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 17th February 2026
10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
(London Time)
Simultaneous Singing and Dancing in Musical Theatre: A Cross-Disciplinary Evidence Review
Debbie Winter
Dr Claire Thomas
This short course invites participants to critically examine the latest cross-disciplinary evidence on the physical and vocal demands of musical theatre performance. Drawing on a comprehensive literature review conducted by Debbie Winter and Claire Thomas (Voice Study Centre, University of Essex), the course explores research from voice science, dance medicine, sports science, and performance pedagogy.
Thursday 19th February 2026
8:30 AM - 10:30 AM
(London Time)
It’s not a virus! Reconceptualizing and De-pathologizing Music Performance Anxiety
Rebecca Herman
Performance Anxiety is one of the most widespread and debilitating challenges facing musicians across all ages, nationalities and musical genres. Despite decades of research and the development of numerous interventions, we do not yet have an established way of supporting performers experiencing performance anxiety. Aimed at performers, teachers, researchers and students, this presentation will first summarise the current state of play in performance anxiety research, before exploring alternative ways to think about performance anxiety, drawing on new research outside of performance psychology...
Thursday 19th February 2026
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
Thursday 26th February 2026
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
(London Time)
Performing Pain: Vocal Health in Emotional Roles!
Louisa Morgan
How connected are acted emotions to our real-life emotions? Are they expressed differently? Do they feel different in the body? This 2-part course with Louisa Morgan looks at the potential impact of acted emotion on vocal health, why we should consider it as voice practitioners, and how to care for our performers needing to work with it.