The Singing Intensive: what it actually is

There's a big difference between wanting to have singing lessons and deciding you want to seriously improve your voice.

Neither is better for everyone. For a lot of people, one lesson a week is exactly right. They enjoy singing, want to improve gradually, have a few songs on the go, and there's no particular rush attached to any of it. That works brilliantly for loads of my students.

I still have coaching myself, actually, and I'm perfectly happy seeing my coach once a month, because I know what I'm doing, I know what questions I want answered, and I do the work in between.

The difference comes when someone says something more like:

"I've got the time. I've got the money. I really want to improve. How far could I take this if I actually committed?"

That's a completely different conversation. And it's what my three-month The Singing Intensive is built for.

It isn't just "more singing lessons"

The obvious difference is contact time, but the real difference goes deeper than that.

With ordinary one-to-one coaching, you might see me once a week for an hour. Warm up, work on technique, maybe a song, some exercises, off you go until next week. Nothing wrong with that. The problem is what happens between the lessons.

You practise Tuesday and something feels off. A question comes up. You try again Wednesday, still not sure. By Thursday you've half forgotten what the original problem even was. Then you turn up to your lesson the following week trying to describe something that happened six days ago.

That gap is more expensive than people realise, in terms of progress.

With the intensive, the gap basically disappears. You can message me the second something happens, send a voice note, and we've got two extra 15-minute check-ins built into the week anyway. You've got recordings of every lesson, exercises built specifically around your voice, and someone actually paying attention to what you're doing day to day.

The point isn't more information. It's cutting the time between spotting a problem and fixing it.

The first month isn't really about singing better

Something I've learned from teaching thousands of singers: the first problem usually isn't technical. It's communication.

Every singer understands their own voice slightly differently. Some people need the anatomy explained properly. Some respond to imagery. Some need to physically feel a sensation before it clicks. Some need it written down, some need me to demonstrate it a few times before it lands.

And some people don't need any of that. They just need me to phrase something the right way and their voice does the thing we're after.

There isn't one agreed language for singing, by the way, even among experienced teachers. Two coaches can describe the exact same sensation with completely different words.

So the first stretch of the intensive is partly just figuring out how you learn. What language works. What clicks and what doesn't. What you notice in your own voice. How you respond when something's difficult. How much information you actually want, versus how much I've got to give you.

By around week five, I want us properly on the same page. If I say something about your voice, you know exactly what I mean. If something odd happens while you're practising, you can describe it to me in a way that's actually useful.

Once that shared language is there, everything after it moves a lot faster.

We pick your songs differently

In a normal lesson, you'd probably arrive with a list of songs you fancy and we'd work through them.

With the intensive, I'm thinking further ahead. We look at your musical history, your taste, where your voice is right now, your goals, and what your voice is naturally suited to. Then we choose songs that actually give us something to work with.

Could be Sinatra. Could be ABBA. Could be musical theatre, or one of those karaoke songs everybody knows and almost nobody actually attempts properly.

The point isn't to find two songs you can sing. It's to find two that stretch you without fighting you the whole way.

The repertoire becomes part of the training, really. Your songs are the lab. We go through them line by line, sometimes word by word: consonants, vowels, chest voice, head voice, vocal fold coordination, phrasing, musicality, range.

Eventually the song stops being an exercise and becomes something you can actually perform.

You're not left alone with the homework

Probably one of the biggest differences, this one.

After a normal lesson, you leave with a rough idea of what to practise. With the intensive I'm far more specific: exact exercises, how often, and a recording of the lesson to go back to.

If you learn better from something written down, you get that. If you'd rather have a voice memo of me talking you through it, we use that instead. Visual learner, we'll use a visual.

I'm not going to dump a pile of information on you just because I happen to have it. That's a waste of your time, not a service.

You should be doing roughly 15 to 30 minutes of practice, five days a week or so. The intensive doesn't remove the work, it just makes the work count for more.

The two extra check-ins matter more than they sound

Say your main session is Tuesday. You go home, you practise. Thursday you realise:

"Actually, I felt something odd doing that exercise and I wasn't sure if it was right."

Normally you'd sit on that until next Tuesday. Nearly a week of uncertainty, or worse, a week of quietly reinforcing the wrong thing.

Instead we do a 15-minute check-in and sort it while it's still fresh. Maybe you misunderstood something. Maybe the exercise wasn't quite right for your voice. Maybe you're doing exactly what I wanted and just needed reassurance. Vocal habits set in fast, and the earlier you catch one, the easier it is to redirect.

You can message me through the week

You've also got direct access to me for the full three months. Text, voice note, whatever's easiest. I aim to reply the same day, usually a lot sooner.

I'm not promising round-the-clock emergency vocal support, and I don't want you lying awake wondering if I'm going to reply at 2am. That's not the point.

The point is simple: you don't have to wait a week to ask your coach a question. Sounds small. Over three months it adds up to something quite big.

The goal isn't to make you dependent on me

Probably the most important bit, this.

I don't want you finishing three months thinking "great, now I need Coleman every single week forever." I'd much rather you finish thinking "I understand what I'm doing now."

The goal is to teach you how to approach a new song, how to spot when something isn't working, how to practise properly, how to troubleshoot your own voice. By the end you'll have two songs, properly worked on, with backing tracks in keys that actually suit you, ready whenever you want them. Wedding, karaoke, party, or just singing them in your kitchen because you finally know what you're capable of.

And hopefully you'll walk away with something worth more than two songs. You'll have a method.

There's usually a difficult bit in the middle

I won't pretend the three months is a straight line of constant improvement. There's often a stretch where you feel like you're getting worse.

I see it constantly. You start learning, become more aware of your own voice, start noticing everything you weren't noticing before, and think: "bloody hell, I was better before."

