Vocologist

As a vocologist I give workshops, private lessons, present at conferences, and provide free educational resources on my website www.voicescienceworks.org. The voice is fascinating, mysterious and always evolving. The more we know about it, the more empowered voice users, voice educators and composers can feel.

Vocology is the art and science of voice habilitation. This includes vocal training for singing and speaking, and detecting and treating speech pathologies through speech therapy.

Vocology draws on the fields of Vocal Performing Arts, Logopedics, Speech and Hearing Science, Audiology, Neurology, Laryngology, and Otology, and relies on knowledge of vocal anatomy, physiology, biomechanics, perceptual-motor learning principles, acoustics, the physics of sound, and vocal pedagogy and practice.

What does all that mean? It's the nitty-gritty of how we make sound and how we teach people to make the sounds they want to make.

VoiceScienceWorks is an organization that my partner, Dr.David Harris, and I began working on three years ago. The website, www.voicescienceworks.org, now just over a year old, often draws over 20,000 unique site visitors per week. Through the website and VoiceScienceWorks publications, performance art, and workshops, we take contemporary research on the voice and translate it into directly applicable information for voice users. The information on our website is free, accessible and inviting to anyone who is curious about the voice. Brilliant minds have been working through complex bio mechanics, physics, acoustics and neurology for decades, helping us to better understand what actually happens when we sing. We can now access that complex information through straight-forward explanations and methods.

It's Clarifying

The voice is the only instrument that the musician cannot see or directly touch. By seeking out clarifying, contemporary information about how we create different sounds and how our bodies acquire new skillsets, singers can experience a much more efficient, empowering and joyful learning process.

It's a Leveling Agent

Vocology, as a science, offers us a chance to understand how and why the voice does what it does. Through the creation of specific language based in scientific understanding, vocal practitioners are able to communicate complex ideas as they relate to all people, and avoid some of the conflicts that naturally develop from discussions based primarily in each individuals’ personal experience.

It's Always Growing

When I completed the Summer Vocology Institute with Dr. Ingo Titze three years ago I thought my brain would be oversaturated with everything there was to understand about the voice. Instead, I found myself enthralled with more questions than ever before and a deeper realization for how much more there is left to learn. Science is not a final answer, but measured process for how we can pose questions. The learning process never stops!

The Possibilities are Endless!

The human voice is the most diverse instrument on the face of the planet! We have endless choices about the sounds we want to create. Researching how these choices function has been liberating to me as a singer. The voice is not made up of right and wrongs or singular functions.

There's Room for All

Vocology is a brand new field with constant new questions and innovations. Each person’s experiences and discoveries count. There is room for everyone at the table – Be a Scientist, not a tourist, in your vocal experience!

Summer Vocology Institute, National Center for Voice & Speech
College of the Holy Cross
Harvard University
Cornish College of the Arts
Chaffey College
California Institute of the Arts
Portland State University
Oregon State University
Souther Oregon University
Curry College
California State University, Los Angeles
California State University, Long Beach
University of California, Los Angeles
University of South Florida
Linn-Benton Community College
University of Arizona
Loyola Marymount University
Shameless Singing Studios
Catalina Foothills High School
BAST: Be A Singing Teacher Webinar
VocalizeU: Summer Artist Intensive
Cork School of Music
BIMM Dublin
York University
Boston Conservatory

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