Mike Marlin

I would like to wish singer/songwriter Mike Marlin every success in his current U.K. tour supporting scottish band Big Country

As Mikes vocal coach I am pleased to say that the effort he has put into his technique and regular vocal exercises shows when you hear him sing, especially when he holds those really long notes effortlessly.

Mike has also recently been touring with The Jam and The Stranglers. You can get Mike Marlin's latest album "Nearly Man" from i-tunes.

Singing And Performance Classes

Starting in June 2011 we will be holding classes for people who want to learn singing and performance within a group environment at our studio in Inchinnan (within easy travelling of Glasgow, Paisley and Renfrewshire).
The lessons will be aimed at teaching students to sing and perform within a group of similar age, learning correct vocal techniques and how to sing harmony as well as performance skills. These classes will help students to bond, work together as a team, gain confidence and build character as well as have lots of fun, with the chance to perform along with their class members and other ZigZag student groups in a performance in front of a live audience.
Each class will be one hour long held on a Sunday from 10am and will consist of three age groups, 5 to 11 years, 12 to 15 years, 16 and above and will be taught by expert vocal coach Robert Wishart.
To allow for students to have the required amount of expert voice and performance tuition, classes will be limited in numbers and will be offered on a first come basis.

Quest For Talent

Congratulations to two of my singing student, Jade Burke aged eleven from Glasgow Scotland who for the second year running took first place prize in her catagory as best vocalist singing Rhianna's Russian Roulette. For an eleven year old Jade's voice is a voice that some adult female singers would be proud of. She has worked extremely hard on her vocal exercises as well as her performance skills and is set to be a future star. Taking the runner up prize was eleven year old Andie Rose Barr also from Glasgow who impressed the judges with her rendition of the Eta James classic At Last. Andie has been having singing lessons from me for a short time and week by week her voice just keeps getting better. She recently sang at the Kings Theatre in Glasgow with Pop Idol winner and TV presenter of STV's The Hour Michelle Mcmanus. Andie is also heading in the right direction to become a singing sensation.

Open Mike UK talent competition

Congratulations to one of my singing lessons students ten year old Jade Burke from Glasgow, Scotland who wowed the audience and judges alike with her rendition of the Miley Cyrus song The Climb at the semi-final stages of the Open Mike UK talent contest held in the Royal Concert hall in Glasgow. Jade has secured her place in the final of this, one of the largest singing competitions in the U.K. She will be competing in the final held in London on the 1st December 2010.

Increasing your vocal range

I got this question asked as a message on my youtube channel recently and thought I would share the answer.
Q How long does it take to increase your vocal range by one octave.
A.To increase your vocal range by one octave is dependant on your present range. you should look at the quality of your voice more than the range of notes you can produce. Most songs are composed well within two octaves so if you have this range you should be able to sing most songs easily. vocal exercises carried out using the correct technique will increase your vocal range and this should be done slowly note by note over a period of time so that you don't put excess strain on the vocal chords. To inrease by one octave is a bigh achievment if at all possible and without knowing what your range is at present is difficult to say how long or even if you would be able to increase by this amount.

Keep Singing!

Michelle McManus

I did a gig with Michelle McManus last night at the Parkville Hotel in Blantyre. I haven't seen Michelle since her rise to fame when she won Pop Idol a few years ago.
Her voice and charisma on stage were superb and in my opinion we should be hearing a lot more of her. It was nice to see that she is just the same down to earth person that she was before Pop Idol. Michelle can be seen presenting on "The Hour" TV show on Scottish Television 5pm Monday to Friday. It just shows what you can achieve with singing lessons and a lot of hard work.

BBC Singing Lessons

All this week I will be working for the BBC, teaching Aggie Mackenzie from the hit television show "How clean is your house" how to sing. By her own admission she can't hold a tune and therefore steers clear of anything to do with singing. She told me she went for a lesson with a top vocal coach in London but left at the end of her lesson no better.
My challenge is to get her good enough to sing live on the Macauley and Co. radio show on BBC Radio Scotland on Friday. You can find out how we got on and if I managed to get her to sing confidently and in tune by tuning into the show each day at 10:00am.