Money Notes for Days: Sustainable Singing for Popular Styles
Thursday 28th March 2024, 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM (London Time)
It’s a fact that most university training for singers is in the acoustic, Western classical genres. It’s also a fact that most clients and students of independent voice instructors want training in popular styles and contemporary music theatre. The obvious outcome of this disconnect is that most voice teachers and coaches are ill-equipped to meet the needs of their clients.
Understanding how to be an effective coach for singers of popular musics requires more than just a few handy exercises. Being an effective coach means understanding why you’re not a teacher, what your client’s assumptions are around the coaching process, and which tools they need to navigate the world of amplified music.
Your brain sings before you do. It also turns sound waves into hearing. When voice coaches know how to work with the way people are 'wired', they can stop guessing, and feel empowered in their abilities to help their clients.
In this workshop, you’ll begin to train your ears to what you’ve been missing in popular styles. We’ll identify the 'it' factor, and learn how it can be the magic to sustainable high, rock 'belt'; the sound singers of contemporary music theatre, R&B, indie, rock and jazz, and your singer-songwriters nearly all want to achieve.
We’re going to look at two concepts, both the 'why' and the 'how'. You’ll also find out about a single word you may be using that could be holding your students back! You’ll get to watch your own brain in action, and you’ll leave with powerful tools to apply to your teaching.
Meredith Colby
Author, teacher, coach and speaker Meredith Colby is the author of Money Notes: How to Sing High, Loud, Healthy, and Forever, and the creator of Neuro-Vocal, an approach to singing for popular styles based on neuroscience.
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.
Tuesday 5th May 2026
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Tuesday 12th May 2026
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Tuesday 19th May 2026
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Tuesday 26th May 2026
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Tuesday 2nd June 2026
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Tuesday 9th June 2026
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
(London Time)
Music Theory Fundamentals for Voice Pedagogues
Dr David Cane
Voice pedagogy has advanced significantly in the last decades in relation to knowledge of the vocal apparatus (anatomy and mechanics), acoustics, and performance psychology (to name just a few subfields) – this is a wonderful thing! Nonetheless, musicianship and the foundations of music theory are still relevant to the teaching and coaching of singers and this course aims to empower voice teachers and coaches with skills to support the fundamental musicianship development of their students.
Tuesday 19th May 2026
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
(London Time)
Staging A Coup: History meets science for the coup de la glotte!
Kourtney Austin
Historical vocal pedagogy, voice science, voice health, and performance practice come together in this presentation from Kourtney Austin! The session addresses the historical context for teaching the onset as a fundamental skill, along with a review of a recent publication examining the acoustic effects of different types of onset, and practical studio implementation of onset training. The aforementioned publication is the first known research to objectively measure the acoustic implications of the coup de la glotte, and delineate it from the hard glottal attack.
Thursday 21st May 2026
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
(London Time)
Letting the Text Live: Reading Aloud with Expression!
Louisa Morgan
This 2-hour interactive session is designed to help you make more deliberate, expressive choices in your speaking of the written word. It will involve plenty of practical exploration and will cover tips and techniques for working with the voice to lift the text off the page. Work with me to refine nuance, precision, and expressive range. We’ll explore a variety of text samples to cover a wide range of real-world situations, so you can get a feel for the different styles and approaches. If you want your spoken text to sound purposeful, engaging, and unmistakably yours, this session will invite you to play with some tools to do just that.