Vocal Advancement Podcast

Welcome to day four of IVACON! Heather and Tom share some reviews of our interactive classes from today! From learning to riff to finding pitch, seeing our attendees get hands-on experience and training is great! We can hardly believe we're already almost at the end, so tune in to hear how our second to last day is going.

Don't miss out on an episode! Follow us on the Vocal Advancement Podcast and subscribe to our YouTube channel to see all the latest coverage of IVACON! 

The Institute of Vocal Advancement (IVA) was created to provide voice teachers with a support network to provide you with the best teaching tools and strategies to advance your career. Our trainers teach from the empathic mindset, showing you how to improve your own teaching style.

Check out our webinars in our list of upcoming events and learn how our Teacher Training Programs can help advance your career. Use the code “iva20percent” to get 20% off your first year’s course membership fee!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The conference has been flying by! Day three of the IVACON was filled with lectures from our guest speakers. From learning about teaching singers with Sensory Educational Needs and Disabilities, to teaching our students how to practice-- there is something for everyone! Join Tom and Heather for this recap from today.

Don't miss out on an episode! Follow us on the Vocal Advancement Podcast and subscribe to our YouTube channel to see all the latest coverage of IVACON! 

The Institute of Vocal Advancement (IVA) was created to provide voice teachers with a support network to provide you with the best teaching tools and strategies to advance your career. Our trainers teach from the empathic mindset, showing you how to improve your own teaching style.

Check out our webinars in our list of upcoming events and learn how our Teacher Training Programs can help advance your career. Use the code “iva20percent” to get 20% off your first year’s course membership fee!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We’re back from another exciting day at IVACON 2024! Join us as Tom and Heather give a recap of our second day at conference. From masterclasses and workshops to lectures and community building— there’s a lot to unpack!

Don't miss out on an episode! Follow us on the Vocal Advancement Podcast and subscribe to our YouTube channel to see all the latest coverage of IVACON! 

The Institute of Vocal Advancement (IVA) was created to provide voice teachers with a support network to provide you with the best teaching tools and strategies to advance your career. Our trainers teach from the empathic mindset, showing you how to improve your own teaching style.

Check out our webinars in our list of upcoming events and learn how our Teacher Training Programs can help advance your career. Use the code “iva20percent” to get 20% off your first year’s course membership fee!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to IVACON 2024, the premiere 5-day conference for voice teachers. We are thrilled to host our first in-person conference in several years in beautiful and historic Edinburgh, Scotland! Voice teachers join us from around the world to learn, grow, and deepen their knowledge and training, and of course, have plenty of fun along the way. Join us each day this week as Tom and Heather share some behind-the-scenes from the conference. Without further ado, here's a recap of day one.

Don't miss out on an episode! Follow us on the Vocal Advancement Podcast and subscribe to our YouTube channel to see all the latest coverage of IVACON! 

The Institute of Vocal Advancement (IVA) was created to provide voice teachers with a support network to provide you with the best teaching tools and strategies to advance your career. Our trainers teach from the empathic mindset, showing you how to improve your own teaching style.

Check out our webinars in our list of upcoming events and learn how our Teacher Training Programs can help advance your career. Use the code “iva20percent” to get 20% off your first year’s course membership fee!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Here at the Vocal Advancement, we give teachers access to a wealth of knowledge. Between our webinars and conferences — not to mention our delightful podcast — you can learn a lot about vocal anatomy, singing careers, vocal pedagogy, and much more.

But how much of this knowledge should you share with your students when you teach?

It’s a question that has no “right” answer. Some beginners get confused when you bombard them with too much technical information, slowing down their progress. Other students hunger for this knowledge and will take up class time bombarding you with questions about vocal theory. Ultimately, it’s up to each teacher to walk that fine line between teaching theory and practice.

In this episode, Tom and Heather talk about how to effectively impart technical knowledge to students and turn that theory into practice. They look at the art of teaching and the importance of learning how different students process information to instruct them better.    

