Hi everyone! I'm new to the forum, just found it and it seems like a really useful place!

I'm wondering if anyone could give me some advice on finding a singing teacher please? I have had singing lessons in the past, with some good, some not so good teachers (3 in total!) and enjoyed singing but haven't had lessons for a few years now. I'm specifically looking for someone in who teaches musical theatre repertoire and ideally belt technique. (The threads about belting on here have been very useful to read, and I'm aware it can be a bit damaging to the voice if you aren't taught properly.

What I'm asking is how to find someone like this? I keep looking on the net and can't seem to find anyone and I'm not 100%sure of how to assess whether a teacher is 'good'. (Having paid a lot for teachers in the past who didn't really teach me anything.)

Any advice would be much appreciated!

Thanks so much in advance!

Hello and welcome.

Have you looked here - http://www.ism.org/publications/register_rmt.html
or here - http://aotos.org.uk/ - ?

No I haven't, thanks! That's useful!

Had a look at those sites and can't seem to find anyone locally. Back to the drawing board. Thanks though!

How do you know if someone's a reputable teacher? I know there's such a wide variety of teachers out there! What should I be asking?

You could also have a look at www.musicteachers.co.uk

Where do you live (you can also PM me if you don't want to write this down for everyone to read), maybe I can help ...

As for what to look for in a teacher: Qualifications are a good thing to look out for, although they don't necessarily make a good teacher. But they give you an idea of how much time and effort that person spent on improving vocal and teaching skills.
Experience of course, although newly qualified teachers are sometimes "burning" more than older, very routined ones. But you can get completely bored young ones and really excited older ones, so you really have to "try out" that person, otherwise you won't know

Most of all: They should have a good technique themselves and sound healthy and well balanced. Although I do not permanently sing to my students because I don't want copycats, it is essential. Many students are not impressed with the way their teachers sound, and then I sometimes ask myself: "Why would you want to study with a person whose voice does not sound good to you?"

And also: You have to feel at ease with your teacher. It is no use if you feel constantly intimidated or have the feeling that the teacher just has a set program that is the same for every student. Every voice is individual and should be treated as such.

As for musical theatre singing: I worked as a musical theatre performer for years and only can say: You have to learn this technique with someone who knows what they are doing. Some classical singing teachers tell you that belting will do harm when it actually doesn't if learned properly. I don't mind if people stay off teaching it because they have never done it, but then they should actually keep their mouths shut about something they they obviously know nothing about (sorry for the rant, but it's sadly true).
I studied both classical and contemporary singing and can only say that both have their place, and both can be done horribly wrong ...

Mezzo that's really useful, thank you. I'm in the West Mids/Birmingham area. Is that any good?

I sadly don't know anyone in the Birmingham area (my tutoring base is in the Glasgow area), but there are tons of singing teachers registered on musicteachers.co.uk in the West Mids, also people who seem to specialise in Musical Theatre etc. Maybe you should just get a couple of consultations with different people and then literally see if any of those tick the right boxes.

Good luck!

Yes, Glasgow's a bit far!! Shame!

I've found some good people in London (there's hundreds there!!) and have been contemplating whether that's too far to travel. Having said that, that website is good and there seem to be a few who specialise in musical theatre and some even specialise in belt technique (or Estill technique? ) so it's well worth following those up.

Mezzo, thanks again for your help!

I have a very good pupil who moved here from Brum a couple of years ago. She had been very well taught. I will try to find out who her teacher was and pm you. Might take a couple of days though!

Hi Maria

I recently started singing teachers. Sometimes you have to try out the teachers and find what is right for you. My background is not singing but piano and did not feel 100% with the first two teachers I tried but bounced out of the third teacher's lesson feeling very happy and excited.

Thanks for the replies guys and thanks 4tisimo, that's fab!

I'm looking for someone who'll ideally work on belt technique with me, to see if I can do it at all or not!!! I'm going to have an online lesson with rosfrog (hopefully!) when I can sort out the necessary technology!

Thanks again!

Just tip me the wink when you're ready!