This Is A Voice

Send us Fan Mail Wonder what we do in our private coaching sessions? It's a secret. We don't normally reveal what happens (or who we work with) but in this podcast episode we're sharing some of the techniques and "happenings" that make up a great mentoring session. Jeremy has a particular passion for mentoring other singers, singing teachers, Musical Directors, vocal coach...

Send us Fan Mail You've probably seen our books, you've listened to the podcasts, but you may not know what we really do in our 1-1 lessons and masterclasses. We're Dr Gillyanne Kayes and Jeremy Fisher, and we own and run VocalProcess. We'll be sharing with you some examples of what we do in our 1-1 singing and coaching sessions, and why we do it. 0:00 Building new brain pathwa...

Send us Fan Mail What's the most efficient way to practice? And how can you set up your singing students to practise successfully? Jeremy's been doing it for years but we had it confirmed by Kittie Verdolini Abbott at our latest conference - Jeremy talks Variable Practice! Gillyanne shares how she collected a multi-disciplinary team for her Round Table conversation at UEP in Turkey on vo...

Send us Fan Mail Why DO we do professional development? We're already professionals! What IS comfort zone and when should we be in it or out of it? Dr Gillyanne Kayes and Jeremy Fisher chat about comfort zone, continuing professional development (CPD) and their most recent injection of new thoughts via voice surgeons and SLTs. Why they attended a phoniatricians' conference and what they...

Send us Fan Mail A World Voice Day Special In part 2 of "Vocal Surgery and Beyond", Dr Gillyanne Kayes and Jeremy Fisher interview singer Kate Bassett on why she decided to go for vocal fold surgery. Kate talks through the decision and the second opinion, and the sentence that helped her decide (it involves rucksacks) How the surgery went and how long she was on "voice rest" (i...

Send us Fan Mail A World Voice Day Special. Jeremy and Gillyanne interview Kate Bassett on her vocal surgery and recovery. This year's World Voice Day topic is Your Voice Matters. In this 2-Part podcast, singer Kate Bassett shares her story of acute vocal injury, therapy, vocal fold surgery and voice rehabilitation In Part 1 0:00 stigma and vocal injury 5:13 how the vocal injury happened 6:48...

Send us Fan Mail What does your CV or resumé actually say about you? Is it up to date? Does it reflect who you are, what you want to do and who you want to work with? Expert vocal coach & career consultant Jeremy Fisher shares his process for rewriting your CV to attract the clients and jobs you want. Together Gillyanne and Jeremy discuss the right questions to ask, and share several examples...

Send us Fan Mail Self-promotion can feel like a dirty word, but as a singing teacher, vocal coach, choir leader or vocal health worker positioned in the arts, how do you show up in the world? How important is a website today? What should you have on it? How "big" should it be? We've just updated and upgraded the https://vocalprocess.co.uk website (it's live today) and it's...

Send us Fan Mail Gillyanne & Jeremy answer more questions about classical vocal technique versus musical theatre vocal technique. Which is best, should you teach either or both, what do you teach students at different ages? Great questions submitted from our listeners too: How can I make "So In Love" stop sounding like Puccini? Do you teach a 16 year old classical AND musical theatre...

Send us Fan Mail Voice experts Dr Gillyanne Kayes and Jeremy Fisher share their thoughts about classical versus musical theatre. Is there one technique that works for both? Is one inherently healthier to sing than the other? Should we be teaching different genres to young singers? We have comments and questions sent in by our This Is A Voice podcast listeners too - there are some strong opinions!...

Send us Fan Mail This is part 2 of our Best Bits from the last 4 series of This Is A Voice podcasts! We've got four glittering presents for you, beautifully wrapped under the tree. 1. Impostor Syndrome (S3 Ep1)  - the dictionary definition of imposter and why it isn't impostor syndrome  - different types of impostor syndrome by Valerie Young, based on the work of Clance and Imes. Which o...

Send us Fan Mail The last time we did a Best Bits was 43 episodes ago! So here are three of our favourite episodes from the last 18 months (part 1) 1. Vocal folds and hydration (S2 Ep9)   - why singers have to be careful how MUCH water you drink (with a real-life horror story)  - different types of dehydration + research into hydration and the effects on your voice  - And which country has a diffe...

Send us Fan Mail Dr Marisa Lee Naismith is back talking to Gillyanne & Jeremy, and we get a bit heated! How to work with authenticity in singing and finding a student's "mode" (1.00).  Our own reactions to witnessing authenticity in our classes (we're all different - 4.50) Marisa takes us step by step through a lesson with a CCM (contemporary commercial music) singer plus w...

