Jo Ellul

Jo Ellul Singer, mentor & vocal coach 🎤
Helping musicians build careers that work for their life 🌳
Helping people find their voice — in music, business & life. 💚

26/08/2026

London called. I went. Obviously got rerouted on the tube.

This is one of those days that reminds me why I love what I do. Vocal coaching is a branch of my business that genuinely lights me up, and heading into London for a session at the iconic Pineapple Studios with a wonderful new client? Hell yeah.

My ticket printed with no ink. Classic. So I had to get it stamped at the office, then got sent a different route because one of the lines was shut. I asked the man three times and still couldn't hold the station names in my brain, so I wrote them down. Came out at Leicester Square. Saw Chinatown. Honestly, not the worst outcome.

And then Pineapple Studios. You feel it the second you walk in. The energy, the creativity, the acoustics. Perfect space for the work we were doing.

My client in question is the incredible Michelle Ryan. One of the most genuinely talented people I've had the pleasure of working with, and just a joy to be around. I'm so excited to be part of what she's got coming up. Keep your eyes on her, because wow.

I got home around 11, kissed my boy goodnight and was still at my desk at 1am. None of it could have happened without the brilliant Dr Di Jackson and my mum holding the fort. Big love to both of them.

This is what a Tuesday looks like when vocal coaching is part of your music career. Love my life! 🤘🏼🔥🥰

GrowYourGigTree SingingCoach MusicMentorship

Cross-eyed and completely committed. That's the professional standard you're getting here.I recorded a Straw Phonation v...
24/08/2026

Cross-eyed and completely committed. That's the professional standard you're getting here.

I recorded a Straw Phonation video for a client today and genuinely cannot decide if I look more like someone doing cutting-edge vocal science or someone who's just spotted a spider on the ceiling. It's a fine line.

(For context, Straw Phonation is a vocal technique where you hum through a narrow straw to help the vocal cords find their optimal balance. It's brilliant. It's also deeply undignified. And I am apparently incapable of doing it without my face doing absolutely everything.)

Here's what I love about this though.

That video, silly faces and all, was made specifically for one person. Not a generic tutorial, not a one-size-fits-all exercise sheet, not a YouTube video I found at 11pm and forwarded with "try this!". It was built around what that particular client needs, right now, at this stage of their vocal journey.

That's what bespoke actually means.

Not a fancy word for expensive. Not a programme with your name typed into a template at the top. Actually looking at where someone is, what's holding them back, and working out what's going to help them specifically.

For this client, the straw work is helping them reconnect with a lighter, freer coordination in their voice. The kind of thing that's hard to explain with words alone, which is why the video exists. So they can hear it, see it (cross-eyed expression and all) and try it themselves between sessions without second-guessing whether they're doing it right.

This is the bit people don't always expect when they start working with me.

They come in thinking voice coaching is going to be lots of scales and "do, re, mi" and me pointing at a diagram of a larynx. And yes, we do cover the mechanics because understanding how your voice actually works is genuinely useful and completely changes how you approach it. But most of what we do is far more specific than that.

We work out what you're actually doing with your voice. What habits have crept in. What tension you're holding and where. What your voice can do when you stop fighting it. And then we build from there, in a direction that makes sense for you.

Some clients need confidence more than technique. Some need technique to get confidence. Some need to stop gripping their throat like it owes them money (very common, no judgement). Some need to reconnect with why they loved singing in the first place before anything else is possible.

The straw phonation client today is making real progress, and honestly, watching someone's voice open up and surprise them is one of my favourite things. Worth every ridiculous face I pull in the process.

So if you're wondering what working with me actually looks like, this is a good example. Proper technique, real understanding of what's happening in your voice, and content made just for you rather than pulled from a generic library.

Also, apparently, me going cross-eyed on camera for science.

If you're curious about vocal coaching and what it could do for you, whether you want to sing better, speak with more confidence, or just stop sounding like you're permanently apologising for existing, drop me a message and let's have a chat. No commitment, no hard sell. Just a conversation.

Big love (and better face coordination next time, hopefully). 🤘🏻🔥

I've become a toilet reviewer. Nobody asked. Here we are.Last weekend I was singing at Woodies in Rothley for the loveli...
24/08/2026

I've become a toilet reviewer. Nobody asked. Here we are.

Last weekend I was singing at Woodies in Rothley for the loveliest 30th birthday celebration, and honestly the whole place had me. Beautiful outside space, great atmosphere, staff who clearly give a damn.

And then I walked into the loos.

Beautiful tiles. Gorgeous mirrors. Lovely little details that someone clearly thought about. I stood there genuinely impressed, phone out, photographing a public toilet like it was the Sistine Chapel.

10/10. Would wee here again.

Here's the thing though (well, not that thing, the other thing). I've been gigging in venues for a very long time, and I am absolutely convinced you can tell a lot about a place by the state of its loos. The toilets are where nobody's watching. Nobody's trying to impress you in the toilets. So if someone has still bothered to make them nice? That tells you everything about how they run the rest of the place. The attention. The care. The pride.

