Singing Teachers Talk

What’s really happening inside the larynx when we sing? In this fascinating episode, Alexa is joined by laryngologist and singer Dr Jennifer Rodney - aka Singing Surgeon MD - for a rare look inside the voice in action. From vocal registers and tension to vibrato, breathiness, vocal fry and more, Jennifer brings vocal anatomy to life - and even scopes herself live to show us what’s happening in real time. Whether you’re a singer, voice teacher or simply fascinated by how the voice works, this is an episode you won’t want to miss. Listen to the full episode, or head over to YouTube to watch the live demonstrations.  
WHAT’S IN THIS PODCAST?  
3:19 Who does Dr Jennifer Rodney see in her clinic?  
5:44 The difference between rigid and flexi laryngoscopy  
7:46 Does flexi laryngoscopy hurt? 
10:51 Live scope! 
42:26 Why can some people sing well when others cannot? 
44:36 Does ‘everyone’ have a laryngeal abnormality? 
46:33 What does Dr Jennifer wish singers knew more about? 
 
About the presenter HERE
 
RELEVANT MENTIONS & LINKS 
Sin City Laryngology 
Jennifer’s Laryngeal Karaoke 
Singing Teachers Talk - Ep. With Nick Gibbins 
Vanderbilt University Medical Center 
Baylor Scott & White Health 
 
ABOUT THE GUEST 
Dr. Rodney grew up in Saint Petersburg, FL, and has sung professionally throughout her life. Her background in music led her to become a laryngologist. Dr. Rodney’s practice welcomes patients with voice, airway, and swallowing disorders. Her areas of expertise include medical and surgical care of disorders that affect the voice, professional voice, benign and malignant laryngeal lesions, and vocal cord paralysis. Dr. Rodney also has expertise in neurolaryngological disorders, such as spasmodic dysphonia. She works collaboratively with speech-language pathologists in The Voice Center to provide multidisciplinary care. She also enjoys training young physicians and has published many articles in the field of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery. In her spare time, Dr. Rodney enjoys singing, attending live performances, kayaking, traveling with her husband and spending time with her children. 
 
Social Media: @singingsurgeonmd 
🎁 Free Resource: Get your copy of How to Assess the Singer’s Voice with Confidence — a practical guide to help you understand what’s going on in any singer’s voice.  >>> DOWNLOAD HERE
At BAST Training, we help singers turn their experience into a meaningful teaching career. Building the confidence, knowledge, and real-world skills to teach with confidence, clarity, and compassion.
“The BAST Advanced Foundation has given me more than the tools I need to teach — it’s given me confidence, a community, and a future.” Jess McGlinchey, UK
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As September rolls around and a new academic year begins, Alexa reflects on what it means to return to singing, teaching and learning with a fresh perspective. She shares some gentle reminders for singers and singing teachers alike about progress, curiosity, collaboration and being a little kinder to ourselves and each other along the way. 
Whether you’re heading back into the studio, starting something completely new, or simply wondering what you want to take into the new academic year ahead, this episode is an encouraging listen to help you step into September feeling inspired, grounded and ready for what’s next. 

About the presenter HERE
 
RELEVANT MENTIONS & LINKS 
Lori Sonnenberg  
Singing Teachers Talk - Ep.199 The Truth About Muscle Tension Dysphonia 
Line Hilton 
Gemma Sugrue 
 
ABOUT THE GUEST 
Alexa is the Deputy Head of Singing at one of the UK’s leading performing arts schools - Italia Conti, and she also runs a private singing tuition practice in the South of England. In addition, Alexa is the host of BAST Training’s Singing Teachers Talk podcast, and acts as both unit tutor and mentor for their level 5 vocational singing teaching qualification, as well as mentoring on their foundation course.[Text Wrapping Break][Text Wrapping Break]After graduating with a BA Musical Theatre degree, Alexa Terry donned her sailor’s cap and performed as a lead soloist on cruise ships travelling the Mediterranean, Caribbean and Baltic seas. She trod the boards in London’s West End as the protagonist in a new Musical Theatre project, studied as a librettist with Book, Music and Lyrics (BML), and has written for the likes of BritishTheatre.comas a reviewer. Alexa has also presented on topics of Musical Theatre repertoire, authentic Musical Theatre performance, and imposter syndrome for Vocology in Practice and The Sing Space; and at the BAST Intensive Weekend of Summer 2026, Alexa delivered talks in diagnosing and assessing voices and choosing repertoire to build technique. 
 