Send us Fan Mail Ever wondered what it's like to do a PhD in vocal pedagogy? Or how that PhD might translate into teaching singing? Want to know exactly why we think classical vocal training doesn't work for contemporary commercial music singers? We go deep with Dr Marisa Lee Naismith, author of Singing Contemporary Commercial Music Styles, a pedagogical framework: How difficult is it to...

Send us Fan Mail Feed the dog!  Changing your pitch patterns can help your listeners understand your emotions and meaning. In this week's This Is A Voice podcast (Season 6 Episode 12), expert vocal trainers Dr Gillyanne Kayes & Jeremy Fisher use the sentence "Feed the dog" to showcase different pitch patterns and meanings.   We read out the instructions from the second half of e...

Send us Fan Mail No? Yes! What makes a voice more interesting to listen to? Tone? Volume? Pitch patterns help your listeners understand your emotions and meaning. In this episode, expert vocal trainers Dr Gillyanne Kayes and Jeremy Fisher riff on pitch patterns and meaning in speaking voice. Exercise 26 on page 84 of our This Is A Voice book is a brilliant vocal technique exercise for improving yo...

Send us Fan Mail What does a movie musical vocal coach do? Singer and pedagogue Irene Bartlett is back to chat with vocal trainers Gillyanne & Jeremy about coaching Austin Butler to sing Elvis in the latest movie, and how she works with singing teachers in the Pedagogy Programme at Griffith University in Brisbane. What was the first thing Irene needed to do when meeting Austin (or any singer)...

Send us Fan Mail What is good singing? Singer and pedagogue Dr Irene Bartlett joins vocal trainers Gillyanne & Jeremy to talk about good singing, function and style. It’s an honest conversation between vocal trainers separated by 10,000 miles but together in spirit. Is it divisive to separate classical, CCM and Musical Theatre music? Irene has a great one-sentence answer to this (2.40) Is ther...

Send us Fan Mail Gillyanne Kayes and Jeremy Fisher chat about putting their flagship vocal training course fully online for the first time, and describe the amazing content on each day of the course. And this episode they focus on consonants and false vowels, with an incredibly simple vocal technique to create more resonating space for awkward consonants, allowing you to match resonance more easil...

Send us Fan Mail #ThisIsAVoice Vocal trainers Dr Gillyanne Kayes and Jeremy Fisher show you how to find easy and accurate consonants in your songs. It's like having private singing lessons but with the very best vocal coaches! Jeremy and Gillyanne go deep into vocal articulation and the effect consonants have on vowels when you sing. When is a t not a t? When does an s become a z? What are yo...

Send us Fan Mail Vocal pedagogue Dr Gillyanne Kayes challenges vocal coach Jeremy Fisher to show how a ventriloquist can sing words clearly. Using  @Darci Lynne 's excellent Creep video https://youtu.be/KB-390oClpw, Jeremy breaks down the movements needed to sing all the vowels and consonants in the song without moving your lips. Judge for yourself how well Jeremy does singing the first four...

Send us Fan Mail Gillyanne & Jeremy are back demonstrating the exercises in the This Is A Voice book. This week they're kicking and elongating consonants. Gillyanne takes Jeremy through Exercise 24, Consonant Awareness, in the Speaking Effectively section. Breaking down the plosives! Jeremy speaks and sings tongue twisters with two different ways of using the consonants.  You'll hear...

Send us Fan Mail Petra Borzynski, singer, cognitive behavioural therapist & somatic vocal coach, is back with Gillyanne and Jeremy for more wisdom on dealing with emotion. Teacher boundaries, the difference between trauma and emotional discomfort, and why you don't need to be your student's therapist. There are questions on somatic exercises for performance nerves, and Jeremy shares...

Send us Fan Mail On the day of Queen Elizabeth's funeral, Petra Borzynski, cognitive behavioural therapist & somatic vocal coach, joins Gillyanne and Jeremy for some expert wisdom on dealing with emotion. Singing is an emotional act. And we sometimes need to sing, or to teach singing, when we're emotional. How do we deal with our own wobbles, and when should we deal with the wobbles...

Send us Fan Mail What's it like to PRESENT at an international voice conference?  Dr Gillyanne Kayes & Jeremy Fisher presented at PEVoC14 in Tallinn, Estonia.   Gillyanne's first Round Table organisation, and Jeremy's first solo Workshop  The nerves, the outcomes, the feedback, the content, the preparation  We reveal all!    Check out some of Jeremy's video examples from hi...