Add-on webinars
Welcome to a series of enriching webinars where we delve deeper into the subjects covered in the singsing! Fundamentals, while also introducing new topics. Embracing a holistic approach, I also invite esteemed colleagues and professionals from diverse fields related to singing, performing, and the voice to lead webinars.
Vocal Health Education: Dr. Jenevora Williams interviews Sarah Algoet on Extreme vocals
Vocal Health Education was started by Stephen King and Dr Jenevora Williams. They provide easily accessible and high-quality education in the field of vocal health and rehabilitation. They source the most exceptional specialists working in the field of voice health from around the world, and bring them right to you.
In February 2024, Dr. Jenevora Williams has interviewed me on the Extreme Vocal Effects for VHE. It was such an interesting conversation which ended up being quite interactive!
Read the feedback from Vocal Health Education and watch a little preview 👉🏼
Acceptance & Commitment Training for Improved Mental Health & Enhanced Performances by Dr. David Juncos
Do you have trouble with …
… performance anxiety getting in the way of your artistic growth?
… general anxiety affecting your mental health, career and / or personal life?
… burnout erasing your energy to execute your plans?
Is it difficult to …
… deal with your anxious convictions and destructive inner voice?
… commit to necessary actions that will help your reach your goals?
… be in touch with your personal values?
Then I highly recommed this 1,5h webinar on Acceptance and Commitment Training – ACT! You will learn how to use skills from ACT to achieve peak performance for yourself (or your students). You’ll first receive a brief introduction to ACT, an evidence-based psychotherapy & coaching model that aims to teach psychological flexibility, through promoting mindfulness and acceptance of one’s symptoms of emotional distress, while also identifying & committing to actions consistent with one’s values. After the intro there will be enough time for all your questions during the Q&A.
David Juncos, PsyD is a clinical psychologist and performance coach with Hornstein, Platt & Associates, Counseling and Wellness Centers, in Philadelphia, PA. He earned his doctorate in Clinical Psychology from La Salle University in 2015.
He has over 15 years experience in treating a variety of clinical problems, including anxiety, mood, and substance use disorders. He specializes in the treatment of music performance anxiety (MPA) and has presented internationally on his research in using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to treat MPA and enhance music performance.
He also is on faculty with the Voice Study Centre, where he provides lectures and tutorials on MPA and quantitative research, ACT, Motivational Interviewing, peak performance, and he trains music teachers in a non-clinical version of ACT to help them manage students’ MPA.
His book, ACT for Musicians: A Guide for Using Acceptance and Commitment Training to Enhance Performance, Overcome Performance Anxiety, and Improve Well-Being, has been published in 2022 with Universal Publishers.
In it, he and co-author Elvire de Paiva e Pona, MA, provide readers with numerous ACT-based techniques for help in managing MPA, enhancing performance, and addressing other common problems facing musicians, such as chronic pain, injury recovery, perfectionism, procrastination, shame, occupational burnout and career uncertainty.
Here are some testimonials of clients I have coached with ACT, after being trained to do this by Dr. David Juncos:
Gemma Milburn - UK based Singer and Vocal Coach
Katrin - Professional Speaker & Relationship Therapist
I discovered values I was not fully consciously aware of and what singing and performing actually mean to me. I strongly believe this method will add extra layers of mildness, joy and a much clearer view on my purposes. I can’t wait to discover more!
Kelly Van Hove - Entertrainer focused on Soft HR & communication workshops / Vocational Musical Theatre Singer
Marie Valembois - Vocational Singer
Marie Valembois - Vocational Singer
The Extreme Vocal Effects
In this Add-on webinar, you’ll receive an introduction into the wondrous world of the extreme vocal effects. Learn to use distortion, grunt, growl, pig squeals and much more extreme sounds healthily!
I use the terminology and explanation of Complete Vocal Technique as a basis, but also include terminology and explanations from other methods / models / points of view / … in order to avoid confusion and propagate an open approach.
