50 minute workshops
Custom workshops available by request.
Assessing Your Clients’ Vocal Health
Audience: Voice Teachers, Choir Directors
Sometimes it is easy to hear if a singer is having vocal health problems. But many times vocal health issues are inaudible until they've turned into a big problem. This presentation will discuss strategies you can integrate into your teaching to evaluate vocal health for new and ongoing students, to help you know when it's time to refer the singer in front of you to the laryngologist for a medical exam.
In this workshop we:
• build a better understanding of vocal health issues from a holistic manner
• help build your tool kit and sleuthing skills and be more accurate in your assessments
Practice Strategies to build a stronger, healthier voice
Audience: All Ages
Singers are athletes, and just like athletes we need to build strength, coordination and cooperation, mind, body, breath and voice. In this workshop we learn
• the difference between just warming up our voice and strengthening it
• how to use a straw to train your breathing and voice
• vocal function exercises to eliminate breaks in the voice, reduce tension, and build freedom
Breathing for Vocal Health
Audience: All Ages
Our breath impacts literally every area of our daily life. You can go weeks without food, days without water but only minutes without breath. Our body will go to great lengths to make sure we take our next breath. There is more and more research that shows that not only can our breathing patterns be recoordinated, the positive effects that come with breath training are well worth the effort:
• Improved mental clarity and focus
• Reduced anxiety
• Easier to learn new things and better recall of what you have learned
• Better digestive
• Reduction of tension and chronic pain
In this workshop we explore how our breath impacts our wellness, and we will work through a series of exercises to build and strengthen your breathing coordination.
How Your Voice Really Works (the science behind the art)
Audience: All Ages
The human voice is the only musical instrument that you build at the same time you are learning to “play it.” In this workshop we take a closer look at all the different parts of the body that are involved in singing, and explore how they work together to create your own unique sound.
Bridging the Gap: transition from singer to teacher
Audience: Voice Professionals
Singing and teaching are two different skill sets. You know what works for your voice, but being able to discern what the student in front of you needs is a completely different ball game. In this workshop, we’ll cover the basics of vocal pedagogy (aka voice teaching): where to start, what you need to consider, how to structure a lesson, beginning business practices, and where to go for additional training resources.
Foolproof (Whole Body) Vocal Warmups
Audience: All Ages
Singers are vocal athletes. No athlete would go into a competition without warming their body up, and for singers the same holds true. Warming up your voice is a whole body activity. In this workshop we go through very specific physical, breathing and vocal warmups to safely warm up (and cool down) your speaking and singing voice, strengthening it at the same time.
Exercises are slightly different in every class, but will include exercises from these categories:
• physical stretches, range of motion
• mindfulness, focusing exercises
• breathing awareness and warmup
• building flexibility and mobility in your articulators
• straw phonation routine
This fun and fast paced workshop illustrates clearly how everything’s connected!
Managing big changes
Audience: All Ages
When changes happen in our lives, the body reacts in a variety of different ways, which can affect how we feel about everything. In this class we will talk about how shifting situations can affect us, and some very practical skills and tools that we can use to help us manage these big adjustments. We will learn how to build self awareness so that we can listen to our body, in order to better manage changes.
In this workshop, we practice a variety of exercises to mitigate the body’s fight or flight response. Students will learn how to identify their body's response to stressful situations, and strategies for stress management including: breathing, stretching, and self-awareness/meditation. Students will receive a list of exercises and strategies to practice to continue to build a resilient nervous system, capable of weathering any storm.
Top 10 MYTHS singers have about their voice
Audience: All Ages
From “put it in the mask” to “sing from the diaphragm” we will look at some of the most misunderstood vocal instructions, bringing clarity not only to your thinking but also your voice! In between giggles, we debunk a lot of myths surrounding the voice. You’ll leave this workshop with better understand behind the science of some of those strange instructions you’ve heard over the years.
