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Emmanuella Grace is a Vocal Coach, Singing Teacher and Artistic Mentor. Her teaching guides clients to a healthy voice, strong performances and to identify and achieve their creative and expressive goals.

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As a voice coach and singing teacher the question that I am asked the most is: “Can everyone sing?” My answer is a resounding yes. Singing is simply the playing of an instrument located within the...

[find-your-voice-au]

Can anyone sing?

As a voice coach and singing teacher the question that I am asked the most is: “Can everyone sing?” My answer is a resounding yes. Singing is simply the playing of an instrument located within the body.

If all the required parts are working, you can sing and even then I have taught some inspiring students that despite flawed body parts were able to sing, one deaf client even recorded an album! I believe the question people are actually asking is "Are we all capable of making a sound that is aesthetically pleasing?", my reply would be "Aesthetically pleasing to whom"? The sound we want to make will be as individual as we are, and what we think sounds good will be the culmination of cultural, familial, educational and social influences. I believe as a vocal coach my role is not to make aesthetic judgements, my role is to to teach people how to master the mechanisms of their vocal instrument in a way that they can then play it the way they choose.

Playing the vocal instrument is a skill that can be learned like any other. Practice anything, deliberately and mindfully, for long enough and you will master the skill. Criticism is a massive inhibitor of progress whether it is self criticism or from an external source.  I am saddened at how many people do not sing because someone once told them that they could not.

I am exceedingly grateful that I am stubborn and did not follow the misguided advice of teachers and authority figures in my life that were critical and discouraging of my singing and of me pursuing it as a vocation. On some level I internalised this damaging criticism, it took me many years to overcome but stronger still was a deep rooted desire to sing. I am equally grateful for the wonderfully encouraging and patient teachers who taught me how to hone the skill of singing. Like many of my clients I have found music theory intimating and at times confusing, but music is not notes on a page, it is sounds made with an instrument that we all have access to. 

The voice is an instrument that is free, we all own one, you can take it with you where ever you go. Only our mind set can stop us learning and playing our instrument, a practice that is fulfilling, brings joy and is so beneficial to our health.

Find your voice. Emmanuella

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Your body language shapes who you are

This video is compulsory viewing for all of my clients. Amy Cuddy’s TED Talk introduces us to the idea that our body language affects not only how other peoples perceive and respond to us, but MORE IMPORTANTLY our own psyche.  She demonstrates how adopting a  posture of confidence can help us feel more confident, affecting testosterone and cortisol levels in our brain.

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Have you ever experienced performance anxiety?

I had the good fortune a few year ago of attending a lecture by an esteemed colleague of mine Dr Margaret Osborne. I was impressed by how simply she tackled the rather complex phenomenon that we all suffer from at some stage in our career, performance anxiety. 

Dr Osborne's work was influential in how I now address performance anxiety, both with myself and with clients. I am excited to be able to share a podcast of her recent lecture at the Melbourne Recital Centre for the Music on The Mind Series; 8 things to give up…and not one of them is music.

You can listen to the seminar podcast via this link.

The seminar addresses eight common triggers to music performance anxiety and how we might be able to overcome them to allow more musical performance, and thus wellbeing, into our lives.

8 THINGS TO GIVE UP!

Doubting yourself

Negative thinking

Fear of failure

Criticising yourself and others

Negative self-talk

Procrastination

Fear of success

People pleasing

The seminar was part of a series of lectures exploring the relationship between music and the human brain and the related links to social wellbeing, participation, learning and development and the role of music in our contemporary communities. For more information on the Music on the Mind Series follow this link.