We explore:

1. How imposter syndrome can cause beginner teachers to overshare their knowledge — and why that can be detrimental to students (8:30)
2. The type of students who can benefit from learning theory, and the type who require more practical instruction (13:50)
3. What to do when you encounter students who do want to learn more about theory (16:03)
4. How to explain voice concepts without being overly technical (17:40)
5. The art of using your technical knowledge to help a singer develop their vocal techniques (23:58)
6. What to do when a student comes to you with a question you don’t know how to answer (26:47)
7. The value of being a teacher with more experience (28:40)
8. Teaching voice concepts to students who are neurodivergent or have other educational needs (30:49)
9. The importance of having enough self-knowledge and humility to know when you’re not the right teacher for a student (32:16)
10. Understanding the different goals of your students and the importance of letting them have fun in the lessons (33:59)
11. How to keep students motivated and aware of what they’ve learned and achieved through their lessons (39:39)
12. What’s next for the Vocal Advancement Podcast — and how you can listen to our bonus episodes! (47:19) 

The 2024 IVACON Conference is just around the corner. It will run from June 17 to 21 in Edinburgh, Scotland. But don’t worry if you can’t join us in person; we’ve got you covered! Tom and Heather will host a special bonus podcast season with daily episodes so you can feel like you're part of the action! 

Follow us on the Vocal Advancement Podcast and subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up! 

The Vocal Advancement Podcast will return with many more exciting guests later this year. If you know a teacher, performer, or researcher who would make a great guest on our show, email us at [email protected]!

The Institute of Vocal Advancement (IVA) was created to provide voice teachers with a support network to provide you with the best teaching tools and strategies to advance your career. Our trainers teach from the empathic mindset, showing you how to improve your own teaching style. Learn how our Teacher Training Programs can help advance your career. Use the code “iva20percent” to get 20% off your first year’s course membership fee!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How do you help your students make pop music “pop”?

At one point, many voice teachers saw pop music as a performance that flaunted the conventions of traditional music and didn’t need to be studied as a singing technique.

This episode’s guest, vocal instructor Renee Maranan, disagrees. To Renee, breaking the rules of classical singing requires singers to have a firm grasp of those rules in the first place so they can make deliberate, sustainable choices that form emotional connections with their audience.

This means pop singers need to be instructed in vocal science and conventional singing techniques even as they build their own aesthetic. 

Come hear how Renee breaks down both the art of singing pop music and the challenges of teaching this music style to students. Learn how the very definition of “pop music” encompasses a wide range of sounds, requiring singers to become comfortable with exploring their voices and the places they can take it. And discover why becoming an effective pop music singer ultimately requires training to produce an effective — and intentional — sound of their own. 

In this episode, we discuss:

1. How growing up in a Filipino musical culture of pop music provided Renee with a unique perspective on pop music performance and teaching (3:03)
2. Why teaching multiple genres of music help reveal new teaching techniques that are more effective with different students (4:40)
3. The style choices that create the aesthetic of “pop music” (7:07)
4. Cultural differences in pop — and the rising popularity of collaborating with pop singers from different states and countries to produce new flavors of music (11:17)
5. How artists find a “good” pop sound through exploration and being open to change (16:08)
6. The value of listening deliberately to pop music and picking out the details (20:11)
7. Why mastering pop music singing requires training (25:00)
8. How the relationship between pop musicians and their audience has changed in today’s online age (26:48)
9. New opportunities for sharing your pop music and passion projects (30:05)
10. How to direct students’ attention to the details of a pop music singer’s technique (32:30)
11. Renee’s advice for new voice coaches just starting to teach pop music (35:07)
12. The importance of developing a strong musical foundation in your pop singer students (41:55)

Book a session with Renee Maranan by visiting her website and follow her on Instagram to learn more about her upcoming classes.

Is there a teacher, performer, or researcher you think would make a great guest on our show? Email us at [email protected] and let us know!

The Institute of Vocal Advancement (IVA) was created to provide voice teachers with a support network to provide you with the best teaching tools and strategies to advance your career. Our trainers teach from the empathic mindset, showing you how to improve your own teaching style. Learn how our Teacher Training Programs can help advance your career. Use the code “iva20percent” to get 20% off your first year’s course membership fee!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Voice teachers today can build expertise in so many different fields — vocal anatomy, musical theory, acting, multiple singing techniques — that many teachers feel they need to have all the answers.

And that’s too much to ask of anyone. Because the more you learn, the more you realize how much you don’t know — and how developing a network of experts is essential to provide you and your students with the knowledge they need.

Our guest today, singing voice specialist Kari Ragan, knows a lot about the power of collaboration. While she’s been teaching singers for over forty years, Kari appreciates that she doesn’t know everything about vocal health and regularly collaborates with medical experts to help rehabilitate singers with injured voices or vocal pathology.

