Emotion in the Singing Voice
Thursday 4th July 2024, 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM (London Time)
While there has been a significant amount of research conducted into how speakers use emotion in the voice and how listeners hear it, how this relates to singing is a relatively new field. This session will explore what we know about how natural and acted emotion impacts the voice, and how singers might be able to use it to enhance their performance.
Singers are required not only to perform with technical skill, but also to communicate on an emotional level to the audience. Knowledge of how listeners decode emotion can improve how a singer implements emotion in a performance. This session will demonstrate how an academic understanding of this can also inform practical applications for singers and voice teachers.
Singers can become concerned about intense emotional performance overwhelming their technique and either destabilising the vocal performance or putting their vocal health at risk. By understanding more about how the body responds physiologically to different emotions and how listeners perceive the emotion, singers can learn to make choices to allow the listener to experience the emotion without the singer needing to feel it so deeply within their own bodies.
This two-hour session will cover:
- How do we perceive emotion in the voice?
- How much control do we have over our emotional response?
- What is the difference between natural and acted emotion?
- How do listeners perceive genuineness of emotion?
- How can performing intense emotion affect our vocal health?
- What characteristics of emotion do we hear?
- What are the practical applications?
- Workshop – some listening exercises and an opportunity to try out the practical applications in the voice.
Louisa Morgan
Louisa Morgan is a lecturer, voice teacher and researcher, with a special focus on spoken and sung emotion. Louisa lectures with Voice Study Centre (spoken voice lead) and teaches Musical Theatre students on the MA/MFA course at the Guildford School of Acting (GSA).
Attend this course for as little as £22 as part of the Voice Professional Training CPD Award Scheme.
Learn MoreSorry, 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.
Wednesday 4th March 2026
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Wednesday 11th March 2026
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Wednesday 18th March 2026
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Wednesday 25th March 2026
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Wednesday 1st April 2026
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Wednesday 8th April 2026
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
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Learn to Coach RP and SSBE – a Certificate in Accent Coaching
Louisa Morgan
This six-week course is an opportunity to learn about both Received Pronunciation and Standard Southern British English. Rather than a course in learning how to speak RP/SSBE (there are many brilliant available courses for this already), this course is about learning how to coach it.
Thursday 5th March 2026
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
Thursday 12th March 2026
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
(London Time)
Acting Emotion: Perspectives from the Masters
Louisa Morgan
Stanislavski said, “our artistic emotions are, at first, as shy as wild animals and they hide in the depths of our souls.” Michael Chekhov said, our bodies should be like a “sensitive membrane, a kind of receiver and conveyor of the subtlest images, feelings, emotions and will impulses.” And Meisner said we should be “living truthfully under imaginary circumstances.” Join Louisa Morgan in this 2-part course as she explores a range of well-known acting practitioners to investigate what they believed (or believe) about emotion and how they approached it in their work. She'll compare their work to see where they align and where they diverge.
Tuesday 10th March 2026
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
(London Time)
Living truthfully in the present moment: An introduction to the Meisner Technique!
Abigail Sugden
Sanford Meisner believed that acting is living truthfully under imaginary circumstances. Rooted in behavioural aspects of acting practice, the Meisner Technique is often associated with encouraging actors to live truthfully in the present moment. Aimed at those working within the field of acting, this 2-hour session with Abigail Sugden will focus on the work of Sanford Meisner, introducing the core principles of his technique and discussing the possible benefits to performers.