Teacher

During the pandemic, I recorded a lot of learn and singalong videos – you can find lots of singing workshop videos for health groups (Dementia and Parkinson’s focused) here, learn and sing along songs here and vocal exercises here.

Community Singing Groups

Groups I work with regularly are listed below. None of my groups are auditioned for entry – anyone is welcome to come along and sing.

Let’s Sing*

Singing for Fun

This is a Parkinson’s-focused community singing group, though other singers are also welcome to join us. The group meets at Marchmont St. Giles church hall every Tuesday from 2-4pm.

Wildfire

Open Community Singing Group

Protest In Harmony is Edinburgh’s Radical Choir. The group is co-led by Penny Stone, Shereen Benjamin and Jane Lewis. All are welcome, there are no auditions. We have a monthly rehearsal and sing at demonstrations, vigils and other campaigning events throughout the year. We have been singing outside St. Giles every Friday since October 2023 calling for a Ceasefire. These vigils are ongoing as of February 2025 calling for a Permanent Ceasefire and and End to the Occupation of Palestine.

Protest in Harmony meet at Broughton St. Mary’s monthly on Saturday mornings from 10-1 (usually the second Saturday of the month, but please check website for dates). The church is accessible, and has accessible toilets, but accessible entrance is round to the side – people who are able to come up the front church steps to get in. If you would like to come and are a wheelchair user or struggle with steps, please get in touch so we know to make sure someone can meet you and show you the side entrance the first time you come along.

MIN Joyous Choir I have worked on and off over the last 15 years with the Maryhill Integration Network to support their Joyous Choir, an amazing group of women singing together. You can see them in action here:

Health & Wellbeing 

I currently run weekly groups supporting people living with dementia and people living with Parkinson’s (details above). I have worked extensively with groups experiencing mental health difficulties and done some work supporting groups of singers with breathing problems and in recovery from drug and alcohol addictions. More information about how singing can help to support health and wellbeing can be found here.

Workshops

Workshops are tailored to individual group needs and can be a mix of any of the elements laid out below. If there is a specific workshop theme you’d like that isn’t below, please do get in touch as it may be possible to put something together.

General Voice Workshops

• How does my voice work?

• Ways into harmony, improvisation and rhythm

• Voice Care for professional voice users (an especially useful workshop for teachers and public speakers)

• Sound in the Body

• Strengthening the Ageing Voice

Political Song workshops

These workshops often link contemporary and historical struggles. As well as telling the stories and carrying the threads of our collective history, I greatly value the role of music in carrying the message of hope to and through us. Previous themes for radical song workshops include:

Songs of Social Justice; Radical Women in Song; Anti-Nuclear and Peace songs; Civil & human rights struggles from around the world, past and present; Environmental Justice; Songs of Hope; International Radical Song.

Songs of Purpose and Place

Workshops can be delivered using songs from around the world to explore common themes such as lullabies; work songs; songs of welcome and farewell; songs of celebration etc.

Seasonal nature and ‘songs of place’ workshops are available – for example Wassail workshops in apple orchards during January; sea and seashore songs by the sea; harvest songs in the late summer; tree songs sung in the forests.

Songwriting Workshops

These workshops can be tailored for a cohesive group wanting to write about a particular campaign, issue or shared experience, or they can enable more disparate individuals to try songwriting in different ways.

Previous songwriting sessions have resulted in songs about local campaigns to address austerity and homelessness, celebrating inspiring local activists, and exploring the experience of living with Parkinson’s and dementia. Songwriting workshops I co-faciliated around the Lost Words book resulted in some beautiful nature themed songs.

Team Building 

General singing workshops are also available to build confidence or for team building. Singing can be a great way for groups who don’t usually sing together to connect non-verbally, opening up different ways to communicate and work together.

Individual Lessons

January 2025: I am not teaching one to one lessons at the moment, but will be running occasional online voice ‘short courses’ from time to time. You can find out more information here. I’ve also put up some video vocal exercises here for anyone to try.

Please do get in touch if you think I might be the right teacher for you, and I’ll see what I can do, or if I can help you find another teacher when my teaching roster is full.

I offer singing lessons on a one to one basis. Lessons are tailored to the individual’s needs and include exploring the voice, building strength and control in the voice, and building confidence in harmony singing as well as skills like learning to sing whilst playing the guitar or piano (tricky multitasking!). Very often my singers are just wanting a few lessons to help build some confidence to get out there and join a singing group – which is the most fun way to sing once the notion doesn’t terrify you!

I am particularly passionate at helping people to find, or re-discover, their voice. You have the right to sing, and the right to make a noise, and sometimes having a space to explore your own sounds in a one to one environment can help get you going. I have been working recently with finding particular singing exercises to help people living with Parkinsons maintain and use their voice for longer.

Online Workshops

Strengthening the Ageing Voice: March 2022, 3 weeks

The ageing voice is different for each of us, but there is relatively recent research showing us that more vigorous exercising of the vocal muscles is most beneficial for our voices as we age. This is a three week online class to learn a bit more about how your voice works, and how normal ageing affects the muscles involved. You will also have space to explore how your voice is feeling and reflect on what your own voice might need, as well as learning a short series of exercises. These can be practiced daily for 5 or 10 minutes to build and maintain muscle tone in the vocal muscles, supporting singing and speaking strength and control. This isn’t about learning to sound ‘nice’ it’s the equivalent of doing some weight lifting so that when you then want to go play a sport you are more freely able to do so. We will also learn some basic laryngeal massage techniques to help release vocal tension.

Whilst all voices age differently, generally this course is suitable for men and women over 50.

You will receive three 1 hour zoom classes over three weeks with two short accompanying videos each week to help support daily practice. Using the exercises for 5-10 mins each day is the most beneficial use of the skills we will build during this short course.

Dates: March 14^th, 21^st, 28^th 2022
Times: Mondays 3-4pm

Cost – £20-40 (if you would like to come but need a further discount, please do get in touch)

To book a place, email Penny on singlouderthanguns@singlouderthanguns

The Bubbling Pot (on pause)

A Songwriting Play Space with Penny Stone. Currently on pause, but you can find videos of previous videos and handouts here. So go ahead and play!