What's New > Unveiling the new 2022-23 NATS Chat season
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The National Association of Teachers of Singing is pleased to announce the new 2022-23 NATS Chat season, sponsored by Inside View Press!
These free online discussions occur one Sunday a month from 7-8 p.m. ET (6-7 p.m. CT; 5-6 p.m. MT; 4-5 p.m. PT) unless otherwise noted. The season kicks off October 9 with “Together Forever: Efficacy and Efficiency in Group-Voice Teaching” featuring guests Clifton Ware and Amelia Rollings Bigler.
NATS Chat is an opportunity for voice teachers, singers and industry professionals to hear directly from a variety of subject matter experts. Topics vary widely and have included classical and contemporary commercial music vocal technique, vocal repertoire, teaching strategies, business strategies for private studio teachers, resources for university teachers, arts advocacy, and diversity, to name a few. The featured guests often include prominent teachers, authors, composers, artists, and medical professionals. Kari Ragan will again serve as the host and coordinator for the 2022-23 NATS Chat season.
Kari Ragan
2022-23 NATS Chat Season
OCTOBER 9, 2022
Together Forever: Efficacy and Efficiency in Group-Voice Teaching
Featuring Clifton Ware and Amelia Rollings Bigler
We open the NATS Chat 2022-23 season with renowned author Dr. Clifton Ware, who in 1998 wrote the book “Basics of Vocal Pedagogy: The Foundations and Process of Singing” still discussed today. He is also the author of the class voice textbook, “Adventures in Singing: A Process for Exploring, Discovering, and Developing Vocal Potential.” We will be joined by Dr. Amelia Rollings Bigler, awarded the first-ever Clifton Ware Group-Voice Pedagogy Award. We will discuss the advantages and unique challenges of group-voice teaching in a variety of contexts (e.g., independent studio, community, virtual, academic) and include helpful strategies and references to relevant research.
NOVEMBER 13, 2022*
Articulation = Physioacoustics
Featuring Angelika Nair
*Different time: 3 p.m. ET / 12 p.m. PT
Articulation may refer to architecture — a method of styling the joints; to botany — a joint between separable parts; to anatomy — the location at which two or more bones make contact; or to linguistics — the study of how humans produce speech sounds via the interaction of physiological structures. What all of them share in common is something being jointed or interrelated and its interaction. Phonetics is the study of speech sounds, their articulations, acoustics properties, as well as perception. As voice specialists/users (teachers, singers, therapists, etc.) we have to become phoneticians. All languages consist of strings of phonemes; a single language sound, regardless of how it is produced. Vowels and consonants are a result of the physiological changes within the vocal tract. Consonants result from a degree of obstruction/restriction through the combination of our articulators. This is true in particular with one of the most malleable active articulators within the vocal tract, the tongue. However, how does the tongue affect ones singing and how can one manipulate it for our purposes? Join this NATS Chat to hear author of “The Tongue as a Gateway to Voice, Resonance, Style, and Intelligibility” provide insight and answer the question.
DECEMBER 11, 2022
A Look into the Future: Research in Laryngology and Voice
Featuring Neel Bhatt, MD
Dr. Neel Bhatt is a laryngologist at the University of Washington Performance Voice Clinic. Bhatt will present exciting new areas of research in voice. Topics will include novel injectables, nerve stimulation, new devices, and future treatments for vocal scar and age-related vocal atrophy.
JANUARY 15, 2023
Water Bubbles for the Voice
Featuring Marco Guzman, PhD
Co-hosts: Lynn Maxfield and Kari Ragan
Water bubbles created when performing water resistance therapy (WRT) are not only good for the voice because of the massage-like sensation, but also because they are able to move tissues in different ways. This oral, laryngeal, and pharyngeal tissue movement is attributed to the oscillation of oral pressure with a frequency of 12-40 Hz. The degree of massage-like sensation is dependent on practical variables that should be controlled when using this exercise for voice training. Please join us to learn more about the efficacy of using water bubbles with our singers.
FEBRUARY 19, 2023
Embodied Thought - Movement to Free the Voice
Featuring Frank Ragsdale, Matthew Hoch, Elizabeth Blades, and Marieke Schuurs
The February NATS Chat will host a panel of singing teachers to discuss the application of various kinesthetic modalities to voice pedagogy. Elizabeth Blades, coauthor of “Singing with Your Whole Self: A Singer’s Guide to Feldenkrais Awareness through Movement,” will represent the Feldenkrais Method; Frank Ragsdale will discuss Laban movement analysis (LMA); Marieke Schuurs is a certified Alexander Technique teacher; and Matthew Hoch is the editor of “So You Want to Sing with Awareness: A Guide for Performers.” The panel will engage in discussion on the use of these methods in studio, classroom, and performance situations and welcomes questions and interaction with NATS Chat participants.
MARCH 19, 2023
A Balance in the Force: Producing, Perceiving, Measuring and Assessing Vibrato
Featuring John Nix, Joshua Glasner, Yvonne Gonzales Redman, and Theodora Nestorova
Vibrato can be defined as a periodic variation in some acoustic aspect of a singing voice, including frequency, intensity, and timbre. How it is produced, how we adjust it as singers in different venues and in different musical contexts, how we as skilled listeners perceive it, how voice analysis programs measure it, and how we assess what vibrato can tell us about the functioning of a singer's voice have fascinated each of the guests for this chat. The presenters, all active as singers, teachers, and researchers, bring a number of years of experience exploring vibrato from a variety of perspectives. This NATS Chat will provide up-to-date information on vibrato research, including that performed by the authors, and will offer suggestions on how to enhance vibrato listening skills in the studio.
APRIL 16, 2023
Singing Voice Specialist: Controversies and Collaboration Part 2
Featuring Peggy Baroody, Leda Scearce, and Marci Rosenberg
During the 2021/22 NATS Chat season, this group discussed that the importance of the voice team in caring for a singer with an injured voice has become more accepted in the past couple of decades. Since there remains ongoing discussion, sometimes controversial, about scope of practice between the speech language pathologist and voice teachers in caring for this population of singer, we felt it was important to discuss those aspects. This NATS Chat will go deeper in exploring this important topic. It will include specifics about the work in the clinic and/or voice studio with our clientele.
MAY 21, 2023
Learning about Latin American & Spanish Song (101)
Featuring Juanita Ulloa
Join us for our final NATS Chat of the 2022-23 season where we’ll discuss terminology (We are so much more than Latinx!), cultural awareness, similarities and differences between vocal training for songs of Spain and Latin America as compared to other vocal traditions, and the practicality of learning crossover songs for both classical and contemporary commercial music.
