Trinity College London
Warm ups
  • Overview
  • Chunking
  • Work your way up to the expected standard
  • Advice for the vaccai exercises
  • Audio recordings of the exercises
  • Don’t just focus on the notes
  • Integrate technical exercises into warmups
  • Soft palate exercises
Technical exercises
  • Overview
  • Chunking
  • Work your way up to the expected standard
  • Advice for the vaccai exercises
  • Audio recordings of the exercises
  • Don’t just focus on the notes
  • Integrate technical exercises into warmups
  • Soft palate exercises
Choosing repertoire
  • Overview
  • Chunking
  • Work your way up to the expected standard
  • Advice for the vaccai exercises
  • Audio recordings of the exercises
  • Don’t just focus on the notes
  • Integrate technical exercises into warmups
  • Soft palate exercises
Best practice for practising
  • Overview
  • Chunking
  • Work your way up to the expected standard
  • Advice for the vaccai exercises
  • Audio recordings of the exercises
  • Don’t just focus on the notes
  • Integrate technical exercises into warmups
  • Soft palate exercises
Preparing for exams
  • Overview
  • Chunking
  • Work your way up to the expected standard
  • Advice for the vaccai exercises
  • Audio recordings of the exercises
  • Don’t just focus on the notes
  • Integrate technical exercises into warmups
  • Soft palate exercises

Download joining guides & syllabuses:

Overcoming

singing teachers' greatest challenges

'The academic and other pressures on students these days give them less time to practise. You have to really engage them with a love for singing, good technique and the right repertoire to maintain progress'
Singing teachers' greatest challenges

  • Introduction

  • Teach students to sing confidently

  • Choosing the right repertoire

  • Build sight singing into teaching

  • Staying up to date with research

  • Teaching technique

  • Helping students find their voice

People of all ages come to singing lessons because they love to sing. Singing is a unique form of musical expression where your body is your instrument, the means through which sound is controlled and expressed and communicated.

Singing is all around us and for people of all ages, their musical identity as performers is formed by what they see, hear and associate with. Whether that is a family tradition of singing together, an enjoyment of singing along to their favourite songs or identifying with certain songs or styles of music, everyone comes to their first singing lesson with their own unique set of reasons that have brought them there.

The challenge for singing teachers and coaches is to support the development of technique, and to offer guidance over suitable repertoire whilst encouraging self confidence and embracing and nurturing existing passions for and engagement with singing.

Whilst for some, the graded exams system provides a useful series of assessments and suggested repertoire that benchmark progress and give students something to aim for, others may prefer to sing for the sake of singing. Adults and younger learners may have different expectations and motivations for coming to singing lessons, ultimately finding the right balance is what keeps them coming back for the next lesson, and the next, to do some more.

How can teachers and coaches best develop learners’ skills and technique through the music they make? How can this be achieved whilst also supporting and encouraging their students to be able to give performances, or to sing for pleasure, in ways that are not only musical but are personal, progressive, creative and enjoyable for all those involved?

We asked singing teachers to tell us about their challenges and shared their responses in our ‘Teacher’s Guide to Singing ’. Here we identify, explore and offer solutions to some key challenges faced by singing teachers as they work to deliver a relevant and engaging musical experience for their students ensuring that they retain a life-long love for singing and all the known benefits that this can bring.

teach students to sing confidently

 

‘A real challenge is getting students to overcome their lack of confidence and fear of failure. I take the holistic approach with this with a lot of support, encouragement and lots of positive feedback - focusing on what they are doing right and being non-judgemental on what they need to improve on.’

