Embracing Mistakes in Music with Lauren Lucille: Episode 64

Have you ever felt like your voice just doesn’t measure up? Lauren Lucille, a gifted singer, songwriter, and vocal coach, knows that feeling all too well. Growing up surrounded by musicians, Lauren battled self-doubt and criticism, convinced that her voice lacked emotional depth. Join us as she shares her journey of overcoming these barriers, discovering her true vocal power, and the profound impact audience feedback has had on her confidence and performance.

This episode uncovers her shift from a technical approach to one steeped in emotion, driving her to deliver more impactful performances. Hear about the pivotal ENT consultation that set her on the path to vocal recovery and the lessons learned from embracing vulnerability and authenticity.

Lauren’s story doesn’t stop at overcoming challenges; she’s now channeling her renewed confidence into exciting future ventures. From expanding her coaching business and penning an e-book on singing techniques to recording a more intimate new album, Lauren is on a mission to share her passion. Tune in for insights on the value of making mistakes, the importance of curiosity, and the exhilarating promise of new projects on the horizon.

Connect with  Lauren

Website: laurenlucillemusic.com

Instagram: @iamlaurenlucille

Albums:  Lauren Lucille Albums

Spotify: Lauren Lucille in Spotify

Aideen Ni Riada: 0:02

Welcome to the Resonate podcast with Aideen. I’m Aideen Ni Riada, and my guest today is Lauren Lucille, based in the UK but originally from Australia. Hi, Lauren, how are you today? Hi, I’m very well. Thanks, how are you? I’m so excited to have you on the show. We’ve had a conversation before and it was so much fun, so I’m really excited to share you with my audience. Let me tell everyone a little about you before we start. Lauren is a singer, songwriter and vocal coach. She grew up surrounded by jazz and classically trained musicians. Lauren loves and sings jazz, soul, pop, folk and R&B. She’s developed a holistic and intuitive vocal coaching method using tools from over 20 years of performing, teaching, traveling and studying. She has recorded albums of jazz and pop originals and also has a Christmas album. Thank you for joining me, Lauren.

Lauren Lucille: 1:01

You’re welcome. Thanks for having me. It’s really cool to be here.

Aideen Ni Riada: 1:05

Yeah, tell me um your journey a little bit. How did you start to discover the value of your own voice?

Lauren Lucille: 1:13

Well, it’s an interesting question, because I grew up in a family full of musicians. We were always playing music. I was singing with my siblings, and so I didn’t have a problem with like singing. I could sing anywhere, but I always thought there was something missing. So I just didn’t think I really had much to bring to the table and I thought my voice was really bland and very boring.

Lauren Lucille: 1:41

And that went on for quite a while, actually, and I was, so I started gigging when I was 18 and when I was about 28, I recorded my first full-length album. I had. I had a few um like EPs before then. Um, and I recorded my full-length album and listening back to that album and the EPs that I recorded was very interesting, because I was just so critical. I was like this is this could be better. I don’t put enough emotion in here, or I just sound really bland there.

Lauren Lucille: 2:15

Um, the album itself hidden here, the one I recorded in 2012, was, um, it was so difficult to record because the music was quite hard. I’d written it all, but it was really hard to sing, and there was times I’d go into the studio and my producer would just be like what’s wrong with you today? And I said I don’t know, I just I don’t have any energy. He’s like just go home, because I tried, we turned off the lights, you know, and it was. I really pushed myself and I really recorded a beautiful album. I’m so proud of that now, but it took me a few years to listen and hear what everyone else was hearing. Like Lauren, it’s such a beautiful album and I was like I thought I was singing out of tune here and then I realized it was just the kind of the organic feature of the strings and my voice playing together and I really it’s, you know, it’s so, it’s, it’s. It’s been like. I think listening back to yourself is nice when you can.

Aideen Ni Riada: 3:11

Oh, I don’t know where I’m going with that thought the value of my voice um, yeah, but you’re right, when we hear ourselves back, that’s a layer of like the acceptance of your voice, like Like you can accept your own voice. When you hear it in a room, you might like it sometimes, you might dislike it sometimes, but when you hear it recorded, it’s like okay, this is like the truth of my voice which it may or may not be, because sometimes we record our voice onto really shitty microphones and things like that but it is an external view into your voice as well.

Lauren Lucille: 3:51

Absolutely. People started telling me how much they loved my voice and it was like really, and they’re like, it’s just so, this and that. And I remember doing a gig it was on an outside stage and this woman came up to me at the end young woman and she was you could tell she’d been crying.

