I'm fascinated - (or should that be curious?). I had a phone call yesterday from someone enquiring about singing lessons. I was recommended to him by one of my students who is a piano teacher. He asked if I was busy next month. Thinking he must be a student, I asked would it just be for the month, or will it be ongoing - the answer would decide whether I could fit him in or not, as next month he could take slots vacated by people on holiday. He didn't know. He's been teaching himself for three years with the use of two books and a CD, neither of which, or whose authors, I have heard of, and wants me to listen to him to see if he's doing things properly! He thinks he might only need two lessons.
He's 22 and interested in all types of repertoire from rock to opera.
I've never met anyone before who is self taught from books, but I'm looking forward to seeing the results, and helping him if he wants me to after the initial consultation (even, or should I say hopefully? after telling him to ditch the books).
Has anyone else ever seen/heard someone sing who is self-taught in this way? If not, could you speculate on what I might be presented with?
I'll come back and let you know what happens.

Now, that really will be an interesting lesson Ann. I have never met any singer who has learnt from books and CDs only but have met several who have copied the styles of other trained singers by mimicking their recordings. Sometimes the resulting sounds are lovely but almost always the basics are not in place. Please report back on your findings.
I have often thought that I should have a video camera set up in my studio to record first lessons, and to help more advanced ones when preparing for performances. It would be so interesting to be able to look back after set periods of time to see the improvements in voices.

I have a student who had self taught using a popular CD course method. His technique wasn't bad when he turned up, but I found that he had wasted loads of time with the course doing exercises that didn't really suit his voice, also when the course ran out, there was still lots to learn and so he had holes in his technique that we've been filling up.

It wasn't really any different to taking on any other student - he had reasonable singing technique with a few holes in it and - for some reason - thought that every singing problem could be fixed by breathing (his major problem, however, was that his vocal chords weren't closing fully, so the breathing exercises he was doing were a little like trying to heat a room with no windows! - of course the CD couldn't tell him this) - but other than that it was just like any other student - he was just a little bit further long that most beginners and had different problems.

He's likely to realise that two lessons and a CD course aren't going to make him competent (and more importantly - convincing) singer in every genre from Rock to Opera so I think there's a fair chance that once he sees what goes into it, he'll ask for more.

Let us know how it goes!

Allan

EDIT - @ Petrat : I've also had a couple who've mimicked their favourite stars - usually of the RnB genre and you're quite right, the result is usually very pleasant to listen to and they almost always deflate when I tell them they have to learn the basics - I tell them it's lovely but most likely not durable unless they get the basics in place and I try to explain that learning Mariah Carey style vocal licks before you've got basic sound production down is like icing the cake before it's been put in the oven. Some of them pout and go off (I call these the attention seeker students - they don't really want voice lessons, they just want to be told how great they are by the teacher) and some bite the bullet and become better singers for it.

On the upside, I've learnt a few good vocal licks from some of these beginners, so that's not to be sniffed at!

Ask him if his name is Manuel:

Aye leearrrn eet from a boook.

For my first 2 years of lessons i had a teacher who taught me nothing - no technique no nothing i'd just go sing a song or two with 2 other girls (in school lessons) once a week. So i got a book to teach me about technique etc. then last year i got a new teacher and my technique was pretty good - but then that wasn't just from a book I'd learnt good breathing technique from flute etc.

Don't really see the point in that post i'm like 'i learnt from a book but i didnt but i did' Basically what i was trying to say was the book helped me a lot but you definately need a teacher to learn to sing properly. I improved SO much after getting the new teacher, which shows how important/how much better proper lessons are than books!