Thinking Outside the Voice Box: Adolescent Female Voice Change
Monday 6th October 2025, 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM (London Time)
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. 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 examine 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.
🏷️ Price £30 (UK VAT inclusive)
🎥 Recording automatically sent to all who book (even if you cannot attend live)
▶️ Rewatch as many times as you like
📜 Certificate of attendance available
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.
Tuesday 2nd December 2025
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
(London Time)
Vocal Health, Well-being and Hindustani Classical Music
Dr Sunny Sandhu
Join Dr Sunny Sandhu for a 2-hour course that introduces participants to the ancient practice of kharaj exercises in the Dhrupad tradition, focusing on the deep and resonant lower octave of the voice. Through guided breathing, slow tonal exploration, and sustained notes, students will learn techniques that strengthen the vocal cords, expand range, and develop clarity and stability in sound production!
Thursday 4th December 2025
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
(London Time)
(R)evolutionary Voice Training: harnessing human instinct to accelerate vocal transformation!
Maddie Tarbox
Human beings and our vertebrate ancestors have been communicating via vocalization for millions of years – those sounds did not start as complex language, but as animal mimicry, acoustic cuing, and emotional primal sounds. Join Maddie Tarbox for this two hour session as she unpicks the repertoire of instinctive shortcuts that can lower cognitive load and accelerate vocal change!
Tuesday 9th December 2025
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
(London Time)
Low Male Voices (LMVs): Development, Technique, and Repertoire
Dr Dann Mitton
Join Dr Dann Mitton for this two hour workshop where he explores the Development, Techniques, and Repertoire favoured for Low Male Voices (LMVs). Typically labelled as 'Bass' and 'Baritone', these classifications are used in classical music, choral settings, and vocal pedagogy to help determine suitable repertoire and vocal roles. In contemporary music, the distinctions are less rigid but still useful for understanding vocal range and timbre.