This Add-on Webinar will teach you a lot by itself, but it could also be the perfect *next step* after the 3 initial webinars on Complete Vocal Technique from The singsing! Fundamentals:
- Webinar n° 05 – Introduction to Complete Vocal Technique
- Webinar n° 08 – The 4 Vocal Modes of Complete Vocal Technique
- Webinar n° 11 – How do I Colour my Voice?
Read the feedback and watch the preview 👇🏼
Grace Gardner, Musical Theatre Singer
Dr. Leigh Usilton, DMA - Voice Teacher and Singer
I now feel feel relaxed, progressed and knowledgable. I’m going to see if I can implement it into some of my musical theatre rep where appropriate and use it for pop/rock auditions.
Ashleigh Stevens, Musical Theatre Singer
Lorna Moore, MA, Bmus, LRSL, BAST, LLCM, ALCM - Singer, Musical Director, Choir Director, Vocal Coach & Lecturer
Kenneth Ottoy, Singer of Plagiaat & Piron
(2 years later) As a happy update, I can tell you that I have practiced grunt and growls a lot, and I have now been working as a singing pirate where that skill has come very much in handy!
Susanna Olsen, Singer & Dancer
Thanks!
Adam Stickler, Musical Theatre Singer
Kenneth Ottoy, Singer of Plagiaat & Piron
Diane Speirs - Singer & Voice Teacher
Pieter Van Hecke, Vocational singer
(2 years later) I can confirm I did go on to use those vocal techniques in shows onboard!
Emiglia Monica, Singer
Performance Psychology by prof. Bert De Cuyper
Do you want to be able to perform optimally at the moments that really matter to you? Are you looking to strengthen your mental skills through tools such as self-talk and imagery? Do you struggle with internal performance inhibitors such as loss of focus during practice sessions, pressure of expectations at performances, or negative thoughts?
Then this webinar is for you!
Singers are vocal athletes who deliver top performances. Being guided by a performance psychologist or performance coach should therefore be self-evident, just like in the world of sport. Unfortunately this is not the case! Many musicians don’t even realize that such help exists…
Bert De Cuyper is emeritus professor of sports psychology at KU Leuven and guest lecturer at LUCA Campus Lemmens. He is the author of several books on communication and emotion management in (top) sport and has more than 30 years of experience in mental coaching of top athletes.
In 2012 he wrote The Psychology of the Top Athlete – From Athletics to Swimming, From Attention to Black Hole. I was immediately a fan, given the many links with the needs of the singers I work with. I also apply many of the principles he cites in the book in my work as a vocal coach, because just focusing on vocal technique is not enough. Within the holistic approach that I always try to apply, mental work is essential.
But I am not a psychologist or therapist…
In 2021, Bert wrote down these many links in the book Making music is top sport – Performance Psychology for musicians on and off stage, together with Griet Baert and Linde Verjans.
In February 2023, Bert and I had a long conversation about his book, following my blog I’m no longer a professional musician. We discussed many options for collaborations, of which writing a book together was the craziest idea… *gasp*
After this webinar…
- You will be able to better map yourself as a performer through self-reflection.
- You will discover which dysfunctional thoughts are blocking you and how you can best deal with them.
- You will understand which emotions you can adjust and how.
- You will be stimulated to unlearn certain habits and to learn new behaviours, in order to practice more effectively and perform better.
Tongue Tie in Singers by Jessica Luffey
Do you have trouble with …
- headaches, jaw tension, neck pain and / or fatigue after singing?
- high notes and / or switching registers?
- controlling and / or relaxing your tongue?
Is it difficult to …
- get clarity of vowels, because your articulation is sometimes slow and sluggish?
- sing with a relaxed vibrato?
- understand descriptions of how “easy” singing is, because for you it feels like a juggling act of techniques?
Then this webinar might be the answer to your questions why certain vocal tasks are very challenging for you! Because as many as 25% of the population may have a tongue or lip tie. Did you know that these can have an effect on jaw tension, air management, anxiety, chronic pain AND vocal range, color and resonance?
