Joining Alexa today is Jo Sear, a rock, pop and soul singer and teacher of CCM singing styles. In April 2021 Jo completed her MA in Voice Pedagogy through the Voice Study Centre and will soon begin her PHD at The Royal Northern College of Music. She is here to discuss teaching popular music styles, the topic of her final MA dissertation project which has been published.
 
KEY TAKEAWAYS

‘Modern Vocal Pedagogy: Investigating a potential curricular framework for training popular music singing teachers’ is a published paper by Jo. She did this because she would like a course out there that teaches people how to be popular music singers. She wants students to learn about the industry, how producers and engineers think, what they expect, and how studio singing is different from live singing.
Contemporary commercial music or CCM is a term used by some vocal pedagogists in the United States to refer to non-classical music. This term encompasses jazz, pop, blues, soul, country, folk, and rock styles.
Jo suggests that Jazz should be its own category because of the kind of improvisation and musical knowledge you need to know to sing it. She also thinks that musical theatre and popular music genres do cross over, but don’t belong in the same category.
Jo listens to the singers that her students want to be like and then brings them more examples that they might not have heard or may be older. For example, if someone wanted to sing like Florence and the Machine, she’d bring them a song from Kate Bush and find out what it is that resonates with them. It’s about helping them find their style but not pushing them in a direction.

 
BEST MOMENTS 
‘I’m trying to be the teacher that I wanted, that I never had’
‘The whole basis of popular music is authenticity’
‘Listening widely is key, lots of different artists’
 
EPISODE RESOURCES
 
 
Guest Website:

popupvocaltraining.co.uk

Social Media:

Facebook: @PopUpVocalTraining
Youtube: @popupvocaltraining828

Relevant Links & Mentions:

Voice Study Centre: com
Royal Northern College of Music: rncm.ac.uk
British Voice Association (BVA): org.uk
The Journal of Popular Music Education: https://www.popularmusiceducation.org/the-journal/
Modern Vocal Pedagogy: Investigating a potential curricular framework for training popular music singing teachers by Joanna Sear
Jeanie LoVetri and Somatic Voicework: https://somaticvoicework.com/
This is a Voice by Jeremy Fisher & Gillyanne Kayes
Books by John Henny: Teaching Contemporary Singing; Voice Teacher Influencer; Beginning Singing
Jo Thompson Singing Coach: http://www.jothompson.net/index.html
Yvie Burnett: https://www.yvieburnett.com/
Kim Chandler: http://www.kimchandler.com/
Singing Teachers Talk Podcast:
Dr Matt Edwards: https://www.edwardsvoice.com/
Ann Peckham: Vocal Workouts for the Contemporary Singer
Rode Studio Microphone
Shure SM58 Microphone
Journal of Voice: https://www.jvoice.org/
The work of Heidi Moss Erickson: https://www.heidimosserickson.com/
The Musician’s Mind: Teaching, Learning and Performance in the Age of Brain Science by Lynn Helding, Pam Ward et al
The work of Dr Trineice Robinson-Martin: https://soulingredients.drtrineice.com/drtrineice
BAST Interview Article with Dr Trineice Robinson-Martin: How to Nurture a Singer’s Authentic Voice: https://www.basttraining.com/how-to-nurture-a-singers-authentic-voice/
Podcast: A Voice and Beyond by Dr Marisa Lee Naismith
Podcast: The Naked Vocalist
Voice Work by Christina Shewell
So You Want to Sing…Rock and Roll by Matthew Edwards and NATs
The Art of Singing Onstage and in the Studio by Jennifer Hamady

 
ABOUT THE GUEST
 
Jo has been singing rock, pop and soul music all her life. She joined her first professional working band at age 21 and has been behind a microphone ever since, singing lead and backing vocals in a wide variety of rock, soul and blues bands, working as a session singer and taking part in many stage productions, including several at the London Palladium. Her current band is Soul En