In my introductory singing workshops I often ask people what their hopes and aims are for their singing. 

I usually get a few responses of this ilk: 'I'd like to know what my voice can do'

I like that.

It's a yearning for accessing your greater potential.

And it's what excites me about exploring the singing voice - there are so many ways we can use it!

You have a whole array of 
-vocal ingredients
-vocal qualities
- and an artist's palette of vocal colours at your disposal!

If you know how to tap into them.

Today I'm going to tickle your fancy with an appetiser about vocal colours.

When I say 'colours' I do mean, kind of like the acoustic equivalent of visual colours.

I'm talking about the 'resonance' element of your singing voice. This is how you amplify and shape your sound - it's like what the body of a guitar does to the sound that is created by the strings.

So the colours, or timbres in your palette of resonance range from 'dark' to 'warm/rounded' to 'bright' to 'thin' to 'nasal'.

By tapping into each of these, you can get hugely varied sound qualities - and that gives you massive choice about how you sing.

If you'd like to meet me for a free discovery session, I will help you to suss out what your current 'default' setting is on that colour palette, and in one or two singing lessons I can show you how to access all the others. Does that appeal to you?

Dark resonance is heard in Georgian and Russian singing, or Romantic music eg Brahms, and can be found by expanding the pharynx (sounds technical but I can teach you to do it by feel) Other examples are Nina Simone, Elvis Presley.

Bright resonance is heard in Eastern European singing and North African singing or medieval music and is found by sending the sound forward and up into your head. Other examples are Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan, Al Jolson, a lot of English folk.

Then Warm resonance lies in the middle and examples are Karen Carpenter, Cleo Laine. 

So often I've found that starting to access warmer and brighter resonance gives people so much more richness in their singing and it can be really exciting to discover these new energies in your voice!

I'd love to help you open up and expand your voice in new directions too...

It's all about discovering how to activate the best acoustic properties of your instrument...and the better you sound, the better you'll feel about your voice, the more you'll enjoy singing, and the more others will too!