Short Courses & Events / Archive

Designing Exercises for the Classical and Contemporary Singer

Thursday 16th September 2021, 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM (London Time)

We are excited to present this highly informative, interactive workshop with John Nix on Designing Exercises for the Classical and Contemporary Singer. John will examine the following:

How do vocal exercises work? What are the variables?

  • Direction
  • Pattern
  • Length
  • Vowels
  • Consonants
  • SOVTs
  • Registers
  • Temp/note values
  • Repetition
  • Dynamic level

Other factors to consider when designing your own vocal exercises

  • Muscle activtation
  • Tissue fatigue
  • Motor learning aspects
  • Psychological factors
  • Musical factors

Looking at key examples involving

  • Plosive and close vowels – descending scales for light production
  • Exercises ideal for cross-training
  • Exercises for male classical versus male belt
  • Contrasting Classical and CCM exercises
  • Vocal agility
  • Messa di voce

Case scenario – exercise design

Professor John Nix

John Nix is Professor of Voice and Voice Pedagogy and chair of the voice area at the University of Texas at San Antonio.  His mentors include Barbara Doscher...

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.

Introduction to Vocal Acoustics for Spoken and Sung Voice
Monday 19th October 2026
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Tuesday 20th October 2026
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
(London Time)

Introduction to Vocal Acoustics for Spoken and Sung Voice

Gökçe Kutsal

This course is designed to break down the fundamentals of acoustics for both spoken and sung voice in a beginner-friendly, accessible way — so you can easily understand and apply these concepts to your teaching or research.

Practical Magic*: The Art & Science of Balancing Voices with SOVTs and VFEs
Tuesday 20th October 2026
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
(London Time)

Practical Magic*: The Art & Science of Balancing Voices with SOVTs and VFEs

Melanie Tapson

Through live demonstrations, group practice, and peer coaching, you’ll learn how to teach SOVTs and VFEs with clarity and precision, integrate their principles to support vocal health, recovery, and stylistic flexibility and troubleshoot challenges and adapt exercises for individualized results.

Pop Pedagogy - an Overview
Tuesday 27th October 2026
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
(London Time)

Pop Pedagogy - an Overview

Kim Chandler

Some successful pop stars are celebrating career lengths of over sixty years, having been around since the 1950s when pop music emerged and diversified from jazz, so pop singing has been in existence sufficiently long now that, for teaching purposes, we can observe and analyse what type of approach serves it best.