Above is a 15 minute video compilation of some moments from my lessons with Julianna. The following four timestamps are taken from the first lesson. The aims and objectives for this lesson are outlined in Lesson Plan 1 (seen below)

1.)0:00-01:50

At the beginning of our first lesson, before introducing a warm up exercise, I gave Julianna a brief overview of how the voice works. Although the main objective of this lesson was to teach Julianna a warm up, I felt that it was important to give her a basic understanding of the voice. According to Katja Maria (2017), knowledge of how the voice functions can help singers recognise and solve vocal issues more effectively.

I felt that this was particularly important for Julianna because it encouraged her to see her mistakes as a technical issue to solve rather than a personal failing, which can often be associated with signing. Giving her an understanding of this early on was essential for me as it shifted possible self criticism towards fixing areas of technique.

2.) 01:50-02:10

Before beginning the exercise, I quickly made sure that Julianna’s posture, making sure her back was straight and her knees weren’t locked. This was to make sure that she was physically relaxed, as any tension can affect projection in singing. I used “The complete singers resource”(2019) as a reference during this. It was important to check this before the exercise to avoid encountering any future problems that could have been previously avoided. Juliana had no issues in this aspect so I moved quickly onwards.

3.) 02:10-03:57

For the main activity of this lesson, I taught Julianna a Semi Occluded Vocal Tract Exercise (SOVT). Whether the student is completely new to singing or is already experienced, my first lesson will always focus on a warm up, I made this clear at the start of the lesson. Previously, I checked whether Julianna could do a lip trill/ lip bubble effectively and she could. However, I planned some alternative options incase she had struggled with this. If needed, I would have asked her if she can roll her Rs, to puff out her lips and hum, or as a last resort to use a sterilised vocal straw in water. This was important to make sure I was prepared in order to not waste any lesson time.

During the exercise, I asked Julianna to focus on keeping a consistent air flow during the whole 5 note major scale both up and down. This was to prevent her from pushing out to much air at the higher part of the scale which would leave her with not enough air on the way down, which could lead to pitchy notes or even not being able to finish the scale.

This exercise reflected the VARK learning principle(2014). While I did not have time to assess Julianna to see what type of learner she is, I made sure that this exercise covered many ways of learning. I covered, visual, aural and kinaesthetic. I covered visual and aural learning by both playing the notes on the piano, and by demonstrating the exercise prior to Julianna doing it. I also used kinaesthetic learning by having Julianna repeat the exercise through several different keys. Combining these different approaches made the excise much more accessible and therefore helped speed up the process of learning.

4.) 03:57-07:20

Before I started filming, I asked Juliana if there was anything she particularly wanted to work on or had previously found difficult previously. She mentioned that she had difficulty using her chest voice. To help with this I introduced her to a breathing exercise. Breathing correctly is one of the most important factors when it comes to signing. This is supported by Philippe Hall (2023) as she stresses that in order to develop “professional tone quality” you need to “learn to inhale in a way that engages the diaphragm”, and to “learn to exhale in an even, consistent, sustained manner.” These are ideas I regularly mention to Julianna during our lessons.

During this exercise, I strayed slightly from the lesson plan, as I had more time than I anticipated, this meant that I could teach Julianna both a SOVT exercise, and a breathing exercise. This flexibility was useful for me, as I could now focus directly on the issue that Julianna wanted to work on.

Despite her breathing not being perfect at first, Julianna got more and more confident as the exercise went on, and began to show much better breath support. I made sure to look out for common mistakes such as breathing backwards, where the stomach pulls in while inhaling rather than pushing out. This can happen when students are used to lifting their shoulders when breathing. (this is actually seen in 08:36 in the video where Julianna becomes confused by this).

After the exercise I explained to Julianna that when it comes to improving, repetition is key. This idea is supported by CPD, who states that “studies have shown that the brain forms new pathways when a task is repeated often, thereby optimising the performance of the skill”. (2022)

These next timestamps are taken from a later lesson with Julianna. In this lesson, we began with another breathing exercise before applying the technique on a section of a song. This lesson became more pupil centred, as Julianna asked lots of questions throughout, which gave me lots to work with during the session, and allowed me to address Julianna’s problems directly. This approach is backed up by Mobile ed (2025), who says that student led learning can: foster critical thinking and problem solving, promote ownership and engagement, develop communication and collaboration skill , and tailor learning to individual needs.

5.) 07:20-10:44

For this section, I used a breathing exercise that I found online by a YouTube Channel called “The Weekly Warmup – Vocal Exercises for Singers” (2024) The aim of this exercise was to have a consistent air flow, supported by breathing out through the chest.

At 10:10, I noticed that Julianna was pushing more when singing the higher note. I reminded her to try to keep the airflow consistent and when we tried again, she did it perfectly. This was just a small adjustment, but it made a massive difference.

