Meet Rachel Burbridge Singer and Performer
Rachel has been studying with me since last year, and we’ve been working hard on her voice. Rachel is in sixth form college right now, but she’s already focused on how to improve her abilities to set her up from graduation onwards.
I thought we’d try a more interview-style format for this week… so I sat down with Rachel and asked some questions to tease out her musical story and upbringing, how she got to where she is now, and where she’s looking to go…
So Rachel, how long have you been singing?
I’ve been singing since I was about 6 or 7. My uncle used to teach guitar lessons, so even when we were young, my sister and I were surrounded by music – we even got our own guitars!
As we started singing and playing more together, we started our own band even back then! We then moved to doing our own little gigs, mainly family parties and small events – it was a lot of fun! My sister and I loved doing Roberta Flack tracks together. So that’s how it all started, and since then it’s kind of snowballed to more and more performances.
Sometime ago, I can’t remember exactly when, we saw this competition on GMTV – ‘The Number One Family Band’ competition (did you watch it?) – and we did pretty well! We got down to the final 60, got to meet Coleen Nolan, Jeff Brazier – it was pretty magical! I’d never had that experience before!
And did this inspire you to work on your voice?
Sort of! From playing guitar I started to learn the bass, and from there started getting involved in bands – our most recent one was called The Rockettes and the Electric Symbol.
While I love playing in bands, as I performed more and more in my teens I realised I enjoyed singing more than just being the bass player… and I wanted to be able to work on that, to sing songs, really become a singer, and do something with my voice.
At the start I knew I could sing a bit, but what I found was that I really struggled with the high notes. I struggled to ht them at all, and even if I did, they seemed really weak to me, and I really wanted to strengthen it. Since that time I’ve done a few things, like take classes with singing teachers, went to musical theatre groups, done pantomime’s and the like. The whole time I thought that this would be the way I could improve my voice…. but instead I just found it was all singing songs over and over, and none of it really really fixed anything… and it really didn’t improve my voice.
I got singing lessons through school, but that person was more of an operatic singer and choir coach, which just didn’t do anything for me.
I used to study privately with another teacher, but like I say, I found it wasn’t really fixing the issues in my voice or enabling me to do the things I really wanted to do with my voice.
Yes, I remember you telling me this when we first started working on your voice together…
Exactly. I ran into you then booked in shortly after. Since then I’ve found a LOT more range in my voice than I ever thought I could ever have, and it feels easy to access too… and I’m developing more strength in my voice all the time. It’s really opened up my voice and given me what I wanted in my voice.
In fact, even in the last few months, my music teacher at school had commented how much my voice had come on since starting lessons. In fact even my MATHS teacher commented on my voice coming on!
Where do you see your performing going? Do you see yourself going down the musical theatre, band, singer route?
I want it to be more than just a hobby, but right now I’m still not sure exactly where I want to take my voice and singing. I’m involved in drama and dance as well, so split my time between those disciplines and classes, but I just LOVE singing. I love the atmosphere of being up on stage, using my voice, being that singer with the great voice. I’d love to develop my voice into something that I can use in the future that’s more than just a hobby, but I’m not sure exactly how yet!
Fair enough! And who are your favourite artists right now?
I love Bruno Mars and Jessie J, and just wonder ‘How do they do that?!’, and I love working on my voice knowing that I’m getting closer towards having a voice like that. But if I had to pick a favourite, I’d probably say Lady Gaga. I think she’s got a really interesting and unique voice. Her vibrato, her style, her range, her tone – I love what she does and find her onstage and offstage persona really interesting and inspiring!
Fantastic! Thanks Rachel!