Website 
Instagram: @AlexaTerryVocalCoaching  
🎁 Free Resource: Get your copy of How to Assess the Singer’s Voice with Confidence — a practical guide to help you understand what’s going on in any singer’s voice.  >>> DOWNLOAD HERE
At BAST Training, we help singers turn their experience into a meaningful teaching career. Building the confidence, knowledge, and real-world skills to teach with confidence, clarity, and compassion.
“The BAST Advanced Foundation has given me more than the tools I need to teach — it’s given me confidence, a community, and a future.” Jess McGlinchey, UK
Start with the foundations >>> ENROL NOW
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In this episode, Alexa and Line take a closer look at the familiar idea of the singer as a ‘vocal athlete’. Drawing on examples from across the performing arts, they explore what the comparison can teach us about the demands placed on singers, and where it might not tell the whole story. From training and performance to vocal health and wellbeing, this conversation invites us to think differently about what singers ask of their voices and bodies, and how we can better support them along the way. 
WHAT’S IN THIS PODCAST? 
0:24 When did you first hear the term ‘vocal athlete?’ 
3:36 The definition of ‘athlete’ and where it holds up for singers 
11:46 Where does the analogy fall down? 
25:37 A language debate 
30:50 The future of the term ‘vocal athlete?’  
 
About the presenter HERE
 
RELEVANT MENTIONS & LINKS   
Line Hilton  
The Vocal Athlete by Marci Daniels Rosenberg & Wendy D. LeBorgne  
The Singing Athlete by Andrew Byrne 
Singing Teachers Talk - Ep.232 The Vocal Athlete: Inside Touring Life with Mindy Pack 
Denosh Bennet 
Rob Stevenson 
Singing Teachers Talk - Ep.81 Teaching Famous Voices with Robert ‘RAab’ Stevenson 
Sport In Art with Jan Sebastian Tomsa 
Line’s substack article  
Singing Teachers Talk - Ep.150 Part Two: Finding the Best Posture and Alignment for Singing with Jennie Morton 
Singing Teachers Talk Ep.61 Measuring Vocal Load in Contemporary Musical Theatre 
Dr Steven Zeitels  
🎁 Free Resource: Get your copy of How to Assess the Singer’s Voice with Confidence — a practical guide to help you understand what’s going on in any singer’s voice.  >>> DOWNLOAD HERE
At BAST Training, we help singers turn their experience into a meaningful teaching career. Building the confidence, knowledge, and real-world skills to teach with confidence, clarity, and compassion.
“The BAST Advanced Foundation has given me more than the tools I need to teach — it’s given me confidence, a community, and a future.” Jess McGlinchey, UK
Start with the foundations >>> ENROL NOW
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What if the ‘right’ song could help bridge the gap between vocal exercises and repertoire? In this episode, Alexa explores how snippets of songs can become useful technical stepping stones. Discover how to analyse repertoire for its vocal demands, identify opportunities for skill-building, and weave them into your lessons so that the singer is always ‘singing.’  
 
About the presenter HERE
 
RELEVANT MENTIONS & LINKS 
Singing Teachers Talk - Ep.205 10 Songs to Inspire Your Singing Lessons 
Singing Teachers Talk - Ep.210 10 Songs to Celebrate Pride in Your Studio 
Singing Teachers Talk - Ep.212 10 Songs to Find Your Pop Style 
Singing Teachers Talk - Ep.219 10 Songs for Male Contemporary Musical Theatre Singers 
Singing Teachers Talk - Ep.223 10 Songs for Child Singers  
Singing Teachers Talk - Ep.251 10 Songs for Tween Girls  
Singing Teachers Talk - Ep.258 10 Plus ‘Legit’ Songs for Musical Theatre Singers  
Ben Platt 
Listen to Run Away by Ben Platt HERE 
Ultimate Guitar Tab 
 
ABOUT THE GUEST 
Alexa runs a singing tuition practice in the South of England, and is a singing tutor at one of the UK’s leading performing arts schools – Italia Conti, where she also regularly panels auditions and assessments. Alexa is the host of the BAST Training Singing Teachers Talk podcast, mentors for the BAST Training Level 5 qualification, and has presented on topics of Musical Theatre repertoire, authentic Musical Theatre performance, and imposter syndrome for Vocology in Practise and The Sing Space.  
 
