Learning to sing is one of the most rewarding—and most attainable—musical goals you can set for yourself. After all, the instrument is built in! No purchase required.
However, it’s important to make sure you’re learning with proper technique, and it also doesn’t hurt to have some (non-judgmental) feedback! The best (or at least, the cheapest) place to get this? Simply Sing, one of the best singing apps out there, is a great place to start.
Today, I’ll be doing a deep dive and conducting a full Simply Sing review to find out whether it’s worthy of your time, energy, and money, or whether you’d be better off elsewhere (spoiler alert: it doesn’t take a lot of time—or a lot of money).
Now, learning from a professional vocal coach is always going to be best. Especially because, unlike most other instruments, you can actually hurt yourself if you don’t use your voice correctly. And how tragic would that be, to ruin your voice before you even learned how to use it?
But using Simply Sing to get started feeling comfortable with your voice is a great option for total beginners. And in this review, I’m going to show you how it works.
Why Trust Me?
I’m a singer and songwriter with over 20 years of experience singing professionally onstage and in the studio (and in karaoke! And in the car! And in the shower!). I mostly sing rock and country professionally, but I love to sing my favorite R&B and pop songs when karaoke time rolls around.
I also studied voice in college, so I have experience training with a professional voice coach, learning to sing with correct technique, posture, and breathing.
In this Simply Sing review, I’ll walk you through my experience using the app, starting from square one, and describe what I think the app does well, and what I think could be improved. I’ll ultimately help you determine whether you think learning to sing (or sing better) with Simply Sing is right for you, or whether you’d be better off with an alternative.
Okay, let’s get started!
What is Simply Sing?
Quick Overview
Simply Piano (review here) was launched by JoyTunes in 2011, and they've since taken the online piano lessons world by storm with their fun and interactive piano lesson app. (JoyTunes has since rebranded as “Simply.”) In 2020, Simply branched out into the realm of guitar lessons, touting (and delivering on) the same promise for aspiring guitarists with Simply Guitar (review here).
Then, in 2022, Simply launched Simply Sing, expanding their portfolio with a new set of lessons focused on teaching users to sing. The Simply Sing app uses a similar approach and interface to Simply Guitar and Piano, so users of those will feel comfortable and at home in the app, which is easy to use even if you’ve never tried a Simply product.
How Much Does Simply Sing Cost?
Simply Sing costs $59.99 per year, or $14.99 per month for a premium subscription. There's also an option for a premium annual subscription at $89.99 or a premium monthly subscription at $19.99.
Simply Sing Review: My Experience
Even though I’m an experienced and confident singer, I had a great time working my way through Simply Sing. Now, maybe it’s just because I was singing, and that’s my favorite thing to do. But I also believe that even at my advanced level I was able to get some value out of this app.
Getting Started
Simply Sing begins, as is the case with most music instruction apps, with a little quiz that will help the app determine your goals and interests. Once you fill out the questionnaire (what are your favorite genres, who are your favorite singers, etc.) you actually do a voice test of sorts to determine your range. I think this is a really valuable feature for all singers—not just beginners. (I’m naturally a tenor who likes to sing in a baritone range, so I get kind of confused sometimes about what my voice type really is.)
Simply Sing’s test (which, awkwardly, did require me to whoop a loud “woo-hoo” as well as yell “hey!” three times as loud as I can—in my apartment) determined that, indeed, I am a tenor, and I was on my way.
Simply Sing puts a lot of emphasis on the app’s ability to modulate the key of any song into a range that is comfortable for your voice. I think that’s a great feature—it allows you to sing whatever you like. If you’re a soprano who loves Johnny Cash—walk that line, baby. A bass who loves Mariah Carey? It's no longer just a sweet, sweet fantasy. Simply Sing will change the key of any song to a range that’s comfortable for you.
How it Works
Earn XP as you learn and “master” songs. You’ll start out with “Basic,” move on to “Easy” songs, and eventually unlock “Medium,” “Hard,” and “Extreme.”
Your performances are scored on a percentage basis, based on the accuracy of your pitch and timing. At a certain percentage threshold, you pass the song and it is added to your list of "mastered" songs. I wasn't able to bomb hard enough to find out what that threshold actually was—Simply Sing makes it so easy to nail your songs that I have no doubt you'll be mastering your own songs no problem.
Finding Your Range
That being said, I wasn’t too sure about how accurate it was initially at finding a good range for me. For my first lesson, I chose “Can’t Help Falling in Love” by Elvis Presley. Was this cheating? Hmm.. I'm going to say "Yes." I’ve gone so far as to have performed this song—in its original key, mind you—for a wedding ceremony. As the bride was walking down the aisle, no less! So it’s safe to say I was comfortable with the song to begin with. Or, at least, I thought I was.
Let’s just say: the key Simply Sing chose for me had a female voice singing the demo. But, the app allows you to adjust the key to a range that feels good to you if you don’t like the one it chooses. So I pitched it down to the original key (and aced it).
