The Empathetic Voice Teacher
Tuesday 23rd January 2024, 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM (London Time)
Studies show that empathic voice teachers generate more successful singers. This is unsurprising as empathy is considered to be one of the most important emotional characteristics among teachers as it enables successful communication and connection with students. For voice teachers specifically, empathy is further considered essential for training students both physically and psychologically.
But how exactly do we demonstrate empathy in voice teaching?
Join Dr Heather Fletcher (The University of Melbourne) and Dr Amanda E. Krause (James Cook University) as they delve into the impact empathy has on voice teaching practices. In this session, you will learn how fostering empathy in one-to-one lessons can facilitate the voice teacher’s ability to:
- listen and communicate effectively;
- generate positive, moral, caring, and trustworthy relationships;
- support a student’s ability to cope in the performing arts industry; and
- assist in diagnosing vocal issues in students.
They will further draw on their research on expert voice teachers to discuss how successful empathic teaching facilitates student success. You will learn how to integrate these aspects into your own pedagogy and consider how such skills might benefit your teaching, your studio, and your students.
Dr Heather Fletcher
Dr Heather Fletcher is a lecturer and voice teacher at The University of Melbourne. Her PhD in music psychology focused on the practices of expert voice teachers in Australia and her research has been disseminated in both academic journals and conferences worldwide.
Dr Amanda E. Krause
Dr Amanda E. Krause is a Lecturer (Psychology) in the College of Healthcare Sciences at James Cook University (Queensland, Australia). She also currently serves as President of the Australian Music & Psychology Society.
Sorry, 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.
Wednesday 14th October 2026
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
(London Time)
Thinking Outside the Voice Box: Adolescent Female Voice Change
Dr Bridget Sweet-Manternach
Join Dr Bridget Sweet for this 2 hour session as she unpacks this fascinating topic. The purpose of this course is to bring attention to adolescents who experience an estrogen-dominant voice change and to encourage new and holistic ways of thinking about [assigned at birth] female voices. While considering physical changes during adolescence, we will unpack basic vocal anatomy and physiology and then discuss what happens to the vocal mechanism during voice change for females vs. [assigned at birth] males.
Monday 19th October 2026
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Tuesday 20th October 2026
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
(London Time)
Introduction to Vocal Acoustics for Spoken and Sung Voice
Gökçe Kutsal
This course is designed to break down the fundamentals of acoustics for both spoken and sung voice in a beginner-friendly, accessible way — so you can easily understand and apply these concepts to your teaching or research.
Tuesday 20th October 2026
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
(London Time)
Practical Magic*: The Art & Science of Balancing Voices with SOVTs and VFEs
Melanie Tapson
Through live demonstrations, group practice, and peer coaching, you’ll learn how to teach SOVTs and VFEs with clarity and precision, integrate their principles to support vocal health, recovery, and stylistic flexibility and troubleshoot challenges and adapt exercises for individualized results.