 | | 'Laughter': Jo Price |
After a couple of months of getting the stars vocal muscles into shape, the stars now step into the spotlight whilst Jo stays backstage at Granada studios dolling out honey and lemon drinks and keeping confidence levels high. It is a gruelling schedule for the contenders who include Corrie co-stars Tupele Dorgu (Kelly Crabtree) and Antony Cotton (Sean Tully). Jo is strict with practising scales but has another magic ingredient for transforming the actors into singing superstars. "We laugh a lot, that is my general rule," she says. "Laughter is the best therapy." | "We laugh a lot, that is my general rule. Laughter is the best therapy." | | Jo Price, vocal coach |
On the days of the show, the aspiring superstars start voice warm-ups at 8am before a quick rehearsal with the band. Then Jo steps in for any last minute fine tuning. They have a quick ‘la, la, la’ in the evening before the show goes to air and the actors have to sing live to 8 million people. "It is quite astonishing how they manage to pull it off because they are not singers," says Jo. "But as soapstars they are trained to take direction very quickly and they are all sounding great." Sound of your lifeSo, can Jo work her magic with the average shower singer? "I can teach anyone to hold a tune. Everybody has a song they can sing, but it is just finding it for each person."  | | With Wendi Peters (Cilla Battersby) |
Co-founder and director of Vocal Academy in Manchester, Jo coaxes the songbird out of both pop personalities and amateurs. But some of her most rewarding work is holding voice workshops for people with special needs in the community. "It’s brilliant, nothing beats singing. Your voice is the sound of your life and I think we hold a lot of stuff in our voices," says Jo. Let’s hope each soapstar can find their song and their voices are the stuff of honeyed melodies. | 
