Thinking Outside the Voice Box: Adolescent Female Voice Change
Wednesday 15th January 2025, 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM (London Time)
The purpose of this course is to bring attention to the adolescent [assigned at birth] female changing voice and to encourage new and holistic ways of thinking about 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. Physiological considerations will also include the implication of hormones on the adolescent female voice during puberty, especially as adolescence is when females [typically] begin a menstrual cycle. While time will prevent us from going too far beyond discussion of adolescent females, we will briefly contemplate the larger implication of hormones on voices of people who experience a menstrual cycle at different stages of life and what that means for those of us teaching female voices across the life cycle. We will consider historical misconceptions about the female changing voice and briefly examination voice classification systems and other foundational ideas in choral music education. Importantly, we will explore more recent research on adolescent female voices that provides new food for thought about working with our singers and talk about practical approaches that support female adolescent singers in multifaceted ways.
Dr Bridget Sweet
Bridget Sweet is Professor of Music Education at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Illinois. She wrote the books Growing Musicians: Teaching Music in Middle School and Beyond (2016) and Thinking Outside the Voice Box: Adolescent Voice Change in Music Education (2019); she co-edited the book Motherhood in the Music Education Academy (2025).
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.
Wednesday 8th January 2025
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Wednesday 15th January 2025
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Wednesday 22nd January 2025
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
(London Time)
The Acting Through Song Toolkit: a 3-part course
Louisa Morgan
Do you work with students who struggle to connect their acting skills with their singing skills? Are your students currently auditioning for professional work, drama schools or entering competitions? Perhaps you are a singing teacher needing to work on performance, but you don’t have a background in acting.
Monday 13th January 2025
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Monday 6th January 2025
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Monday 20th January 2025
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
(London Time)
Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT) for Music Performance Anxiety (MPA) (3-week course)
Dr David Juncos
In this updated three-part course, you will learn how to detect symptoms of music performance anxiety (MPA) among your students/clients and whether those symptoms are problematic or not. You will also learn about Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT), an evidence-based psychotherapy and coaching model that aims to promote mindfulness and acceptance of one’s MPA symptoms, while also enhancing performance skills by increasing actions consistent with a musician’s values.
Monday 20th January 2025
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
(London Time)
Navigating Vocal Aging for Singers
Karen Brunssen
As singers approach their senior years, they can benefit greatly from a voice teacher who understands the normal changes involved as they navigate vocal aging. This course will focus on the realities of aging voices for senior singers and what can be done to address vocal production and peripheral issues that can affect the activity of singing.