Join Tom and Heather as they learn more about how Kari has collaborated with doctors, teachers, and other experts in her decades-long career to help singers. Reflect on when it’s important to know when you need to refer out to provide students with the best teachers for their needs. And discover all the resources available today (including many provided by the IVA!) for developing a support network that helps everyone achieve their full potential.

In this episode, we cover:

1. How Kari’s teaching career led her to work with many music genres, age groups, and singers (5:12)
2. What a Singing Voice Specialist (SVS) is, and why they need to work in tandem with a medical team (9:47)
3. The major trends and changes Kari has witnessed in vocal pedagogy and research over her decades-long career (16:01)
4. Misconceptions surrounding evidence-based pedagogy, and how this form of pedagogy includes multiple areas of expertise (22:01)
5. The purpose of Kari’s book, “A Systematic Approach to Voice” (30:56)
6. The evolution of teaching classical and contemporary singing techniques (37:29)
7. Why being willing and able to refer to outside experts is important (41:45)
8. The necessity of staying current with vocal research for voice coaches (45:19)
9. All the opportunities for collaboration available to modern voice teachers (46:10)
10. The strength that comes from admitting what you don’t know (54:30)

Stay in touch with Kari at her website where you can find links to many of her articles. Check out Kari’s webinar “A Systematic Approach to Voice,” which covers the definition and application of Evidence-Based Voice Pedagogy (EBVP).

And make sure you hear from all our other guests by following us on the Vocal Advancement Podcast and subscribing to our YouTube channel! Is there a teacher, performer, or researcher you think would make a great guest on our show? Email us at [email protected] and let us know!

The Institute of Vocal Advancement (IVA) was created to provide voice teachers with a support network to provide you with the best teaching tools and strategies to advance your career. Our trainers teach from an empathic mindset, showing you how to improve your own teaching style. Learn how our Teacher Training Programs can help advance your career. Use the code “iva20percent” to get 20% off your first year’s course membership fee!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Disclaimer: This podcast mentions suicide in connection with the music industry

Sometimes, students become so passionate about building a music career that they jeopardize their mental, emotional, and physical well-being. Beyond that, the music industry is competitive and has been linked to depression, anxiety, and even suicide among occupational musicians. Even performers who overcame huge odds to become professionals later discover they don’t want to be part of such a stressful world and seek an exit plan.

This episode’s guest Dr. George Musgrave has a unique perspective on this. A former professional rap artist once signed with Sony Records, Dr. Musgrave now enjoys a position as a Senior Lecturer in Cultural Sociology and Creative Industries at Goldsmiths, University of London. His research focuses on the psychological and emotional experience of musicians building their careers.

In this episode, we’ll discuss:

1. (5:07) How George made the shift from the music world to academia — and used his experiences to improve research on music and mental health.
2. (11:04) Why music careers can be sources of great joy and great suffering.
3. (17:00) The “dark side of optimism.”
4. (19:42) How and why musicians who see music as their main career can have worse mental health outcomes compared to those who do not.
5. (25:01) The challenges of monetizing music in today’s online industry — and why the average musician’s earnings can be worse than a McDonald’s employee.
6. (29:22) How your personal view of success has a positive or negative impact on your mental health.
7. (33:56) The importance of having a “Plan B” backup plan when pursuing a music career
8. (36:40) The responsibility teachers have for equipping students with skills they can use in their careers, no matter how “big” they make it.
9. (40:20) The inequalities and hazards of the music industry
10. (49:10) Why the performing lifestyle is not for everyone
11. (51:40) If turning your hobby into a career can take some of the pleasure away
12. (53:14) Why having a backup plan is useful when training to be a voice teacher

George lists many mental health resources for musicians. These include:

• Tonic Music for Mental Health: Training and support for music industry professionals
• https://www.thecalmzone.net/: Suicide support
• Music Support: Support for peers in the music industry affected by mental illness and/or addiction

If you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, the Suicide Prevention Lifeline can offer additional helpful resources.

Visit George on his university page and read his papers.

The Institute of Vocal Advancement (IVA) was created to provide voice teachers with a support network that provides you with the best teaching tools and strategies to advance your career. Our trainers teach from the empathic mindset, showing you how to improve your own teaching style.

Learn how our Teacher Training Programs can help advance your career. Use the code “iva20percent” to get 20% off your first year’s course membership fee!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As voice teachers, we want to offer good feedback to our students and let them know how they can improve their performance.

But could our delivery of this feedback affect how well our students take in the new information?