Lauren Lucille: 4:17

And I was like, are you okay? And she said you just moved me so much. And that song you sang about blah blah blah, it was just so, I just needed that so much. And that song you sang about blah blah blah, it was just so, I just needed that so much right now. And I thought, oh, okay, I’m actually touching people here with what I do because I just love singing and I love songwriting and I just I love putting all kinds of groups together and I just enjoy it. So it wasn’t really about if I liked it or not, if when I was listening back, I just love being on stage singing for an audience. But but to get that kind of feedback, it’s like, okay, maybe I am on the right track after all. Excuse me, just some allergies to some plants I bought today. Unfortunately, as a singer, it’s not a good thing.

Aideen Ni Riada: 4:59

But this is an interesting point that our voice is so different, like our voice changes from day to day, you know. So we might get the quality that we’re thinking of on a particular day and then two days later, because we haven’t had enough sleep or because we’ve had an argument with somebody, like it, it really affects our voice. There’s so many things that affect your voice from moment to moment that affect your voice from moment to moment.

Lauren Lucille: 5:27

Yeah, even like, of course, the atmosphere and the house you live in and the fumes you’re breathing in, or the emotions you experienced that day, or the phone call you got, or the lack of sleep, or the lack of hydration, or the eating badly, or for a woman getting your period or going through menopause. You know there’s so many factors and um, including well, I just lost my train of thought um, the songs you sing and the repertoire you choose, and it’s not just, it’s a bit out of my range and I have to push a bit here. But even if it seems like an easy song to sing, it might not be the right song for you and I’ve I kind of learned that the hard way. I sang for elderly in mental health for quite a while, on and off. The last time I did it I just quit in August last year because I just thought, just, I don’t enjoy singing half these songs, but I have to sing them because I’m getting paid to sing, you know, and I enjoyed doing it for them.

Lauren Lucille: 6:24

But my voice was like this doesn’t really work for you and I thought, oh, maybe I’m just not very good. I went into that whole thing of I should be able to sing anything. And I was talking to this vocal coach actually today who trained like big stars in the UK for like 25 years. He said, and we didn’t weren’t even talking about it, he just said you can’t sing every song. Some songs just don’t suit you and it has nothing to do with the range, it’s just the style, the mood and it was. It was just really nice to hear to some somebody to say to me it’s okay that you can’t sing that song. That was amazing.

Aideen Ni Riada: 7:02

Yeah, yeah, completely, because we think things should stay the same, but we are evolving and we’re changing. And I remember being asked to sing this guy’s songs. He said he needed a singer and I listened to them and they were quite sad. They were all from his and I sometimes wonder if I should have done it anyway. But, like, what we’re saying right now is, if it’s not drawing you in, if it’s not feeling like you want to do it, then why would you do it Unless like it’s purely you know, ok, I’m just going to do this job and get it over with. But even when we’re doing it for work, we want to enjoy our work. So I agree with that like it’s. It’s almost like you know, but the interesting thing was you felt that your voice was telling you that you didn’t want to sing it anymore. Was it something you could hear? It was just difficult.

Aideen Ni Riada: 8:01

And I was like okay, I’m a vocal coach, it was like your voice didn’t want to do it at all.

Lauren Lucille: 8:05

You start questioning yourself and you think I’m a vocal coach, I should, I should be able to do this, I should, you know, and that’s a very dangerous, dangerous word and my voice was definitely telling me. It just kind of went downhill. I ended up losing my voice actually, which I’d never done in that sense, in this terrible way ever. I mean, I lost a month’s worth of work. That’s another story. I don’t know if you want to hear about that at some point, but it might be inspiring to some people to see how I got through it, because it’s inspiring to me, yeah, yeah.

Aideen Ni Riada: 8:40

I’d love to hear it.

Lauren Lucille: 8:41

I had an experience. Sorry, I’m interrupting you, it’s okay, I think the Wi-Fi went a bit funny for a second.

Aideen Ni Riada: 8:48

Yeah, I had an experience where I was working in recruitment and I didn’t realize it was affecting my voice. I wasn’t singing at the time, but I wanted to start studying music again. So I went to the Leinster School of Music in Dublin to a woman called Evelyn Dowling and I literally could only sing like five notes. I wasn’t able to sing any more than that and I think it was because I, because of the work I was doing and being on a headset and not being able to um and I didn’t like what I was doing as well. But what was your story? I’d be really interested because you know when, when that happens, you think, oh well, I can’t sing. And a lot of people do feel that they’re like, well, I can’t because at this exact moment in time I can’t reach that note. But there’s, there’s ways to move forward.

