Is singing well a talent or a skill?

“Your voice is great, I wish I had a voice like yours to be able to sing..”

“I want to try singing but I am not talented.”

“I don't have the voice needed for singing.”

Being someone who has a naturally deeper voice and an interest in singing, I often hear such things from people, and everytime I heart these statements I'm like, WHAT THE F-?

I'm not gonna say I'm a trained musician, honestly speaking, I'm an amateur who learnt a few things by himself and practiced, not a lot, but as much as he can.

You see, in Indian households and during teen years, you need to be more focused on studies than taking out time for riyaaz. Until and unless you have been learning music since childhood, but that's not the case with me.

I started really really late. Like in my 9th standard, that's 5 years ago, I wasn't even able to sing with a quarter of quality that I can sing with now.

I don't have a huge vocal range, but atleast I have good control over the range I have now, unlike earlier when my voice used to shake a lot while singing.

I know how to add feel to the song and believe me, adding feel to a song is the most important and most difficult part, you should seem to be expressing through song not just humming random notes.

My voice is pretty heavy and I haven't realised or opened my head voice yet, in simple terms I'm heavily restricted due to the inability to sing higher notes, still I can manage to sound good, because I know how to use my voice.

And that my friend, is the art of singing.

Every singer you see, be it international stars like Ed Sheeran, Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift or Indian legends like Arijit Singh, Shreya Ghoshal, Sonu Nigam sir, it's all about practicing.

Some people may be naturally more gifted in terms of vocal texture, voice stability and natural range. But it's not like you can't craft that on your own.

A good example is that of Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan sahab, he had a pretty average, or I'd not hesitate to say below average voice in terms of vocal quality, but his practice, precision, ability to control it, all made him one of the greatest musicians and singers the world has ever seen.

I'd say, singing is neither a talent, nor a skill, it's a hunger, if you're hungry enough to learn, it'll be a skill for you and if you're gifted along with hungry, it'll be a talent. But it's never something not doable.

You don't master singing by practicing 1000 different combinations of notes and melodies, you master it by practicing each combination 1000 times.

~KSR