Breathing, Adapting and Growing in the COVID Era
Audience: Voice Teachers
Breath sustains us physically, emotionally and vocally, from one moment to the next. Now more than ever, breathing is in the spotlight. We are facing stresses and challenges of online learning, including learning to breathe and sing in masks. Studies of aerosol flow patterns inspire us to adapt. As the very act of breathing continues to be the focus of the entire world, “professional breathers” might ask: “How can we deepen our knowledge of the science and art of breathing”?
In light of this, this workshop:
• Takes a deeper look at the anatomy and physiology of breathing
• Acknowledges the unique nature of each person’s breathing mechanism
• Provides practical strategies for assessing and coordinating breath
VOCAL HEALTH BASICS
Audience: All ages
This workshop covers all the basics you need to know to be kind to your voice so that it can last you for a lifetime.
Topics include:
• Vocal Health tips to help you through the good and not so good days.
• Hydration, nutrition, medications, exercise and more
• How our lifestyle choices affect our voice
• How your emotional health is connected to your vocal health
• 21st century warmup strategies
80 minute workshops
Breathing Easy: breaking down the science one breath at a time
Audience: 14 and up
When you sing, do you run out of breath no matter how much you try to manage your breath? Do you feel like no matter how hard you try, you still feel like you aren’t quite “getting it?” Are you often out of breath, anxious or vocally fatigued after singing any amount of time?
Breath is one of our most fundamental biological imperatives. That means if we are struggling to breathe, our body will go to great lengths to make sure we receive enough oxygen to make it to the next breath. As singers, if our breathing is inefficient, our body is more concerned with keeping us alive than helping us hit that high note. This can lead to all sorts of vocal issues.
In this workshop, we will explore the structures involved in breathing, and how they work individually and together to create optimal breathing for singing, speaking, or any activity.
At the end of this workshop you will have a clear, physiological understanding of how your body parts work together as a team for optimal breathing, and what it means to have “good breathing technique”. We will debunk breathing myths that are holding you back from reaching your vocal goals, and start building breathing coordination that is unique to you, an absolutely critical move toward freedom and efficiency in your breath and voice—literally you will breathe easier!
Self-Laryngeal Massage for Singers
Audience: Voice Professionals
All athletes benefit from soft tissue work, and vocal athletes are no exception. Vocal massage helps reduce excessive muscle tension and maintain flexibility and mobility in your voice, keeping you in top form.
If you've been curious about laryngeal massage and have yet to experience the benefits, join us!
In this workshop, Crystal will teach you how to safely and effectively release tension in your jaw, tongue and neck using safe and effective self-laryngeal massage techniques anyone can learn to utilize.
Mindfulness in the Studio: Creating a Safe, Collaborative Co-working Space
Audience: Voice Professionals
Mindfulness and mental health are top of mind for us all during 2020, and the challenges presented to us as we negotiate our way through the COVID era. This workshop will explore strategies to allow our studios to evolve so that they remain a safe place for students to explore, grow, and become autonomous life-long learners of voice.
This workshop will be a discussion exploring mindful, trauma informed pedagogy for the studio. Strategies, examples, group participation and additional resources to build your mindful pedagogy toolkit will be explored:
• Fight or flight—cues and clues and strategies for solutions
• Destygmatizing Failure
• Fostering curiosity and play
• Novelty in the studio
• Building self-awareness and ownership of sensations
• Teacher and student as collaborators
• Teaching and learning with a nonjudgmental mindset
• Teaching outside the lines.
The truth about your voice: what’s really happening in there when you sing
Audience: Ages 8-18
Find a powerful, lasting connection to your voice in this intensive workshop as we deep dive into alignment, vocal production, breathing, performance psychology, body mapping, vocal technique and much much more, all in a supportive group setting.
Singer’s Ultimate Guide for Vocal Health
Audience: Voice Professionals
This workshop is chock full of critical information every singer needs to know to protect, nourish and grow their voice. We cover practical tips for self care specifically designed with the professional voice user in mind, whether you are a new singer just figuring things out or a seasoned veteran.
Topics include:
• Vocal Health tips to help you through the good and not so good days.
• the importance of bodywork for singers
• How your voice changes through the years, what you can expect and what you mustn't ever accept.
• How your emotional health is connected to your vocal health
• 21st century warmup strategies