Learn "How" to Sing with Natural Singing for everyone
What you'll learn
- Apply your awareness of Natural Singing to use every day for your own pleasure, and professionally
- Understand the super-importance of breathing in singing, along with the correct use of the diaphragm
- Apply the important singing techniques of Covering, Placing, and Focus - along with the correct use of posture
- By practising regularly, you should experience an extension in your singing range, improved tone, smooth movement between notes and a sense of ease when singing
- Exercise freely; each stage of your course has a mp3 exercise file for download and practice (put it on your computer, laptop or mobile phone)
- Understand your own voice and identify your own personal singing goals
Requirements
- You will need a fascination and interest in singing
- It really helps if you can pitch your voice comfortably
- You will be expected to Practice as regularly as you can
- When practising it is always best to use a mirror - so you can see whether you are opening your mouth correctly and not breathing in the chest
- Most importantly do not over practise - as soon as you start feeling tired, take a break and rest the voice
Description
Learn 'How' to sing Naturally from a professional singing teacher who has worked as a singer and trained all types of vocalist worldwide.
This course is about "How" to sing - we get straight to the point...
To help you with that daily singing routine, we have produced this Natural Singing Fundamentals Course with the beginner, actor and singer in mind, using the "John Oxley Technique"
The Natural Singing fundamentals course will help you in many ways for example:
Opening your Throat and freeing it of tension
Correct breathing the absolute core of singing
Understanding resonance through the 'Focus of Breath technique'
Using the 'Covering Technique' when singing in the upper register (high notes)
And not having to sing falsetto (Male voice)
This training is geared to straight singing, e.g. Musical Theatre & good Pop singing
By using this training your voice will last you years
You will be able to approach all styles; Pop, Blues, Jazz, Folk, etc.
No matter what style you do decide to sing, there is one important rule that
** Your throat must be open and free of tension **
If you wish to sing then the mantra is you have to practise daily to improve. This means you get to exercise your voice but also you build your awareness of your voice.
The course not only offers you good vocal technique but a confidence knowing that well known actors such as:
Jeremy Irons - Jane Lapotaire - Tim Pigott-Smith - Chris Biggins - Greta Scacchi - Allan Corduner
...to name just a few, received the same basic training from John Oxley at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and all have made their mark in the profession as actors and over many years have used their voices correctly in speech and singing.
I emphasise the Natural approach with my knowledge gained over many years of study and singing, and teaching.
Don’t sit back and do nothing Enrol today and prepare yourself for your future as an all round confident singer..
John is in touch with many of his old students who are now household names and they regularly thank him for his influence in their professional careers. He can do the same for you if YOU are prepared to work at it.
Who this course is for:
- This course is for beginners, actors and established singers who want to study Natural Singing.
- The understanding of music theory is always helpful but is not required for this course
- This course will help you with your confidence and stamina for singing (of course this depends on how much you practise)
- All the principles and techniques demonstrated in this course will help you establish a good singing voice for life
- Your investment in practice and repetition will really payoff, and you will be surprised by the rewards from your hard work
- Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned vocalist I think everyone will benefit from this course
Instructors
Shaun has a musical and technical background and got to know John as a singing student. He studied at LAMDA (London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art) and sung professionally. I would say that John’s skills as a singing teacher are exceptional. His teaching skills reach far beyond singing…he teaches you how to sing and how to listen. I consider myself very lucky to have met John and then to have had him as my singing teacher. You are in excellent hands.
John studied at the Royal College of Music, London. After singing professionally for some years, in 1961 became a singing teacher responsible for singing and voice at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, England, and later a singing teacher at York University Department of Theatre, Ontario, Canada.
For those of you who would like to know more about John. As a boy of 9, he joined the church choir and a year later sang and appeared in the Opera ‘Sir John in Love’ by Vaughan Williams. This was the first time John met Vaughan Williams. By the age of 13 John’s voice started to change and at 15 he was singing as a Boy Baritone, which was very unusual at that time. When John was 15 (1936 and 1937 season) he played international rugby for England schoolboys.
From 1942 to 1946 John served in the Royal Artillery during the Second World War. After demobilisation John studied at the Royal College of Music entering this world-renowned music college in 1947. He graduated in 1950 to start his professional career as a singer, working on radio and television, generally broadcasting live. In 1951 he joined Laurence Olivier Productions as a member of the cast of The Consul, an opera in three acts with music and libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti, in the London’s West End, and continued working in the West End and, throughout the UK. Finally, he decided to go into teaching this wonderful art as a full-time singing teacher.
He joined the Bristol Old Vic in January 1961 and taught singing at the Theatre School. Students describe him as a straightforward, avuncular, and jovial man, and have a special fondness for his favoured training song, Ombra Mai Fu.
During John's time performing, singing, and teaching he was involved and connected with:
NODA – National Operatic and Dramatic Association, South West UK conferences for over 30yrs – as a tutor for singing and voice
Bristol Opera School – as the chorus master in the 1950’s
International Who’s Who in music – John’s name first appeared here in 1975
Adjudicator – during his career John adjudicated singing, acting and stagecraft
Why Breathing in Singing is so important
As a singing teacher, John taught actors to focus their breath in such a way that their voice would come out from the top of the head because even humming quietly can then be heard right up in the ‘Gods’ of the theatre. He claimed to be able to teach anyone to sing, no matter how unpromising they seemed when they arrived at the theatre school.
Singing and Tone Deafness
John always referred to tone-deafness as having a ‘Faulty Ear’ meaning the pitch we hear and the sound we produce is different. As a result, he would teach a special Saturday class for people who had a ‘faulty ear’, affecting not only their singing but also the range of their speaking voice, and the ability to vary pitch:
…At the end of the year, I would have them singing unaccompanied in two parts, …he would say with pride.
How Singing can help all Performers
Christopher Ashley remembers John showing him that in order to act, he didn’t need to put on a special voice. An acting voice is simply an extension of an ordinary voice, and a singing voice is simply another extension of that.