A Peoria vocal coach is offering a summer class for anyone interested in singing and, according to her, everyone can sing.
Edith Barnard’s summer series class is called “Sing for the Health of It (Shower Singers Unite!)” People who love singing are of course encouraged to join, but Barnard says she’s particularly excited about those who are shy about singing.
“‘Singing is dignified screaming’ is one of my favorite mottos,” she said. “The idea of singing started the moment we came out of our mother’s wombs and sometimes around the age of 5, for some people, they stopped singing. And I find that so sad.”
Barnard says “proper” singing started for her at age 4. During her childhood in Boston, her father would bring her and the family dog to nursing homes and she would sing “(How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?”
“That was such a blast,” Barnard said.
The saddest thing to her is someone who truly believes they cannot sing – or, even worse, were told by an adult they couldn’t sing in their youth.
“They say something like, ‘well, my seventh grade teacher said that when the choir sings loudly, you are to sing softly. When the choir sings softly, you are to mouth the words,’” said Barnard. “I hear that all the time. That’s horrible to me.”
Barnard says she’s been teaching forever. She taught during the 11 years she lived in Barbados, she taught when she returned to Peoria. The only time she didn’t teach was during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I love to help guide people,” Barnard said. “To find their voice.”
Barnard says in her time as a vocal coach, she’s taught many kinds of people. It’s not just singers. It can be actors preparing for an audition, a business professional looking for more confidence in staff meetings, or, in one notable case, a lawyer preparing for a significant trial.
“[The lawyer] made it clear to me that he could not sing, and yet I knew he could because he had a gorgeous speaking voice,” said Barnard. “The important thing for him was to get his breathing deeper to show the power that he had as a professional.”
Barnard says many of the skills that are important to singing, like breathing, are also important to the things we do every single day. Practicing proper breathing and posture means stronger elocution and a more confident walk, she argues.
Barnard says the muscle memory aspects of singing “light up” every part of the brain.
“I have had a few students through the years who had strokes,” she said, “and singing activates the left and right brain, which is great.”
Barnard’s class at her Peoria Woodland Studio is a combination of breathing and other singing-related exercises, singing through well-known classic songs like “Over the Rainbow” and getting comfortable singing in front of a group. She describes taking the group class as a “good prelude” to taking individual singing lessons.
The summer course takes place over three Thursday nights in June from 5-6:30 p.m. Barnard caps the class at around eight participants and says it tends to fill up every summer.
More information about the class and contact information is available on Barnard’s website.
