Short Courses & Events / Archive

How Teachers Can Utilize Motor Learning Feedback to Accelerate Learning

Thursday 12th December 2024, 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM (London Time)

Communication is possibly the most important single aspect of training a singer. Feedback is an essential and quantifiable aspect of instructor-student communication. The research in the emerging field of evidence-based voice pedagogy has been directed primarily to the technical aspects of voice training, i.e. respiratory management, registration, and resonance. However vital these elements of teaching are, the method in which these are taught is as essential to the process of the student’s ability to learn and retain skills. Singing is a motor skill which involves the coordination of respiratory, laryngeal, pharyngeal, and articulatory muscles. Motor learning is a process that leads to a relatively permanent change in coordinated and skilled muscle movement. This change is an increased proficiency for skilful movement. Feedback is essential to improve the efficiency of skilled acquisition of motor skills. The timing, frequency, and content of feedback can allow a student to acquire skills more proficiently.

In this course, we look at how the mind and body acquire the skills to become proficient in singing and how teachers, through their communication, can best facilitate the rate and retention of motor skill acquisition.

🏷️ 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

Dr Colin Johnson

Dr. Colin B. Johnson, bass-baritone, is a dynamic educator, performer, and researcher. Dr. Johnson enthusiastically teaches private voice lessons in a variety of genres including both classical and contemporary commercial music.

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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.

Certificate in Foundations of Vocology with Adam Roberts
Monday 2nd June 2025
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Monday 9th June 2025
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Monday 16th June 2025
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Monday 23rd June 2025
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Monday 30th June 2025
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
(London Time)

Certificate in Foundations of Vocology with Adam Roberts

Adam Roberts

This fifteen week (30-hour) Vocology Cohort Intensive provides a comprehensive overview of basic vocal anatomy, physiology, and theories of voice production & perception, fundamentals of vocal health, pathology, evaluation, performance, and habilitation of the speaking and singing voice, and a survey of research, resources, and professional opportunities.

How to Hack Your Next Audition: The Limbic Response
Tuesday 17th June 2025
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
(London Time)

How to Hack Your Next Audition: The Limbic Response

Dr Katherine Skovira

We all know the feeling: staring down an audition panel, we lock up, our knees and hands shake, our breath stops, and we’re in emotional free fall. This is your limbic system going into hyperdrive. In the audition setting, when the limbic system or paleomammalian cortex kicks into action in the face of a perceived conflict, we experience the body’s answer to stressors from people and social interactions. In this course, Dr Katherine Skovira will walk you through steps to work with your limbic response and choose the most appropriate course of action to nail your next audition while honouring your internal mental and emotional landscape.

Alternative Methods of Accent and Dialect coaching - and coaching Neurodiverse Actors
Wednesday 18th June 2025
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
(London Time)

Alternative Methods of Accent and Dialect coaching - and coaching Neurodiverse Actors

Ellen Hartley

Ellen Hartely has worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company for over eight years - in this session she will explore how an accent coach can develop and deliver alternative (non-IPA) methods for coaching accents and dialects. There will be a particular focus on developing inclusive and accessible practice for all. Not all actors receive accent and dialect training in IPA, or indeed in any other specialist accent teaching method, others find IPA an unhelpful way to learn. Over a career you may need to find effective ways to coach any, and all, of the following: young people, amateur groups, a cast with mixed experience, professional actors with no formal training, or neurodivergent and learning-disabled actors.