The Neuroscience of Speech and Song
Wednesday 2nd October 2024, 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM (London Time)
Every syllable and every song comes from a 1kg lump of cells in our skulls that we call the brain, and that’s not half of what it does! Understanding how the brain works is important, but understandably this can get a little complicated and sometimes even a little intimidating.
The Neuroscience of Speech and Song offers an engaging and accessible introduction to the fascinating interface between the brain and some of the things that we use it for. This course is designed to unravel the complex processes underlying how we speak and sing, using simple and accessible language.
The mind and the brain are two sides of the same coin. You would expect an expert in digestion to have a working knowledge of the stomach, wouldn’t you? In just the same way we might expect that an expert in certain kinds of human behaviours -like speaking and singing- should have some understanding of how the human brain is able to do these things.
This course will start from basics and assume very little prior knowledge. We will cover the basic structure of the brain and how it works in general, then narrow in on specific processes that are relevant to speech and song. Examples may be drawn from clinical cases such as Parkinson’s Disease because understanding ways in which the brain sometimes does not work as it should can help us understand how it typically would.
Dr Michel Belyk
Dr Michel Belyk is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Edge Hill University. He studies the human voice, all the things that it says, and how it is able to say them.
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 3rd March 2026
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
(London Time)
Sex differences in VOICE!
Dr Richard Lissemore
This two-hour workshop, led by performer, articulatory phoneticist, and voice physiologist, Dr. Richard Lissemore, will examine in detail the role that biological sex plays in the perception and pedagogy of singing voices. We'll consider how parameters such as anatomy, physiology, articulation, resonance, and radiated acoustics influence the perceptions and pedagogical decision-making of singing teachers.
Wednesday 4th March 2026
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Wednesday 11th March 2026
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Wednesday 18th March 2026
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Wednesday 25th March 2026
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Wednesday 1st April 2026
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Wednesday 8th April 2026
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
(London Time)
Learn to Coach RP and SSBE – a Certificate in Accent Coaching
Louisa Morgan
This six-week course is an opportunity to learn about both Received Pronunciation and Standard Southern British English. Rather than a course in learning how to speak RP/SSBE (there are many brilliant available courses for this already), this course is about learning how to coach it.
Thursday 5th March 2026
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
Thursday 12th March 2026
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
(London Time)
Acting Emotion: Perspectives from the Masters
Louisa Morgan
Stanislavski said, “our artistic emotions are, at first, as shy as wild animals and they hide in the depths of our souls.” Michael Chekhov said, our bodies should be like a “sensitive membrane, a kind of receiver and conveyor of the subtlest images, feelings, emotions and will impulses.” And Meisner said we should be “living truthfully under imaginary circumstances.” Join Louisa Morgan in this 2-part course as she explores a range of well-known acting practitioners to investigate what they believed (or believe) about emotion and how they approached it in their work. She'll compare their work to see where they align and where they diverge.