Lauren Lucille: 9:37

I’d love to hear how you got through it yourself yeah, well, it’s different for everybody, of course, um, but what happened? It happened twice actually in the last few years, and maybe I obviously there are so many factors, you know, as I said before emotions and things that are happening in your life and your atmosphere, and everything. But the first time it happened I sprained my ankle. This was two years ago and obviously I was on crutches for like six weeks and I could put weight on it but I couldn’t move it. So I was on crutches to help me move and I went to my osteopath when it was almost unhealing and I said something about my voice and he said yeah, well, if you’re limping, it’s put your whole structure out of alignment, so the voice that you’re used to using it’s not the same anymore, because there’s a slight shift. And it makes sense. You know, if we shift our tongue in a certain position, our voice sounds different, or the soft palate or something to do with our body. So, knowing that my alignment was all out you know my hips were out it just it changed my voice and actually I could still sing. It’s just that I had a different voice. I didn’t lose my voice, I just had somebody else’s voice. It was so, so incredible and bizarre and a fascinating experience. But I thought to myself, okay, if this is, it was for a couple of weeks and I thought, if this is going to keep happening, I’m going to have to change my repertoire, I’m going to have to change all the keys, I’m going to have to sing different things, because the stuff I was doing mostly at the time was singing jazz, excuse me. And so it’s like um, I’ve never been in love before and this is why and I would do these like high little scat solos and whatever. And I had I have a low voice, I don’t go very high all the time, but I had these capabilities of moving up there and at this time I just I kind of lost that and there was a bit more like crunchiness in my voice. So I thought I’m going to, so I started moving all the keys down just for that period of time and then my voice just came back completely fine. Okay, so I didn’t lose any work, I could still do all my gigs and all of that.

Lauren Lucille: 11:53

Last year um had a more of a tough year like, uh, emotionally, just a few things. You know, as life does, I was fine, but it was just, it was kind of affecting me at a, at a level that I didn’t realize and I had like four signs of stress and I thought I don’t even feel stressed I know I’m a bit sad, but I don’t feel stressed and my body was like you’re stressed. So I had acid reflux, weight gain, two other things that I can’t remember right now voice loss and one other thing, trouble sleeping. So and I didn’t kind of put it all together and I didn’t catch it in time and so and I didn’t kind of put it all together and I didn’t catch it in time and I just started having these voice problems and it was so bad that I basically lost a month of work. Probably within a month I lost about half of my income. That’s hard and I was really hard and I was, I was calm through it.

Lauren Lucille: 12:51

But obviously after about three or four weeks I was like, okay, the things I usually do aren’t working. Now I can’t actually use my voice, like last time. Of course I went to see the ENT. They said that you know, definite acid reflux and there’s no actual permanent damage to your vocal folds, but I had this little tiny red line just from coughing and um. So of course you know, as a voice user and you’ve been using your voice for so long, you kind of know some of the things to do rest, hydration, proper vocal warm-ups, sovt you know where you’re blowing through the straw and things like that.

Lauren Lucille: 13:24

But it just wasn’t working, no matter what I did. Because last year I was two years ago I was meditating and I really felt like the meditation brought me to a really calm place and brought my help, bring my voice back. This time nothing was working. And then it I don’t know what shifted, maybe just the awareness of what was wrong with my voice after going to the doctor, just being told that you’re actually fine, it’s just acid reflux damage, because I’ve had acid reflux since I was 18 for a very long time now, on and off. Of course, I manage it as best as I can through diet, not through pills, because they’re not good for you. I don’t think they’re good for you.

Lauren Lucille: 14:03

And, um, I kind of got my voice back. But same thing happened. It was like somebody else’s voice. I couldn’t sing the high notes anymore. I basically had no head, voice or falsetto and I had this real edge to my voice and my gigs instead of doing jazz gigs. I just started singing more soul and of course you can put soul into jazz but I mean, like the feeling of the song, the groove of the song, I just I couldn’t, I didn’t want to swing anymore with this jazz and I started feeling songs in a way that I have never felt music before, from an emotional level yeah, an emotional level.

