Short Courses & Events / Archive

Exploring risk factors for vocal problems in voice performers

Tuesday 18th February 2025, 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM (London Time)

Professional voice performers face significant physical, psychological, and vocal demands. It is not surprising that the prevalence of voice problems in this group is high compared to the general population. Therefore, identifying potential risk factors for the development of vocal problems will be useful for performers, clinicians and other stakeholders to help prevent injury and maintain vocal health.

The British Association for Performing Arts Medicine (BAPAM) is a medical charity that provides performers with direct access to specialist clinicians for help with physical or mental health problems, including voice disorders. This year they carried out research which examined anonymised retrospective patient data from assessment clinics dealing with vocal problems between 2021-2023.

The aim of the study was to learn more about potential risk factors and triggering events for vocal problems in professional/vocational voice users. Anonymised data related to age, sex, genre, training, presenting symptoms, triggering factors and medical history was analysed to determine potential associations between the presence of voice problems and other factors.

This course will share the results of this interesting study and highlight the key factors which can trigger injury along with other health problems that have the potential to contribute to injury risk. The research also illustrated the often profound and far reaching psychological and occupational impact of a vocal problem on voice performers.

Assessing injury risk is complex, particularly with voice disorders, and studies using retrospective data are unable to prove causation. However, this course will combine the results of this study with existing published, peer reviewed evidence to try and develop an injury risk framework. This allows us to consider each voice performer within the context of relevant intrinsic and extrinsic factors to identify aspects that could elevate their injury risk, and support them to address these or provide other interventions.

This course will also include information on BAPAM's approach to supporting voice performers who have concerns, including recommended treatment pathways, the BAPAM Directory of clinical specialists, facilitating referrals, partnering with charities for physical health grants, and the NHS Voice Clinic network. It will also highlight the role of vocal physiotherapy in the management of voice disorders within a multi-disciplinary team.

🏷️ 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

Lucie Rayner

Lucie Rayner is a Performing Arts Physiotherapist, researcher and assessing clinician for The British Association for Performing Arts Medicine (BAPAM).

CPD Course Logo

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

Learn More

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.

(R)evolutionary Voice Training: harnessing human instinct to accelerate vocal transformation!
Thursday 4th December 2025
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
(London Time)

(R)evolutionary Voice Training: harnessing human instinct to accelerate vocal transformation!

Maddie Tarbox

Human beings and our vertebrate ancestors have been communicating via vocalization for millions of years – those sounds did not start as complex language, but as animal mimicry, acoustic cuing, and emotional primal sounds. Join Maddie Tarbox for this two hour session as she unpicks the repertoire of instinctive shortcuts that can lower cognitive load and accelerate vocal change!

Low Male Voices (LMVs): Development, Technique, and Repertoire
Tuesday 9th December 2025
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
(London Time)

Low Male Voices (LMVs): Development, Technique, and Repertoire

Dr Dann Mitton

Join Dr Dann Mitton for this two hour workshop where he explores the Development, Techniques, and Repertoire favoured for Low Male Voices (LMVs). Typically labelled as 'Bass' and 'Baritone', these classifications are used in classical music, choral settings, and vocal pedagogy to help determine suitable repertoire and vocal roles. In contemporary music, the distinctions are less rigid but still useful for understanding vocal range and timbre.

Picking Up Good Vibrations: Pedagogical and Clinical Voice Analysis!
Thursday 11th December 2025
8:00 AM - 10:00 AM
(London Time)

Picking Up Good Vibrations: Pedagogical and Clinical Voice Analysis!

Dr Calvin Baker

Voice teachers and clinicians strongly rely on auditory perceptual modes of voice evaluation. These are considered the gold standard for assessing voice quality and training effects (e.g., a singer’s progress from lesson to lesson or across voice therapy). Join Dr Calvin Baker as he explores techniques for instrumentally analysing the singing voice. Specific considerations for the challenges of obtaining reliable, robust, and comparable data will be presented, and practical recommendations for recording and analysing the singing voice in pedagogical and clinical contexts will be made.