I have to say, that the series of teambuilding workshops we are delivering throughout this year, for our great friends at Vodafone, is a great reminder of how important performing arts is, as a medium for training & development. Not only is good breathing, posture and use of voice vitally important, to everyone, it also gives us the chance to reinforce in oursleves the key areas we are passionate about focusing on with our clients. The whole CMS team delivering these workshops, are really enjoying the opportuinity to work with some of the nicest and most responsive delegates we've ever had the chance to work with!

'I wish I hadn't stopped taking piano lessons when I was a child' - sound familiar? As a piano tutor, if I had £5 for every time I'd heard someone say that, I'd be living on a private island instead of writing this blog!

It's never too late to start, and as an adult, although one finds learning new things more of a challenge than when one is younger, it really is possible to achieve great results and even impress your children if they are learning the piano too!

Learning the piano as an adult can be both rewarding as well as challenging and is a great way to get away from the stresses of work giving your mind something entirely different to think about.

"Prima la musica e poi le parole" or first the music and then the words.  This is the title of an opera by Salieri, who in the play and film Amadeus was supposed to have killed Mozart.  Of course the music is important, but if the words in a song didn't matter, the composer would simply have written "la la la".  The words do matter, and it's our responsibility as singers to put them across well, whether they're in our own language, or one we don't even speak.

Many people think it's just a question of "spitting out the consonants", but it's actually the vowels that carry the singing sound.  If you only focus on the consonants, all we'll get is a lot spitting and not much singing.

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The first obstacle for beginners is getting their chords to sound clear. A cheaply made guitar will not help, as it may be harder to play. Get your teacher, or a shop, to check that the strings are not too high above the frets (the action) and that the intonation of the instrument is right. Once fixed, you can no longer blame your guitar if things sound bad (you could always blame your teacher though!). So, if you notice the odd buzzing sound or muted note, then you may find the following tips helpful: 

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There are so many amazingly talented drummers out there, all with there own individual styles and techniques. I'm mainly captured by the legendary drummers that were around in the 50s, 60s and 70s though. I feel most of the drummers around these times were really pushing boundaries, being extreamly musical and creative.

Drummers such as Mitch Mitchel, John Bonham, Keith Moon, Steve Gadd and Terry Cox were taking a lot of inspiration and techniques from earlier Jazz drummers from the 50s, such as Elvin Jones,  Joe Morello, Philly Jo Jones, the list goes on. 

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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.

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Imagine the scenario! – Your guests are enjoying a lovely 3 course meal at your function, event or ceremony. Suddenly there is a commotion between two of the waiters and a rather embarrassing argument ensues!! One of the waiters announces that it is his last day working for the company before he must go back to Italy to work in the family business, and would dearly love to sing a little song to say ‘goodbye’ if it is ok with everyone in the room. Of course everyone is touched, and warmly applaud the idea! He starts singing – very badly for the first phrase then blows his cover with a beautiful rendition of the famous aria!! Yes, it's the Singing Waiters! As you can imagine, the guests go crazy at the end of it! 
Our Singing Waiters normally do a set of about 20 minutes in length and we often suggest ‘planting’ a guest soprano at one of the tables! This is a hugely popular and successful form of ‘surprise entertainment’ which works for literally any type of function.

Ever since we first started teaching music in offices, our approach has always been to make the lessons as fun, informative and practical as possible.
Teaching music in offices, whether it be an individual singing or instrumental lesson, or even a group ensemble session,  offers the time conscious lifestyles of today's busy city worker an opportunuity to relax and enjoy the many benefits that music making can bring to their working day.

The great 'Support' mystery in singing seems to have baffled both  the professional and amateur singer for ever! Pavarotti talked about a push out, going to the toilet feeling when singing, yet other great singers advocate a gentle 'pull in'. It seems to me that both are right depending on the singer. From my own personal experience, I like to thing of support more as a high level of excited energy, which seems to create the right environment in the body for the good support.