Donna-Marie Broomfield
Private singing teacher and peripatetic at The Maynard School Exeter and Tower House School in Paignton

 

Building self confidence with singing starts with self reflection on behalf of both the teacher and the student. For the teacher this helps to consider how it feels to be the learner and for the student it is an opportunity to reflect on what caused them to want to learn to sing, to seek out lessons and to share the expectations that they have of learning to sing. Whether the student is an adult learner or a young person, whilst their motivations for wanting to learn to sing might be different, building a two-way relationship that is based on trust and openness between student and teacher is essential for building self-confidence and becoming more confident with singing in general.  As EYFS music specialist Etain Ferdenzi suggests, ‘positive relationships can also help to challenge pre-existing issues that can lead to a lack of confidence. These might vary from a preconceived idea of what ‘good singing’ is to perhaps a negative experience such as being told ‘you can’t sing’.’

Teachers have to find a balance between engaging learners and supporting the development of technique. This is important so that students can access the wide range of benefits associated with singing and to challenge any lack of confidence that might exist from previous experiences with singing.

For example, the way that feedback is given can have an impact on confidence. Making sure they know what is good about what they are already doing, personalising exercises and warm ups to addressing particular areas of need and ensuring that they know what is needed to improve are good teaching strategies to embed through all lessons.

There is a wealth of supporting resources available for students to build on the work that they do in lessons. This then shifts the focus, in what is often a short amount of lesson time, from learning the song to helping to address issues of technique and build confidence with what has already been learned.

From instructional videos, to backing tracks, resources to support practice at home, and online streaming, all support students to practice and learn informally at home. Not only is that good for building confidence through familiarity with the music, it is also an important part of becoming a professional singer, where the need to be able to work independently, prepare for an audition and to give a confident performance is essential.

Much of the music that students listen to has been adjusted by autotune, use of compression and other digital effects. This can impact their confidence because the sound that they make doesn’t always reflect what they are accustomed to hearing.

Apps like Play Trinity for Rock and Pop have proved to be a versatile tool allowing students to master their performances and be the artist and the producer recording and refining their performance as they practice so that their performance becomes their own.

Similarly, apps can provide access to musical content. All of the songs from Trinity’s 2018-2021 graded singing books can be accessed digitally on Tido’s app for web and iPad. As well as being a useful supporting tool for teachers during lessons, this also allows for convenient access to repertoire and the chance to listen and sing along to the pieces at home.

 

Download the syllabuses

Choosing the right repertoire 

 

‘I find children not wanting to expand their repertoire from solely pop-orientated a challenge. I support them by gently introducing jazz and musicals, songs they like until they trust my opinion’

Anonymous teacher 

 

In order to encourage students to develop their own personal responses to repertoire choice and to be open and creative with the choice of songs for a performance, teachers can integrate student choice into the very first decisions about what to sing. James Gower, professional opera singer, vocal coach and singing teacher believes that ‘student choice is important because if they don’t engage with the music or it is too difficult for them, a physical reaction in the body can affect the tone quality of the voice, not to mention the quality of the performance.’

Learning songs they already know can engage them with the music quickly and save time in having to learn the song from scratch, meaning that there can be a focus on teaching technique from the outset.

Of course, not all students want to take a graded exam, but the variety of repertoire available allows for teachers and students to pick and mix from across various syllabuses in order to develop repertoire choices which are personal to them and not just limited to the scope of an exam.

Improved access to music via mobile devices and online music streaming has also added an important dimension to repertoire choice. Listening to songs together can create interesting discussions and reveal useful information about the personal and musical interests of students.  Acknowledging and showing an interest in this can be essential in keeping them engaged with learning to sing and can also help to build trust when teachers start to suggest songs that may take students out of their comfort zones, perhaps chosen to expand their range, address aspects of technique or just introduce some variety into their repertoire.

Technology is also a great tool to test out the suitability of a song without needing access to a piano or transposing sheet music/chord charts. It also allows students to experiment with finding and suggesting repertoire themselves.

Getting the choice of repertoire right and allowing students some choice also means they are likely to be more relaxed when performing and able to give a more musically expressive performance. A relaxed sound is a beautiful sound!

build sight singing into teaching

 

‘Confidence in sight singing can be a real challenge. I break this discipline down by initially encouraging pitch reading followed by clapping the rhythm slowly. Next, singing the rhythm on a single comfortable pitch. Finally, bringing everything together.’

