How to Choose the Perfect Online Vocal Coach: How I use my skills to Help You Sing Your Best

How to Choose the Right Online Vocal Coach (And Why Personality Matters)

Finding a vocal coach can feel surprisingly overwhelming.

A quick search will reveal hundreds—if not thousands—of highly qualified singing teachers, all promising to help you sing better. The truth is, many of them probably could.

But here's something I think is often overlooked:

The best vocal coach isn't necessarily the most experienced, the most qualified, or the most famous. It's the one who's the right fit for you.

Learning to sing is personal. You're asking someone to guide you through something that can feel exciting, frustrating, vulnerable and deeply rewarding, often all within the same lesson. The relationship you build with your coach matters just as much as the exercises they teach.

As both a singer and an online vocal coach, I've worked with wonderful teachers throughout my own journey. Each one taught me something valuable, but each had a very different style. That experience has helped me understand what kind of coach I naturally am.

One framework I find useful for understanding this is CliftonStrengths, which identifies the ways we naturally think, relate to people and solve problems. My top five strengths are Empathy, Adaptability, Connectedness, Developer and Positivity.

This isn't a scientific explanation of good teaching, and it's certainly not the only way to understand personality. But when I read my results, I recognised myself immediately—and I realised they explain a lot about how I coach.

Empathy: Helping You Feel Safe to Learn

Many singers arrive at their first lesson expecting to be judged.

Some apologise before they've even sung a note. Others worry they're "doing it wrong." Some desperately want me to tell them the correct answer to every exercise.

I understand that feeling. Singing can make us feel incredibly exposed.

One of the things I value most is creating a space where you don't have to perform for your teacher. Instead, we get curious together. We explore what your voice is doing, how it feels, and what helps it work more easily.

That's one of the reasons I so often ask singers, "How did that feel?" If you've ever wondered why vocal coaches ask that question, I wrote a whole article about it here.

Ironically, people often make faster progress when they stop trying so hard to impress me.

Empathy also helps when we move beyond technique. Singing isn't just about producing sound—it's about communication. Understanding emotion, storytelling and vulnerability is just as important as understanding vocal folds and breath.

Adaptability: Because No Two Voices Are the Same

One of my favourite things about teaching is that no two singers are ever the same.

Two people might struggle with exactly the same high note for completely different reasons. One may be using too much breath pressure. Another might be holding tension in their tongue or jaw. Someone else may simply be anxious about the note because it went wrong once before.

Giving everyone the same exercise wouldn't make much sense.

(In fact, changing the way I teach to reflect this was one of the biggest turning points in my career.)

Instead, I enjoy figuring out what's happening in your voice and choosing exercises that make sense for you.

This is one of the reasons I love continuing my professional development. Over the years I've trained in areas including vocal habilitation, the Buteyko Breathing Method, and vocal health, and I've developed a particular interest in how tongue tie, breathing habits and movement influence the singing voice.

Every new piece of knowledge becomes another tool I can use to help the individual sitting in front of me.

Connectedness: Seeing the Bigger Picture

One thing I've noticed over the years is that singing problems are rarely just singing problems.

Sometimes the issue isn't your voice at all.

It might be your breathing habits.

Your posture.

Your tongue function.

Stress.

Confidence.

Sleep.

Practice habits.

Or a combination of all of those things.

I enjoy connecting these pieces together so that your voice starts to make sense. It saves us both time and energy in the long run.

Rather than simply chasing symptoms ("I can't hit that note"), I like helping singers understand why something is happening. Once you understand the bigger picture, practising becomes much less confusing and much more effective.

Developer: Seeing Potential You Can't Yet See

One of my greatest joys as a vocal coach is watching people grow.

Often, singers are the last people to notice their own progress.

They'll tell me they feel stuck, and then I'll play them a recording from three months earlier. Suddenly they realise just how much has changed.

Real progress is rarely dramatic. More often, it's made up of hundreds of tiny improvements that quietly add up over time.

I genuinely enjoy celebrating those moments with my singers, because confidence grows when we learn to recognise our own progress rather than constantly chasing perfection.

Positivity: Honest Encouragement

People sometimes assume positivity means telling everyone they're amazing all the time.

That isn't my approach.

Some days singing is hard.

Sometimes voices feel inconsistent. Sometimes performances don't go to plan. Sometimes illness, stress or injury gets in the way.

Being positive doesn't mean pretending those things aren't real.

It means approaching challenges with curiosity instead of criticism.

We'll be honest about what's happening, look for practical solutions together, and keep moving forwards one step at a time.

I want you to leave lessons feeling encouraged—not because I've ignored the difficulties, but because you understand them better and know what to do next.

Qualifications Matter Too

Of course, personality isn't everything.

When choosing a vocal coach, it's important to consider qualifications, experience and ongoing professional development alongside whether someone feels like the right fit.

Alongside years of teaching singers online, I'm a Vocal Habilitation Professional, hold a Postgraduate Certificate in Vocal Pedagogy, I'm a Vocal Health First Aider and a certified Buteyko Breathing Instructor. I continue to study areas such as tongue tie, breathing and vocal health because our understanding of the voice is always evolving.

Learning never really stops—and I think that's exactly how it should be.

Finding the Right Coach for You

There are so many wonderful vocal coaches out there, and I genuinely don't believe there's one perfect teacher for everyone.

Some singers thrive with a highly technical approach. Others want lots of structure. Others need someone who helps them build confidence before anything else.

The important thing is finding someone whose teaching style helps you learn.

If you've read this and thought, "That sounds like the kind of coaching I'm looking for," but you're wondering what working together actually looks like, you might like to read my blog about what happens in an online vocal coaching assessment. It will give you a better idea of what to expect before we even meet.

Ready to get started?

The best place to start is with a free Discovery Call. We'll chat about your singing, your goals and any challenges you're facing, and together we'll decide whether working together feels like the right fit.