The CoMMUNITY SINGer

Hello and welcome to The Community Singer!

My name is Abi Gilchrist, and I am professional singer and vocal coach at the London School of Music Theatre. I regularly record at Abbey Road Studios on top movie scores and, over my career, I've specialised in vocal technique and good vocal health practice.

Hi, I'm Ross Power and, in addition to running vocal workshops for adults and children, I am also a Musical Director and Composer for film, TV and theatre.

We've both been running Community Choirs for over 15 years and are the founding Directors of UK Soul Choirs. We founded Soul Choirs to bring the shared experience of singing to non professionals and professionals alike; so, let's talk about the benefits of singing...

Well, we know from direct experience how important singing can be for mental health. Singing is an aerobic exercise which sees the release of endorphins - the brains 'feel good' chemicals. We know it relieves stress and stimulates the immune response - it can even increase your pain threshold! Singing has also been shown to rehabilitate lung function and to remedy snoring.

But, beyond the physical benefits, singing can develop a sense of belonging and connection. It can help with grief and generally enhance mental health and mood. When we work with choirs on a weekly basis, we find that there are several obstacles that get in the way for people to truly enjoy singing. We've had the benefit of extensive training from a young age and we've realised it's too easy to gloss over the foundations that we covered at the beginning of our journey. This is why we developed this course - we want you to have all the tools that we use as professionals.

We also want to debunk some of the myths that stop people from singing.

So Abi, who is The Community Singer course aimed at?

- It's aimed at the complete beginner. Someone who would like to sing but doesn't know where to start.

- It's aimed at someone who used to sing but hasn't for a while and lacks confidence.

- It's aimed at someone who would like to join a choir but who would like some technical knowledge before they begin or someone who's already in a choir and who would like some more foundations to work on for their singing journey.

So, Ross, let's go through the topic that we're going to cover in this course.

- First, we're going to debunk some singing myths and then we're going to cover the three basics of singing; breath, connection and sound.

- We're going to look at the core principles of music; pitch and rhythm.

- We're going to create a daily warm up that you can use for the voice.

- We're going to look at the 'do's' and 'don'ts' of vocal health and explore how you can start your singing journey.

See you next time!