Raymond Isom
Private singing teacher

 

Sight singing is an essential skill to help students to become better at pitching and singing in tune. Being able to sight sing is also an important part of being a professional singer where, session singers for example, might need to be able to sing something quickly and accurately. As Vanessa Heine, professional opera, choral and session singer observes, ‘singers who can sight sing are often more likely to get work than those who can’t, such is its importance, particularly in the professional world of classical singing and performing.’

Whilst it is a good strategy to listen to songs as you learn them, being able to sight sing also enables students to develop their own personal sense of style and musicianship when performing a song. This is especially important with rock and pop songs where students often know the song and a specific performance of it very well so it is easy to avoid adding their own musical embellishments or expression to their performance and just copy the original.

Sight singing with the teacher or with a piano or other chordal or melodic accompaniment is good for developing a sense of awareness about how the vocal part fits within the other parts in a song and for developing an understanding of chords and harmony. For example, it is useful if they can recognise which note of the chord they are singing or how the chords change within the accompaniment.

Responding to other parts, whilst following their own, encourages good ensemble skills and introducing some call and response or improvisation into the exercise is a great way to encourage students away from the book and into more creative approaches to singing.

Whilst sight singing is often prioritised in the run up to an exam, the most effective way to really embed it into the learning experience is to do some every lesson, ideally in a musical context. That way, it becomes second nature when it comes to having to perform at sight in front of an examiner and, of course, it builds other essential musical skills such as recognising markings on a score and how to interpret and communicate those musically and being able to react quickly to the music, rhythms, words and other parts within the song.

 

Download the syllabuses

Staying up to date with research

 

‘The fact that you cannot see vocal cords and the origin of the sound when vocalising, means that you can only be guided by what you can hear, observe and what you have learnt from past experience. I read a lot of literature, ask a lot of questions and keep up to date with the latest research in vocal pedagogy to meet this challenge.’

Abigail Mann
Private singing teacher

 

Whether you work as a freelancer or are employed by an organisation as a singing teacher, the experience of teaching singing can be an isolating one. Even when conducting a choir, leading an ensemble or facilitating a workshop, you are usually the only person in the room doing that role and therefore there can be limited opportunities for singing teachers to share ideas, discuss technique and pedagogy or find out about the latest developments within music education as a whole. As Tori Longdon, assistant conductor for the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain points out, ‘practitioners often work in a vacuum and it’s not always easy to find the time to access relevant professional development, training or networking opportunities that help you to stay up to date with research.’

It can be too easy when working in isolation, to get stuck in a rut of teaching the same repertoire or using the same exercises, and there can be a danger that this could get in the way of ensuring that each student is able to have a personalised experience in their lessons that ensures that they are keen to come back for more next week!

For busy teachers, finding the time to focus on professional development or wellbeing can often feel like a huge barrier to seeking and undertaking CPD unless it is laid on by employers. Of course meeting other singers and singing teachers in person is always a great opportunity for networking and sharing of good practice. But if this isn’t an option, then a quick online search reveals organisations who provide online or paper newsletters that have information about the latest developments in music education or offer training and development events for teachers. Alternatively you could join an online group or forum or even approach another local teachers and suggest observing each other teach, perhaps followed by a discussion of strategies and ideas that have proved successful with their students over coffee.

For freelancers, the issue of accessing quality professional development and support is compounded by making it work financially. Contacting the local Music Education Hub for advice or engaging with one of the representative or membership bodies for music educators is a good place to start making enquiries. Many organisations offer subsidised rates or members only options that make these more affordable and accessible for studio teachers or freelancers.

Teaching technique

 

‘I think getting students to work at minimising bad habits learned from singing along to pop music, with no knowledge of proper technique, can be difficult.’

