Do you think that Mary J Blige or Elton John had voice training or singing lessons before embarking on their quest for stardom? I bet they wouldn’t tell us if they had, but if it’s something you’ve ever considered doing but have been too shy to try, read on. We sent brave reviewer Jo Flood on singing lesson to test the water…

Course: Find Your Voice
Venue: Westminster Adult Education Service
When is it? Tuesday evenings from 6.30-8.30pm
What you need: Nothing, just a desire to sing!

Do you see yourself as a budding chanteuse or crooner? Do you want to be able to sing along to your favourite tune on the radio without every dog in the vicinity howling in protest? If you’ve ever dreamed of taking your singing voice out of the shower, then get along to a singing lesson near you (just remember to get dressed first). I decided to start at the beginning and sample a course at Westminster Adult Education Service called ‘Find your Voice’.

Let’s face it, most people are absolutely terrified by the prospect of singing in front of a group of people but the course tutor, Rachel Evans, has a tireless enthusiasm which proved to be very contagious. Rachel has worked as a professional singer, so she was able to help us improve our voices. She seemed to understand that I was nervous and felt a bit sick at the thought of launching into song in front of 20 or so total strangers, but knowing that everyone else felt the same way put me at my ease. One of the first things she said was that nobody was expected to sing on their own (to start with…) and the relief in the room was palpable.

Limbering up
The group was quite large – 25 people in total with an age range from 20 to 65, from completely different backgrounds and all of them beginners like me. After an initial individual introduction (‘Hi, my name is Jo and I like lots of different types of music from Bryan Adams to folk to Abba but not classical!’) we were soon limbering up our faces with some exercises. Apparently the worst thing you can do is sing through a letterbox-shaped mouth, as even the sweetest of voices will be distorted. We all stood there (trying not to laugh at each other pulling a multitude of funny faces) making aaaa, eeee and oooo noises, big faces, small faces and practising opening our mouths wide enough to let the sound emerge in its purest form.

Once we’d mastered this, we started to focus on breathing techniques. It seems like a really obvious thing to ‘remember to breathe’ but controlling your breathing in order to get the most out of your voice is quite tricky. You take a big breath in, then hiss it all out and you can really feel the abdominal muscles working so we did this until everyone mastered it, which really wasn’t as easy as it sounds! Next, we did some scales to warm up our voices and we were ready to go.

Note perfect
Rachel split us into groups of three and handed out some sheets of music, which had the musical notes and the lyrics on them. Nobody was expected to be able to read music but it definitely gave me a better understanding of how music works, how long to hold a note, and when the tune goes up and down, so looking at this made it easier to follow.
Then we launched into some harmony singing, which is quite difficult, especially when your neighbour is singing a different tune to you! After singing our individual group parts four or five times with Rachel, we sung for the first time as a collective and I have to say I was quite impressed with the sound we produced. There didn’t seem to be a bum note in the house (to my untrained ear anyway), nor any dogs howling at the door! We were all quite pleased with ourselves and Rachel looked suitably impressed by our efforts. At the end of the class, I found myself surprisingly disappointed that it was over. The two hours had flown by.

Confidence boost
I think it really helps to sing an unfamiliar tune when you’re learning how to harmonise, as you have to concentrate and listen intently when you’re learning it. If it had been Dancing Queen by Abba, we would all have lent our own interpretation to the song and the resulting clamour would not have been pretty.

I was initially only going to attend two sessions in order to write this review, but I have enjoyed it so much that I have signed up for the rest of the course. Even if I don’t get that longed-for number one hit, I’ll be singing with a lot more confidence than I had before.  X Factor here I come…

Meet the tutor:
Irish born and London based, Rachel (Rae) Evans is a singer, pianist and songwriter. She has performed extensively in the UK and abroad with bands, jazz trios and classical ensembles, and has coached on BBC Radio and on ITV’s Soapstar Superstar. Rae currently writes for her collective Coraline (www.myspace.com/coralineuk) and has performed in New York, Europe and the UK.