GUEST's post at 22 Jul 12 - 01:18 p.m. just above is well worth heeding. Taking at least a few voice lessons from a good teacher is the best investment that someone who aspires to be a singer can make.

A good teacher will instruct you in correct breath support, which is very important for several reasons. And he or she will also help you with pitch control and such extremely important considerations as singing with a relaxed jaw and open throat.

I know several singers of folk songs who shunned voice teachers because they were afraid they would wind up sounding like an opera singer (as if it were that easy!!), or that it would ruin their "natural style" (which consisted of singing off-pitch a lot and with a tight throat). Eventually some of them wound up not being able to sing at all because they had essentially ruined their voices. Nodes on their vocal cords, chronic hoarseness, inability to hit or hold a specific pitch.

I took some voice lessons even before I became interesting in folk music. I don't sound like an opera singer. And I've had a fifty year long professional career singing folk songs and ballads, and my singing voice is still strong and healthy.

Consider it a good investment. It will solve a lot of problems for you in the beginning, and in the long run, it will save your voice.

Don Firth