SEE FULL BIO HERE (Add link to the podcast website page) 
 
Website 
Instagram: @AlexaTerryVocalCoaching  
🎁 Free Resource: Get your copy of How to Assess the Singer’s Voice with Confidence — a practical guide to help you understand what’s going on in any singer’s voice.  >>> DOWNLOAD HERE
At BAST Training, we help singers turn their experience into a meaningful teaching career. Building the confidence, knowledge, and real-world skills to teach with confidence, clarity, and compassion.
“The BAST Advanced Foundation has given me more than the tools I need to teach — it’s given me confidence, a community, and a future.” Jess McGlinchey, UK
Start with the foundations >>> ENROL NOW
basttraining.com | Stay Updated

What do we really know about breathing for singing? Breathing specialist Barbara Tanze returns to explore the evolving science of airflow and pressure regulation in the singing voice. We discuss what research tells us about the diaphragm and respiratory muscles, and why what singers feel may not reflect what is actually happening physiologically. Barbara also introduces the Flexiflow, a tool that gives singers immediate feedback on airflow and pressure, helping them explore breath coordination without complicated anatomical instructions. Along the way, we question what “breath support” really means, whether breath should always come first in vocal training, and how a more individual, exploratory approach could help singers better understand their voices. Here we go! 
 
WHAT’S IN THIS PODCAST?  
0:56 What’s changed since 2022?  
3:10 What we do know about the body, pressure and airflow  
6:30 Barbara’s burning question 
8:07 Common breath management issues in singing  
11:18 What is typically happening in the body during exhalation?  
20:33 Where does ‘breathing’ sit in the hierarchy of vocal training?  
24:41 Using balloons as props  
33:40 The Flexiflow 
 
About the presenter HERE
 
RELEVANT MENTIONS & LINKS 
Singing Teachers Talk - Ep.45 Discovering Optimal Breathing 
Ingo Titze 
Johan Sundberg 
Singing Teachers Talk - Ep.253 The S-Word: Why It’s Time to Rethink ‘Support’ in Singing Teaching 
Janice Chapman  
Ian Howell 
Ken Bozeman  
A Copernican Shift: Reframing How We Think About Breath in Singing by Heidi Moss Erickson 
Singing Teachers Talk Podcast - Ep.271 Singer & the Self: Rethinking Singing Teacher CPD 
MDH Breathing Coordination by Robin De Haas 
Oren Boder 
 
ABOUT THE GUEST 
A professional singer and vocal pedagogue, Barbara Tanze works at the intersection of voice, movement, physiology and learning. Drawing on a background in opera, vocal pedagogy, manual therapy and breathing coordination, she takes a functional, individual approach to helping singers, speakers and professional voice users understand and develop their voices. Barbara teaches at the Akademija za glasbo, Univerza v Ljubljani, and is currently pursuing doctoral research into expiratory pressure regulation in singing. Her work brings together biomechanics, motor learning and inquiry-based exploration, bridging research with everyday vocal practice. Barbara is also the creator of Flexiflow, a patented airflow-feedback tool, and the author of the interactive children’s book Take a Deep Breath, Charlie!  
 
SEE FULL BIO HERE (Add link to the podcast website page) 
Website 
Instagram: @btbreathing & @the.flexiflow 
🎁 Free Resource: Get your copy of How to Assess the Singer’s Voice with Confidence — a practical guide to help you understand what’s going on in any singer’s voice.  >>> DOWNLOAD HERE
At BAST Training, we help singers turn their experience into a meaningful teaching career. Building the confidence, knowledge, and real-world skills to teach with confidence, clarity, and compassion.
“The BAST Advanced Foundation has given me more than the tools I need to teach — it’s given me confidence, a community, and a future.” Jess McGlinchey, UK
Start with the foundations >>> ENROL NOW
basttraining.com | Stay Updated