I should have confessed an interest in this, though I'm sure those who know me are aware of it anyway
I have been involved in singing workshops throughout my singing life and have helped run a couple
I know what works for me - I was wondering how others approached the question
Ireland is experiencing a great renaissance in traditional music at present and there are indications of a revival in interest in singing - I'm trying to get our local movers and shakers to get something happening here in the way of catering for new singers (with a little success) and I don't want to impose my own views on it without finding out what others are doing

I think Dave's "runner" is an interesting analogy - if you just want to run for a bus and don't mind coughing your lungs up for most of your journey, just running might do the trick
The amount of work you need o put into it depends on what you want to get out of it - runners who want to be good at it train, the more they train, the better they become
I can see no reason why that should not be true of singing.

I stopped singing for a long time and experienced the same problems as Guests - when I started up again, I found I'd lost a lot - nothing to do with age, just lack of use
In The Critics Group we were given exercises to find our 'natural' voice ans push the boundaries in order to handle different songs
The range I thought I was losing is now back to where it was when I stopped singing

I was persuaded quite early on that the voice could be regarded as a tool-box rather than an end in itself - learn to use all the tools in the box and you can carve masterpieces
If all you want to do is chop firewood all you have to learn is not to cut off your fingers
Jim