About Jacqui

I love singing with others, and more than that I love enabling people to sing together. I get the biggest buzz from seeing the delight (and sometimes shock!) on people's faces when they hear themselves singing as a group and making a wonderful sound! I first experienced the magic of singing together around campfires as a Girl Guide and I've continued to sing ever since. During my late teens I taught myself how to listen so I could pick out vocal harmonies. I was encouraged and nurtured by friends and I progressed from enthusiastic participant to leading campfire songs myself. When I became a full time mum I carried on singing, to my son Tim of course, and with my Girl Guide friends as often as I could. As he grew I had a little more time, and in 2004 I started going along to a local singing workshop led by Faith Watson of 'Singing for Larks'. I was thrilled to experience a range of wonderful, carefully chosen and arranged acapella songs, all taught by ear. No written music, no auditions, no judgement, just everyone having fun singing together and making a great sound. This was my idea of singing heaven. I became a regular and within a year I decided I wanted to be able lead my own accessible harmony singing workshops in the community. First came a year of planning and fundraising, and then I began 2 years of training, with Faith as my mentor, to acquire the skills I needed. I learned how to organise workshops, teach clearly and write and arrange songs. I've had singing lessons to understand how to better use and look after my voice, trained with Frankie Armstrong, Ali Burns and Nick Prater and also attended the British Association of Barbershop Singers Harmony College. I began leading songs at Woodlarks Singing Group as part of my mentoring with Faith, and in September 2008 at the end of my training, I succeeded her as the workshop leader. Since then I have loved working with Woodlarks every week, singing songs learned previously and teaching new ones. I have also run a variety of workshops, taster sessions and short courses in and around Manchester. In summer 2009 I moved to Sheffield, and as well as travelling back across the Peak District every Thursday for Woodlarks, I have started two regular workshops - 'Everyone Sing!' in Ranmoor on Monday afternoons and 'Voices' in Nether Edge on Wednesday evenings.

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