What can you learn in a month of voice lessons?

I'm often asked how long I think adult students should take voice lessons, and my answer can be annoyingly vague to some: "It depends." It depends on where you're starting from - can you match pitch and stick to a melody? Have you taken lessons before? Have you done any singing outside of your car or shower? Did you sing or play an instrument as a child? Your prior experience (or lack thereof) will have an impact on how quickly you learn, and some skills (like matching pitch) take much longer to learn than others (like taking the right breath).

Slate's Human Guinea Pig article from 2005, "Song of the Damned," details Emily Yoffe's monthlong venture into voice lessons and answers this question in an honest, entertaining way. I was intrigued by the article but really wanted to hear the end result; as a voice teacher I was skeptical that one month of lessons would prepare her for a performance.

Please note: comments on Yoffe's singing voice are offered only as an explanation of vocal technique, NOT as professional criticism.

If you listen to the recording of Yoffe's performance (link is toward the end of the article), you can hear the potential that her teacher, Deborah Benner, heard at her first voice lesson. There's a warmth in the tone that with proper technique and practice could be extended throughout the range.

As the song progresses you can hear tension building in her throat, most likely caused by nervousness; when a beginning singer gets nervous, the first thing to go is typically breath support - and as Deborah succinctly puts it, "Without breath, the melody has nothing to float on." If there's no breath moving over the vocal folds to create pitch, the folds themselves have to squeeze together to create the sound. This tension makes it difficult to sing above mid-range, often resulting in flat intonation and a pushed sound.

A month of voice lessons had helped Yoffe to correctly use her breath and sing more easily, but I imagine it was difficult to apply such new technique in a pressurized situation. In my experience, new vocal technique won't be solidified in only one month of lessons; it takes a bit longer to work new habits into your muscle memory, especially if you're an adult student and have to "unlearn" old ways of breathing and singing. For this reason, after my vague answer of "it depends," I recommend at least 3 months of study for singers entering my studio.

Since this was for an article that I'm assuming was on deadline, the Human Guinea Pig wound up performing after only one month of lessons, which would likely be too soon for most students. However, as first performances go I would deem it a success; along with some truly lovely notes, Yoffe gets across the overall attitude of the piece and sounds like she's having fun - which is the whole point of taking voice lessons, right?