Singing Lessons

This can be an emotive subject for singers. Having lessons is like bearing your soul sometimes. Your voice is very much connected to your emotional state and when expressed will often reflect how you are at any particular time.
The right singing teacher for you is hard to find. I have been very lucky over the last five years in working with Marie Mclaughlin. She has had a very successful singing career performing in all the top Opera houses in the world. She is a truly inspiring person and teacher with a wealth of knowledge and understanding of the voice. She also has perhaps the most important aspect of a singing teacher - good ears!
I see Marie when I can and when she is available. She still sings around the world working on her career so a lesson is very important when she is available. I am of the view that I would not be doing this without Marie's encouragement and confidence in me and also the occasional kick in the backside I often deserve.
In lessons we spend time warming the voice up through exercises and then move on to repertoire I am currently learning or performing. Marie also helped a great deal in the CD recording I released recently especially when working out what needed to be improved.
The development of the voice, especially the tenor voice does take time and I have been studying with Marie for five years. I now find that my voice is really beginning to work and this is born out in the reaction I get to my performances which is mostly very positive. There is so much to coordinate when singing and it takes time for the body to develop to the right place.
As my voice has developed so has the repertoire. My voice is essentially a lyric tenor but it is quite a heavy sound which does cause some excitement. I can sing some of the bigger repertoire requiring good sound and long phrases which gives me great satisfaction.
I continue to develop my Romantic Tenor repertoire and have an event which will mainly have songs from musicals in December which is great fun. I am also working on four operatic pieces for auditions which I hope to undertake next year. This includes Italian, French, Russian and English. Languages were not my strong point at school but I am learning!