Discover Singing

Singing’s not just about singing – an A-Z guide

The thing that gets me most excited about singing is how often it’s not really about the singing part. Singing is rarely limited to the functional process of turning air into sound. Instead, it’s an interdisciplinary and holistic activity that touches on a multitude of ideas and themes. Here is a list of 26 different things that singing is about that aren’t singing! Anatomy An easy A – singing…

How to play piano for singers

When you’re learning repertoire, there are lots of creative solutions. You can use professional (or amateur) recordings, score-to-sound apps or even copy-typing the melody into Musescore. You may even be particularly good at sight-reading and only need a tuning fork. However, when it comes to getting intimate and accurate with music from a score, a piano or keyboard can be invaluable. Why work…

Why I’m not just a classical singer

When I started out with singing in the late ’90s, I went to the school singing teacher. And the school singing teacher was, I assume, a classical singer who had moved into teaching as she aged out of performing. So I studied classical singing. I liked it. I still do. I love a stirring opera aria or a beautiful and creative art song. However, having come from theatre, I quickly fell in love with…

Choosing exam songs – 3 case studies (the great, the good and the really bad)

Ah, the music exam. A staple of British instrumental education for more than a century and a half. Like all music teachers in the UK, I prepare a fair number of my students for exams from grade 1 right up to grade 8. While the suspension of face to face exams has definitely challenged the assumption that exams are a requirement for musical progress, I know that for many students they are a…

What I’ve learnt teaching online

When we were plunged into lockdown in mid-March 2020, we all had to change and adapt fast, music teachers included. One year on, I wanted to reflect on some of the things I’ve learnt from teaching online and having to adapt to life in varying degrees of lockdown. I can cope with change, and even enjoy the challenge I keep a line-a-day diary. coming round to a year on from the lockdown in 2020,…

Lead worship? Love your voice

The second to last Sunday before the Covid-19 lockdown in the UK was my first ever service as sole worship leader. One of our usual leaders had a planned absence and I had agreed to help out for three services in March and April. As it turned out, it was only one. Since then, my worship leading, like everyone else’s has been much more limited and very different to the week-in week-out singing…

When I needed my grade 5 theory certificate to do my higher singing exams, my singing teacher sent me to a theory tutor and I spent two terms learning theory out of books. Unsurprisingly that made me hate theory like I hated maths, and it really didn’t help me to understand much about how music worked. Learning to pass the sight-singing element of my exams wasn’t much better. I know my teachers…

Five women who wrote amazing art songs

One. There is one work by a woman listed on the DipABRSM repertoire list. There are more works by known gay male composers than women on the list. I’ve been teaching a while, across a range of exam boards, and this doesn’t feel atypical. I’ve not done a proper count through the whole singing syllabus, but given that the vast majority of those taking singing lessons, and therefore singing exams…

Ah, mindfulness, one of those 21st century buzzwords that gets everywhere. I bet you’re already thinking about hours of cross-legged meditation, or possibly some unpleasant experience of deep breathing in a stuffy office or school hall. I am certainly a bit of a mindfulness skeptic. I’m not into hours of silent meditation – I can barely keep up a regular yoga practice, and I enjoy that. But I do…

Get moving! Exercise for singers

When you sing, your body is your instrument. Just like a piano needs tuning, a flute needs cleaning, and a violin bow needs to be loosened, your body needs care to create the best sound. An often underrated part of training your voice is physical exercise. Why? I hear you cry! I know we’re all a bit fed up of hearing about the latest government guidelines on exercise, right? They’re always a…

Three Theatre Techniques for Singers

It might surprise you to learn that my first love was not singing but acting. I started theatre lessons at the tender age of seven and continued with drama until I was sixteen. By then, I’d started singing and discovered my love of music. However, it was not wasted time! My acting background constantly helps me with my teaching, especially when it comes to preparing songs for performance.…

How your voice works

Unlike any other instrument, the voice can feel like a bit of a mystery. We can’t easily take it apart to see how it works. We can’t even feel lots of the parts that make it function. In fact, research into the voice is a cutting edge area with new research being published regularly. In the last fifty years, our understanding of breathing and the singing voice have completely transformed from the…

The four types of practicers (can you spot yourself?)

One of my favourite “self-help” authors is Gretchen Rubin. Gretchen’s original project was a one year mission to be happier, and since then she’s written a number of books on the subject. While writing a book on building habits (Better than Before, a book I cannot recommend highly enough!), Gretchen noticed that people seem to fall into four groups when it comes to managing expectations (and…

(Re)building a practice habit

Practice. It’s a fairly little word, but it’s a big trigger if you’re a musician! It can be so easy to get in a muddle – am I doing enough? Or too much? When should I practice? How do I even approach my practice? I know I can easily end up in a death spiral of anxiety about my practice time (or lack there of). Sometimes, it can get so bad that it actually stops me from practicing. It’s hard…

How to keep singing in 2021

After ten months in various levels of lockdown, we’re all feeling a bit lost. It’s hard to know how to look out into to 2021 and know what to do. Even more so if you’re someone who enjoys singing, an activity which has struggled with extra restrictions and bad press this year. If you’ve lost your singing mojo somewhere in the Covid news cycle, you’re not alone. Right now, it might be that…

How to start singing in 2021

Learning to sing isn’t the obvious hobby to take up in 2021. We’re all stuck at home, and it sometimes seems like singing has been banned completely as long as covid is in our lives. Sometimes it can even seem overwhelming to consider doing anything new while we’re locked down and struggling with working from home and homeschool. Singing has all kinds of benefits that make it ideal to pick up in…

How to set up Zoom for singing

Whether it’s out of necessity or choice, singing lessons using video conferencing calls can still be an effective way to learn.

For voice lessons, the most highly recommended platform is Zoom because it has the best audio quality for singing.

Use a computer, not a smart phone or tablet

If you have one available, it is best to set up Zoom to run on your laptop or desktop computer. You…