​Online Course

Roots to Riffs: Discovering the

Vocal Lineage for Today's Singing

( MUCC 529 ONS Voices of Soul)

(TBA)

​​​Taught by Alison Crockett

Teach popular singing styles with confidence and cultural insight.

Most singers and teachers want to jump straight to scales and exercises to learn how to riff. This course gives you something different: a blueprint for understanding vocal improvisation from the inside out through rhythm, culture, tone, and storytelling. We start at the source: Blues, Jazz, and Gospel, the three roots of Black American Music that inform virtually all of today's popular singing. 

 

Complex concepts will be broken down, and, through active participation, participants will learn to apply these concepts in their teaching. These are not warmed-over classical methods; rather, it is really about techniques that are informed by the vocal traditions of the music.   

You'll Learn:

• Language: You will learn to develop your own authentic sound, incorporating transcription as a tool for understanding rhythm, phrasing, tone, and cultural context within the music. Improvisation is about storytelling, not flashy runs. 

• Rhythm, Groove, and Pocket: Participants will familiarize themselves with the essential pockets and culturally specific rhythmic practices. Authentic phrasing within these grooves is actually what enables riffing to be grounded and locked to the pocket.  

• Stylistically Appropriate Technique: Going beyond generic belting, we will learn to negotiate register flexibility and qualities of vocal registers that reflect Black American Music traditions, paired with the cultural understanding of why they matter.

• Improvisation: Participants will learn the improvisatory process step by step, from lyrical phrasing and melodic embellishment to the rhythmic and textural foundations that make confident, personalized riffing possible. Riffing is the destination, not the starting point. 

Upon completion of this course, you will be able to apply the ways to identify essential qualities and genres for teaching and learning modern singing styles, fostering authenticity in your students. 

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Online Course

Teaching Pop/Rock Styles

July 1, 8, 15 from 10AM-12PM EST   

                                  

(MUCC 528 ONS Pop Rock Style)

Taught by Melissa Foster

Find your authentic way into singing

Pop/Rock Styles through technical tools and appreciation for cultural roots.  

 

The birth of Pop/Rock music is deeply rooted in historical events and cultural issues. Whether you are recording in a studio, gigging, or auditioning for Pop/Rock musicals, understanding the implications of these cultural moments is imperative to bringing your work to life. Combine this with an understanding of how changes at the vocal fold level and in the vocal tract affect voice production, and you will be able to produce authentic performances time and again without vocal strain. By the end of this course, participants will know how to research the historical and cultural elements of their favorite songs, how to teach and execute common stylistic traits, and how to bring genres including Doo-Wop, Rock, Motown, Pop/Rock, R&B, and Hip-Hop/Rap styles to life. 

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Online Course

The Injured Singing Voice:

Tools for Every Singing Teacher

(MUCC-536-ONS The Injured Singer)

(TBA 2026)

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Taught by Dr. Wendy LeBorgne

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​Every singing teacher aims to have vocally “healthy” students. This course provides participants with a means to prevent, identify and understand potential vocal injury in singers. Each participant will complete a systematic singing voice evaluation and create an appropriate plan for referral and/or

singing training. Participants will also acquire appropriate strategies for studio singing post-vocal injury. This is a workshop-style course with multimedia, including video examples, audio examples and performance/assessment.

 

​Online Course

Training Baby Belters and Beyond

(MUCC-537-ONS )

(TBA 2026)

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Taught by Marci Rosenberg

This course will provide a comprehensive overview for any singer or singing teacher wanting to develop or deepen the science-informed knowledge base and skills needed to train younger or beginner belters efficiently and safely. Course content will be delivered through asynchronous lectures, real-time virtual discussion/ Q&A, and real-time interactive workshop format focused on applying all covered concepts in a studio setting. Included in this course is a comprehensive introduction to semi-occluded vocal tract exercises (SOVT) and how these can be used to facilitate safe, sustainable belting.

 

The workshops will also discuss numerous variations of strengthening and conditioning exercises, including selected exercises from The Vocal Athlete: Application and Technique for the Hybrid Singer (workbook), 3rd Ed. with discussion on how to use these tools when teaching belt and mix. Strategies to minimize vocal fatigue and the risk of phonotrauma will also be targeted, including tools and strategies to screen for potential emerging problems.

 

At the end of this course, participants will have a general, science-informed framework and understanding of how to implement the concepts and exercises covered to train and develop a safe, sustainable belting quality for beginners, intermediate, and more advanced belters. This course pairs well with Dr. Wendy LeBorgne's Voice Disorders Course.

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 The 3rd Edition of The Vocal Athlete and The Vocal Athlete: Application and Technique for the Hybrid Singer (workbook) is arriving in late Spring or early summer and will be used for this course. The text will be The Vocal Athlete: Application and Technique for the Hybrid Singer (workbook), 3rd Ed. The 3rd edition has 30 new invited authors. Please note the 2nd edition can also be a great resource if you have recently purchased it.

 

 

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​Online Course

Musical Theatre Styles

(MUCC-534-ONS Musical Theatre Styles)

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Taught by Edrie Means-Weekly

Singing a musical theatre song is more than singing the notes and lyrics in the written score; expression and style cannot be left out of the voice.  Authenticity includes the style, expression, emotion and storytelling.  This is expressed vocally through the choice of style such as country, jazz, pop, rap, R&B and rock with variations in vocal quality and vocal effects.  This comprehensive virtual version of the Face to Face course will explore the vocal ingredients for the commercial styles found in musical theatre while maintaining healthy vocal function.  

 

Participants will learn exercises to cross-train their vocal production muscles creating laryngeal flexibility to switch back and forth between registers and styles by making different interior shapes or positions to allow changes in the resonance to serve the styles found in musical theatre such as blues, country, jazz, pop, R&B, rock, etc. The course is designed to enhance teaching and performance skills across the vast landscape of musical theatre!

Course includes: 

• The history of musical theatre, vocal styles and how they inform authentic performance. 

• Vocal exercises and singing activities

• Asynchronous and Synchronous Lectures 

• Discussion Boards, Videos, Listening

• The vocal ingredients for diverse vocal styles, including Pop/Rock, Jazz/Blues, Country/Bluegrass, R&B, Gospel, Belt/Character, and Legit.

• How the larynx, soft palate, tongue, jaw, and lips function across various styles.

• How to sing/teach onsets, releases, vocal Stylisms/effects/distortions (cry, dip/bend, fry, growls, screams, slides, etc.) while maintaining healthy vocal function.

• Exercises for vocal tract shaping/flexibility, belting, riffing, etc. 

• How to blend vocal expression with character interpretation to bring a song to life on stage.

• Tools to help students navigate transitions between styles while maintaining vocal health.

• Tools for acting the song borrowed from traditional acting approaches

• Masterclasses working on individual song styles

 

 

Online Course

Voice Science Bootcamp

(MUCC-538-ONS Voice Science Bootcamp)

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Taught by Dr. David Meyer

Are you a budding voice-geek, but you have formant-phobia?

A raw recruit voice teacher terrified of spectrograms?

If that describes you, then DROP DOWN AND GIVE ME TWENTY!!

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For many teachers, science in singing is just techno-jargon. In this introductory course we will be exploring the basics of voice science that can immediately help your work with singers. The course will consist of lectures on the nature of sound, hearing, aerodynamics, physiology, and functional singing.

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Class discussion on subjects ranging from:

• Making invisible things (e.g. air,sound, etc.) visible

• What is formant tuning?

• How can psychological research improve our teaching?

• Using spectrograms and simple, inexpensive technological tools

• Breakout sessions to play with and reinforce class content

• Asynchronous content that supports our time together

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