Again, this kind of felt like cheating. Maybe I should have trusted the app, and I would have found that I really like singing Elvis in an alto voice. But I don’t know. I think brand-new beginners will put a lot more faith in the app’s AI than I did, since they won’t be coming with any preconceived notions about their own voice—which could be good or bad.
It could also be a bit dispiriting for novice singers who have some karaoke or car-singing experience. Once you learn a song by ear, it’s normal to get kind of “stuck” in the key you’re used to (because of muscle memory). But modulating and learning to sing songs in different keys is actually really good for your ear and your voice. And we’re here to learn, aren’t we? You can always change the key and try again until you’re satisfied. (You could also challenge yourself to master songs in as many keys as possible!)
Learning (and Mastering) Songs
Once you’ve found the right key for you, it’s time to learn the lyrics. The app will walk you through the lyrics, prompting you to speak them first. I’m not sure how useful this feature is—no one is going to better remember the lyrics to a song by hearing them spoken rather than sung. Fortunately, the app allows you to skip this step. It displays the lyrics while you’re practicing the song, karaoke-style, anyway.
Once you’ve got the lyrics down, you’ll listen to the song demonstrated by a singer in the key you’ve chosen. You’re scored on your sing-along, on a percentage basis, on both your pitch and your timing.
The interface makes it really easy to follow along, so much so that I was relatively successful even when trying songs I'd never even heard before (more about this later). The vocal parts are visually displayed similarly to the game "Rock Band," where the notes are arranged sort of on an invisible staff, indicating their position on the scale, and the length of the note is clearly visualized. So, even if you don't know the song that well, you can sort of "sight-read" and anticipate the notes, whether high or low.
I really wanted to see what it was like to fail a song, so I attempted a song I had never even heard before: "bellyache" by Billie Eilish.
Long story short, I found it pretty much impossible to fail. And I can't help but to chock that up to Simply Sing's teaching method. It chose my range, I listened to the demo, I read over the lyrics, sang along with the demo, and then sang it alone. And... I did pretty well. But—a caveat: I can say with confidence that I did not sound good doing this. I did learn the song, though, got some practice in, and felt the reward of a job well done (by Simply's standards, anyway).
Maybe it's due to my experience, but I think even total novices will find this practice really rewarding, and you'll quickly gain a lot of confidence in yourself as a singer, especially if you give it your all.
What Could be Better About Simply Sing
But, a minor complaint (one that applies to all apps of this kind, really). And that’s the “game” aspect. Making music into a game means there’s right and wrong. And, well, I don’t really believe in that. If you’re an intuitive singer with a good ear, and you want to put a little “stank” on a song you’re practicing, the game isn’t going to like that. And it’s going to ding your score for singing what it hears as the “wrong” notes—even if they were on pitch, in key, and full of soul to boot.
For this reason, I don't really recommend Simply Sing to more advanced musicians—although, I think there can be a great difference between a "musician" and a karaoke master. If you like to improvise and do things your own way, you will not be very successful, I'm afraid. But if you are an expert at nailing your favorite singer's sound to a tee, you'll have a lot of fun.
I also found myself experiencing a lot of tension in my voice as I was practicing. And I know this is a "me" problem—maybe it was because I was inhibited, singing in a restrained voice inside my apartment so as to avoid embarrassment—but this detail seems worth noting. When you sing with tension in your vocal cords, it can be painful, and your tone suffers as well. I have no doubt that I kind of sounded like crap even as I was “mastering” songs.
And that kind of feedback is really only going to be available from a real-life vocal coach or instructor. If you haven't had that experience, you won't be able to diagnose this problem on your own, and you will possibly get discouraged as a result. So total beginners, as well, be (gently) warned.
Other Features
Daily warmups are featured in the form of videos and lessons that demonstrate proper technique and will help you work your way through your range in order to prepare yourself for successful song mastery. I will say that this feature is appreciated, especially in light of some of the issues I've highlighted—namely, avoiding tension in the voice, straining, and so on.
There's also a breathing tutorial at the beginning, which does a little to explain how to use breath control as a singer.
The song list is really expansive, although it took me a while to realize it—your home page shows you a pretty limited list. But when I actually discovered the full list of songs, I was pretty impressed. It definitely leans heavily on the more popular genres, which I think is best suited for most people, anyway.
Finally, Recording Studio is a really neat feature that will provide a lot of value to aspiring singers using Simply Sing. It allows you to record songs you've already mastered, singing karaoke style to a backing track, so you can review your performance, see how you're sounding, and make adjustments to your technique. It's the next best thing to having someone else give you feedback, anyway!
Simply Sing Review: The Verdict
Ultimately, my takeaway from using Simply Sing was largely positive. If you love singing, you pretty much can't have a bad time. Novices will gain a lot of confidence practicing and receiving feedback for their singing, and have a lot of fun while doing it. The fun is what keeps you coming back, and the more you practice, the better you get (the more fun you have, the more you practice, etc.)!
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