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.

Singing student prepares to meet Simon Cowell

Now that one of my singing lessons students senteen year old Nadia Howard from Glasgow has been told officialy that she has to audition in front of Simon Cowell and his panel of judges for this years X Factor on the 8th June, it'stime to get her voice in top condition.
Today I worked with her on her techniqe for the songs she will sing and getting her breathing sorted.
We recorded the song and worked on some parts which were not perfect. Nadia has a great voice and if she follows my instructions, singing tips and practices her singing exercises she will have a fantastic voice. She is full of enthusiasm and wants to learn to sing> to the best of her ability. Her next singing lesson is on Tuesday 2nd June.

X Factor Auditions 2009

Congratulations again to one of my pupils seventeen year old Nadia Howard from Glasgow for getting through her second audition for X Factor on Sunday (11th May 2009).
Nadia has worked very hard in a short period of time to perfect her songs and it just goes to show that her singing lessons have paid off. As a vocal coach I get as excited as my students when they succeed at an audition. Watching them improve as they learn to sing and hone their vocal skill to their best. Well done again Nadia.

X Factor Result

Well done to one of my students seventeen year old Nadia who has just phoned me from Hampden Park in Glasow to tell me that she succeeded in getting through to the next round in X Factor 2009. She is over the moon and so am I as she has only had a four singing lessons from me before her audition. She sang the song "You are so beautiful"

Well done againg Nadia I am keeping my fingers crossed for you.

Singing Student Supports Sydney Devine

Well done to one of my former singing tutor students Dyane Barry who is appearing in concert with country legend Sydney Devine at the Pavilion Theatre Glasgow from Thursday 13th November-Saturday 15th November.
Dyane has come a long way since her tuition only two years ago.

BBC Children in need

I have been asked by BBC Radio Scotland to take ten of their radio presenters from the MacAuley and Co. programe which is hosted by Fred McCauley and teach them to sing in aid of their Children in need day.

The presenters will sing live on the MacAuley & Co. show on Friday 14th October.
They are all non singers and so this is a challenge and I only have a total rehearsal time of five hours during a ten day period.

Kenny Campbell of mp3 Backing Trax put together a specially arranged backing track for the choir to sing to and if you want to know which song I have chosen tune in on the show on Thursday 6th October and all will be revealed.

We started our first rehearsal on Monday 3rd October and you can listen to how that went, along with an interview which I had with Fred MacAuley by going to:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radioscotland/presenters/fred_macaulay/

Can I succeed in getting these non singers to sound good enough to sing live on radio?
Tune into the MacAuley and Co. show on Radio Scotland on Friday 14th October at 10,00am to find out

singing exercises helps muscles

Hi,
I just thought I would let you all know that one of my pupils who has been coming to me for only six weeks for singing lessons told me that he has been visiting a Chiropracter with back probelms.
The Chiropracter had noticed that there was more blood going to the muscles in his back due to the breathing exercises which he had been practicing thus helping his recovery.
Even more proof of the benefits of vocal coaching.

Robert