You weren't. You were just less aware.

It's one of those stages of learning where you go from not knowing what you don't know, to suddenly knowing exactly what you don't know. Uncomfortable, but normal. A good coach recognises it and knows how to get you through it, which is honestly one of the main things experience buys you.

Twenty years of performing has taught me this

I've been performing professionally for over 20 years, and worked with people including Kelly Clarkson, Barry Manilow, Stephen Sondheim, Helena Bonham Carter, Danny Elfman, Ed Sheeran, and Labrinth.

I've stood on stages where nerves genuinely matter, been in situations where preparation is everything, felt the physical toll of performing and the psychological side of it too. There are potholes in the road you don't know exist until you've hit a few of them.

Sometimes the problem isn't a singer's range, it's how they're approaching the range. Sometimes it's not their technique, it's what happens to them the second they get nervous. I've spent a long time learning to spot the difference, which doesn't mean I have every answer, just that I know there isn't one single answer to look for.

What a recent student taught me

I'm currently working with a student who arrived with all the raw ingredients for a genuinely good voice, and some pretty obvious limitations too.

Session one went really well. Sessions two and three got harder, because they started realising how much they didn't yet know. I hadn't told them that directly, I'd just started showing them what was actually happening in their voice, and that gap between where they were and where they wanted to be suddenly felt very real.

By week seven, everything had shifted. Their voice was clearer, more forward, more consistent. They were reaching for songs they'd have avoided a month earlier, and our original two songs had somehow turned into twelve.

I also realised, watching this, that I'd made the early sessions too technical. Too much anatomy, not enough actual singing. So we changed direction and started trusting instinct instead.

That's coaching, really. It's not having a system and marching someone through it regardless. It's knowing when to change the system.

Where I think ordinary coaching can struggle

A normal weekly lesson works beautifully once a singer knows how to use it. I've got students who only need to see me occasionally, who arrive prepared with good questions and leave with useful homework. That's a genuinely efficient way to work with a coach, if you've already got that skill.

The problem is, not everyone has it yet. A singer leaves a lesson buzzing, practises for a few days, then something stops working, they don't know why, confidence dips, they miss a week, then another, and suddenly the thing meant to be helping them has become one more thing they feel guilty about.

The issue is rarely bad teaching. It's usually a lack of communication and direction between coach and student, where both sides are technically doing fine but somehow drifting apart without noticing.

Who is the intensive actually for?

Not everyone, and I mean that properly.

If you want weekly singing lessons, a few songs on the go, and gradual improvement, save your money. You genuinely don't need this.

If £2,400 would put you under financial pressure, I don't want you doing this either.

This is for someone with the disposable income who's been quietly thinking about their singing for a while and wants an honest answer to: "What could I actually achieve if I committed properly?"

You still have to do the work. Money doesn't buy vocal ability, and more lessons don't guarantee a result. Your dedication is still the biggest factor by a mile.

Think of it like learning to ride a bike. An hour a week might eventually get you there, but it's not exactly efficient. Singing is a fair bit more complicated than a bike, mind. You're coordinating your whole body, breathing, vocal folds, pitch, resonance, vowels, consonants, musicality, expression, and your nervous system, all at once, while trying to communicate something to an audience.

What you're really paying for

So what's the £2,400 actually buying you?

Not magic. Not a guarantee. Not a promise you'll be an incredible singer in three months, because nobody can honestly promise that.

You're buying a concentrated block of attention, a plan, feedback, accountability, and access. Someone paying attention to the small stuff, and the chance to find out what happens when you genuinely commit to something.

For me, the most valuable thing you build over those three months is a stack of evidence. You try something and it improves. You push a bit harder and that improves too. You sing a song you'd have avoided a month ago and realise you can actually do it.

Eventually you start thinking, "maybe I actually can do this." That confidence isn't hollow, it's built on evidence, and once you've got it, you can use it for whatever comes next.

The point isn't perfection

Nobody becomes an incredible singer in three months. Very few people get close, and I'd be lying if I said otherwise.

The point of the intensive is to give you the best possible starting point: fewer unnecessary roadblocks, a real understanding of your own voice, decent habits, two songs you can actually perform, and a much clearer sense of what your potential really looks like.

If you finish three months knowing you can improve when you actually commit to something, that lesson stretches well beyond singing. You know what it feels like to work towards something properly. You know how to get uncomfortable without quitting. You know progress isn't a straight line. That's worth more than two good karaoke songs.

Although, fair play, having those is pretty useful too.

Is the intensive right for you?

If you're after ordinary singing lessons in London, that's exactly what I offer as well. You can book a singing lesson here and see how we get on together, or read a few student testimonials first if you'd like some reassurance.

I've also written more on what to expect in your first vocal coaching session, how to choose a vocal coach, and the difference between online and in-person singing lessons.

But if you've been thinking about your singing for a while, you've got the time to actually put in, and you want to find out how far your voice can really go, that's when I'd start talking about the intensive.

Not because it's magic. Because when you're properly serious about something, you don't want to spend four years slowly finding out what you could have discovered in three months.

You want to find out. And then you want to keep going.

FAQ

How much does The Singing Intensive cost? It's £2,400 for the full three months, which includes weekly one-to-one sessions, two additional 15-minute check-ins each week, and ongoing message access throughout.

Who is The Singing Intensive for? Adults in or around London who are serious about improving their voice quickly and have the time and disposable income to commit to focused, high-contact coaching. It's not aimed at casual once-a-week singers.

Is The Singing Intensive available online? It is not fully available online. If we need to do one session online because of your availability, then that’s ok, but we really need one hour a week in person. Will be in the evening at time that suits you before 8pm. This is only for professionals, in London, that can make it to Oxford circus for 7pm-8pm sessions at the latest.