Singing coaching - a typical session

The rest of the two days at the RSAMD (see previous blog) were taken up with one-to-one coaching. It's my favourite form of intensive work. As a singing coach I give one-to-one lessons on a regular basis or as a short series, and number of my clients need single-session audition coaching for a particular job. It's actually quite difficult to describe a typical coaching session, as I treat each performer as an individual - I don't think you can do anything else if you want to stay in integrity. During a coaching session we might work on a warm-up appropriate to the song, technical issues with the song lyrics or the vocal tasks, performance anxiety, or clarifying the song journey.

I also ask what the focus of the session is going to be. When you are working with professional actors and singers, it simply isn't appropriate to tell them what they need to learn - they are usually very focussed and know exactly what they need to achieve, even if they don't know quite know how to achieve it.

For audition coaching, we may tackle anything from walking into the room to how the "characters" in the song interact. If the singer needs a warmup in the session, I will work the technical issues of the song into the exercises (calling and yelling for a big belt song, "cry" quality and vocal range for a classic-book piece). I tend to work on vocal technique issues in a context - after all, it's usually in a tricky phrase that you find out what you can't do!

I have the most fun working with experienced singers on moulding their current repertoire to fit each audition. I do not believe that a singer needs a different song for every audition! In the Successful Singing Auditions book Gillyanne and I differentiate between a portfolio and a database. The portfolio is the book that goes with you to the audition - the book of "I can sing this with 3 minutes' notice" songs.That's just enough time to brush up on the words. We recommend eight or nine songs in your portfolio. Your database can have anything from 5 to 100 songs - the ones that are gently simmering in the background.

There are of course exceptions to every rule, and we have one high-flying client who for years had one song that he sang slower or faster depending on what was required. He got the recalls from it. He only came for coaching because he decided that he needed more choice in his repertoire. He still gets the recalls, he just uses a few more songs!


Visit http://www.vocalprocess.co.uk for the latest downloads:
the Vocal Process eZINE (free electronic magazine)
86 things you never hear a singer say (free ebook)
Looking at a Voice (endoscopy video download)