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When Do You Turn It Off? (A reflection for singers)

I’ll bet you are seldom - if ever - alone in your embodiment. You’ve internalised a deep understanding of what’s required of you: the inner voices that instruct, correct, and sometimes confine your every movement and sound. Do you ever wonder where it all comes from? Do you question it? Are you exhausted? It’s no wonder, my love. You carry a double helping of the world’s expectations - for you and for your body. When you stood up and offered your voice, you invited yourself to be looked upon. What you couldn’t have known was just how much of yourself you would give away - again and again. That giving is beautiful - magical, even - and so very brave. But here’s a truth: the internalised visions of how others see and hear you come at a cost. You must begin to unpack this, to understand it. This stance - this way of living in the eyes and ears of others - becomes an internalised perception that shapes you every day. And if you are female or female-identifying, the sting of it bega...
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Creating Safe Space: Vulnerabilty and Paradox in Teaching

  "Vulnerability is the soil of every safe space. Teaching asks us to hold that delicately - knowing we may cause harm, and still choosing to stay present, because healing and growth live in that very same ground". There isn't a single lesson where I don't observe vulnerability in my students. Voice work is vulnerable work - deeply exposing. It often unearths memory, doubt, fear and identity. Creating a safe space for this work is my intention - but to do that with integrity, I first have to ask: what does a safe space truly mean? What does it look like, feel like, and require? I once had a mature female student - a former professional singer - who had returned to lessons after many years away from performing. Mid-lesson, she broke down. Her voice trembled as she admitted to me how hard it had been to reckon with her changing voice, her confidence, her sense of self. My job was not to cheerlead or rescue her in that moment. It was to hold her admission with compassion...
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The Voice Inside: A Compassionate Look at the Singer’s Inner Critic

Despite what you’ve been told - or what you’ve come to believe - your voice was never meant to be perfect. It was meant to be shared. We’ve all heard of the Inner Critic—that persistent little voice that assumes the roles of vocal coach, life coach, and talent show judge all rolled into one. It whispers (or shouts), “Was that flat?” “Do you even know what you're doing?” “Why can’t you sound more like them?” If you’ve experienced this, you’re far from alone. I’ve faced my share of vocal hurdles, including a lasting injury, and the Inner Critic has proven to be just as stubborn. I know its voice well. Over the years, my Inner Critic became one of the most persistent blocks in my singing life. It didn’t just make me doubt my singing - it made me doubt myself, and it killed my joy. Perhaps most insidiously, it fuelled a constant cycle of comparison. I’d measure my voice against others, silently keeping score, convinced that someone else’s brilliance meant I didn’t measure up. You could...
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The Art of Not Asking: Avoiding the Diva, Losing the Voice

  This post is for the singers who’ve found themselves caught in an inner tug-of-war: Don’t be too much… but also don’t be invisible. Speak up… but don’t be difficult. Be passionate… but stay agreeable. It’s for those who’ve learned to soften their tone, shrink their needs, or apologise for taking up space — just to avoid being seen as “a diva.” I’ve heard these quiet negotiations in the voices of my clients. I’ve lived them in my own career. And I’ve seen how they can shape the body, the sound, and the very sense of belonging in a singing space. This isn’t about every singer’s story. But it’s a story I keep hearing — and I believe it deserves to be told. The Cost of Avoiding the Label For me, the word “diva” didn’t evoke power or artistry. It meant difficult. Demanding. High-maintenance. So I did everything I could to avoid becoming that — even when it meant biting my tongue, smiling through discomfort, or compromising my needs. I wanted to be seen as agreeable. Easy to wo...
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Leading with the Heart: What Singing Taught Me About Intelligence

I’ve always led with my heart. Even as a young singer, I was attuned to emotional nuance — mine and others’. That sensitivity became one of my greatest strengths in performance and in teaching. I could read a room and respond accordingly. I could feel the shifts in energy. When teaching I could intuit when a student was holding back, even if their technique looked solid. But leading with the heart isn’t always easy. For me, emotion often weaves itself into thought. A small moment — a glance, a phrase, a missed note — can spiral into a flood of internal stories: “What did they mean by that?” “Did I do something wrong?” “Am I too much?” and the fawning and shape shifting begins! In singing, this kind of emotional overdrive can knock me off-centre. Suddenly, I’m not in my voice anymore. I’m in my head about my feelings, trying to make sense of them, fix them, soothe them. It’s exhausting — and not particularly helpful when I just want to sing. Over time, I’ve learned something simple but...
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When a Voice Becomes a Thing: Objectification in Singing

Establishing the Ground I’ve been dancing around this for a while—wondering whether to lay down a kind of philosophical welcome mat for anyone curious enough to follow my writing. Part of me hesitated (I do love to leap straight into the deep end), but I know I use certain terms— shame , objectification , embodiment —that deserve some unpacking. So this post is a beginning. Or rather, a bridge. Over the next few blogs, I’ll share some of the frameworks that have shaped my research and teaching. None of them are fixed. They’re evolving—much like the singers I work with, and like me, as I keep reading, listening, and learning. These concepts don’t belong to me. But I’ve been holding them up to the light, testing them against real experiences. They’ve helped me understand something about the inner lives of singers—the quiet pressures and unspoken hurts—and I think they might help others, too. This isn’t about airtight definitions. It’s about naming the waters we’re swimming in—so we ...
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Welcome to Right to Sing - Voice, Vulnerability and Culture

  For most of my professional life, I’ve been in and around singing—on stage, in the studio, in rehearsal rooms, and now, in the messy and meaningful work of research. Over the last few years, one theme has risen again and again in my teaching, my studies, and my own story: shame . Quiet shame. Loud shame. Tiny micro-shames that accumulate over time. The shame of not sounding good enough. Of losing your voice. Of caring too much. Of being replaced. This blog is part of my ongoing work—both personal and academic—into understanding shame and objectification in the lives of singers. As a PhD researcher, I’m diving deep into the emotional worlds of professional vocalists. But this space isn’t just about research—it’s a conversation. A place to reflect, wonder, challenge, and reimagine what it means to teach and be taught in this field. What to Expect You’ll find a mix of things here: 💭 Noisy thoughts and vulnerable reflections from my own experiences 📚 Syntheses of academic rese...
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