When we first started offering singing lessons in London to city business people in 1999, we had absolutely no idea how much of a positive influence it was going to ultimately have on their working lives. Initially, I would travel down to the law firm Allen & Overy LLP near to St. Pauls once or twice a week to teach several of its employees ranging from Partners to support staff. The company suggested we use a large store room in the basement and provided us with a piano and keyboard, and so we were all set!

As you can imagine, employees working for a company such as A&O often work long hours
and so the opportunity to take a singing lesson at their place of work during the course of their busy working day was deemed to be an innovative and very welcome addition to the various extra carricular activities A&O were offering on site.

 After the first few weeks, I realised that the approach to my teaching would need to be modified to accomodate the specific needs of students who weren't necessarily interested in acheiving  perfect voice production and a professional singing career! It was clear that the majority of students simply wanted to start with a few warm up exercises and then sing through a song or two, either of their own choice or from the repertoire that I had brought in for them to choose from. It was also becoming clear that these one to one lessons were being viewed by the students as a unique opportunity to do something creative and in a relaxed and stress free environment, and conveniently just down the corridor from their work stations!
 
I quickly noticed that one of the most striking benefits these employees all seemed to be gaining from their lessons was an increased sense energy by the time they left the 'music room' to go back to their work stations. Undoubtedly, two of the main reasons for this would have been the hugely beneficial knock on positive effects of deep breathing [a natural consequence of correct singing technique] and better general posture from taking their singing lessons on a regular basis.  Great posture for singing in my book,  is initially based on correct body alignment  which I learned over many years studying the Alexander Technique. 

We've been offering singing lessons in London to city business people now for over 10 years, and my initial observations when starting out in 1999, still hold fast today. Students love the convenience of being able to take their lessons on site and welcome the rejuvenating benefits they enjoy from a good relaxing sing from the diaphragm once a week!