VocalFri Podcast

Welcome back #VocalFam!   Today we reviewed our summer's that were in lighting rounds.   On the docket and in order we covered: Upcoming season 9 guests. Voice Foundation, ICVT, the Renee Fleming escapade   Then we wrapped up with summer pop culture lighting rounds: Andor, Daredevil, Fallout, Mission Impossible 9, Doctor Who, and wrapped it up with reviews of the blockbuster duel of Superman and F...

Season 8 concludes with a message of hope. During the first 20 minutes we encouraged the #VocalFam to give singers, voice teachers, and our entire community some grace and understanding after last week's Cynthia Erivo video situation. Then, Dr. P encouraged us, despite the times, to work to build student resilience by incorporating more hopefulness into our pedagogy. Prof. Pigott and Dr. P would l...

#VocalFam, today we are joined by Dr. Emily Siar to discuss her dissertation research surveying and interviewing singers who have been through voice health issues. Removing the stigma around voice health has been a VocalFri mission for many years now. Please check out Emily's website, linked above, and the BoCo Vocal Pedagogy Professional Workshop , where Emily is on the faculty. 

We had our first in house episode in a few months with Prof. Pigott, Dr. P, and Alice. We finally got a report on Little Women from Sarah. We covered how Sarah and Nick's undergrad practicum are going this semester. Then we had a lively conversation about graduate practicum that led into the difference between knowledge curation and knowledge creation as it relates to graduate theses and dissertat...

Today Dr. P and Alice were joined by Prof.s Theresa Brancaccio (Northwestern University) and Aaron Johnson (New York University - Langone) to share about their ongoing efforts developing a wearable, wireless vocal dosimeter. Their partnership with Dr. John Rogers has led to the development of a device that could provide active voice use data to a user with a wearable device through an app on their...

Today we were joined by longtime #VocalFam Ian Howell to preview his new book  Hearing Singing: A Guide to Functional Listening and Voice Perception . Dr. P has already made a public endorsement of this book, but trust us that this book is both revolutionary and practical. Ian presents a functional framework that can open your ears to listen to all singing genres through a new lens. The book also...

This week we are joined by Joanne Bozeman to share about Hypermobility. What it is, how do symptoms present, and what do singers and singing teachers need to know. Hypermobility is a brand new topic for the pod, and we are excited to share this important topic with the #VocalFam!

We are joined by longtime #VocalFam Dr. Chadley Ballantyne to tell us about his work with modular units for voice lessons. We've wanted to do this episode for a long time. Chadley's strategies and approaches could help you with burnout, fatigue, and give your teaching the much needed refresh you've been seeking.

It's a deep dive into everyone's favorite range: middle voice! C4-C5 can be a wonderful or gnarly journey depending on vowel, style, the weather, or the phase of the moon. Join Prof. Pigott and Dr. P for a serious in-depth, focused pedagogy episode on navigating the choppy waters of the treble staff!

It's our first old school VocalFri of the season. Prof. Pigott and Dr. P were going to discuss middle voice musings, but that is now pushed to Feb. 7. Instead, we got lost in a conversation about our respective pedagogy practicum courses. This led to our first very down to earth practical pedagogic conversation maybe all season. Enjoy your weekend #VocalFam!

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 fo...

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 the...

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 concur...

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 Ho...

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 t...

#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 n...

#VocalFam we have entered a new VocalFri era with not only our first great guest episode of season 8, but also our first ever episode with our first two CU grad students along for the ride. This week we were thrilled to have Dr. Kimberly Monzón from Baylor University on the pod to discuss her work on AFAB singers and singing through hormonal cycles. Such great advice and wisdom for any voice teach...

We meant to talk about nasality today, then Prof. Pigott saw Dr. P's white board in his office. We ended up discussing learning outcomes for a DMA degree in Vocal Ped./Perf. Oops. So, we ask you the #VocalFam: If YOU wanted to do a DMA, what would YOU want to be able to do by the end of it?

This week Prof. Pigott and Dr. P take a hypothetical journey as they dream what voice juries could look like, if they just started everything over. A really great discussion for those of you revising syllabi or program requirements. Dream the future, be kind, prepare students for success. Have a great weekend #VocalFam!

So much has changed in so little time. #VocalFam Season 8 is upon us, and WHAT A LINEUP we have planned for you this season. Prof. Pigott and Dr. P catch up on Prof. Pigott's teaching of Voice Pedagogy, Dr. P updates us on his transition to Director of Vocal Pedagogy at CU Boulder, and we preview our great guest list for Season 8! We also tossed in a quick Dr. P's quick Deadpool review for those w...

Season 7 comes to a close! Today we started preparing Sarah for her TEACHING of Voice Pedagogy in the Fall Semester. More to come on that, but it led us to discuss the working chapter titles for Dr. P's book. Yes, he's finally making a the huge mistake of committing to writing a book. He really needs to reconsider his life choices. In the end a fun time was had by all. Come join the #VocalFam as w...