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 is absolutely about anatomy. I have learnt so much about anatomy since I started teaching. My GCSE biology was enough to get me started – I knew the basics of how lungs work. Now I’m learning about the ..read more

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 with a piano? Being able to play sections on the piano can help you learn your music faster by breaking it down into small sections and giving you the “right answer” in terms of pitch immediately. That ..read more

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 the sweeping drama of the musical theatre songs. It’s amazing now I look back on it, as most of the musical theatre songs I sang were those on the graded lists which were all very mid-century! Back the ..read more

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 helpful motivator, and bring a strong sense of pride in their achievement. Now Covid restrictions are (fingers-crossed!!) slowly lifting, I know I will have more students wanting to explore exam repertoire ..read more

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, I can see the entries about how I’m exploring new set-ups for teaching online. Although I was scared, I knew people already taught music online, and I was up for the challenge. Those who were already u ..read more

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 that had been my lifelong pattern before 2020. And my voice knows it. Whether you’re a trained singer, an ordained minister, a lay preacher or just the guy who plays guitar for the Sunday night prayer me ..read more

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 did try to help me learn interval patterns, scales and arpeggios, but in essence the approach to singing music I didn’t know was “have some music, now sing”. I didn’t get taught any systematic way to u ..read more

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 are women, isn’t it time we got to sing words and melodies written by people like us? There is not actually a shortage of women composers. Women have been writing music for as long as women have existed ..read more

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 see the benefits of being mindful. So what are we talking about? Well, think back to the last really great performance or practice session you had. One where you had that sensation of flow, when you w ..read more

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 bit vague – thirty minutes of moderate exercise is great in a research study, but so difficult to translate into the real world. Plus, even if you’re actually doing quite a bit of exercise, talking about ..read more