Burning of the Frigate Philadelphia in the Harbor of Tripoli by Edward Moran “Hang on a tick! What have boats got to do with singing?” I hear you cry. Well, let’s just ignore the entire history of sea shanties, side-step my love of the sea in general and glorious old sailing ships in particular, and skip straight to the metaphor! Where does that expression come from, “burn the boats”? It derives from an old tale of a 16th-Century Spanish conquistador, Hernán Cortés, who overthrew the Aztec Empire and conquered Mexico as a prize for Spain. On landing in Mexico, he ordered all of his ships burne ..read more

Last December, I lost my voice. Totally. I was unable to sing or speak, other than the tiniest strangled squeak. I hadn’t had any signs of a cold or virus, and the only warning that I had was a slight sensation of what I can only describe as “splitting” of my voice when singing some notes at a chorus singout. I was somewhat puzzled, as I have had a lot of training, and my voice is able to cope with everything I require without tiring or other signs of strain. Everything else was fine, but I woke the next morning with no voice. It could not have happened at a worse time. I was busy at work, an ..read more

Mental Health Awareness Week is almost over, but we don’t want that to be the end of the conversation! Very often, performers (and teachers!) are wary about saying anything publicly, because performers in particular work in an over-populated industry, and the fear is that if we admit to having problems, we render ourselves unhirable and undesirable. “Oh, you’ve got depression / anxiety / bi-polar? (delete where applicable, other issues are available…) OK. Well there are forty other equally talented people in the queue just behind you, who we’ll be auditioning later. Of course, our decisi ..read more

A guest blog from our new team member, #maninthehat Mark James Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay Music has to be perfect right? Every note has to be right, every beat on time and every word sung on pitch, right? WRONG! We are starting to lose sight of what music is and what is has been for thousands of years. The more technical and complicated we make the processes of music the more pressure we put on ourselves to achieve the unachievable. Why? Because big business is taking all that is pure and commercialising it. So it is time to take back ownership of what is rightfully ours! As a singing ..read more

Well, you can be if you like… Or you can choose to make like an Orca instead! Image by skeeze on Pixabay A couple of days ago when talking to some (much) younger friends, they referred to me as “an elder”. This was the first time in my life that someone has called me that and I took it as a great compliment, as it was meant in the sense of “Wise Old Owl” rather than “knackered old has-been”. I think… This set me down the path to thinking what “being an elder” means, both to me and to society at large. Now, I think of it as being in a really positive phase of life. I’m old enough to have suffic ..read more

The sun finally decided to show itself this year here in Guernsey, where I live, so I decided it was a good day to get back into running. I started running back in September after I was cast in a production of ‘Anything Goes’ as Reno Sweeney, and quickly realised that, although I could sing it, act it, and dance it, my physical stamina was not up to scratch in order to do all three at once! In the lead up to Christmas I got to a point where I was running 3 times a week for up to 30 minutes at a time, and my overall health vastly improved. But then Christmas happened, schedule became insa ..read more

We’ve all read numerous articles about the benefits of singing for health — especially when we’re singing in a group — but if you’re a singer, how do you know what sort of singing group is best for you? And if you’re looking to set up a singing group of your own, where do you start? First of all I should set the scene… what I’m referring to as a ‘singing group’ here is what people would traditionally call a choir. So why don’t I just get to the point and call it a choir? Well, the main reason is that many people still associate the word ‘choir’ with the traditional choral singing that is ..read more

Actors and directors talk about “taking a beat” when working with action or dialogue. In essence, it’s a way of changing pace, or emphasis, or direction. In recent years, I’ve come to learn that taking a beat in life is one of the most important things we can do. It’s so easy to become submerged in the “must do” of being self-employed in an industry where, if you sit still for too long, it seems that the world might forget or overlook you. Don’t get me wrong – anyone who knows me knows that I’ve spent most of my life overworking wildly (and being roundly chastised for it). Just last year I sp ..read more

This is a blog written by our friends at Corporate Conservatoire, and re-blogged with their kind permission. You can read all about them via their website, but first, treat your eyes and mind to their wonderful musings on the correlations between being a great leader and being a great conductor. “What’s that got to do with the price of fish or being a singing teacher?” I hear you ask… Simple! A lot of our students and alumni are choir leaders and / or they run their own businesses and often have to lead substantial teams of people. Our work isn’t all singing songs and prancing about on stage l ..read more

We’re busy people here at The Voice College – going ‘above and beyond’ is our ethos after all! But there comes a time in every singer and singing teachers’ life where you may just find yourself on the brink, whether it’s from a seemingly unrealistic number of gigs to get through, all your work starting to pile on top of you, or you’ve accidentally committed to thing after thing after thing and now you’re stuck in an endless loop of “when will it end?!”. How do we even begin to deal with the ugly monster that is burnout? Believe it or not, some stress is actually good for you, as when we are un ..read more