1. 97% of people can learn to sing

At first, this seems like a shocking number. We’ve all encountered too many people in our lives who can’t seem to hold a tune, whose singing voice grates on the ear, and who blast out wrong notes apparently clueless to the unmusical sound they’re making. You might even be one of these people yourself – and you’re certainly not alone!

So how is it possible that just 3% of people are truly incapable of singing?

The answer is that society tends to abandon those who can’t immediately and naturally sing in tune. Countless school teachers and parents have heard a child singing out of tune and steered them (sometimes not so gently) away from learning music.

The result: A huge number of people who can learn to sing but think they can’t.

… which brings us to the second discovery:

2. It’s surprisingly hard to get started

Again, this may sound highly unlikely. You only need to look in a music shop or search the internet to find plenty of “beginners singing” resources. Books, courses, video tutorials… Plenty of ways to learn to sing, it would seem.

But there’s actually a huge gap, and it’s covered up by the word “beginner”.

Because when it comes to learning to sing, “beginner” doesn’t really mean “someone who is beginning” – it means “early-stage singer”.

These resources can be excellent – if you can already sing pretty well.

If you can’t yet sing in tune, if your voice feels out of control, if you feel your voice just sounds bad and you don’t know what to do about it: these resources are of no use at all.

You find yourself in what we’ve taken to calling the “Pre-beginner Trap”.

This is why last year we spent months developing a brand new interactive singing tutor, SingTrue. It’s the only app which is specifically designed for people at this “true beginner” stage, where the voice is unfamiliar and untrusted, and the very basics like pitching a note correctly present a real challenge. SingTrue leads you through learning to control your vocal pitch and get comfortable and confident with the fundamentals of singing.

So far SingTrue has helped tens of thousands of people learn to sing in tune and we’re looking forward to continuing to develop and improve the app.

However not everybody has access to an iPhone or iPad – and we found there are aspects to becoming a singer which don’t quite fit into SingTrue…