Secret Sing
Your safe place to sing.
A weekly workshop for performers to practise the part nobody teaches: what goes on in your head when it matters. Perform a song, talk it through, and leave with tools you’ll actually use.
Why Secret Sing exists
Bridging the gap
Your mental script affects your singing voice and your performance more than anything else. In the moments when it really matters — auditions, performances — you need to be able to harness your nerves and focus on what matters most to you, so that you can deliver a performance you can feel proud of.
Voice and acting-through-song classes develop your technical abilities, but the workshops where you get to try out what you've learned are often pressured, and feel far from safe. Secret Sing exists to bridge the gap between your technical practice and a performance setting. Here you can test your mental skills in a room that mimics an audition or performance environment, and be safe to make mistakes while you hone them.
A Saturday morning
What happens at Secret Sing?
Three hours, one room, and a lot of laughter.
- 1
A mindful warm-up
The group is led through a mindful vocal warm-up. You'll learn breathing techniques you can use in stressful situations, and have time to settle into the space before you perform.
- 2
A spotlight thought
Each session offers a Spotlight Thought — a theme you can carry into the week ahead.
- 3
You perform
Each attendee performs a song to a backing track, then has time to talk through the performance and their mental script.
- 4
Games, play and discussion
Through games, play and discussion the performer explores new ideas for mental focus. Often the whole group gets involved to help. There's a lot of laughter.
Where & when
Every Saturday morning, a short walk from four tube stations.
“Secret Sing is honestly one of the best things I've ever done.”
Creating a safe space
The four rules of Secret Sing
We keep the room safe by agreeing to them, and keeping to them, every week.
- 01
What you see and hear in the room stays in the room.
- 02
We don't talk about vocal technique.
- 03
We all contribute to discussion, but we're careful about how we present our ideas, so that the performer is held safe.
- 04
Everyone is on their own journey. There are no comparisons between attendees.
Inside the room
See what a session is like
Half a minute of a Saturday morning in Borough.
Is it for you?
Why come to Secret Sing?
Working performers, drama school graduates, people between contracts. Usually one of these rings true.
“What helped from being here is that we get a lot of tools to work with, that you can just take away with you and use on your own terms.”
The Secret Sing community
When you come to Secret Sing workshops you become part of the Secret Sing community: a supportive network who share your experiences of the performing industry, understand the pressures, and will champion you to bring the best of yourself to your performing life. Members often share repertoire, help with agent relationships and choosing headshots, and turn up to each other's performances.
“You can try anything you want to do. You can take a risk and it's not going to be met with criticism or negativity. It's going to be met with open arms and a really, really wonderful group of people.”
Who runs it
Claire Underwood
Founder of Secret Sing · vocal coach
“I created Secret Sing because it was obvious that there was no environment which bridged the gap between practising in your bedroom and performing in front of an audience or audition panel. Too many performers were telling me how well they'd been singing at home, but then went to pieces when the pressure was on. The brain needs as much opportunity to practise performance situations as it normally gets to practise technique — if all you focus on is technique, you won't be ready for what happens when your brain perceives a threat in a new environment. I wanted to create a safe space for performers to explore the thoughts and feelings that arise in those stressful situations, and give them the tools they need so they can shine as brightly as I see them shine in my one-to-one sessions. I hope you'll find a safe space to find your singing joy at Secret Sing, and I can't wait to watch as you shine.”
Claire is currently resident vocal coach on Hamilton (London), Les Misérables (London), Phantom of the Opera (London), Wicked (London), Moulin Rouge the Musical (London) and Vocal Supervisor on Cabaret (London), providing technical tuition and performance coaching for the cast and working in partnership with the creative team. Film and television coaching includes Les Misérables, Beauty & the Beast, Aladdin, The Edge of Love, The Crown, It's A Sin and The Cleaner. Claire's associate team also provide in-house coaching for other productions, including Lion King (London) and Oliver! (London).
Claire's company ShowMinds facilitates safe spaces for performers to discuss, and receive support for, the mental challenges involved in performing.
Come and sing
Book the date that works. Move it later if life happens.
One session at a time, or a pass of four. Every session you attend earns a loyalty point, and eight points is a session on us.