Graduate from MA Popular Music Practice at BIMM London, teaches singing, bass guitar and musical theory. Creates a personal teaching plan to meet the goals and needs for each student.

Learn more about Joana

• When did you first develop a passion for music and your favourite instrument?

  It's hard to say. I developed a passion for music when I was really young. My dad used to have shelves full of CD's from all different kinds of bands/artists, so I'd do hours of listening sessions with all the different CD's in my room. Even when they had to drive us anywhere or when we'd go on roadtrips, there would always be music and singing, so he introduced me to my first favourite bands (Nirvana, AC/DC, Queen...) This includes my developing passion for singing. I also learned the piano later on because I thought it was one of the most beautiful sounds I've ever heard, I could listen and play for hours. A few years later, when I was already in university, was when I discovered my passion for the bass guitar, started learning it and it's currently my main instrument.

• Is there a particular type music or artist that you listen to on a loop without it driving you crazy?

  Even if the main genre I listen to is rock/metal, I believe that it's very important and enriching to listen to various genres. Given this, it's hard to choose a specific genre, even though I mainly listen to metal. In terms of artist, I can listen to Rammstein and Alter Bridge for months on end without getting tired. They're definitely two of my favourite bands.

• Explain to us the most difficult or riveting course you could personally give to a student of music.

  Usually, students aren't aware of their full potential and capabilities. My approach to fix this is to do a variety of exercises technique wise so I can assess their limits and potential and what's limiting those of coming out. Often, the limits we impose upon ourselves are psychological, they are unconscious ways we protect ourselves from whatever we are scared of (sometimes when we don't even need it). Those barriers need to be torn down in order to explore our full potential and be able to do things we never thought we were able to. For this reason, I explore a lot in my classes stage comfort and self-confidence.

• What do you think is the most complicated instrument to master and why?

  I don't think there is a most complicated instrument. They all have their own challenges, and since everyone's different, people will find their own challenges when learning the instruments. I personally found piano the hardest to learn, but when teaching I find that singing is the most challenging of the instruments I teach, and this has a quite simple explanation. When singing, you use your body as an instrument. This means that everything has to be engaged correctly: you have to have a good posture, engage and coordinate your core and your breathing, have your muscles sufficiently relaxed... Plus, on top of all of this, a lot of people forget about one very important element, which is the brain. Our brains are very powerful, and if you're scared of hitting a high note for example and think about it too much while singing, chances are that you're more likely to fail when singing said note. Besides, your brain controls your emotions too, and even if this can reflect badly on your voice (like stress and grief) putting the right amount of emotion into the songs you sing will be more important than doing every technique 100% perfect - if you sing a love song or a sad song, you want to express a certain message, this is why emotions are crucial.

• What are your keys to success?

  Persistence and hard work. It's sometimes difficult to hear this, but talent is only about 10% of a musician's journey. The other 90% is hard work, routined practicing and for the ones who want to make a career out of it, it's essentially that plus never giving up on your goals/dreams and being entrepreneurial. In the beginning of your music career, you have your music to sell, which is essentially the product you want to put on sale in its specific market (the music industry). Given this, you start managing your own business in a certain way, so entrepreneurship is quite important.

• Name three musicians you dream of meeting in your favourite bar in the early hours of the morning. Explain why.

  I'd choose Till Lindemann, Myles Kennedy and Lzzy Hale, simply because they're my favourite musicians and I'd love to meet them any time of day. We'd all be joking about how odd it is that we're in a bar at that time of day for sure.

• Provide a valuable anecdote related to music or your days at music school.

  In Portugal, when we go to the 5th grade, we have mandatory music classes for 2 years. I used to be quite a bad student at it because for some reason I couldn't concentrate on the theory side. If I were to be evaluated only on these terms, I don't think my music teacher then would ever have guessed that I would become a musician in the future! The only thing that kind of "saved me" from bad grades was the flute. Learning it is also mandatory in those years, and I was very good at it. Even today when I think about it I find it funny because it's really odd that a future musician could be so bad at music theory. But I grew up, and in university I became very good at it and achieved great grades in that subject.

• What are the little touches that make you a Superprof in music?

  I myself was a music student not that long ago. I understand the struggles and frustrations that one can feel when learning an instrument. This is why patience and compassion are very important, alongside the right amount of discipline, which is something that musicians need to have to manage their learning process. In a less serious note, it's also important to do something that you genuinely enjoy, like learning an instrument you've always wanted and within that, learn a song and pieces that always intrigued you or made you feel good, whatever it is. A mixture of these two characteristics is very important for a smooth learning process, and besides that, teachers need to be able to adapt the learning strategies to different students, because what works with one pupil might have an opposite effect with another one.