Workshops

CityLit: Sing Blues with Carol Grimes

In this course we will explore the blues form and sound and message. Open your understanding of the blues form, and have a chance to write and perform. This course will also feature technical training to improve your singing.

Included in this course:

  • Research and listening to the blues catalogue, old and contemporary.
  • The form : 12 bar mainly, but also 8 and 16 bar blues.
  • The rhythmic feel : swing or funk.
  • Lyrics, including writing some.
  • Harmony and song form.
  • Phrasing and musicality
  • Improvising in a blues style
  • Performance : find ways to unlock emotion and espression in the voice.
  • Vocal technique.
  • Communication with the accompanist

Full course details at: www.citylit.ac.uk/courses/performing-arts/music/singing/sing-blues

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CityLit Contact Details

Tel: 020 7430 0546
Web: www.citylit.ac.uk
e-mail: music@citylit.ac.uk
Address: City Lit, Keeley Street, Covent Garden, London WC2B 4BA

Theatre Of The Voice

Explore how to be authentic in performance. This workshop helps you to overcome stage fright and be present in the music, the song and the lyric. Learn how to communicate with your audience, be it a large or small gathering or a workshop group.


Course Content

  • Working with the unique and mysterious performer inside.
  • Exploring persona. Who is she, who is he?
  • Working with breath, movement and voice.
  • Working with rhythm and melody.
  • Working with your performing self. Who is she or he?

You can whisper and roar and sing songs of love and passion. The grand toast the poignant lament. A lullaby or a song of strength.

Feedback for my Workshops

Reviews of my singing workshops at CityLit

"I recently spent a while improving my Jazz singing at the City Lit Jazz Singers' Workshop, led by the fantastically inspirational Carol Grimes - the only person I can imagine dragging my voice from my boots after a full day at work! I had a fantastic time and can't wait to get back to it."

Emma Byrne

“I am now in my second year of Jazz1/2. [Carol] and the pianist are a superb couple of really top flight jazz professionals able to share their great knowledge and talent with anyone who has a feeling for jazz and rhythm.

“Carol is special and inspirational and gives her students the benefit of 40 years of singing at the highest level, while Issy is possessed of a natural ability to accompany and help any singer to sound at their best.

“The repertoire is vast and the subject fun and most rewarding.

“I fully recommend any students considering singing jazz to enlist on the course. Fantastic learning and support.

“I thoroughly enjoyed the course, meeting other singers and working with [Carol]. [She] is wonderfully supportive, robust in her feedback and so experienced. She has such a love of jazz that it is contagious. Thank you.”

Sarah Shelton, Jazz/Latin/Blues Magic

Theatre of the Voice

Expressive singing workshops. Voice-work for one-to-one, groups & choirs. An opportunity to write your story and sing your soul song. Working with breath, movement and voice. Invoking a heartfelt statement of who you are.

You can Whisper & Roar.
Holler & Moan.
Sing Songs of Love & Passion.
The grand toast & the poignant lament.
A Lullaby or a Song of Strength.
Rhythm and Song.
Poetry and Prose.
Vocalising your unique and mysterious self.

Sing for Joy

Click here for the Sing for Joy pages.

Sing for Joy is a community choir for people with Parkinson's Disease and other conditions, their friends and carers. We are all sorts of ages, types and genders. All that we have in common is that we have an illness, or care for someone with an illness, and that singing with others makes us feel better.

Singing for Joy helps us breathe deeper, speak more loudly and clearly, and feel happier and less alone.

We meet once a week in London. If you would like to find out more, please click here.