MY STORY
From Singer to Singing teacher & back again
I have been working as a professional vocal coach since 2007 & I feel confident in saying that this is one of the best jobs in the world.
Singing was my first love. Singing was where I would lose all track of time. Singing was the way I learned to express myself. And singing was about the only thing I ever felt like I was 'good' at.
As such it wasn't altogether surprising when at 19, I left my hometown of Birmingham to go to drama school in London. Unfortunately, Drama School wasn't everything I had hoped it would be & it left me with far more questions than answers. After working professionally for a couple of years, I decided to move out of the city to Essex & start teaching. And it was at this moment that everything started to fit into place.
Within a few months I had a busy teaching studio & adored seeing the progression in students of all ages & abilities. Months turned to years & my passion for teaching & thirst for learning & sharing that information continued to grow.
People have singing lessons for all sorts of reasons & no two students are the same. Every journey is entirely different. But over time once scared & under-confident students got the confidence to sing in front of people. Some joined choirs, entered for exams or sang at an open mic where others went off to music college, auditioned & gained places at drama schools, joined a West End cast, got record deals & reached the finals of BGT/The Voice.
During this time I completed my Estill Master Teacher Qualification with Anne-Marie Speed (May 2015). The Estill model is an understanding of voice based on anatomy & physiology and Estill teachers can be found heading up departments at the best music colleges in the world. Click here to find out more.
Over my years teaching, I still wrote songs & sang and got much joy just doing this on my own. Shortly after getting my masters, I met some fantastic musicians and decided to start a band with them. As fate would have it, we gained momentum fast & signed a record deal with Decca Records. Our debut album was released in January 2017 staying at number 1 in the Official UK Country Charts for 8 weeks. We won the Bob Harris UK Americana Emerging Artist Award that February & in June, became the first band ever to debut at the Grand Ole Opry and at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville in the same week. We've opened for Tom Petty, Eric Clapton & Celine Dion at Hyde Park BST & our second album (recorded with Simone Felice & David Baron in Woodstock, NY) will was released in August 2021 reaching Number 1 in both the Country & Americana charts.
I now divide my time between writing, recording, performing & teaching. Teaching is something I have continued to do since the bands inception & owing to Covid 19, I have been teaching more than ever.
I am passionate about teaching singing & helping students to get the most out of their voice. I truly believe every single person can sing & learn to enjoy using their voice. I love working with students of all ages and abilities and get so much satisfaction from seeing how they grow and develop in their skills and performance. Please don't hesitate to get in touch to find out more.