Lauren Lucille: 14:46

I’ve always been very technical so I’ve just wanted to sound perfect and get it right and be this and get the notes, you know um, whereas, for example, my sister she’s never been trained to sing but I absolutely love hearing her sing because it’s so raw, authentic, she just goes for it, she puts all of her emotion in and it works really well. There’s a few recordings where she sings with my brother’s band, but I was always very like I have to be, have to be right, I have to be right. And I just didn’t find room for that emotion and I and so you know I’m 40 years old now this is when I was 39 that I felt like I could feel songs properly for the first time and you know I’ve taught it and I’ve come in and out of feeling things, but it was more like, it was just harder to access that and so, having this voice, where I had to really be on my game physically, technically, I had to really make sure I was breathing properly, had the voice in the right place. So I was thinking about the technique, but that was just so I could actually sing a note. But I had to pull it from an emotional place, which sounds really weird saying it out loud.

Lauren Lucille: 15:56

But the only way that it was working was like, yes, Lauren, use all the technique you’ve learned over the last 20 years, but you can’t do this without feeling. It’s just not going to happen. And I just thought, if I’m doing a three hour gig, it’s I can’t feel every song, because you’re doing a three-hour gig, you’re singing 20, 25 songs. But these gigs I started doing, I started having more compliments than I usually have, more deep compliments, more people kind of like oh, there’s something special happening here, like people do say that about my voice. That’s why I started teaching, because people just wanted to sing, like me a lot, you know, 15 years ago. But there’s just this extra deeper level that I went to and every song I felt and it was absolutely incredible.

Aideen Ni Riada: 16:47

Was it worth losing your voice to find that? Was it worth losing your voice?

Lauren Lucille: 16:51

to find that it’s a really good question. Yes, absolutely. I wouldn’t recommend it. I wouldn’t recommend somebody go to town on the alcohol and the drugs and the smoking just to get this kind of huskiness or this different vibe, because you can really do some lasting damage.

Aideen Ni Riada: 17:10

Mine was more psychological um but I think our bodies are trying to communicate with us. You know, and a lot of people have a health issue that makes them change how they think about life or redirects them in their career or makes them look after themselves, and for you to have a deeper connection with your own emotions while singing can’t be a bad thing ever, and I’m just glad that you know it was only a month or so that you weren’t able to sing, so that’s not too bad.

Lauren Lucille: 17:48

I I was very lucky. I mean, that was tough, but, um, I learned a lot about myself. I’m always looking into self-development and being a better person, really just a more peaceful and happy person, so that I feel good to be around me and then that goes out into the world. So I just thought, well, you know, I really learned about the silver lining during this form. It was four months four months.

Lauren Lucille: 18:18

And I just thought I’ve got to find the silver lining. And it was it. It went over into other areas of my life not just singing, of course, because it was so tough that I was like I can’t just be in this toughness, I have to. Okay, the silver lining is the emotion is there. Silver lining is I’m finding ways to sing that I didn’t have before.

Aideen Ni Riada: 18:39

The other thing was that you had to surrender to the voice that you was coming through and accept who and what you were and how your voice was, and just work with that, because a lot of the time for me even it’s like we feel we’re the agent in our lives, like that we’re creating what happens next, and it gives you a false sense of uh kind of power. In the end, there’s many things in our lives we have no power over whatsoever.

Lauren Lucille: 19:15

Yeah, you said the perfect word is surrender, and it’s really difficult when you’ve been in control of something for so long and just to give over to a completely new way of doing things. And I’ll just say this while it’s on my mind you said before, like, was it worth it? And I said, yes, definitely, but I wouldn’t go searching for that because it’s as I said, it could have lasting effects physically. And you know people are like how do you? The recovery is different for everyone, I think. I think obviously the obvious things like looking after yourself, getting rest, hydration, getting therapy if you need it, whether it’s like talking therapy or physical therapy from an osteopath or you’re going, you know, throat specialist. It’s really important to look after ourselves that way.

Aideen Ni Riada: 20:04

Um, but yes, yeah, I’ve never heard story the same.

Lauren Lucille: 20:09

We crossed over there again. Can you repeat what you just said?

Aideen Ni Riada: 20:10

I’ve never heard a story the same. We crossed over there again. Can you repeat what you just said?

Lauren Lucille: 20:15

I’ve never heard a story like mine. Yeah, I’ve heard a voice loss, but the fact that I lost it for a month and then I just had it and it was I have not damaged my voice in those three months of singing on that voice and I find it fascinating yeah, that’s really, really good.

