How do you find a 16-bar singing audition performable unit? The 16-bar audition is a newish feature of life as an actor/singer/dancer in the West End. It’s a way for the casting panel to see new people but without taking the time to hear whole songs. The point for the actor is to show a very [...]
I've been working with a lot of singing teachers in the past few months. They teach in as many genres as you can name. Most have a performing background. A few have performed exclusively in CCM genres, most have had some classical training and/or performed as classical singers. On our recent Singing Teacher Training in Australia, [...]
Giving Feedback You have the Form of your lesson planned, you’re Focusing on your student in exercises and in songs, you’re analysing what energetic state they are in today, but your lesson will still not be great unless you perfect the art of Feedback. Feedback is... Feedback is the life energy of the lesson. And feedback [...]
Interpreting stroboscopy - what you see isn't always the truth. How do you translate what you see as a singing teacher or vocal coach? A World Voice Day special Singing and speaking are the manifestations of sound - as a listener, we don't have to see what's happening to understand the sounds. After all, it's possible [...]
I've been thinking about music and what it is, how it's written and how we perform it. I first showed the following sequence in a workshop at Chichester University in 2018. Let me know what you think! What do you see? The image above contains a number of white dots. There is very little meaning in [...]
When Gillyanne and I were writing our book This Is A Voice, this question appeared in an email from our (non-musician) editor. And it got me thinking. What is pitch and how do we think of it? In the acoustic/scientific sense pitch is defined as something creating noise that has a regular number of vibrations per [...]
What makes a great singing lesson? Part 2 Finding Focus in a great singing lesson In the second of this three-part post, internationally renowned vocal coach and author Jeremy Fisher shares his top tips for a great singing lesson Whether you're a singing teacher, a vocal coach or a singing student, a great singing [...]
What's the difference between understanding and belief in singing teaching? Is it cut-and-dried or subtle? Are they interchangeable? Been reading an interesting book on power v force this week. The way I see it in singing teaching, power equates with understanding and force equates with belief. So power = "I share my truth so we can [...]
Teaching girls to sing through voice change Teaching adolescent girls to sing - 7 tips If you're teaching adolescent girls to sing, you already know that there can be some vocal challenges. The singing voice of a teenage girl will change quite substantially between the ages of 10 and 16. The changes can be [...]
Adolescent voice change in teenage girls Teenage girls between about 10 and 16 go through adolescent voice change. They can get frustrated when their voice doesn't sound exactly the same as their favourite pop stars. The five stages of change that boys go through during adolescent voice change are very well documented - I've included details in my [...]