Sian Jones
Freelance singing teacher

 

Sit in a room full of singers and you can guarantee that at some point the issue of technique will come up, possibly sparking some lively debate! But that’s understandable since poor technique poses significant risks to the voice and remains one of the greatest barriers to success for singers.

The importance of teaching technique from the start is widely acknowledged, as students with good technique can perform any repertoire well and produce a good sound across a range of musical styles and genres. Good technique also ensures that students can focus on giving a musically expressive and fluent performance rather than having to focus solely on controlling their technique in more difficult passages or grapple with issues of tone quality or pitching.

Many singing teachers have a variety of tried and tested warm ups and exercises that can be tweaked and used to address a variety of issues such as airflow and breath control, expanding the vocal range or preparing the body physically to be ready to sing. As opera singer, vocal coach and singing teacher James Gower notes, ‘when your body is your instrument, you are physically connected to the music you make so it is important to keep technique mainly focused on physical responses and to ensure that learners understand the technique for themselves’.

When singing, the aim is to help the singer give performances that are relaxed, musical and expressive, no matter the genre or difficulty of the music they are singing. Therefore supporting physical co-ordination through stretches, tongue rolls and exercises for jaw loosening for example are also an essential part of every lesson.

Technique is also crucial in challenging poor habits learned from listening to and copying performances of songs, particularly if students have had a hand in choosing their own repertoire. Recordings that students know well don’t always come with good technique and actually all singers come to lessons with some technique already whether they have had singing lessons before or not.

A well as warming up, threading technique through each activity is even more effective when issues with technique are effectively diagnosed and addressed from the very start of the lesson. Once this becomes a regular part of the learning and if the approaches used are creative and personalised to the needs of each student, then students will be more likely to keep coming to lessons. Ideally supporting their technique ultimately will become second nature to both teacher and student.

 

Download the syllabuses

helping 
students find their voice

 

‘My challenge is in adapting the language of singing teaching to every individual student depending on their age, ability and understanding. What works for one student may not work for another. This can be a real challenge in a school setting where you may have a new student every half an hour all day.’

Frances Israel
Peripatetic Voice Teacher at Bishop’s Stortford College

 

Creating a personalised learning environment is crucial to enable students to find and develop their own musical identity which then allows them to give a performance which engages the audience and communicates the musical and expressive intentions of the music. But in a long day of teaching, it can be hard to keep energy levels high and to remain responsive and flexible when each student you work with has their own unique set of needs and wants.

Students bring a variety of starting points with them when they come into lessons. For teachers, an awareness of the musical culture of the environment in which they are working is essential. For example, for those working in schools, is there an established tradition of singing, opportunities to get involved with choirs at school, or is singing something that students lack confidence with? What has motivated students to want to learn to sing and what part have the wishes of parents, class teachers and the demands of GCSE or A Level exams played in the decisions that have brought them to your teaching room today? Getting to understand these motivations are importing in being able to tailor responsive teaching to the needs and expectations of each student.

Musical identity can also be supported through engaging with repertoire that students have a natural affinity with although of course this can bring additional challenges. As conductor Tori Langdon points out;  ‘Sometimes it is necessary to accept that it can be chaotic trying to bridge the gap between prescribed repertoire that is pedagogically suitable and carefully chosen to suit the ability and needs of students with students’ own love of music.’ Of course once students are engaged, teachers can then broaden this through suggestions, modelling and demonstrating an enthusiasm for and awareness of a range of songs in different styles, genres and languages.

An understanding of the difficulty levels and repertoire required for GCSE and A Level performance is also important, so establishing good communication with others involved in the music education of the students may be important in some cases.

Finally, recognising and gently challenging both teacher and student comfort zones through establishing a 2-way relationship that is respectful, inclusive and balanced is a great way to allow musical identity to flourish.

Finding the right balance between listening and teaching is important to allow for student agency to develop within the context of the lessons, enabling teachers to recognise and support the development of that individual musical identity. And it is this which makes singing such a personal and unique experience for both performer and audience.
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