Aideen Ni Riada: 20:38

I um, I’m glad that you also do get help. Like your ENT, you have an osteopath. Um, I’ve been seeing a guy locally here where I am in northern Michigan and he was working with my neck and my postural kind of element and I’m familiar with some of the physiology of the voice. But I could actually tilt my thyroid cartilage for the first time consciously when I started doing this kind of therapy which is, like you know, healing for my posture, and I was so surprised because sometimes we’re going through our lives with an issue that we don’t even realize is there, like when you were limping. So I actually had a problem with my foot when I was born. So I’ve had a postural imbalance my whole life that created imbalances.

Aideen Ni Riada: 21:29

You could see my, my, my pictures of me doing ballet are very cute. One arm is always higher than the other, one shoulder higher than the other very cute. But, um, I think people do underestimate minding your physical body. Like if you want to sing well, if you want to do anything well, you want to have, you know to work well, we need to look after ourselves, and you’re a professional singer, so you do, you look after yourself, and I think that’s a good you know kind of message to our listeners as well. Like, are there ways that you’re not looking after yourself? And like that we don’t want anybody to go through vocal trauma.

Aideen Ni Riada: 22:07

But if you are going through something, or if you have gone through something, something, what was that teaching you? What was the silver lining, as you put it so beautifully? What kind of silver lining can you take from that? Because we don’t stay stagnant in life. We can’t be the person we were a year ago. We’ve got to keep moving forward. So that’s something beautiful and it shows your resilience, um, your adaptability, and it’s a great thing to share that story, I think, because you’re not the only one, for sure, that’s gone through a difficult time, that, or a questioning time around something that they love to do wise words from a wise woman, you, I mean and you too, yeah, so I know that you’ve.

Aideen Ni Riada: 23:02

You have multiple interests. Is there anything that you’re planning to be doing next that you’d like to share with us? Is it going to be more albums, are you? What are you enjoying the teaching? Tell us a little more about what’s on the horizon for Lauren Lucille so I have a few things I want to do.

Lauren Lucille: 23:23

I’m not pressuring myself to do them um, all at the same time or very quickly. I’d rather do them properly and well. Um, I realize I have a lot of I have time. Um, I want to. I’m building my coaching business this year. I have incredible students at a kind of beginner to intermediate creeping up to advanced stages at the moment and I would like some more advanced students. So, building on that, I also would like to write a book on how to sing, which is just something I’ve wanted to do for so long.

Lauren Lucille: 24:11

Partly, I want to just share in a very layman’s terms this is how I think to sing. This is what my students have enjoyed and learned from. So I just want to put really easy just try this, think about this. I think a lot of it is in their head. For me, a lot of it is that just the way you think your thoughts I mean, it’s nothing new, it’s not. You know, if you want to learn how to become rich, they don’t say, okay, do this job, do this job, do this job. It’s like, think this way, think this way, think this way and then do this job.

Lauren Lucille: 24:47

I’ve just realized that a lot of any kind of learning is about your thoughts first, and so I just I kind of want to put this is what you might be able to think about when you’re going for this note, think about this, or think about when you’re going for this note, think about this, or think about that, or so I kind of want to write that book. It’s going to be a very simple, probably just an e-book or something, um, and it’s yeah, I think for me it’s a big venture, but I think it would be really great just to share what I know, what I’ve learned from teaching for 15 years. Um, I do have enough material to record at least one long album, full-length album, um, but I’m not going to do that this year. I want.

Aideen Ni Riada: 25:29

I want to do that project yeah, it, yeah, it can be.

Lauren Lucille: 25:33

It’s. Yeah, there’s a lot to prepare. I’ve got the songs, but I want to, I want to fill them out a little bit more and figure out you know what I want to do with them. Um, and I don’t want to rush that. So I mean, if it ends up happening this year, great. I mean, I was thinking of doing it solo, because I get a lot of feedback that people prefer me just with me and my guitar rather than with a band, band which I find fascinating. Um, so, yeah, who knows, I’m open to, I’m open to doing more and I’m open to doing a few things as well were your other albums with full bands, or was one of them just you and the guitar?

Lauren Lucille: 26:13

yeah, the first two albums, uh, full-length albums. They’re my original albums, they’re with full bands. So the first album is with a live band, so the band recorded the quartet and then the strings recorded separately, the string trio, and then I did the vocals. And the second album, um, with Troy Miller here in London, very top producer. Um was done bit by bit but it’s also with a full band.

