Last Sunday, our 8 brave ladies on the Vocal Coaching course met for the last time on zoom.

Some of the ladies have sung with us for a while, some are recent joiners, a couple have joined from far away and some remain local but we’ve all had a lovely time together as a group with one aim in mind – to be the best singer we can be.

How did the course work?

We met for three months, every other Sunday night for just 45 minutes on zoom. The reason for this was so that singers could apply what they’d learned straight away at choir on the Monday evening. Their private Facebook group had daily prompts relating directly to what they’d learned on the previous session and they were encouraged to join in with these very short tasks regularly. There were you tube videos to revise what they’d learned which were accessible at all times.

The second session is both the best and the worst part of the course for most people – singing solo in front of the group. This is a real chance to get rid of the nerves and develop some confidence and as you can well imagine, the support form the other singers is amazing.

We develop confidence when we sing together and that’s what the course is all about. Creating a singing voice that singers feel happier with, more confident with and this starts with the willingness to share their sound.

I used the Embodima technique to help the singers think of new ways to develop their technique and style. The singers embraced these new images and ways of working (even if they did think I’d totally lost the plot at first)! As the weeks progressed we worked on breathing, pitch and tuning, resonance, articulation and vocal range.

We had a side-hustle project! Yvette and Louise were chatting on Facebook about a sing they liked so I invited them to record it as a duet. They spent a long time working together over the distance (Nottingham – Devon!) and even create their own harmony parts. I loved this because it showed they’d developed their own skills and felt able to work together. Here is what it sounded like.

The song we chose as a project together as 8 voices was ‘Runaway’ by the Corrs. We chose 3 yellows, 2 greens and 2 reds to create our recording which we did, as usual, remotely.

Our singers were braver, more positive and had greater confidence by the end of the programme. A massive well done to Louise, Kath, Yvette, Lynn, Helen, Laura, Hilary and Jo! I found the group so rewarding to work with, so much fun to meet up with and so great to listen to. Thank you all!

I’m planning one more online programme which will start in May. If you’re thinking that you’d like to improve your vocal confidence in a small and supportive group, drop me an email libertysinger@gmail.com. Courses sell out fast and I’m only offering 8 places.

But for now, if you had to choose a song to sing solo right now, what would you choose!???