[Eliza Fyfe]

The thing I’ve learnt about twang recently that has changed me, is the fact that the narrowing of the mouth helps the sound resonate better so that you can actually project with little effort. Amazing!

[Eliza Fyfe]

I’d like to add “what even is twang” to this little vocal adventure! As well as “metal” which is a word some teachers use which doesn’t sit well with me.

[Eliza Fyfe]

I use Gumtree a lot for general advertising that isn’t Matthew’s website. It can be a bit hit and miss with some people though and I don’t know whether the success of this site varies from city to city? I know it’s popular for literally everything in Bristol. When I wanted to move here, I got my flat, job, furniture, musicians and students from Gumtree. Sorted!

[Eliza Fyfe]

Hey Beckie

– Open mics are great as long as they are not too intimidating – the one I take students to is in the downstairs area of a bar so that the general public aren’t walking straight into a performance! It’s also a fairly new open mic and therefore nice and quiet. Try and bring other students so she doesn’t feel like the only student and it should hopefully ease her nerves. Or even duet with her so she can relax into it!
– Good idea about covers on the iPod, as long as the venue don’t mind it not being a real instrument! The above place I take my students too are cool with backing tracks
– Good idea at this age to be active with competitions if there aren’t many pubs she can go to!

In addition to this, have you thought about hosting Student Showcases? I run these seasonally, so every quarter there’s one to prepare the students for! It’s a great way to keep regular clients too

Also, this may be controversial, but as I have all my lessons back-to-back, I encourage the students to perform to each other, so one student will perform/play a recording of where they’ve got to in the lesson to the next person waiting to start their lesson. Usually they know the person which helps, as my students have the same slots so always meet each other which is nice!

Hope this helps!

[Eliza Fyfe]

Saying about NOT teaching breathing actually sounds really interesting.. Because actually, we shouldn’t need to teach it!