Stammering: vocal hindrance or vocal liberator?
Tuesday 11th June 2024, 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM (London Time)
What connects Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Ben’s Brother and The Who? The answer is they’ve all produced songs containing stammered lyrics. Integrating stammering, a communication difference often viewed as something to be fixed through therapy, within musical art may, superficially at least, appear to be an unusual decision but what if we could see beauty in stammering and represent it in art, poetry, song, flags and even font? Come to this workshop to find out how this has been done.
The recent brain research highlighting stammering as a form of neurodivergence is shifting therapy approaches with increasing emphasis on the value of stammered voices. They encourage us to reflect on what matters in conversation and how stammering can add dimension and freedom to vocal performances.
This session will present what stammering is (and isn’t), link the approach-avoidance conflict with performance anxiety and consider what it means to be fluent. The potential physical and emotional struggle contained within the stammering experience is acknowledged alongside opportunities to view stammering through alternative, more supportive lenses, with opportunity to consider what you might do in your practice as a stammering ally.
By the end of this workshop, you’ll understand why King George VI practised speeches with a gramophone playing in the background, where metronomes have been used in therapy and know why speaking with marbles in your mouth is never a good idea!
Carolyn Andrews
Carolyn Andrews is an independent speech and language therapist and senior teaching fellow at the University of Strathclyde. With 25 years’ clinical experience she specialises in adult voice problems and adult stammering, and enjoys walking alongside her clients and students to build their knowledge, practice and voice use.
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.
Tuesday 5th May 2026
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Tuesday 12th May 2026
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Tuesday 19th May 2026
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Tuesday 26th May 2026
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Tuesday 2nd June 2026
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Tuesday 9th June 2026
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
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Voice pedagogy has advanced significantly in the last decades in relation to knowledge of the vocal apparatus (anatomy and mechanics), acoustics, and performance psychology (to name just a few subfields) – this is a wonderful thing! Nonetheless, musicianship and the foundations of music theory are still relevant to the teaching and coaching of singers and this course aims to empower voice teachers and coaches with skills to support the fundamental musicianship development of their students.
Tuesday 19th May 2026
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
(London Time)
Staging A Coup: History meets science for the coup de la glotte!
Kourtney Austin
Historical vocal pedagogy, voice science, voice health, and performance practice come together in this presentation from Kourtney Austin! The session addresses the historical context for teaching the onset as a fundamental skill, along with a review of a recent publication examining the acoustic effects of different types of onset, and practical studio implementation of onset training. The aforementioned publication is the first known research to objectively measure the acoustic implications of the coup de la glotte, and delineate it from the hard glottal attack.
Thursday 21st May 2026
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
(London Time)
Letting the Text Live: Reading Aloud with Expression!
Louisa Morgan
This 2-hour interactive session is designed to help you make more deliberate, expressive choices in your speaking of the written word. It will involve plenty of practical exploration and will cover tips and techniques for working with the voice to lift the text off the page. Work with me to refine nuance, precision, and expressive range. We’ll explore a variety of text samples to cover a wide range of real-world situations, so you can get a feel for the different styles and approaches. If you want your spoken text to sound purposeful, engaging, and unmistakably yours, this session will invite you to play with some tools to do just that.