Vocal exercises are the bed rock of vocal practice and they can be used to develop a singer’s musicianship alongside technique. Just as a train track has two rails to stay balanced, it is proposed by the presenter that a “two-track” approach to a singer’s development would be equal emphasis on technique AND musicianship throughout training, as opposed to the more “monorail” emphasis on technique alone. To use another metaphor, we can stand on one leg but we are more balanced standing on two. As the eminent classical pedagogue, Richard Miller, sagely said: “Be first a musician and second a singer”. But how can this objective be achieved in a lesson context?

In her presentation last year – “Beyond The Major Scale” – Kim Chandler suggested that there is currently an over-emphasis and over-reliance on major scale-based patterns in vocal exercises at the expense of the appetising array of other musical patterns that vocal melodies are constructed on, e.g. scales such as the Natural Minor & the Pentatonics and modes such as the Dorian & Lydian.

This presentation is the rhythmic counterpart, suggesting that there is also an over-abundance of songs written in 4/4 time in pop repertoire at the expense of other possibilities.

From analysing and singing through pop song excerpts across the eras, this interactive workshop will introduce music based on a range of other time signatures including odd meters, compound meters, cross rhythms etc. The presenter will then show how rhythmic-based work can be applied to technically-demanding vocal exercises that are also musically challenging. This concept can be applied to any style of singing and doubles the educational value of exercises.

Kim Chandler is a renowned freelance CCM vocal coach & session singer. She has coached many high-profile artists such as Courtney Love, Paloma Faith, Jess Glynne and Birdy, and worked as a vocal coach for audition tours of “The Voice UK”.

In the academic world, Kim is the “Head of Communications”, past president and director of the British Voice Association, was a principal/senior lecturer at Leeds College of Music & London College of Music respectively and was the Head of Vocals at Vocaltech (now BIMM London).

As a performer, Kim has three decades of high-end performing experience in both live performance and studio singing. Aside from her voice being heard on films, albums, cruise shows and thousands of jingles worldwide, she has also sung with artists such as The Bee Gees, Natalie Cole, Michael McDonald, Bjork, Michael Bolton and Susan Boyle, in addition to having performed at some of London’s most iconic locations such as the Royal Albert Hall, Downing Street, Wembley Arena & Stadium, the O2 Arena and Buckingham Palace (www.kimchandler.com).