I was lucky enough to have a singing lesson early this year by Shelly Hughes. I had been taking singing lessons by various teachers for the last 15 years, but was extremely impressed by Shelly’s effective, articulate, skilled and dedicated teaching style. I felt immediately at ease by her approachable, caring attitude and sense of humour. She demonstrates a genuine caring interest in the individual in order to find the best way to help them, and finds ingenious ways of allowing the student to identify their own ‘blocks’ in order to open up and move forward. By the end of the lesson I was singing clearer and more confidently than I had in a very long time. I have absolutely no hesitation in recommending Shelly for any teaching position, be it individual, group, class, workshop, presentation or anything else she may pursue. Terri R.

I was a student in Shelly Hughes ‘Singing Class’ at Summersong Music Camp 2012, and gained so much from her well planned and delivered instruction. Shelly has a professional, well planned, well pitched and meaningful approach to teaching singing. Her lighthearted and infectious humour made the classes fun and the subject matter easy to digest. I left Summersong having learned more from the six days of classes with her than, than any other singing lessons that I have had in the past.I am a singer songwriter, however want to get more from my voice, and Shelly Hughes, has set me on the path to achieving that. I have been practicing her practical tips on voice projection, breathing and finding the right note to start singing with, that suits my voice and vocal range, and it really works! I would not hesitate to recommend her to any prospective students who wish to take up singing. I wish her all the best for the future in her singing and teaching career.

I’m Alexandra and I’ve been seeing Shelly Hughes for vocal tutoring for almost seven years. I went to my first singing lesson when I was only eleven years old, not really knowing what to expect and very nervous about someone hearing me sing for the first time. She made it so painless for me to open up to her with her easy-going nature and understanding, that I ended up doing things with her that I didn’t know I could do and growing so much more than I thought.Over the years, she taught me so many things that I won’t forget. Every lesson we went over scales, different warm-ups and music theory. She would never get upset or annoyed if we didn’t remember some of them, but rather think of a fun way for us to remember them in the future. Most of the time, I didn’t even know I was learning, it was just natural to come to the lesson and do scales, finding a fun way of doing them each time. Lessons were never boring, especially with her exciting personality and ability to work with different people. I could always bring what I wanted to the lesson, and she’d work with what I needed to do. She encouraged me to bring forward any school problems to do with music that I had, and we’d work on them in the lessons. She helped me with composition and writing skills and offered me homework to do, always keeping me going with theory work. Her dedication shows in the booklet she made all her students called ‘Singing’ with vocal exercises, music theory, style analysis, microphone and stage technique and song writing exercises. She was always accessible if I had a problem, and even let me come over to her abode and work with her on weekends helping me prepare for auditions or gigs.The main thing I’ve taken away from my time with Shelly is her influence of different musical styles, and the way that this has shaped my own style and changed the way I approach singing. She has introduced me to so many different songs and artists of the Jazz and Blues genres and pushed me to stretch my abilities. Through this I have learned different techniques and learned to appreciate different styles from what I was used to hearing, while also being allowed to bring my own style and my own favourite songs and artists to the lessons to work with.

Thank you Shelly. Not only did I learn more about how to sing and improve my range ,during your workshop, but started to understand the barriers that I put in front of myself . Fear is a strange emotion, especially when you really don’t know what you are afraid of. But you understand Shelley, being a professional singer you have made it through the self-doubt and fear of rejection . Wanting to sing is in itself a strange and wonderful phenomenon . Most of the people attending your workshop have probably sung to themselves for most of their lives, I know I have. I understand why you encouraged us to sing to each other with the ultimate aim of singing to the group. I have never sung solo in front of an audience. I have only ever sung with a choir or with other singers in a band situation. You have given me the aim of attempting to sing on my own this year. I found your personality charming and supportive. You display humor and kindness which works for me………. The knowledge you display of your craft is translated into understandable language for those of us that do not play an instrument or have a technical knowledge of music. So thankyou again. I have purchased your book which again is written in a simple clear way and am listening to your CD . Amazingly talented lady, I look forward to next year.

What a teacher! I can’t believe how much I learnt from you in such a small amount of time. Thanks to your easy techniques, I was able to sing for 3 hours every day and not feel the slightest strain in my voice.  You made me laugh, relax and enjoy making some weird and wonderful sounds. I left every class with a smile on my face. My little vocal ‘dudes’(cords/folds) want to offer their sincere thanks.

Through my lessons with Shelly, I have gained knowledge of performance technique; stage presence and microphone technique which have all had a huge impact on how I perform on stage. I also now have my own repertoire of songs in my own folder that I can use for gigs and other performances. Her help with methods of dealing with stress before and during performances have been integral in my growth as a performer.

I know that I will have contact with Shelly over the years to come because of the friendship we’ve developed over our years of working together in vocal tuition.

I was a student of Shelly’s for a year and a half, in this time she taught and showed me so many things, she taught me the cycles of fifths, scales, majors.minors and so much more. She opened doors to different generes of music, that otherwise would have gone unnoticed. She showed me the path to different and before unused parts of my voice which now are charted parts of my vocal range. One of the highlights of my week was when I had singing class that night with Shelly, because I knew that whatever had happened that week, she’d know how to expel it through my voice. But debatably the most important thing that Shelly taught me was to find my own deeply personal reason for why I sing, this is something that I know I will recognise for a long long time. Thanks to Shelly, every time I sing hushly on the metro or exhalt from the deepest parts of my voice, I know that this is right and this is me.