Beyond 4/4 Time
Thursday 28th October 2021, 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM (London Time)
Vocal exercises are the bed rock of vocal practice and they can be used to develop a singer’s musicianship alongside technique. Just as a train track has two rails to stay balanced, it is proposed by the presenter that a “two-track” approach to a singer’s development would be equal emphasis on technique AND musicianship throughout training, as opposed to the more “monorail” emphasis on technique alone. To use another metaphor, we can stand on one leg but we are more balanced standing on two. As the eminent classical pedagogue, Richard Miller, sagely said: “Be first a musician and second a singer”. But how can this objective be achieved in a lesson context?
In her presentation last year – “Beyond The Major Scale” – Kim Chandler suggested that there is currently an over-emphasis and over-reliance on major scale-based patterns in vocal exercises at the expense of the appetising array of other musical patterns that vocal melodies are constructed on, e.g. scales such as the Natural Minor & the Pentatonics and modes such as the Dorian & Lydian.
This presentation is the rhythmic counterpart, suggesting that there is also an over-abundance of songs written in 4/4 time in pop repertoire at the expense of other possibilities.
From analysing and singing through pop song excerpts across the eras, this interactive workshop will introduce music based on a range of other time signatures including odd meters, compound meters, cross rhythms etc. The presenter will then show how rhythmic-based work can be applied to technically-demanding vocal exercises that are also musically challenging. This concept can be applied to any style of singing and doubles the educational value of exercises.
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.
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.
Tuesday 5th August 2025
1:00 PM - 12:00 PM
Tuesday 12th August 2025
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Tuesday 19th August 2025
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Tuesday 26th August 2025
1:00 PM - 12:00 PM
Tuesday 2nd September 2025
1:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Tuesday 9th September 2025
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Tuesday 16th September 2025
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Tuesday 23rd September 2025
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
(London Time)
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Louisa Morgan
Are you a singing teacher looking to elevate your students’ performances? Join our very own Louisa Morgan, as she takes a deeper dive into acting approaches that singing teachers can use to integrate powerful acting techniques into singing lessons. This 8 session course is perfect for those who want to help their singers connect deeply with the story behind the song. Gain practical tools and techniques that you can immediately apply in your teaching! Come along live for an interactive experience, or watch on playback at your leisure.
Tuesday 23rd September 2025
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
(London Time)
How to Put the Perceptible Breath at a Singer's Disposal
Tanya Aspelmeier
Join the renowned Tanya Aspelmeier in this breath-related workshop specifically designed for the singer and singing teachers. Participants will learn exercises based on Professor Ilse Middendorf's therapeutic breathing method "The Perceptible Breath". This somatic discipline trains a person’s skills of perception to learn about their individual breath, body and nervous system and how they can regulate it by harnessing their own mental powers.
Wednesday 24th September 2025
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Thursday 25th September 2025
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
(London Time)
Mitigating Music Performance Anxiety (MPA) Within the Teaching Studio: Theories & Practical Strategies
Dr David Juncos
In recent years, an alternative model for treating MPA has shown great promise among practitioners - training music teachers to use interventions from evidence-based coaching models aimed to treat MPA, rather than continually referring students with MPA to receive psychotherapy like CBT.