Singing lessons?

[Betty]

My parents would like to sign my kids up to do something fun this summer. My son is going to a video game programming camp for a week and my daughter wants to do something music related. She plays guitar pretty well, plays piano somewhat*, and sings okay so we're thinking singing lessons or something focusing on her voice may be more useful for her improvement - and she's already had some instruction on guitar.

We had hoped that her high school chorus class would benefit her but her teacher was a band teacher and never even got as far as dividing them into altos and sopranos. (Don't even get me started on this loser. She won't be taking chorus for her Senior year because the class was more do whatever than do any singing. Ever. And this was concert choir!)

Have you ever taken singing lessons? Do you feel they made a difference in your ability? How long do you think it took to make a noticable difference? Weeks? Months? Years? Did it improve your range? Do you have any suggestions on how to find a good teacher? What to avoid?


*She's never had formal lessons. Her cousin who is musically inclined showed her how to play guitar one afternoon and she picked it up quickly. She got a keyboard and using youtube videos picked up piano. She's no expert but I'm amazed at her ability to look up tabs online for some song and literally play and sing along a few minutes later. This is much fun at family gatherings.