ECU vocal program offers oft-missing science to singing
- ECU’s vocal pedagogy workshop teaches voice science to singing instructors, helping them better diagnose problems and teach vocal technique.
- Fifty educators attended the inaugural workshop, leading organizers to add an advanced session.
- Faculty say many music educators don’t receive formal training in voice anatomy, creating a continued need for science-based instruction.
East Carolina University vocal performance alumna Maggie Fox ’20 struggled with imposter syndrome last year when she started teaching private lessons full time, leading her back to ECU and its voice professors.
Fox attended the School of Music’s inaugural practical vocal pedagogy workshop last summer, taught by voice and vocal pedagogy professors Dr. Jami Rhodes-Galloway and Nicole Franklin. The workshop, which returns in August, offers instruction grounded in voice science, helping voice teachers and choral conductors better understand the vocal instrument, expand their diagnostic skills, and learn tools they can use with singers in their classrooms and studios.
Maggie Fox ’20 will return to ECU for this summer’s advanced vocal pedagogy workshop, after attending the first workshop in 2025. (Contributed photo)
“I didn’t go to school to be a teacher, and I thought I was not conveying the information in the best way,” Fox said. “Going to this workshop not only confirmed that I did, in fact, know what I was talking about, but I also left with tools to apply to my teaching going forward.”
Last summer’s workshop went so well with the 50 attendees from across and outside of North Carolina, Rhodes-Galloway and Franklin developed a second, advanced workshop that will debut this year. The two received strong feedback from the first attendees that the workshop was helpful and they wanted more.
“The number of teachers who said, ‘I want to sing for you and get feedback because I want to feel what you’re talking about’ — we were shocked,” Franklin said. “There were a number of people who wanted the hands-on, the teaching part or the singing part.”
The advanced workshop will be much smaller and offer such individual attention and feedback. Set for Aug. 10-11, it filled in the first 24 hours. Four wait-list spots are available, and the workshop fee is $100. The beginner workshop, set for Aug. 7-8, still has spots open for a $50 fee. Anyone interested in either workshop can contact Rhodes-Galloway at rhodesja@ecu.edu or register online.
Standing in front of a Fletcher Music Center room full of singing instructors last year, Rhodes-Galloway talked about tongue placement, the image of marshmallows between the teeth, and the muscles we use to vocalize. She even showed a video zoomed in on a woman’s vocal folds, moving differently as the woman sings different notes. Franklin offered a session about diagnosing problems with a singer’s sound. They will cover similar information in this year’s initial workshop.
Last year, the teacher attendees also observed Franklin and Rhodes-Galloway give masterclasses across the hall; at the same time as the workshop, ECU choral activities director Dr. James Franklin — married to Nicole Franklin — led the Summer Choral Workshop for high school students. While they are different dates this year, the group hopes to further coordinate the two events and encourage teachers and students to attend together, as the high school workshop continues building back momentum after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Piggybacking on the high school workshop gave Rhodes-Galloway the final piece of motivation to move forward with the pedagogy workshop. Joining ECU in 2010, she has spoken on the topic at conferences and clinics for years, always wanting to find a way to provide more. When Nicole Franklin arrived at ECU in 2016, she eagerly joined the cause.
As fellow ECU voice and vocal pedagogy professor Nicole Franklin looks on, voice professor and vocal pedagogy director Dr. Jami Rhodes-Galloway presents anatomy information to choral teachers at the 2025 vocal pedagogy workshop. (Photos by Jessica VanderKolk)
Both women learned the voice science information late in their own educations, and once they did learn it, realized that the need continues. Rhodes-Galloway said she taught high school singers without that piece, and it was a problem.
“Then I got the information that I have now, and started going back out and running into educators, and the need was still there,” she said. “It’s not specific to North Carolina; it’s everywhere.”
The reason can be two-fold, Rhodes Galloway said. First, music education curricula are so full, there often isn’t room for vocal pedagogy as a requirement. Second, some look at singing as a talent and not a skillset, so that music educators don’t learn how to use anatomy and physiology to teach singers practically.
Franklin experienced a combination of the two. While she took vocal pedagogy as an undergraduate, she didn’t receive the scientific information she and Rhodes-Galloway now provide to teachers, and to their own ECU students. It left Franklin a frustrated singer for years.
“I did not have a true understanding of the function of my own instrument until I got to grad school,” she said. “I had good teachers that were teaching me good things, but I didn’t have what Jami and I are trying to provide people now, and I think that has fueled a lot of our passion behind it.”
The women liken the science of singing to performing as an Olympic-level athlete. A runner who is not naturally fast will consider their stride or otherwise change how they use their bodies to perform.
“Singers are no different,” Rhodes-Galloway said.
Fox, who teaches both voice and beginner piano with Amanda Bailey Studios in Wake Forest, said she enjoys the way Franklin and Rhodes-Galloway teach using research and their own in-depth studies.
“I think this is invaluable for other voice teachers to attend to keep their knowledge of the voice and how it works fresh,” she said. “I find in my own teaching that things can become stale, and I need new ideas and ways of approaching helping students achieve their goals.
“They provide a safe space for questions and discussions that will help you leave being excited to go back and share all the new things you learned with your students.”