'Mal canto' and the cultural politics of voice pedagogy: provocations from a critical disability studies (CDS) perspective
Thursday 14th November 2024, 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM (London Time)
‘Mal canto’ and the cultural politics of voice pedagogy: provocations from a critical disability studies perspective.
Critical disability studies (CDS) is a growing field of academic enquiry that has gained considerable traction over the past two decades. Encouraging us to think beyond typical medical and legal definitions, CDS analyses disability as a complex cultural, historical, political and relational phenomenon.
In this short course, I apply the insights of CDS to voice pedagogy and the academic discipline of voice studies, more broadly. I suggest that disability is highly relevant to our field in significant (and potentially surprising) ways.
In his book, Shakin’ All Over: Popular Music and Disability (2013), Georgie McKay coins the phrase ‘mal canto’ in opposition to the historico-pedagogical notion of idealised singing, ‘bel canto’ (lit. beautiful singing). In this course, I use McKay’s critical concept as a starting point for identifying and disrupting the potentially ableist norms that are often sustained within the field of voice studies and vocal pedagogy.
Key topics: Critical Disability Studies, access, inclusion, disability justice
🏷️ 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 David Cane
Dr. David Cane is a Lecturer with expertise in musicology, qualitative and quantitative research design, disability studies, and postgraduate supervision. He plays a central role in research methods teaching and dissertation supervision. David’s research interests include critical disability and queerness. David is a lecturer, researcher, singer, singing teacher and choir director.
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.
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Lynn Helding defines Science-Informed Voice Pedagogy in her upcoming book Practicing Science-Informed Voice Training as, “A type of hybrid singing voice pedagogy that unites science and art by researching current voice science, translating it, combining it with extant historic voice knowledge, and transmitting it to singers.” Join Lynn Helding as she seeks to understand human behaviour of both sides of the “Science versus Art” debate via research from the fields of cognitive science and behavioural science, focussing particularly on lessons learned due to several societal shifts.
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1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
(London Time)
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Tuesday 13th October 2026
2:00 PM - 4:30 PM
(London Time)
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Amanda Flynn
Join Amanda Flynn for this extended 2.5 hour session on the the pedagogy of teaching musical theatre singing. She will begin by exploring the flexibility needed for musical theatre singing through definitions, listening exercises, and some historical context.