What every singing teacher should know about vocal health: Fact-finding and myth-busting (2-part course)
Monday 21st October 2024, 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM (London Time)
Tuesday 22nd October 2024, 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM (London Time)
Singing teachers are on the front lines of vocal health.
As vocal athletes, singers are at a higher risk for developing voice disorders. Singing teachers are in an optimal position to educate students about vocal health. Informed, evidence-based education can help prevent students from developing voice problems. However, spreading misinformation can perpetual vocal health myths and possibly contribute to developing voice problems and/or delaying appropriate voice care.
As expert monitors of sound, singing teachers are also often the first to identify a possible voice problem in a student. Knowing the signs of a voice disorder and making appropriate referrals is another way that singing teachers make significant contributions to vocal health.
With this role comes great responsibility: it is incumbent on the teacher to make sure the vocal health information they are passing on to their students is accurate and up-to-date, and not based merely on hearsay or opinion. Singing teachers can play a major role in dispelling common myths and misinformation about vocal health.
This workshop will cover a number of topics related to vocal health education including:
- What the singing teacher should know about voice anatomy, physiology, and the basics of voice disorders.
- Vocal hygiene
- Medical factors and the voice including upper respiratory infections, pulmonary conditions, allergies, laryngopharyngeal reflux, long COVID, musculoskeletal injuries, temporomandibular joint disorder, and others.
- Optimizing efficiency of the speaking voice
- Vocal pacing:
- Balancing voice rest and vocal conditioning
- When to recommend complete voice rest
- The singing teacher’s role in identification of dysphonia and making appropriate referrals to the vocal health team.
- Ending the “blame game”: abolishing the concept of “vocal abuse”
- Working with singers who have or have had a voice injury
- Common vocal health myths and how to dispel them
Dates and times
Part 1: Monday 21st October 2024 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm UK time.
Part 2: Tuesday 22nd October 2024 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm UK time.
Leda Scearce
Soprano Leda Scearce has been featured in leading roles with the National Opera Company, Hawaii Opera Theatre, Long Leaf Opera Festival, Triangle Opera...
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.
Monday 28th September 2026
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
Tuesday 29th September 2026
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
Wednesday 30th September 2026
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
Thursday 1st October 2026
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
Friday 2nd October 2026
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
(London Time)
Certificate in Executive Voice Coaching and Communication
Louisa Morgan
This five-day course is designed for professional coaches who want to extend their practice into executive coaching, leadership communication, and professional corporate voice work.
Friday 2nd October 2026
12:30 PM - 2:30 PM
(London Time)
Muscle Tension Dysphonia in the Singing Voice!
Dr Claire Thomas
Join Dr Claire Thomas for a practical 2-hour workshop for singing teachers and voice practitioners! Building upon the previous course to create a practical teacher pathway in order to recognise what is happening, reduce unnecessary effort, transfer coordination into singing, manage load and recovery and know when to refer back. Not one size fits all, but a guide to making informed choices with voice users. Based on a five-year investigative project, the course equips singing teachers with the knowledge and practical tools needed to confidently understand MTD, and support singers experiencing MTD beyond their initial therapeutic input.
Tuesday 6th October 2026
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
(London Time)
Inspired Not Bound: The Promise of Science-Informed Voice Pedagogy
Lynn Helding
Lynn Helding defines Science-Informed Voice Pedagogy in her upcoming book Practicing Science-Informed Voice Training as, “A type of hybrid singing voice pedagogy that unites science and art by researching current voice science, translating it, combining it with extant historic voice knowledge, and transmitting it to singers.” Join Lynn Helding as she seeks to understand human behaviour of both sides of the “Science versus Art” debate via research from the fields of cognitive science and behavioural science, focussing particularly on lessons learned due to several societal shifts.