TIM STOUT is on song to talk with singing teacher Margaret Cozens

You could say that Margaret Cozens was the Voice of Southend. Voices of Southend would be more accurate.

Down the years this joyous lady has coaxed goodness knows many bubbling streams of melody from the throats of pupils seeking that most elusive art - how to sing.

Margaret draws her own inspired analogy: "Ideally, singing should look easy and natural - rather like a pleasure steamer sailing along on the surface of the sea while the technique and skill are the paddles working full pelt below the waterline."

We are in the upstairs studio of her Leigh home, where she chats to me from the seat of her piano at which she has fine-tuned the talents of hundreds of students.

In her hey day Margaret herself was a noted performer who once won a top trophy in the teeth of competition from the best that golden-voiced Wales could raise against her.

And then there were all those festivals back home in Southend . . . Ah, those were the days. On her piano stand the trophies she won as a teenager. "Now I train my pupils to win them!" she declares.

Conscientious teacher that she is, Margaret still attends regular seminars to re-assess her methods and pick up tips.

"I shall soon be attending a course on safe belting loud, vigorous singing. I am not sure that there is a safe way to belt, but if there is I want to know about it.

"Many young people are ruining their voices belting in an unsafe manner."

I'm not long into our interview before I realise that Margaret has strong views about the raucous music of today's generation and indeed the teaching of music in our schools generally.

To her, you feel, pop is something to be picked up at arm's length, preferably with the pointed end of a worn out semi-breve or crotchet.

Margaret isn't happy to see the art she has given her life to being ignored by mainstream education: "For the past 20 years, standard music has not been taught generally in most schools.

"Children are subjected to a single diet of pop. Many cannot discern between poor and worthwhile music."

One of the things she asks when interviewing prospective students is whether they are prepared to study the full vocal repertoire.

"All singers need to build on a classical base, whichever field of music they finally decide to adopt. This gives them a reliable technique for posture, diction and breath control."

Margaret, maiden name Oakley, was born in Southend. She went to school at Chalkwell Primary and Westcliff High for Girls.

In her teens she started entering local festivals, and now admires them as an ideal training ground for the young singer: "They provide invaluable experience in how to deal with nerves.

"It is easy to dry when performing in public. You're wearing your heart on your sleeve, and can feel vulnerable. If you can do well at a festival, you can do well anywhere."

She began taking lessons in the serious training of her mezzo voice when she was 16.

Today, would-be nightingales keen to make their mark should start as young as 12 or 13. They need to reach a very high standard before auditioning for lessons in London.

In 1968 Margaret herself was able to learn from top talent when the then Southend Tech (now South East Essex College) engaged experts from London.

In 1972 she gained her teacher's diploma from the Royal Academy of Music at London and from 1973 to 1979 she studied with German professor of music Rudolf Piernay.

In 1978 she formed the Fidelio Singers, using her own pupils, allowing her to conduct in such prestigious venues as Worcester and Liverpool cathedrals.

The fruits of success are sweet, but they take time to ripen. "Being a singing teacher is not easy," she says. "Students expect you to accompany them in any key. At the same time you must watch them for mannerisms, and analyse the sounds they make."

Many people want to learn to sing. Margaret has private pupils from all over Essex and students of St Hilda's School in Westcliff and Southend High School for Girls have also had the benefit of her enthusiasm.

"The challenge in teaching singing is that one is dealing with something intangible," she told me. "Often results are achieved by suggestion and imagery as much as by technical instruction."

But honesty compels Margaret to say that even the best teacher cannot do the impossible. In other words, you can't make a silk voice out of a sow's ear.

Margaret says: "If they don't naturally possess a good musical ear, a keen sense of pitch and star quality ability to communicate, it's better to stick to computers or some other subject.

"A teacher can only train and enhance what has already been implanted by nature. Any other promise is false.

Margaret's daughter Vanessa has inherited her mezzo voice and has also taken to teaching.

I listen to the two of them singing my favourite song, The Ash Grove, Margaret on the piano and Vanessa reading the words over her shoulder.

The music is a torrent of happiness. I, who cannot sing Three Blind Mice without causing shudders, wish I could join in.

But no. Leave it to the professionals.

Hearing voices - Margaret Cozens, herself a trained singer and winner of many awards, has trained hundreds of others in the art of singing

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