I approached this exercise in a mulitsensory way. Julianna sand while putting her hand on her stomach so that she could physically feel the breath support that was being used. At the same time, other senses were being engaged, such as visual (watching my demonstration), aural (hearing me sing and play the note), tactile (feeling the pressure on her stomach) and finally kinaesthetic (actually performing the exercise herself). I believe all of this helped to speed up her progress. This is supported by Jim Rose (2006), who states that the benefits of multi sensory learning are greatest if the senses are engaged concurrently.

6.) 10:44-15:31

In this section we worked through the first verse of “Candy Rain”, by Soul For Real. Julianna was finding it hard to use her chest voice in this song, so I introduced an exercise that had been shown to me previously by my current tutor. I asked her to put her hand in front of her mouth and sing to feel the pressure of the sound on her hand. This gave her direct tactile feedback and helped her to become more aware of the breath support that she needed in order to sining correctly with her chest voice.

During this section Julianna also asked me about where she should breathe, she mentioned that she often sand until she ran out of breath, which caused her to breathe in the middle of phrases. To help with this, I asked her to plan her breathing out in advance, I even suggested drawing a line on a lyric sheet where she would take the breath. This introduced a visual learning strategy, by helping her to use the songs structure to help her breathe, rather than just relying on instinct.

Finally, we then combined everything I taught her into one, as we sung a song of Julianna’s choosing, taking breathes where she planned while breathing in and out through her chest, giving herself the best possible support to not only hit notes of the song accurately, but also to showcase her natural tone which really comes through in this final section.

Below, I have attached two plans that I made for the lessons I had with Julianna. Lesson planning was very important for my preparation, as it allowed me to identify the aims of each lesson so that I would not be wasting any lesson time.

I used a three part lesson structure, this helped me to break the session up to make it as effective as possible, having a section to introduce, complete and reflect on exercises. This was really helpful for me as I am new to teaching and having a plan going into the lesson made me feel much more prepared and therefore confident. While having a lesson plan was vital, it was also important to not follow it vigorously, as I still had to think on my feet and adapt when Julianna took a more of an active learning role in the second lesson.

The importance of lesson planning is supported by Matthew Reynolds (2024), who argues that “through carefully crafted lessons, educators can cater to the diverse needs of learners, integrating modern technology and resources to enhance the learning environment.”

I have also included a homework resource that I gave to Julianna after she told me that she worked well with colour based learning. I used the colour strings method to help illustrate to Julianna when to take a breath on the song we were working on.

According to colourstrings worldwide (2023), colour based learning can make learning “deeper and more lasting”. I found this to be accurate as we made much faster progress and Julianna retained this more effectively.

Bibliography:

Colourstrings (2023) The Method. Available online https://colourstrings.org/the-method/ [Accessed 03/04/2026]

CPD News (2022) Importance of repetition in learning. Available online: https://www.cpduk.co.uk/news/importance-of-repetition-in-learning [Accessed 03/04/2026]

Hall, P. (2023) Why Breath Control in Singing is Key to Professional Tone. Available online: https://www.singingrevealed.com/blog/why-breath-control-in-singing-is-key-to-professional-tone [Accessed 03/04/2026]

Maria, K. (2017) Six Reasons Singers Should Know How Their Instrument Works – Complete Vocal Coach. Available online: https://completevocalcoach.com/six-reasons-singers-should-know-how-their-instrument-works/ [Accessed 03/04/2026]

Mobile ed (2025) Is Student-Led Learning Effective? A Balanced Perspective. Available online:https://www.mobileedproductions.com/blog/is-student-led-learning-effective-a-balanced-perspective [Accessed 03/04/2026]

Reynolds, M (2024) Understanding the Aim of Lesson Planning in Teaching and Learning. Available online: https://educationandtrainingacademy.co.uk/understanding-the-aim-of-lesson-planning-in-teaching-and-learning/ [Accessed 03/04/2026]

Rose, J (2006) Independent review of the teaching of early reading. Available online: https://dera.ioe.ac.uk/id/eprint/5551/2/report.pdf [Accessed 03/04/2026]

The Singers Complete Resource (2019) Posture in Singing. Available online: https://completesingers.com/technique/posture-in-singing/ [Accessed 03/04/2026]

The Weekly Warmup – Vocal Exercises for Singers (2024) Breath Support Sequence – Singing Exercises for Breath Control [Video]. Available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds8GKSp5GwE&t=1s [Accessed 03/04/2026]

VARK (2014) VARK^® Modalities: What Do Visual, Aural, Read/write & Kinaesthetic really mean? Available online: https://vark-learn.com/introduction-to-vark/the-vark-modalities [Accessed 03/04/2026]