How it Works

Voice:

I use a selection of singing exercises tailored to each student to develop chest voice, head voice, and mix. I’ve trained in multiple contemporary vocal methods and have been teaching singing exercises for over 15 years.

Most beginners benefit from pairing vocal exercises with body and brain drills, while more experienced singers can often apply these drills directly to their songs for even faster results.

Body:

There are over 60 muscles involved in singing — so the better those muscles move, the better your voice works.

If certain muscles are weak, tense, overactive or underactive (due to posture, lifestyle habits, injuries, or simply because the brain isn’t coordinating them clearly), the entire vocal process is affected. Everything in your body is connected, and your voice reflects that.

I use a range of mobility work, posture training, strength exercises, tension-release techniques, and muscle-mapping drills based on your history, what I observe in your body, and how you respond during specific assessments.

Brain:
Neuro… what now?

The technical term is Functional Applied Neurology — which basically means understanding how the brain controls movement, how different systems in the body communicate, and using that knowledge to improve performance.

Your brain controls everything you do, and it is wired for survival, not performance. It doesn’t care whether you sing well. It cares whether you’re safe.

Every second it’s asking: “Can I move safely?”

If it isn’t getting clear information from your body and sensory systems, it responds by putting the brakes on your physical performance — including your voice. Simply because your brain determines that without clear information, your safest option is to move less. There hasn’t been a hardware update since the caveman era. To get the best from your voice, you need to work with your brain, not against it.

The neuroscience behind it can be complicated but fortunately you don't need to know all that! I need to know it so that I can effectively choose the right exercises to give you those breakthroughs! I've given some examples below.

Example 3. Freeing High Notes

What’s happening behind the scenes:
The vestibular system (your inner-ear balance system) is one of the brain’s highest priorities. It’s constantly working with your eyes, joints, and muscles to keep you upright — something we don’t realise because it happens automatically.

If this system is stressed or not working optimally, the brain restricts movement to protect you.

How it applies to singing:
Sam struggles with tight, effortful high notes. His history form shows he gets motion sickness — a sign of vestibular sensitivity.

High notes — and belted high notes in particular — require more precise coordination, stronger vocal fold closure, higher breath-pressure control, and a greater overall muscular workload. Because the stakes are higher, the brain needs to feel very stable and safe for those notes to come out freely.

We do some gentle vestibular drills and then try the high notes again. They’re suddenly freer, easier, and more reliable. When his nervous system feels more stable and less worried about balance, it stops blocking the movement needed for strong, free high notes..

Example 2. - Chest Voice Strengthening

What’s happening behind the scenes:
The brain can “forget” how to use certain muscles if they aren’t moved through their full range — this is called sensory–motor amnesia. With the right drills, we can bring muscles back online.

How it applies to singing:
Adrien’s chest voice is weak and unstable. We run a few body-mapping drills for his external obliques — muscles that support chest voice and breath power.

The result? Instantly deeper, stronger, more stable chest voice because his support system finally switched on.

Example 1. Mixed Voice Breakthrough

What’s happening behind the scenes:
Some of the nerves that connect directly to the brain control sensation in the face — including the area where mixed voice resonance lives. If that sensory input is “quiet,” the brain won’t allow the voice to coordinate properly.

How it applies to singing:
Jane keeps flipping into falsetto or straining in chest voice. We test and discover that the nerve responsible for sensation in the mask area is underactive. After we do a few activation drills, she tries the exercise again — and suddenly her mix clicks into place for the first time.

Her voice improves because her brain finally gets the information it needed.