Join us for a new year as season 8 rolls on! Today we were joined by Seth Killen from Anderson University to talk about new paradigms for voice lesson grading. Seth shared work that he presented last summer at NATS National. He has offered to share this model with the #VocalFam for reference. A perfect conversation as those of us in the academy are finishing spring semester preparations. Cheers for a prosperous 2025!

It's a Wicked VocalFri Christmas! VocalFri is joined by Dr. P's teenagers who are now musical theater nerds in the truest sense to review Wicked: Part 1. Come enjoy some holiday festivities as you travel to this season. May your holiday season be filled with love, light, and rest. Happy Holidays #VocalFam!

#VocalFam we are joined for our Fall Finale with the great Kerrie Obert! Please check out all her wonderful courses from GetVocal-Now.com, including her own course on Breathing. In Kerrie's return episode she shared incredible practical and useful ideas for helping your teaching navigate away from a "one size fits all" model for breathing towards helping your students navigate respiration as they need to for a specific style. 

Dr. P and Prof. Pigott are joined by #VocalFam Dana Lentini as we continue to try be more inclusive in our pedagogy with an episode about teaching kids! Dana is one of the worldwide leaders in teaching singing to children. Go check out her book Teaching the Child Singer, and her new songbook. These are must haves if your studio includes children. 

We are coming back to Dr. P's original research agenda! Our first in house episode in a few months. Prof. Pigott, Dr. P, and CU grad Benjamin break down some history, research, and the CU team's new directions on Musical Theater treble singing and nasality.

What a crew!!!! Today we were joined by #VocalFam Theodora Nestorova, Yvonne Redman, John Nix, and Joshua Glasner to drop some knowledge on Vibrato! They have a great NATS Chat last season on this topic and led a pre-conference workshop last summer at NATS that was terrific! If you are interested in that mysterious aspect of singing that is Vibrato - this is the episode for YOU!

VocalFam, Prof. Pigott was out today, but fret not, we had a great panel with International Congress of Voice Teachers' Program Chair Kari Ragan, NATS Executive Director Allen Henderson, and ICVT-Toronto site host Darryl Edwards. We got to hear previews of the many offerings Toronto has to offer as a city, the wonderful plenary sessions, and even got to hear more about some specifics of the concurrent session presentations. It will be a great conference, and we hope to see you next summer in Toronto. Early bird pricing is available until April 1, and there is a student price as well. Be sure to register early and set a flight tracker to save on airfare.

Our dear friend Ken Bozeman returns for his 3rd feature episode. Ken has been touring the world discussing pedagogic concepts that have transformed his teaching. Dr. P and Prof. Pigott are so thankful for Ken's mentorship and friendship because many of these concepts also transformed their own teaching. We cover emotive affect, acoustic registration, bright vs. dark somatosensory awareness, and Howell's contributions of auditory roughness and absolute spectral tone color. What an incredible, jam-packed hour. 

This week Dr. P and Prof. Pigott were joined by Dr. Luciano Simões in a great episode to bring some international awareness to the #VocalFam. We learn all about his background growing up as a rock singer in Brazil, and how he transitioned from classical baritone to vocal cross-trainer. Lots of wonderful insight into some lesser known (in the U. S. anyway) Brazilian music as well. Always terrific to have a nice sci-fi chat at the end of episode with a fellow pop-culture nerd. 

Playlist mentioned in episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtQTg3CsLSRkDC_Wj9BdUAXRO9HUUBnhX 

#VocalFam we are in for a treat this week! Prof. Pigott, Dr. P, and the CU TAs were joined by Dr. David Juncos and Dana Zenobi to discuss their research on Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT) Administered by Singing Teachers as a Tool for Mananging Music Performance Anxiety. You can read more about this is Dave's book ACT for Musicians. Or for a more instructive deep dive you can attend his next Voice Study Centre Course with more info here. To learn more about Dana you can go back to her first episode.