Beyond 4/4 Time
Thursday 28th October 2021, 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM (London Time)
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
Kim Chandler (MMus BMusEd) is a renowned contemporary vocal coach & session singer. She runs a busy private studio in Marbella, Spain, where she coaches an elite clientele of stadium band singers, including BRIT award winners & GRAMMY nominees, artists from a range of genres, professional singers and vocal coaches online.
Sorry, this is an archived short course...
We have plenty of upcoming short courses coming soon. See details of some of them below or look at the full list of short courses.
Tuesday 17th February 2026
10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
(London Time)
Simultaneous Singing and Dancing in Musical Theatre: A Cross-Disciplinary Evidence Review
Debbie Winter
Dr Claire Thomas
This short course invites participants to critically examine the latest cross-disciplinary evidence on the physical and vocal demands of musical theatre performance. Drawing on a comprehensive literature review conducted by Debbie Winter and Claire Thomas (Voice Study Centre, University of Essex), the course explores research from voice science, dance medicine, sports science, and performance pedagogy.
Thursday 19th February 2026
8:30 AM - 10:30 AM
(London Time)
It’s not a virus! Reconceptualizing and De-pathologizing Music Performance Anxiety
Rebecca Herman
Performance Anxiety is one of the most widespread and debilitating challenges facing musicians across all ages, nationalities and musical genres. Despite decades of research and the development of numerous interventions, we do not yet have an established way of supporting performers experiencing performance anxiety. Aimed at performers, teachers, researchers and students, this presentation will first summarise the current state of play in performance anxiety research, before exploring alternative ways to think about performance anxiety, drawing on new research outside of performance psychology...
Thursday 19th February 2026
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
Thursday 26th February 2026
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
(London Time)
Performing Pain: Vocal Health in Emotional Roles!
Louisa Morgan
How connected are acted emotions to our real-life emotions? Are they expressed differently? Do they feel different in the body? This 2-part course with Louisa Morgan looks at the potential impact of acted emotion on vocal health, why we should consider it as voice practitioners, and how to care for our performers needing to work with it.