Vocal “Decathletes” – inside the hidden world of Session Singing!
Thursday 3rd July 2025, 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM (London Time)
What is a session singer? Officially it’s a freelance, short-term “singer for hire” brought in to be part of a live or recorded musical project. However, it’s more generally understood to be the “behind-the-scenes” singer who is regularly booked for paid recording work. The type of work (and pay) varies a lot. The following are some examples:
- Advertising jingles & station idents
- Singing on new material that songwriters have written - "demo songs"
- Backing vocals on tracks/albums and new shows, e.g. for cruise lines
- Lead vocal features on songs written by others for release - “feature vocals”
- Vocals for movie soundtracks and TV series
To be employable in this role, singers are best to have a generic rather than distinctive ‘signature’ sound, be stylistically very versatile (vocal “decathletes”), have a reliable, robust vocal technique, a great ear for vocal blending, quick melody learning & harmonising, a solid understanding of music and be able to thrive & deliver under tight time pressure in the challenging, unique performing conditions of the recording studio.
Session singing is a side of the music industry that is largely hidden from the public and isn’t easy to find out much about, even online. So, with 35 years of session singing experience, the presenter will cover around ten different types of session work, provide examples, outline what skill set is required for each one and give some advice on how to get into this sort of work.
As further background, here also are some videos on this topic featuring the presenter:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtpmH_zJ0WE
🏷️ 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
Kim Chandler
Kim Chandler (MMus BMusEd) is a renowned contemporary vocal coach & session singer. She runs a busy private studio in Marbella, Spain, where she coaches an elite clientele of stadium band singers, including BRIT award winners & GRAMMY nominees, artists from a range of genres, professional singers and vocal coaches online.
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.
Monday 16th November 2026
5:00 PM - 6:00 PM
(London Time)
Introduction to Postgraduate Academic Skills (IPAS): Online Information Session & Q&A
Debbie Winter
Interested in developing your academic skills or exploring a pathway onto our MA Voice Pedagogy? Join our free online information session to learn what IPAS involves, how it works and whether it's right for you.
Tuesday 17th November 2026
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
(London Time)
A (Very) Brief Course in Linguistics!
Miranda Guettlein
Join Miranda Guettlin (editor of the Voice and Speech Review) for an empowering introductory course in linguistics designed specifically for voice and speech practitioners. She will break down the six major subfields (phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics) in order to provide voice and speech practitioners in with a more clear understanding of the components of language and usable tools to incorporate into their teaching.
Wednesday 18th November 2026
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
(London Time)
Expiratory Pressure Regulation for Power, Pitch and Vocal Health
Barbara Tanze
How does the pressure beneath your vocal folds affect your sound? And how can you learn to regulate it efficiently and make sense of what it means to “support your voice”? Join Barbara Tanze for this practical short course exploring the role of expiratory pressure regulation in singing and its relationship to vocal power, pitch control, efficiency and vocal health. Learn how singers can develop a more precise understanding of the interaction between respiratory activity, subglottic pressure and vocal fold function!