Lessons

Who can benefit from these singing lessons?

The voice lessons are available for all ages. I work with all levels of singing proficiency – from beginners through to advanced singers. Maybe you want to take to the stage and give all you’ve got to a live audience or maybe you just want to sing better in the shower!. So, no matter what your experience is, how good (or bad!) you think is your singing, after hearing your voice for a few moments I can assess what you need to focus on. It’s all about making you feel safe and comfortable to sing so that we can tailor the vocal lessons to your singing needs.

So what happens in a singing lesson?

The first thing to say is that these private singing lessons are very practical, which of course means that we do plenty of singing practice – this is what you want, right?. This can include specific vocal exercises, breathing exercises, work with pronunciation, developing the vocal range, as well as, of especial importance, how to build Confidence. Ah yes! Confidence is so important in giving a performance that moves and affects the listener. Applying what we learn so that we can take confidence from the vocal lesson to the stage is a critical part of our learning as singers. Let’s look at this again later.

What do we need to sing ?

Singing is both a physical and psychological workout. Our mind is just as important as our vocal cords (and the other singing muscles) in helping us produce a satisfying sound when we open our mouths to sing. So getting the mind and the body to work together is a big part of what we’re trying to achieve as we set out on our singing journey. This of course means developing helpful habits in different areas of our lives; good diet, positive and helpful thinking, awareness of how we use our bodies, regular exercise and practice etc.

One way to think about this is ‘balance’. If we think about a bird in flight, we can say that it is able to stay airborne because of the balance between the two wings. Additionally, we can say that two wings are needed – can a bird fly with one wing? Another important point is shifting emphasis. During the course of it’s flight, a bird will shift emphasis i.e. weight, from one wing to another, depending on where the bird is trying to go. So what are the two wings of singing? We could say ‘Technique’ & ‘Confidence’. Without these two wings of singing our voice will struggle to take flight. The other point is also important – we sometimes have to give more emphasis to working on technique and then at other times it is our confidence levels that need our attention.

So there are many areas to explore and discover when we take our vocal lessons more seriously. It is as though we are both athletes and artists. We need to condition muscles like the athlete as well as produce a work of art in sound like an artist will use the colour palette to paint a picture. We paint our sound picture with our feelings, which we learn to express with more & more confidence.

How do we improve singing?

Did you ever think about how we form sound? Most of the time we sing (or talk) automatically without knowing how it is that we are producing the sound. If the sound is attractive to others, that’s great and we can simply take pleasure in having this feedback from others. However, if we were asked to teach someone else to sing as we do, would we be at a loss to explain how? This is the point where we start to self-reflect and ask ourselves “how do I do it?”. Of course, the key to success is to bring ‘awareness’ into the act of singing/talking. Then, I believe, many secrets will be discovered. It is these secrets which, when focused upon, help us to take our voice skills to new heights.

One example of this is consonants; did you ever try to sing consonants without adding any vowels to the consonants…. try now…..b…k..n…p… can you feel how impossible this is? Now try to sing vowels a….e….i….o….u… Can you feel how easy and natural it is to sing vowels? Can you feel the connection between breath and vowels? So here’s our first important awareness lesson; that vowels are playing a very important part in our singing.

Another important awareness exercise is the role of experiencing physical sensations as we sing. I believe that this is one of the biggest secrets of successful singers. Those precious sensations are so important to a singer because they make the voice ‘visible’ – when the voice is visible, through sensation, we can learn much about how to effectively produce sound. For most of us this is a skill that we will have to develop over time. Another level to this, of course, is the important connection between the quality of the physical sensations and our emotions – yes, they are intertwined and we will learn much about our views about ourselves (and the limitations that we place on ourselves) through the effort we make to bring awareness to where we sing.

Are you still there?

So does what I’ve written resonate with you. If so, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I’m very happy to help you on your singing journey.

Email me: liuba@singing-lessons-cambridge.co.uk
Or call me on 07407 075818

You can cancel the lesson without charge 48 hours before the lesson.

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