As the Associate Director of the National Center for Voice and Speech, Lynn Maxfield, PhD, regularly researches voice pedagogy, vocology, and how motor learning applies to voice teachers. His studies have revealed that although teachers are conditioned to regularly comment on a student’s performance, remaining silent and allowing a student time to process their actions — as opposed to immediately providing feedback — is more beneficial for active learning.

In this episode, we discuss:

1. (4:22) How Lynn’s experiences in vocology gave him an appreciation for the complexity of the cognitive and neuromuscular system.
2. (9:22) Why instructors find it so challenging to not provide feedback.
3. (11:51) The value of creating silent spaces to let students process their performance before they hear your feedback.
4. (17:40) When most teachers begin providing feedback during lessons (and why this disrupts the learning process).
5. (20:38) The difficulties of reflecting on the skills used in a longer performance
6. (25:55) If giving yourself time to process your own performance when practicing alone is helpful
7. (28:13) The debate over whether students benefit more from an internal or external locus of attention (and why their skill level may factor into this)
8. (35:44) Why teachers need to constantly adapt their general teaching skills during each lesson
9. (37:30) Why students need to be in the proper headspace to benefit from a lesson (and the scientific reason for why yelling yourself hoarse at a concert isn’t good for you).
10. (48:08) Why spacing voice lessons further apart can be beneficial for advanced singers

Find Lynn at the Utah Center for Vocology and the University of Utah. The textbook Lynn mentions, “Motor Learning and Performance: From Principles to Application” by Timothy D. Lee and Richard A. Schmidt, can be purchased on Amazon.

Tom started a spirited discussion with Lynn at (25:55) on the value of practicing without feedback. Join in by sharing your thoughts, opinions, and insights by emailing us at [email protected] and leave us a comment!

And make sure you hear from all of our guests by following us on the Vocal Advancement Podcast and subscribing to our YouTube channel! 

The Institute of Vocal Advancement (IVA) was created to provide voice teachers with a support network to provide you with the best teaching tools and strategies to advance your career. Learn how our Teacher Training Programs can help advance your career. Use the code “iva20percent” to get 20% off your first year’s course membership fee!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you’re like many vocal coaches, you’ve probably used the metaphor of a balloon filling up with air to illustrate proper breathing techniques to your students.

But does this type of imagery make sense to everyone?

According to this episode’s guest, vocal health specialist Jenna Brown, a more effective technique is to let students take an active role in creating images that resonate with them during your singing lessons. Using this “symbolic modeling” technique not only builds a stronger rapport between teacher and student but can also offer shortcuts to learning.

In her chat with Tom and Heather, Jenna delves into what she’s discovered as both a voice researcher and vocal coach. She examines the different types of imagery teachers can use in their classes and the effectiveness of using multiple forms of imagery.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

1. (6:00) Why singing and teaching professionally led Jenna to become a MA voice pedagogy student researching ways of teaching students better.
2. (9:18) How science, the arts, and relationships all play a part in imagery and voice
3. (11:31) What imagery in voice lessons looks like
4. (14:24) Why adopting a multi-modal approach to imagery can be useful for making learning connections.
5. (16:01) Why most teachers tend to use “stock imagery” in their lessons — and how we can make these images more personal to students
6. (18:45) How Jenna helps students discover the singing images that resonate most with them
7. (22:55) When (and if) teachers should impose their own understanding of how the voice works onto a lesson
8. (24:35) The challenges of personalizing imagery when teaching large classes — and the common experiences singers can have with their voices
9. (27:38) How teachers can help students learn faster by building a shared language of personalized metaphors
10. (30:49) The negative side of using imagery — how metaphors can lead to confusion and misinterpretation for some students
11. (34:52) How science is regarding imagery now
12. (39:36) Why students need to develop a toolbox of skills to adapt to the changing needs of their voices
13. (42:40) How voice teachers can use imagery in their classes without realizing it
14. (45:30) The importance of seeing every student in your class as an individual — and how to adapt your lessons to their personal experiences  

You can find Jenna at Bristol Voice Care and her website. Book singing lessons, coaching sessions, or workshops with her at [email protected].

Check out our YouTube channel — and subscribe to see all our other podcast videos! Is there a teacher, performer, or researcher you think would make a great guest on our show? Email us at [email protected] and let us know!

The Institute of Vocal Advancement (IVA) was created to provide voice teachers with a support network to provide you with the best teaching tools and strategies to advance your career. Learn how our Teacher Training Programs can help advance your career. Use the code “iva20percent” to get 20% off your first year’s course membership fee!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.