Watch Natalie's testimonial
Semi-professional singer Natalie talks about her first ten singing lessons with me; developing control and consistency in her voice.
Thank you so much to Natalie for taking time out to share your experience. It's been a total pleasure working with you. :)
Here is a full transcript:
One of the songs that I sing in the band is an Adele song and I was really struggled with that before and felt like I really had to throw a lot at it. And now that feels kind of easy and relaxed and that's kind of opened the way for other songs that are in a similar kind of range.
Why did you want lessons?
Hi, I'm Natalie. I've been having singing lessons with Jules for 10 weeks. I'm singing in a band and I was finding that every time I went to rehearsal or we'd learn a new song, I kind of didn't know what was going to come out of my mouth. And so for me, it was really about just understanding the different techniques that I could have within my toolkit to try different songs, to approach different songs in different ways, give me some more confidence, but also to create some more consistency so that I felt I had a bit more control over what was going to come out of my mouth every time I opened it.
How were your lessons with Jules?
One of the things that Jules is really great at is that she makes you feel so comfortable and really sort of creates an environment where you feel like you can get it wrong, but that that's OK and you're just learning. And quite often during a lesson, we might be tackling a section of a song and just for whatever reason, I wasn't getting the right kind of sound that I was after. And so Jules is really good at just trying lots of different techniques to find the ones that work best for you. And she's got a really good sense of kind of how far to push something before kind of changing, you know, pivoting to something different and finding the thing that is going to help you kind of move it forward.
How has your voice changed?
I think my voice feels much more versatile than it did before, so my higher register is so much bigger than it was before. One of the songs that I sing in the band is an Adele song and I always really struggled with that before and felt like I really had to throw a lot at it and now that feels kind of easy and relaxed and that's kind of opened the way for other songs that are in this similar kind of range. So for me it's been about being up in the higher register and just feeling much more confident and relaxed there.
Did lessons meet your expectations?
I don't really know what I expected to be honest because I didn't know what I didn't know I've never had I've never had any kind of professional lessons or coaching before. What surprised me about it the most has been the things I've learned technically about how the voice works, how the muscles work, how different ways that you can position your mouth or your tongue or your jaw or your body or any number of things like has a massive impact on the sound that comes out.
How has it impacted you professionally?
I think it has changed how I show up in the band in terms of a musician because I think sometimes you can get kind of overlooked because there's not a physical instrument that people can see or that needs to be tuned or that clearly can break. And just understanding that I need to have moments where even in rehearsals, you know, having the confidence to say, no, I'm not going to sing the Adele song as the first song that we're going to rehearse. I need to warm up to that. I need to find my placement. Let's start with this song instead. So I think it just gives me the confidence to know I'm not being a diva and I'm not being demanding. I'm just genuinely trying to get the best sound that I can and look after my instrument.
What’s been your favourite thing?
Favourite thing has been just trying out new songs that I never really was brave enough to try. I think it's just really, it's really given me confidence. It's really inspired me to test things and not be afraid of just making a terrible sound because actually that's useful sometimes in helping you understand what different things feel like and using that to learn something different.
Would you recommend lessons with Jules?
Do It. Absolutely. You won’t regret it.