Shannon Coates - Voice & The Art of Teaching

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Shannon Coates - Voice & The Art of Teaching

I teach teachers how to teach. Ditch diagnose & prescribe.

Learn student-led, values-forward pedagogy.
➡️ The VoicePed UnDegree, The VoicePed 101 Library, & Live Office Hours.

04/29/2026

It's that time of year... so I'm bringing back this Substack article I wrote on adjudicating, and how we can change our mindset on the whole process.

"I recently adjudicated the voice & choir classes at a local festival, which got me thinking about how to make this whole “my job as the adjudicator is to tell singers what they’re doing wrong, for their own good” environment a little less, well, THAT."

Join me over on SubStack to take a look at where my thoughts led me.
https://drshannoncoates.substack.com/p/on-adjudicating

AND, in the meantime, click the link below to get my free, downloadable Adjudicating 101 Cheat Sheet.
https://mailchi.mp/shannon-coates/4ug6k3myxv

Have a great festival season, ! 🫡

04/25/2026

POV: You’re doing voice lessons with Dr Shannon Coates 👀

1️⃣ When we’re really loving that phrase
2️⃣ That moment when you can’t really find the right word to describe a brand new sensation…
3️⃣”What if we… but… do we dare?!”
4️⃣ 🤨👋✨

Wrapping up this jam packed week with some Friday fun. 🥳

I have a few 3-month and 6-month studio subscriptions open right now for both singers and voice teachers who want to dive into learning more about their singing and pedagogy.

✅ Student-Centred
✅ Pedagogy-Infused Lessons
✅ Empowered Singers & Voice Educators

Message me for alllllll the deets.

04/22/2026

One of the most profound shifts in my teaching happened when I began to incorporate the Find Over Fix pedagogy principle I learned from voice pedagogue, Cindy Dewey with the “what IS” prompt I learned from Somatic Experiencing Practitioner and holistic coach Riikka Wilson.

Being intentional about supporting students to organize their learning around what IS happening, even when it seems like the absence of the thing is POSITIVE, means deeper, faster, more wholistic learning for everyone.

Because, as we know, we can’t coordinate toward a not.

And because: “nothing” is never *nothing* to the body.

It’s simply sensation that hasn’t yet been observed.
Or trusted.
Or given language.

And sometimes the work of teaching is in not rushing in to interpret that experience for a student, or to leave them to try to sing toward a “non-sensation”…

More often than not, the teaching is in gently staying with it long enough for the student to discover what IS for themselves.

That soft insistence of yes… and what is? is now foundational to my pedagogy.

And -one more time- I want to give a massive shoutout here to Somatic Experiencing Practitioner and holistic coach Riikka Wilson, whose work both informed and validated so much of my development around student-led, values-forward pedagogy by gently and persistently (SO DANGED PERSISTENTLY) reiterating this question in our sessions together:

Yes… and what is?

Me: well, it isn’t tense. Her: yes, and what IS it?
Me: it doesn’t hurt. Her: yes, and what IS it doing?
Me: it feels relaxed. Her: yes, and what IS relaxed to you?

That question (along with: How do you know?) has shaped how I teach singers.

How I teach teachers.
It’s transformative.

And if you want to learn how to work this kind of inquiry into your pedagogy, I do have a few 3-month and 6-month studio subscriptions open right now for singers and voice teachers.

Message me for deets.

04/16/2026

Yeah. I will probably expand on this further (and maybe even talk about what I do to mitigate the (well-documented, btw) impact that grading has on learning in the classes I teach) at some point … but if you wanna get more into it, check out my Live Office Hours on YouTube (link in bio, of course). And if you’re an academic teacher who wants to learn more about implementing UnGrading and Student-Led Practices in your teaching (whether that be in your classes or in your applied teaching), reach out for info about joining my Academic Teachers’ Working Group …

04/14/2026

📣Coming up one week from today! 📣

Excited to join the line-up of the Unstoppable Singer Summit again this year!

There are so many fantastic presenters, and crucial topics for the self-starter singer.
Best part is? It’s totally free if you want to attend live.

BUT if you wanna upgrade to the All-Access Backstage Pass? Use my affiliate link to sign up (which, then it's a win-win for both of us). This gives you lifetime access to all of the sessions, plus additional resources.

My live talk, Train Smarter: How to Get What You Want in Your Voice Lesson, is on the very first day of the summit, and I'm sharing some few tips on how to get what YOU want out of your voice lesson (or coaching) without being a jerk.

And? Anyone who shows up to the live session can get a coupon code to access one month of The VoicePed 101 Library for half-price!

Hope to see you there!

