In the end this was an intuitive decision, something I just knew was right at the time, without really knowing why. I felt it in my bones! There are several reasons though, of which I am now aware:

• I love singing, I love the physical feeling of it, so I want to be able to do it a bit better.
• I sing a lot when I’m teaching the oboe, to demonstrate all sorts of things, particularly things about the shape and direction of melodic line, making a phrase legato, or catching the quality of a particular articulation.
• Part of my new role is to help develop more of a learning culture through the whole School. Having singing lessons myself is one very focused way of continuing to learn myself, and of course one-to-one lessons are core to learning in the institution in general.
• I want to keep artistically alive. The repertoire here is second to none. Compared with the oboe its like opening a Pandora’s box!
• It provides an extraordinary perspective on my own teaching – so many insights into what it can be like as a student, constantly reminding me of the long process and detail of learning an instrument; it gives me lots of great ideas to pinch; it provides me with a space to talk things through, my own progress and sometimes also things about teaching and learning in general;
• It’s huge fun, and a chance to focus on myself and on something artistic. It’s good to make some musical sound particularly when a lot of my work involves talking!