\'Are you too shy to take the mike during karaoke with your friends?\' \'Train your voice and win over the audience in just 4-6 months!\'

An online advertisement for vocal classes by teacher Vu Ngoc Thuong

Class meeting at a karaoke bar. Karaoke is becoming more popular in Vietnam.

These are just a couple of the advertisements that can be seen in internet forums and chat rooms in Vietnam. The merits of vocal teachers and their experience is also widely discussed. Voice lessons is becoming an emerging trend.

I finally decided to take one of these courses and see if their promises were true or not.

Karaoke is only becoming more popular in Vietnam. Family gatherings, class meetings and company parties regularly finish up at a karaoke bar. As a result, more and more people see singing as an essential skill.

And vocal classes are becoming big business in the two largest cities in the country, serving those who just don’t have an innate good voice, or the confidence to perform.

Vu Ngoc Thuong, a singing coach in Hanoi, is attracts a lot of students. He is organising vocal classes for small groups of 5-7 people at different locations which are convenient for students. Each course includes twelve 1-hour lessons, at a cost of VND 1,5 million. Students can also choose noon, evening or weekend classes.

After gathering a group of six, a minimum requirement of the teacher, we agreed on a location at 35 Lang Street, Hanoi. Last Tuesday was our first lesson.

We began with some introduction and short discussion about our singing skills.

\'I am always too shy to pick up the mic because I know my voice is not good,” one of my classmates shared, adding that, \'I once tried to sing karaoke at home but everyone laughed me. Since then I never dared to sing again, even though I have to organise the activity for my company all the time.\'

\'I really like music and I love to sing, but my voice is no good,\' said another person. \'I want to learn how to hit notes correctly and to perform gracefully on the stage. Whenever I see others performing so confidently, I wish I could be like them.\'

At the class, we were provided with materials for each lesson, and after a bit of instruction, Thuong began to help us practice with the organ.

On our first day, the teacher told us some basic skills relating to enunciation and voice projection.

\'To sing well, you need to follow some basic rules and practice them daily,\' our teacher said. \'First, you have to practice throat opening by relaxing and opening jaw. Second, you have to practice breathing exercises. It is also a good idea to practice singing along with playing scales on the piano in order to train your ears.\'

She promised that after this course, we would be confident enough to perform in front of others at karaoke bars.

There are many other courses available to Hanoians, which can be found with a quick search on the internet.

In Ho Chi Minh City, teacher Vu Thanh Xuan at the city’s House of Culture has also started a number of classes, which consist of 50-70 lessons. “After the course, our students will be able to sing properly and beautifully,” she said.

Xuan reveals that the number of people enrolling in her singing classes is increasing significantly. \'I held the first class in early 2010 and now all my classes are full,\' she smiled. \'You can also imagine the demand by just looking at the number of karaoke bars around\'.