It's been almost 10 years since I've done any trained/coached singing. I had a 3 octave range, but my teacher really made a lot of negative comments to the class about altos (my vocal type). As a teen it really crushed my self esteem for singing, since I encountered so many of similar stances and was teased in general for my low speaking voice. Because I was always the background singer and not even taught to do harmony (they just had me do baseline singing-idk what it's actually called, just singing a low note and not doing harmony or melody, just that single more), I felt there was no point in doing trained singing if I was just going to be allowed to sing a single low note.

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Now that so many fantastic alto singers are appearing, I feel like there should be a lot more support out there. My range (without warm up or practice) has diminished to a 2.3 octave range, but I'm sure with vocal strengthening I could get back to where I once was!

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Anyone have advice for someone wanting to get back into trained singing? Vocal coaching sounds way expensive, but since I'm just doing it for happiness/hobby spending a TON of money seems a little silly, you know?

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Bonus points for specification of someone that is naturally an alto that can (with lots of warm up) reach mezzo-soprano?