It's a genuinely reliable indicator and I will die on this hill.

And then I went out for my birthday, found myself in ANOTHER particularly lovely bathroom, photographed that one too, and quietly realised this may now be a whole thing.

Jo's Loos. Bog Blog. Loo Review. There is a niche here that absolutely nobody asked me to fill, and yet.

What are we calling this accidental new series? Because apparently it's happening. 🚽😂

Please tell me I'm not the only one who judges a venue by its toilets. Drop your verdict in the comments.

Big love 🔥🤘🏻🩵

Here's the long-form Facebook post:---Most people who know me as a voice coach or a gigging musician don't always realis...
22/08/2026

Here's the long-form Facebook post:

---

Most people who know me as a voice coach or a gigging musician don't always realise there's a whole other branch to what I do.

I've recently spent two full days in the studio with the brilliant Andy Waterson, recording backing vocals for a brand new Fleetwood Mac tribute show. And I loved every single minute of it.

I went in thinking I'd nail certain parts pretty quickly. Thirty-odd years of singing, right? Some of them absolutely floored me. Fleetwood Mac harmonies have this thing where they sound completely effortless on the record, and then you start pulling the vocals apart and you realise how much is actually going on underneath. Bloody hell. 😂

And that's exactly where it got interesting.

Because there's something that happens to me when something turns out to be harder than I expected.
A little switch flips. Instead of feeling defeated, I just want to crack it even more. So we listened, adjusted, tried again, adjusted again, kept going until it sat exactly where it needed to. That process is genuinely one of my favourite things about singing. The precision of it. The craft. Finding the thing that makes it click.

Two full days of that. Learning and creating, laughing a lot, making something I'm genuinely proud to be part of.

(Also being fed lovely lunches, which I want it officially on record is one of the fastest ways to get the absolute best out of me. Feed me and give me complicated harmonies. I'm unstoppable. 😂)

But here's what I actually want to say.

This is session work. And it's one of the income streams I talk about when I'm working with musicians through Grow Your Gig Tree. Alongside gigging, weddings and functions, teaching, originals, sync, digital products and more, session vocals are a real, legitimate branch of a music career that a lot of musicians don't think about, or don't think they're ready for, or don't know how to go after.

I was asked to be part of this project. That didn't happen by accident. It happened because I've spent years building relationships, showing up consistently, and being someone other musicians and producers trust with their work. That's not luck. That's strategy, even when it doesn't look like strategy from the outside.

Every musician's tree looks different. Some branches will suit you and some won't. Some you'll grow fast and some will take time. But if you're only thinking about your music career as one thing, one income stream, one way of working, then you're leaving a lot on the table.

I can't wait to hear how this whole project sounds when it's finished. I'm genuinely honoured to have been asked, and really grateful for the trust that came with it.

And if any of this is making you think about your own music career differently, about what branches you might be overlooking or not even considering, drop me a message. That's exactly what Grow Your Gig Tree is there for.

I was asked, trusted and challenged. Three very good reasons to say yes to something.
22/08/2026

I was asked, trusted and challenged. Three very good reasons to say yes to something.

Fleetwood Mac's harmonies sound effortless until you start pulling the vocal parts apart. Bloody hell. 😂
20/08/2026

Fleetwood Mac's harmonies sound effortless until you start pulling the vocal parts apart. Bloody hell. 😂

Saying no to something you actually want is one of the hardest things.I was recently offered a role as a vocal coach at ...
19/08/2026

Saying no to something you actually want is one of the hardest things.

I was recently offered a role as a vocal coach at a stage school. Working with people I genuinely care about, doing work I love. The kind of thing that lands in your inbox and makes your heart do a little leap.

On paper? Hell yeah.

I said no.

And it took pretty much everything in me to do it.

Not because I didn't want it. I really, really did. But when I sat with it properly and looked at what it would actually require, and where it would have to fit into our life right now, I knew it wasn't right.

Old me would have said yes anyway.

Moved everything around, added another plate, told myself I'd figure it out because that's what you do when something exciting comes along, right? You make it work. You squeeze it in. You deal with the fallout later.

But I'm becoming fiercely protective of my time, and my son's time, and the life we're quietly building together. And that matters more to me than a good opportunity at the wrong moment.

So I said no. Kindly, gratefully, but clearly.

And then, not long afterwards, something else came along. Something that I would have had to turn down if I'd already filled that space.

That was quite a moment.

Because we're sold this idea that opportunity is rare, that you have to grab everything brilliant when it appears or risk missing out. And sometimes that's true. But sometimes saying yes to the wrong thing at the wrong time means you've got nothing left for the right thing when it eventually shows up.

Saying no isn't always closing a door. Sometimes it's just choosing which doors you actually want to leave room to open.

I'm getting better at trusting my gut on that one. Baby steps. 💚

If any of this resonates, I'd love to hear about it in the comments. And if you're sitting on a decision right now that feels exciting on the surface but slightly wrong underneath, drop me a message. Sometimes it helps to talk it through with someone who won't just tell you what you want to hear.

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