Aideen Ni Riada: 26:41

Also has strings on it. Well, if you don’t have it yet, like a paired back raw Lauren, with just your guitar, then you’ve got to do that.

Lauren Lucille: 26:51

I do have to do that, but I do have a Christmas album where it’s just vocals and guitar.

Lauren Lucille: 26:57

Nice and its four original tracks and five uh covers. I play all of them, except for three of them which I recorded in Germany with the guitarist there, um, but one of my students. She said I hate Christmas music and this was in, I think, October or November. And she said I hate Christmas music, but I’m listening to your album because it’s just so lovely. So that was that. So that was a huge compliment to listen to Christmas music in October when you hate Christmas music.

Aideen Ni Riada: 27:25

That is a huge compliment, yeah.

Lauren Lucille: 27:28

Yeah, does it sink in for?

Aideen Ni Riada: 27:30

you, though I recorded that myself.

Lauren Lucille: 27:34

Just at home, yeah, at home, on just my setup here.

Aideen Ni Riada: 27:39

Beautiful. It’s possible. Guys, everybody listening. If Lauren can do it, you can too, oh my God, I keep saying that to everybody If little old.

Lauren Lucille: 27:48

Lauren can do it. You can do it. You really don’t need that much.

Aideen Ni Riada: 27:52

To be honest, yeah, I mean, there’s so much more potential out there for each of us than we realize is possible. But I was about to ask you there does. Has it? Does it sink in with you when people give you those compliments like do you feel, do you think you understand or feel your own value? Like that you know the qualities that you have, do you? Or do you still brush off some of those compliments and criticize yourself?

Lauren Lucille: 28:22

no, that that’s, that’s old Lauren, long ago, I think. Yeah, I’ve definitely gained a lot of my confidence through people complimenting in a very authentic way, not just like that was nice, you’re really good. It’s when they say that really moved me. And I listened to your Christmas album in October and oh, why aren’t you coming back for lessons? You know, could you give me feedback? Is it about me? Anything about my teaching? Oh, my god, Lauren, it pains me.

Lauren Lucille: 28:54

It pains me to think that you would think that, no, you’re an incredible teacher, amazing person, but I just am going away or I’m just, you know, I lost my job or you know something totally external. And that definitely makes me feel like, okay, I’m doing something right. You know, with my students, when I’m teaching, I just make sure and it’s not just to make them like me, it’s like find something that’s great about their voice, find something that’s great about the way they move or don’t move, or the way they sing, something. You know there’s always something positive and I think, for the listeners, if you’re singing, like record yourself and listen to it like you’re listening to somebody else’s voice, and what would you tell that person? Like, what do you like about this voice, there’s going to be something, even if it’s not the tone or the pitch. It might be. I just love your expression and I love the energy you put into it and I love that it sounds so authentic.

Aideen Ni Riada: 29:47

Yeah, so to me that, authentic piece is the top thing that I’d look for.

Lauren Lucille: 29:56

I went on a bit of a tangent, but yeah.

Aideen Ni Riada: 29:58

No not at all.

Lauren Lucille: 30:00

I think it helps to have positive feedback. I really do. I think it’s nice to be there for each other in a positive way, encouraging each other, basically.

Aideen Ni Riada: 30:10

I agree 100%. I think too many of us try to achieve something without support and it is a much slower process that way, and we all need people on our cheerleading team. Well, we’re going to be winding things up in a few minutes. I was wondering is there anything that you’d like to say. Any resources that you’d like to give anybody?

Lauren Lucille: 30:39

So one of the questions you’d asked me when we were chatting, like what would you say to someone who was just starting or feeling stuck on this journey? And then the resources. So I can kind of answer that in one very briefly um, if you’re just starting and you’re stuck of where to start, um, be curious, inquisitive, try everything out for yourself before just blindly believing information you know that you’re reading or listening to. So there’s loads of resources on YouTube. You can do so much on YouTube. I do loads of things on YouTube and if I’m not sure about someone, something, I always seek out somebody to ask.

Lauren Lucille: 31:15

Like I saw all these things on YouTube. I’m just wondering what you think about them. Or I’m doing all these things that YouTube tells me, but I’m not getting where I want to go. You have to be careful with physical stuff because you might be doing something that you don’t know. So you know you can start with YouTube, even if you’re just listening to what people are saying, you’re just taking notes or you know that’s really interesting or this point of view is different to that point of view. Just start getting curious. You know, awareness is a really big part of things Learning, I think.

