burns 1500-2000 calories a day naturally; that’s a 10% increase in calories burned just for doing what you love.
The majority of energy expenditure comes from the constant expansion of the lungs along with throat movement — depending on how expressive you are this might come in the format of hand gesturing too.
3. Communal singing can make you happier
If you’ve ever felt down in the dumps then you’ll know that it can be a struggle to motivate yourself, however, studies have shown that singing (especially when done with others) can actually help to improve your overall mood.
Basically, singing is a feel-good activity that when shared with others, can really help improve your self-esteem, social bonds, and can help you to overcome the fear of speaking to other people.
In fact, if you suffer from stage fright then singing as a group can be far more effective for overcoming those nerves than attempting to do it all by yourself from the start.
Plus, communal singing is a great way to improve your voice without feeling the immediate pressure of it being the only voice in the room.
4. Being a good singer is not a requirement to teach singing
Believe it or not, lots of people who teach singing don’t actually need to sing that well themselves.
That’s because as a teacher you need to be a good listener to spot mistakes — as a skill, listening relies primarily on your hearing rather than the power of voice.
As well as that, communication skills are far more important in being able to explain how an individual can learn something rather than trying to get them to intuitively imitate what you’re doing.
In fact, the same goes with many other areas of teaching or coaching, sport is a good example of this where the coach might not be physically capable, however, is perfectly fine to act as a guide or place the necessary steps for the person to improve at their chosen pastime.
5. Most people can learn to sing
Not unless you’re tone-deaf (which is a real condition), then you should be able to train your voice enough to become a fairly decent singer.
Singing is similar to staying in shape, you need to practice nearly every day whilst also avoiding bad habits such as smoking and drinking.
You’ll also need to learn a variety of techniques such as correct breathing whilst also learning intuitive skills such as the way you control your vocal cords to produce the most desirable sound.
As well as that, similar to exercise, you’ll want to employ a mixture of warm-up techniques to help get your voice going before a singing session as it will prime you to deliver the most powerful performances.
If you’re not sure where to start then YouTube can be a wonderful place as it contains plenty of free singing content to get you familiar with the techniques or skills needed to start singing.
Aside from that, you may also want to do a quick Google search for singing coaches in your area where you’ll have to attend throughout the week for singing lessons.
Frequently Asked Questions: Singing
Is singing a talent or a gift?
We mostly answered this above, however, we believe that for the majority of people singing is neither talent nor a gift, it’s actually something that you can develop over time with regular practice.
In fact, most people who you may assume are “gifted” are actually just very focused on singing and music in general; this gives them an advantage as it’s something they naturally enjoy rather than something they need to force themselves to do.
With that said, there’ll always be the outliers who seem to defy all beliefs and are absolutely incredible singers without much effort — this isn’t so dissimilar from prodigies or people who fall into the “genius” category for a variety of things.
This should dispel the myth that singing is a rare talent; there are absolutely thousands of contestants who are pretty good who enter reality show contests which should demonstrate that it’s not actually an atypical thing to be good at with enough practice.
Is it bad to sing every day?
No, singing every day is fine provided you’re looking after your vocal cords.
This means eating healthily, avoiding smoking, avoiding alcohol, and keeping in tune with how your throat feels to prevent overuse.
If you start experiencing any pain then it’s a good indicator that you might need to stop or potentially adjust what you’re doing to prevent further damage.
Conclusion
Singing is an excellent hobby that can help you to express yourself, create an identity, and is even known to improve happiness when performed as a group.
Not only that but it can also lead to career prospects that are unlike any others; as a hobby then, it’s safe to say that singing ranks highly as being multi-faceted and multi-productive in many areas.
As always, if you enjoyed our article then feel free to save our homepage for more topics like this one.
We also recommend checking out our massive list of hobbies in case you’re curious about other ways to enhance your spare time.