In this webinar, Jessica Luffey explains how tongue mobility affects breath management, the soft palate, vibrato and larynx placement and how you can eliminate tongue compensations. She also takes you through a quick assesment test to see whether you might have a tied tongue and /or lip.
While pursuing a career as a professional opera singer, Jessica found the world of myology and since then has used her unique set of skills and insights to bridge new ideas between the two worlds. Her extensive practical myo education includes over being trained by the world’s top myo, dental/ortho, and tongue tie experts, authors, and educationalists including Dr. Zaghi, Dr. Baxter, Dr. Micheal Gelb & associates, among others. Her expertise and work has even been featured directly in Dr. Baxter’s blog.
Microphone Technique by Beo Van Haver & Sarah Algoet
I dare to say that 50% of your sound is determined by the microphone you’re singing through, what you do with it, and everything that happens after, like equalizing, compression, reverb, delay, what the sound engineer is doing from behind the mixer,… So:
- Do you want to learn how to use your microphone functionally?
- Are you looking to understand the essential technicalities?
- Do you need to know how to create a sound that suits your artistic identity?
- Do you want to effectively communicate what you need to the sound engineer(s)?
Then this webinar is for you!
I share all the practical tips & tricks you need and Beo Van Haver explains the more technical side of things.
Beo Van Haver is a well-respected Belgian sound engineer that has toured with Gabriel Rios, Arno, Arsenal, Gorki and Bløf, among others.
These topics are covered:
Microphones & what to do with them
- How to use your microphone functionally.
- Dynamic & Condenser Microphones: Which one is right for your voice/genre?
- Pick up patterns
- Pitfalls & Don’ts
- …
EQ, Compression & Effects
- Equalizing: Create your own sound by working with the frequencies (LF, MF & HF)
- Compression: What does it do to your sound? Why do we need it?
- Reverb & Delay: What do they create? What are the possibilities?
- Pitfalls & Don’ts
- …
And so much more!
After this webinar, you will understand how to maximize and enhance your vocal performance:
- You will do justice to your voice by choosing the right microphone and knowing how to use it.
- You will have discovered the infinite possibilities of the gear you use… and the pitfalls
- You will understand how to design your personal sound.
- You will be able to communicate to the sound engineer(s) what you want and need, during the sound check AND during the performance.
Peter Smaal - Organizer of Top 2000 Nijmegen
Brain Friendly Strategies in the Voice Studio
Discover how integrating playful exploration in your lessons can help you to achieve faster and more effective results with your voice students.
In 2021, the Voice Clinic of AZ Delta has invited me to present a lecture on Specific Problems in the Singing Voice for their symposium. I happily accepted, but had some issues with the word “problems” in the proposed title. In the end, this frustration turned into inspiration, and I created this lecture on how we, as teachers / coaches can help singers to learn in the most effective way, based on the most recent insights on motor-learning, with the case study of Sofie as a red thread.
Key concepts of this lecture:
- The principles of motor-learning
- The similarities & differences between singers, instrumentalists and elite athletes.
- Pros & cons of 5 different strategies and how to apply them in the voice studio: Auditive, Kinesthetic, Imaginative, Logical & Visual
I have condensed A LOT of information in this 23 min lecture. I invite you to take much more time when watching the recording, so you can take it all in and not miss a thing 
This lecture is in Dutch, with English subtitles and slides.
Coming Up...
🔜 Menstruation & the Voice by Joanne Hayes Bozeman
🔜 In-ear monitoring
🔜 Tech Setups for Online Lessons
🔜 Breath Management Part 2
🔜 The secrets of singing riffs, licks, ornamentation & coloratura FAST
🔜 SOVTs – Straw phonation, lax vox, raspberries and plain humming: What, how and when?
🔜 How to be “Performance ready”?
🔜 …
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Mail me at sarah@singsing.be and suggest a subject!