“Jenny is a highly skilled and talented teacher. She knows how to get the best out of you in a fun engaging way. As an adult learner she is very empathetic, encouraging and gives me so much confidence to achieve. Our lessons are the highlight of my week.” Debbie K.
A singing teacher based in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, I offer tailored singing lessons for teenagers and adults who want to grow in skill and confidence. I’m an active performer myself – and a perpetual student – so I get you! With a PGCert in Singing Teaching from the Voice Study Centre/ UWTSD and over 20 years of teaching experience, my aim is to help you achieve your singing goals… but most of all to enjoy!
I specialise in teaching:
And my aim for students is to:
Each student’s individual progress is important to me. For that reason, we set goals together at the beginning of the academic year and periodically review progress throughout.
As everyone learns differently, I provide students with a mixture of practice aids to suit their needs. This might include sheet music, recorded exercises and backing tracks, YouTube examples, iRealPro chord change samples, a recording of the student singing the melody they have just learned (as we learn best from our own voices) – or a lesson video by request.
If you’re interested, contact me now for lesson availability.
Lessons are currently £55/ hour, with a 10% discount for regular term-time lesson slots or a block of 5 lessons.
My teaching style is warm, inclusive and nurturing. My own sensitivity helps tap into the needs of others, providing the environment and approach to explore your voice together and achieve the best for you.
As well as teaching privately from my studio in Tunbridge Wells, I teach singing at Sevenoaks School as a Visiting Music Teacher and am part of the jazz singing teaching cooperative Sing Jazz International.
As Programme Director for Finchcocks residential piano courses, I also have the opportunity to coach vocal accompaniment. This in turn took me last year to Switzerland to sing for Graham Fitch’s International Piano Course in La Blonay with Siliva Fraser – an amazing and extremely rewarding experience!
I’m also a member of the Association of Teachers of Singing (AOTOS) for which I’m “Pod leader” for the Tunbridge Wells cohort.
The experience of my first audition was not a happy one. I was not an overly confident child and, had it not been for the gentle encouragement of another, kinder teacher, I may well have been put off singing for good. Since then I have had the great fortune to receive tuition from a variety of wonderfully gifted, caring and inspiring teachers (including Dawn Freer, Christine Page, Tom Schmidt, Laura Sarti, Charlotte Xerri, Sarah Dunstan and Claire Martin) who have shown me what kind of teacher I myself would like to be.
At secondary school, singing provision only allowed for classical or pop. I went down the classical route, secretly envying the those who found musical theatre and jazz outside of school, but happy to follow the structure and well-trodden path of ABRSM classical singing exams. At Southampton University I studied Music and German – and even German Music at Hamburg Conservatoire for my Erasmus year abroad! Gaining a First Class Honours and Diploma in Singing Performance, I began my teaching career in the classroom.
After two years I was burnt out. I missed meaningful musical interaction and decided to make the switch to peripatetic singing teaching. I haven’t looked back since.
Voice science has come on so much since I was a teenager. I remember a music teacher at the time telling me I didn’t need to bother with “all that”. But that itch didn’t go away: I’m a visual learner and needed to understand the mechanics of my instrument. I discovered Estill Voice Training, studying for and passing the teaching model’s Certificate of Figures Proficiency (CFP). The process opened up a whole new and exciting world – and community of other singing teachers wanting to understand the voice better and improve their teaching too. Since then, I have gone onto achieve a PGCert in Voice Pedagogy (Singing Teaching!) from the Voice Study Centre, along with certificates in both Neuroscience and Singing and Acting Approaches for Singing Teachers.
As you may have gathered by now, I’m pretty obsessed with the voice, singing and all that it brings. As an active performer and perpetual student myself, I hope this journey of discovery never tires – and that I can pass on just a little of my enthusiasm for my passion with my students.
The main thing I tell them is that I want them to enjoy. There are millions of songs in the world and there’s one for everyone.
