Stammering: vocal hindrance or vocal liberator?
Tuesday 11th June 2024, 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM (London Time)
What connects Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Ben’s Brother and The Who? The answer is they’ve all produced songs containing stammered lyrics. Integrating stammering, a communication difference often viewed as something to be fixed through therapy, within musical art may, superficially at least, appear to be an unusual decision but what if we could see beauty in stammering and represent it in art, poetry, song, flags and even font? Come to this workshop to find out how this has been done.
The recent brain research highlighting stammering as a form of neurodivergence is shifting therapy approaches with increasing emphasis on the value of stammered voices. They encourage us to reflect on what matters in conversation and how stammering can add dimension and freedom to vocal performances.
This session will present what stammering is (and isn’t), link the approach-avoidance conflict with performance anxiety and consider what it means to be fluent. The potential physical and emotional struggle contained within the stammering experience is acknowledged alongside opportunities to view stammering through alternative, more supportive lenses, with opportunity to consider what you might do in your practice as a stammering ally.
By the end of this workshop, you’ll understand why King George VI practised speeches with a gramophone playing in the background, where metronomes have been used in therapy and know why speaking with marbles in your mouth is never a good idea!
Carolyn Andrews
Carolyn Andrews is an independent speech and language therapist and senior teaching fellow at the University of Strathclyde. With 25 years’ clinical experience she specialises in adult voice problems and adult stammering, and enjoys walking alongside her clients and students to build their knowledge, practice and voice use.
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)
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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.