Singing Coaching & Lessons

Have you never wanted to learn to sing? Wanted to develop your existing singing skills? Feel yo need to improve technical aspects of your singing so you can really embody your artistic choices?

Then you need to keep reading…

Working on your singing voice is often a highly personal experience. It can be quite a vulnerable activity, as singing mirrors several physical activities that we also do when we are emotionally engaged. It takes a leap of faith to put your trust in a new teacher, not only in their technical or teaching abilities, but also whether you’ll get on with them as a person or align with their artistic taste!

My job as a teacher is to guide my students through an individualised program of improvement so that you have a command over the range of skills necessary to consciously and deliberately control your voice in order to express your creative intentions relative to genre expectations.

My job as a coach is to assist you, the artist and performer, to achieve the voice outcomes you want. I may offer options and genre based requirements, notes on musicality, expressivity and other aspects of performance (posture & alignment, acting choices, integration of technique into performance, accent, articulation etc.) but ultimately the choice is yours, I’m here to support you as a fellow artist and facilitator.

1:1 coaching (in person or online) is always about you and your voice. There is no ‘one-size fits all’ approach, as it takes time for your body to understand how to speak in a different way. Because of this, developing your singing voice can take some months to perfect, it’s not an overnight thing. Although it can be hard work, it’s extremely fulfilling!

What can I expect from my singing session?

• Before your first session I usually arrange a FREE 15-minute consultation to discuss your voice and performance goals.
• Listening to you sing a song you have prepared
• Assessment of your current singing style, habits and potential problem areas
• Technical awareness exercises
• Application of technical exercise into the artistic use of song or lyric
• Incorporation of artistic choices into a performance context.
• Planning ‘how to practise’ – including effective practise strategies and methods.

How do Singing Lessons or Coaching work?

Awareness

The most important thing is to become aware. If you don’t know you’re doing it, how can you change it?

Through a series of exploratory exercises, we work together to build a greater awareness of what you are doing when you sing (this can often be different depending on the style in which you are singing), and what your habits are (both wanted and unwanted).

Vocal Function

We often need to look at vocal function (how the voice is working) and adjust aspects of this in order to create a greater level of efficiency and ease when singing.

Sometimes, changing vocal function can feel really unfamiliar as an activity, but considerably easier in terms of voice production. With practise, you grow more familiar with the new sensations of ease and are able to achieve the task with increasing flexibility and economy.

Acting Through Song

Acting Through Song is an essential component in whatever genre of music or repertoire you are singing. It is essential to connect the thought to the lyric and to the action or activity you choose to express the thought or emotion in the song.

Sometimes you might want more emotion, sometime less, sometimes you may way to lean on a consonant to create stress on the most important lyric in the phrase while making volume adjustments for less important lyrics to really make the character’s point.

Bringing all of these things together creates nuanced, articulate, connected performances.