You probably know the moment all too well. You only have a few words left but your lungs feel like a wrung out sponge, trying to squeeze notes out with nothing in the tank. Running out of air is a feeling none of us are putting our hands up to experience. It sends panic signals through the body (and rightly so). But our initial instinct is to simply load up on more air at the start of the phrase. And that's not always the best move.   Breath support/management is a RELATIONSHIP. It’s actually kinda like a thruple. The key players are your ribs/belly, your vocal cords ..read more

     Let me start off by saying, please shed any guilt or “I should’ve’s”. Your singer card does not get revoked because you haven’t uttered a note in a while. (And it’s likely that you HAVE sung, in the car or the shower or while you’re vacuuming, but you’ve decided it doesn’t count because it’s not “serious practice”) You’re a singer because it’s something that calls to you, something that keeps reeling you in. Because it’s one of the ways life is growing you, teaching you valuable lessons about yourself. Because when the mood is just right and the volume of your inner criti ..read more

      Authentic. Honest. Unique. Words that are craved by just about every singer I’ve ever met. But you know you and your voice are already one-of-a-kind, right? Which means it’s less about FINDING your authentic voice and more about FREEING it. About gently removing the BARRIERS TO AUTHENTIC EXPRESSION. Micro-managing, mimicking and hiding. Micro-managing Is when you keep your hands tightly on the wheel or wrangle your voice so that it “does as it’s told.” It’s following a paint-by-numbers formula - louder here, brighter here, add vibrato, end with more sweetness. You get t ..read more

   You get up to sing and your face and palms start to heat up almost immediately. Your heart rate doubles in seconds. You notice the microphone shaking because your hand has begun to tremble. You open your mouth and feel like you're squeezing the sound out like toothpaste. And if you're anything like my younger self, you PANIC. Up until now, have you believed that your body should feel calm when you sing?  That your throat should be completely relaxed at all times in order to express yourself? This belief, while seemingly helpful, actually does the opposite for ..read more

   The dreaded break. The flip. The cavernous divide between your chest voice and your head voice. Cringe central. Whatever you call it, it’s frustrating and sometimes embarrassing. I remember avoiding the G above middle C for years because it would either come out weak, airy and shaky or tense and strangled. As I got older it didn’t get better, it only moved higher. B became the note I skirted around and tried desperately to avoid running into. Unfortunately it didn’t resolve itself until I began to understand what was CAUSING IT. What pieces of the puzzle were enabling this great ..read more

  Teaching yourself how to hold emotions and feel safe in your body is an active practice. One that I have to revisit often. When I’m about to do something vulnerable or outside my comfort zone and my nervous system starts to act up, I tune in. I close my eyes and move my awareness into the centre of my head. I slow down and deepen my breath. And I wrap my arms around myself, creating a cocooned feeling. It may look strange for an adult to be holding themselves like this, but remember that much of our insecurity is patterns from childhood that we keep replaying over and over ..read more

To the singer wrestling with perfectionism. We need you. We need the art you’ve been sitting on, editing and over-thinking for years. ✨The songs that will never be ready. ✨The lyrics that will never be good enough. ✨The voice that will never hit every note just right. ✨The gigs that will never be free of imposter syndrome. ✨The practice sessions that will never be flawless. ✨The ideas that will never be criticised. We need you visible and we need you whole. There are too many singers who are too scared to share their gift because of their need for it to be perfect. Too many singers who experi ..read more

Performance without vulnerability is sterile. Resisting giving yourself goosebumps means you're certainly not going to coax them out of your audience. You can't fake that shiz. Most singers I know adore artists who are willing to go there. They praise the courage and raw emotion that draws them in like a moth to a flame. It's magnetic right? And yet they themselves get on stage and pick apart every note that falls out of their mouth. They overthink their technique or how they look and whatever magic could have been created is snuffed out. If you want to be the type of performer who deals in ..read more

A SINGER’S JOURNEY When we’re young it seems simple. You open your mouth and singing comes out. We do it to have fun, play, express ourselves and feel connected to the music. Then we’re introduced to the worlds of technique, analysis, criticism and improvement. We look at everything under a microscope, introduce tools and teach our bodies new tricks. Then we start to want the magic back. We want to TRUST our voices, to feel close to the music again, let it pulse through our veins. We want to feel expressive and free and authentic. Something that unfortunately cannot be found or cobbled toge ..read more

 Aimless. The word I’d use to describe my practice sessions in my teens and early twenties. Rolling my eyes as I whipped through a couple of meaningless warm ups with no focus on changing or fixing anything. Then I’d sing through my repertoire of songs a couple of times. Again, not making any changes or correcting any mistakes or moments of strain. End scene. I’d leave with a mixture of smugness (for even bothering to practice in the first place) and frustration (because I wasn’t getting any better at the songs I wanted to sing). And this is the practice life of just about every singer ..read more