Aideen Ni Riada: 31:47

Yeah, yeah, I like that idea. But YouTube. I was working with a student earlier and we were listening to Adele and kind of listening to like her vocal control when she was singing. This is more technical but thin versus uh, thick folds and you know to hear those nuances in in her voice and I would definitely say that when we’re when we’re listening to songs that we like to try and listen more deeply to, that sometimes we learn a lot. It’s like who you rub shoulders with. You can learn a lot from listening to someone else’s way of singing. Not that you want to sing like them, but if you experiment with how they do it, it can help you develop your own style.

Lauren Lucille: 32:31

I’ve been listening to some business coaching lately and I haven’t even put into practice what they’re talking about really, but my, I feel like my attitude is different. So it’s just it’s kind of by osmosis, you know, you just put yourself in that and listening, listening is, it’s underrated.

Aideen Ni Riada: 32:48

You’ve got to listen yeah, and we need the inspiration too of others. I always say just copy that person as much as possible.

Lauren Lucille: 32:54

You’re not. You’re probably not going to sound like them, but you’re going to learn something in the process. You know, I always say just copy that person as much as possible. You’re probably not going to sound like them, but you’re going to learn something in the process. You know, I always say the way we learn to walk is just by watching everyone around us. The way we learn to talk like we learn a whole language. People look at us and spit Italian at us or whatever.

Lauren Lucille: 33:12

I was watching my little nephew earlier and to begin with he has no idea. But when they just repeat it and repeat it, repeat it, he just starts repeating it back and starting to make sense of it all. And you have to be you absolutely have to be brave enough and willing and have enough fun to make mistakes. It’s gonna limit, I really think it’s to limit your learning and limit your journey of singing or anything you want to learn, by being fearful of making a mistake.

Lauren Lucille: 33:46

Um, I’m just thinking of really good examples in my life that don’t have anything, don’t have specifically something to do with singing as such, but contracts that I could have signed or somebody that wanted to give me a bunch of money to record a song because he believed in me that much that he wanted to give me that much money and I just thought you want, because he wanted a lot of money in return. Of course it’s like an investment and I just thought I can’t make that money, but actually if I put my mind to it and thought about it for a little bit longer. So it’s about taking risks in that sense, but also just going for it and just not being afraid of making a mistake or sounding silly, like so many people expect. I teach mostly adults and they just close up because I don’t want to sound bad and I’m like that’s the only way you’re going to figure this out. I can’t tell you everything, I can’t just hand it to you. You’ve got to figure this out on your own, with some guidance, right?

Aideen Ni Riada: 34:38

yeah, the first time you try something, it’s like you’re guessing what to do, and that’s okay. So I think we will wind up on that. Yes, uh, point um of you know, don’t be afraid to make mistakes, and it’s through our mistakes that we figure things out. And this idea of testing ideas as well, like, so, don’t necessarily put all your eggs into one basket necessarily, and I loved what you said about you know, when you’re researching, to not necessarily believe everything, to get feedback on it. So there’s a lot of wisdom there as well, and I’m really glad that you were able to come on today and share your journey with your own losing of your voice, and I’m excited to, um, to listen to more of your music and your new album.

Aideen Ni Riada: 35:27

I hope sometimes these things happen faster than you realize. One day you’re just sitting there and the next thing you’re recording, you’ve got everything you need right there in your home studio. So, um, and your book and everything. When you have you have um any of those resources ready, I’ll definitely add them to the show notes here. So, um, let me know when you do and I will make sure that those get added. Thank you so much, Lauren. You’re a gem for coming on thank you so much.

Lauren Lucille: 35:53

It means it gives me confidence that you asked me on the show and well when your next album comes out.

Aideen Ni Riada: 35:59

I would encourage you to do a lot more interviews with people, because I think a lot of people listening to music want to get to know the person behind the music as well, and that’s why your students are so and so love you, because they’ve had the opportunity to get to know you, and an interview is a lovely way to get to know an artist, and you are an artist and I am really, really excited to see what you do next. I’ll do that. Thank you so much. Thank you, Lauren, and to my listeners today, I am just so grateful that you’re listening. Please get in touch if you have a question, comment or suggestion of a guest, and I look forward to hearing from you. Take care, bye.