If You Can Talk, You Can Sing

Frankie believes passionately that singing is our birthright. For thousands of years, our ancestors sang as naturally as they spoke. They sang to accompany everyday activities – at work, at play, at devotion and dance – and for their own pleasure. No one was excluded, so everyone’s skill and confidence developed naturally.

Some cultures do not even have a word for ‘singer’ as everyone sings, just as we do not have a word for ‘breather’! It’s only in the past couple of centuries that the notion that there are people who can’t or shouldn’t sing has come about, largely in white Western European culture. This elitist idea has impacted on millions of people, who have been told they are non-singers, have unacceptable voices or are ‘tone-deaf’. They have therefore never had the chance to experience the stepping stones that have traditionally encouraged people to sing - in the same way as they learned to talk. Hence they have been robbed of one of the essential forms of human expression.

To quote the Institute of Education, we now know 'music is hard-wired into us', and that it is criticism and judgment as a child that has robbed many people of their innate musicality. As voice practitioners and singing teachers, how can we help to unlock this innate capacity for those people?

Since 1975, Frankie has developed a teaching approach that provides stepping stones, with permission and encouragement, for people to explore confidence in their voices and self-belief in their musicality. She has used this in contexts including community groups, hospitals, theatre companies and schools, as well as at the National Theatre Studio, London, for over 20 years, and she has presented at international voice conferences in Europe, North America and Australia.

She uses the body and imagination to invite people to be curious and adventurous in exploring their voices in a non-judgemental atmosphere, without the need to "get it right”. The aim is to tap into the joy, strength and energy of singing with others, and to find a range of colour and expression in each of our voices.