Short Courses & Events / Archive

Bitchin’ Pitchin’: Teaching the ‘tone-deaf’ singer

Thursday 29th August 2024, 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM (London Time)

This course will dig deep into why some singers struggle to match pitch and how voice teachers can help them develop this skill.

Many beginner singers identify as ‘tone-deaf’ but Amusia only affects around 3% of the population (significantly less than the percentage who struggle to sing in tune). For most poor-pitch singers there are underlying neurological reasons for their struggles. In this course, the neurological processes that must co-ordinate in order for someone to match pitch successfully will be reviewed. These include accurate pitch interpretation, pitch production, internal feedback evaluation and, crucially, pitch translation and the involvement of memory within this sensorimotor loop.

A variety of strategies that can be used to enhance a singer’s pitch accuracy will be shared and demonstrated so that course attendees will leave feeling better equipped to recognise the potential causes of a singer’s pitch inaccuracy and have a list of strategies they can draw from in order to guide singers to accuracy.

🏷️ Price £30 (UK VAT inclusive)
🎥 Recording automatically sent to all who book (even if you cannot attend live)
▶️ Rewatch as many times as you like
📜 Certificate of attendance available

Heather Baker

Heather Baker is a Contemporary Voice Teacher based in the North of England and a Founding Director of the Institute for Vocal Advancement (IVA), delivering global training to voice teachers.

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Attend this course for as little as £22 as part of the Voice Professional Training CPD Award Scheme.

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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.

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5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
(London Time)

"Throaty Sounds": Cross-linguistics, Health, & Pedagogy!

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Tuesday 11th November 2025
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
(London Time)

The Art of Teaching the Female Musical Theatre Voice!

Dr. Christianne Roll

The female musical theatre belt sound originated on the Broadway stage in 1930, mostly associated with Ethel Merman and her vocal performance of the song “I Got Rhythm,” in the Gershwin musical, Girl Crazy. In the almost 100 years since the origin of the female musical theatre belt voice, the sound has become almost synonymous with Broadway itself. Join Dr Christianne Roll as she discusses the up-to-date strategies and techniques to create this exciting vocal production for each specific singer.