What do we offer?

Singing lessons for all levels and ages. Groups and solo artists are welcome, in all styles of music. We specialise in Pop, Indie, rock, blues and classical styles, but as all singing needs the same basic understanding of good vocal technique, all styles are covered.

Beginners: You may have just started singing in which case you may not know what area's you want to work on, you may also find this whole singing thing a bit intimidating, don't worry about it we all start like that, but with time, a good strong dependable voice and experience, your confidence will grow, and of course we will be there to help you all the way.

Intermediate or Pro: You may have been singing for years and never had a problem until know and your not sure what is going on, well what ever that specific problem is we will work it out, and have you out there in no time. Maybe you just want to work on you tuning or do a bit of range work what ever your needs, contact me.



The Studio

We will soon be working from a purpose designed vocal studio based at planet sounds (end of July 2008), this will have all the facilities below, but will also have a PA system so that we can work on dynamic mic techniques to prepare you for gigging.

Recording Studio with Sound booth so that we can work on your mic technique on condenser mics, but more importantly so that you can hear your voice.

Electric guitar, acoustic guitar and keyboard so you can play me your tunes or just so that we can work on support in a real world application.

Pure tone Generator for extreme pitch work



Things to bring to your first lesson:

  • A bottle of water
    (this is a good habit to get into, especially for when you are gigging).
  • Backing track of the song that you would like to work on
    (If you have one, if not then I have lots of backing tracks, of all sorts of stuff, so I am sure we can find you something that you like).
  • A lyric sheet (if you don't know the words).
  • C.D's of Artists that sing in a style that you would like to singing in.
  • Any example of your singing that you think would be good for me to hear.



How are the lessons structured?

Your first Lesson:

Well it always starts with a chat about your voice and the areas that you feel that you need to work on, then you sing me a track that you like (this can be a cover or your own track) you can do this via guitar, keyboard or backing track (the backing track can be as simple as one guitar, as long as it's in tune!).

Then I tell you a bit about myself, or ask you if you have read this page as I tell you about myself at the bottom, in the about me section. After that I go through the basics of breathing and how we make sound for singing (also touching on anatomy), if you don't want to know all this and just want to get on with singing then that's fine too, but i find that, the more you know about your vocal instrument and how it works the better.

We will than find out your vocalizing range (this is not your singing range, but the range that you can just get, but can't sing words in), this will give me a good idea of the strengths and weaknesses in your voice, and what exercises will best help you.

Then you are introduced to the lip trill, and given your password for the students section, in there you will find demos, explanations, and the scales that were covered in lessons for you to download and practice through the week, if you have any problems you can always get in touch with me via the contact me page on this website.

And that's your first lesson! (I teach on a one-on-one basis, at my home, and have a studio).



General Lesson Plan:

Note that this is just a general idea as all lessons are tailored to the individual student.

The first half an our is spent focusing on technique (scale work, breathing exercises, focus, etc...) then the second half is working on your songs, this helps you to see the relevance of the exercises that we do in the first half.

note that this is only the case when the student has a good foundation in singing, i.e. posture, support, resonance, articulation, phonation, range, and coordination (if you strain to hit a note how can you be expected to work on dynamics!). It is in my experience that every singer that I have met has benefited greatly from working like this, as apposed to some teachers who seem to be more interested with the end result rather than how the student got there!

Remember that with a strong healthy voice you can get away with bad technique, for a while (years in some cases), but eventually it will creep up on you and you will start to have vocal problems. Sort it out now and you will never have problems and you will also enjoy singing a lot more as your voice will be able to do the things that you always wanted it to do easily, and with no strain.

Hours of work:

Monday 1200 - 1930
Tuesday 1200 - 1930
Wednesday 1200 - 2030
Thursday 1200 - 1930
Friday 1200 - 1930
Saturday 1100 - 1700


About Me:

I have been singing for about 25 years now (god I'm getting old!). I have been in lots of bands, and done some solo work (I am at the moment doing an album). Anyway I damaged my voice badly about 6 years ago, and couldn't talk without my voice disappearing within the first sentence! It was a very stressful time for me and I had to do a lot of soul searching as my voice was and still is everything to me. I had damaged my vocal folds, so I wasn't allowed to talk and I had to carry a note book with me everywhere I went so that I could communicate with people.

I was sent to the ENT (Ear Nose and Throat) department in Southampton, where I was shown how to talk properly and with no stress or strain to my voice, we also went over singing and my throat specialist told me that most of her clients where singers and that a lot of them had had singing lessons and had been shown bad technique, and as a result where now working with her.

She only taught my a few techniques, but I understood the concepts well and know how to feel and hear when things are right and more importantly when they are wrong! But my voice was still up and down for about 2 years, my mind was convinced that as soon as I felt a little discomfort that I would damage my voice again, so I didn't sing or talk very much, which in looking back was the wrong thing to do, I then started singing again (my voice had gone down to one octave!).

So I started to teach myself all about the voice, from the anatomy to the theory behind singing, using my very fragile voice as a yard stick, to tell me when an exercise worked or when one didn't, as I result of this I now only teach exercises that I know work, and I only teach in a way that will strengthen your voice and never damage it, oh by the way I now have a range well above average (4 octaves!), that's me singing on the home page, my tone, strength, agility, range and my speaking voice are all much better than before I damaged my voice, because of the exercises that I use and teach.

I have had a lot of success with the techniques that I teach and so have my students.

Cheers and thanks for reading.

Dylan.