I think that most of us can agree that due to COVID, many of us have had a lot more time on our hands than we have ever had before. This is certainly true in my respect. Even though I still had university work to do, I was spending way more time at home than normal, didn't have my daily commute to contend with, and just wanted to do something that didn't involve writing for hours on pieces of paper or staring at a computer screen whilst trying to think of something to write for my assignments.
One thing I have always wanted to do was to learn how to sing. I love singing, however, I am not very good at it and have always been put off by getting an actual person to teach me how to sing because I am scared of what they are going to say about my voice and that they would just shut me down about my dreams to maybe one day become a singer (which I know I have an incredibly slim chance of being able to do anyway, but I guess a girl can dream). I have heard a few things about the Yousician app before and was aware that it was an app that helps teach you how to play an instrument, however up until I did some research on it, I wasn't aware that it also taught you how to sing. So I downloaded the app and although I found it quite expensive for a yearly membership in order to get more out of it (I think you can get it for free, but if you want the membership it costs £119.99) and gets you premium access to more songs. I know it is quite expensive, however, if you are serious about using it for your music, I am sure you (like me) will find it very beneficial in the long run.
So, if this app hasn't already put you off by the price of it (please don't be as it's an excellent app), then please read further as I give you more information on the app itself and what I really think of it...
This is the page I always start with whenever I move to a new level on the app. I have just finished level three and there are five levels in total. As you can see from the above screenshot, the learn page is split into two sections between 'singing' and 'knowledge'. The 'singing' side teaches you different techniques of how to perfect your singing voice and the things you can do whilst singing to help make your voice stronger and more powerful. The 'knowledge' side teaches you different parts within singing, such as how to count beats and what an interval is, to help with your timing and to really give you an understanding of how singing works. I recommend using this first before you move over to the workouts page (which I will discuss with you in a minute) as the workouts lead on from what you have learnt on this page. This is a really helpful page and has definitely taught me a lot of things about singing I never knew before, either through watching videos to being able to put what I have learnt into practice.
Once you have learnt the skills you need, you can then head over to the workouts page that goes back over the things you have learnt on the learn page. I have found that going through these workouts helps me to increase my knowledge and confidence in what I have learnt and is also great for helping me warm up my voice before singing something. This often takes a lot longer to get through than the learn page and is often a lot harder, but I suppose that's part of improving your singing voice and being able to increase your vocal range.
You are also able to search for songs to sing. While I am still learning how to sing and slowly, but surely, moving up a level, I prefer to filter my song search by choosing the level I am on and singing the songs I know on that level. As you can see, you can also choose your song by genre. Of course, you could just search for the song you want to sing, but I think that while you are first learning how to sing, the best thing to do is to search by level range. So far, I have found plenty of songs that I love and have really enjoyed learning how to sing them. There have been some songs that I've searched that, surprisingly, aren't on Yousician's song catalogue, but they are always adding songs to their song catalogue and there is definitely something for everyone on there.
When you do choose a song to sing, one of the features you can use is the transpose feature. This enables you to edit the pitch of the song to suit you, whether that be making it lower or higher. It also gives you the option to auto transpose the song, which is where the app edits the pitch of the song to suit your vocal range. I have used this feature (once I eventually discovered it) many times and it has honestly changed my life so much and has meant that songs I once thought I couldn't sing became more suited to my voice.
I think that's about it with this app review. I have only started using it over the last few months so am still getting used to it and it's features, but if there's anything else I discover that I think may be useful for you, then I'll update this post.
Have you used Yousician at all? If so, what do you think about it?
Love Beth xx