➡️ Unstoppable Singer Summit
📍 Virtual
📆 April 21-22
🔗 https://theunstoppablesingersummit.com/?affiliate=unstoppablesinger_drc

04/06/2026

In The VoicePed UnDegree and with the student-teachers in the Undergraduate Voice Pedagogy class I teach, we are constantly renegotiating how we deal with the response of uncomfortableness with a new coordination.

Less experienced teachers tend to respond by pivoting away from uncomfortableness because we see our role as always making sure the student is OKAY. And we’re nervous of hurting students, of losing their trust, or what it means about our teaching if they don’t like the sound they’re making.

More experienced teachers tend to go the other way. We override the student’s experience, often using “it’s just the messy middle” or “it’s supposed to feel uncomfortable” or “it’s going to get worse before it gets better” as justification.

Buuuut here’s the thing, :
Neither of those responses actually supports the kind of student learning that allows them to make choices for themselves.

One communicates that being uncomfortable is to be avoided at all costs … so students never learn how to ‘stick with it’ to fully acquire a new coordination.
The other communicates that your perceptions don’t matter … so students learn not to listen to themselves and that only their teacher can tell them if they have acquired the coordination or not.

SO … what do we do instead?

We stay with the experience. We treat the student’s “I don’t like this” as data (not as a problem to fix or to be ignored).
We validate (OH! That’s interesting - thanks for letting me know.)
We get curious (How do you know when you are comfortable? What IS working?)
We help them negotiate it (5% more comfort. Earlier exit. Slower transition.)

The real learning is in developing the capacity to negotiate through the messy middle. NOT in avoiding discomfort. NOT in overriding it.

And when students learn how to do that? They don’t just get the new coordination; they get agency.

Reach out about how to book a VoicePed Consult (or several) and we can map this out in real life.

If consults aren’t on the table right now, start in The VoicePed 101 Library:
➡️ How We Learn 101
➡️ Diagnosis 101

Curious: what do *you* tend to do when a student says “I don’t like this”?

03/27/2026

Two years ago around this time, I delivered a few live classes on neurodiversity-affirming VoicePed … the replays of those classes now live in The VoicePed 101 Library. Missed out on the live classes (or wanna brush up)? Join the library for only $97 and watch / rewatch to your heart’s content.

https://drshannoncoates.com/the-voiceped-101-library/

03/23/2026

We’ve (rightly!) started encouraging parents of our students to move away from offering feedback on their kids’ performances and to start prompting them around self-reflection instead.

AND?

In our haste to ensure that parents are not giving feedback that communicates an assessment of the quality of the performance (whether it’s negative or positive), we’ve villainized ALL feedback and inadvertently prompted parents to skip the feedback that is essential to creating the conditions under which students will have the best chance to do meaningful self-reflection.

Because, before reflection, there needs to be the kind of feedback that communicates intrinsic value by stating the impact of the performance.

Here’s what THAT looks like:
❤️ I love watching you perform
❤️ I was so moved during xyz
❤️ I had fun listening to you

This feedback type does not communicate an assessment of the quality of the performance; it communicates intrinsic value and impact:
❤️ you are seen
❤️ you are known
❤️ what you did had an impact

Once that is communicated, we’ve created the conditions for meaningful, regulated, safe self-reflection.

Impact THEN reflection.

(And if you’d like to work more on supporting both parents and students (and yourself!) in these moments without defaulting to evaluation or skipping to reflection? Reach out for info on how to book a VoicePed consult or two. I’m here for it.)

03/17/2026

One thing singers often encounter after performances?

Feedback they did not ask for. ( )

Sometimes it’s positive.
Sometimes it’s “constructive.”
Sometimes it’s wildly inappropriate.

And sometimes it comes from people who hold real or perceived authority in the field.

One small (but really big) thing we can do as teachers is help singers prepare for these moments.

Like, practically. By LITERALLY rehearsing how they might respond when someone approaches them with unsolicited feedback.

Because when singers know this can happen *and* they have a plan for responding?

They’re far less likely to get dysregulated in the moment (whether they’re getting positive OR negative feedback).

➡️ They know they have options.
➡️ They know they can set boundaries.
➡️ They know they are not required to engage.

I’m curious about a few things:
Voice teachers: are you already preparing students for situations like this?

If you are, what kinds of responses or scripts have you developed with your students?

And also…
What’s this bringing up for you?

Anyone else dealing with the ol’ patriarchy whisper that says that this approach is RUDE or DISRESPECTFUL …?

Interesting, eh?

Would love to hear how you’re navigating that both for you and your students.

And? If situations like this are coming up in your studio - or you want to work on performance preparation that supports student agency - this is exactly the kind of thing we can unpack in VoicePed Consults.

Bring your real teaching situations (messy is my specialty).
I’ll help you map out multiple ways you might approach them.

📩 Reach out if you want to book a consult (or a series of them).

Address

Toronto, ON
M6E4W1

Website

http://www.drshannoncoates.com/

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