Targets vital for fitness
She has helped everyone from Alexandra Burke to Lewis Capaldi but as she helps buskers bring their dreams to life, the Scot recalls the high notes of her career
SETTING targets is the key to physical fitness, say US psychologists.
People who make concrete plans to meet their goals take part in more exercise. Goods/services provided by Shop Direct Home Shopping Ltd. Credit provided, subject to status, by Shop Direct Finance Company Limited. Registered office: Aintree Innovation Centre, Park Lane, Netherton, Bootle, L30 1SL. Registered number: 4660974. Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. 18+ only. BY MARIA CROCE maria.croce@reachplc.com CELEB voice coach Yvie Burnett has helped Katy Perry into a skin-tight dress during a vocal warm-up and suggested Beyonce change a note for her X Factor performance.
She’s pulled faces during voice exercises with Lewis Capaldi and also had a laugh with Sam Smith.
Yvie, 51, from Aberdeenshire, has worked with a host of big names and is known for her straight talking, saying stars know what to expect from her.
But she admits she worried she was being too tough on the street performers she helped for a new TV show.
Yvie coaches buskers for BBC Scotland show Emeli Sande’s Street Symphony and appears in the second episode on September 26.
She said: “I think if they’re big stars, I don’t treat them like big stars.
“I’m very honest with them and I’ll tell them if they sound bad. In a way, they can take it more because they’re just so used to me.
“Whereas I did feel kind of bad about being really honest with these street performers because I think, sometimes, they’re not used to someone telling them like it is.
“But that’s just the way I am. So I think sometimes I might have been a wee bit hard on them in order to get something out of them.
“But I just really enjoyed working with them. They were so responsive to that.”
Yvie believes anyone can sing – unless they’re completely tone deaf.
But she said even big stars need coaching: “If you think you don’t, you’re deluded. Look at some of the top sportsmen and women in the world, they’ve still got coaches. We all get into bad habits. It’s the same with singers.
“Suddenly, tension can come into your body that’s affecting your voice and you don’t notice it yourself. Or, suddenly, you’re singing slightly out of tune even though you’re a huge superstar.
“It’s a muscle like anything else, you can always be working on it. “That’s why, with a lot of the big stars I work with, you’ve got to leave the ego at home and realise you’re working with an instrument, you’re working with a muscle the same as a sports person.”
And she said the stars pretty much do as they’re told. Yvie