Singing and Listening as an Intermaterial Vibrational Practice
Thursday 10th October 2024, 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM (London Time)
'In this session, I will discuss my practice-based research which focuses on the materiality of singing and listening. I will ground the discussion in my book, Sensing Sound: Singing and Listening as Vibrational Practice (Duke University Press, 2015), offering participatory exercises to help students begin to build their own vocal theory based on their practices.
Brief background:
After decades of working as a voice teacher and singer, I developed a framework for thinking about the physical voice, singing, listening, and the materials through which we sense the voice (for example, air) as vibrational practice. If we consider a vocal sound to be a node along an unrepeatable intermaterial vibrational continuum, concepts such as “in tune/out of tune,” “good/bad,” or “right/wrong” no longer make sense. This idea also forwards the ethical dimensions of singing and listening: to hear a voice is to sense its vibration through your body. Moreover, it refutes the notion that singing is for the sense of audiation alone, allowing us to explore the multi-sensoriality of both singing and listening.'
Nina Eidsheim
Nina Eidsheim is the author of Sensing Sound: Singing and Listening as Vibrational Practice and The Race of Sound: Listening, Timbre, and Vocality in African American Music, and co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Voice Studies and Refiguring American Music.
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 27th October 2026
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
(London Time)
Pop Pedagogy - an Overview
Kim Chandler
Some successful pop stars are celebrating career lengths of over sixty years, having been around since the 1950s when pop music emerged and diversified from jazz, so pop singing has been in existence sufficiently long now that, for teaching purposes, we can observe and analyse what type of approach serves it best.
Friday 30th October 2026
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
(London Time)
Feldenkrais Method® - its application in speech and song!
Marina Gilman
The Feldenkrais Method® is a form of somatic education that uses gentle movement and directed attention to improve physical and mental functioning, including singing and speaking. Since we are not always aware of the source of tension or discoordination, it is difficult to make the necessary adjustments to ensure optimal use of the voice!
Monday 2nd November 2026
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Tuesday 3rd November 2026
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
(London Time)
The Vocal Health Challenges for Actors and Singers!
Leda Scearce
Two part course! Vocal health principles are inextricably and symbiotically linked with singing and acting voice pedagogy: Good vocal health allows the singer and actor to more easily and effectively achieve their technical and artistic goals, and good teaching reinforces vocal technique that diminishes the risk of vocal injury. We now also recognize the necessity for singers and actors to understand how their instruments work, how to take care of their voices, and what to do when something goes wrong. Singing and acting teachers are indeed on the front lines of vocal health!