Episode 190: Girls Voices Change Too! With Dr. Bridget Sweet

Choralosophy

Dr. Bridget Sweet is the first scholar to examine adolescent female voice change through systematic research protocols

This week, we fill in a major gap in programming on the Choralosophy podcast. This is the FIRST episode on the feed diving into research and teaching practice of the female changing voice in adolescence. There will be more to come! But, for this episode I am joined be one of our pre-eminent experts, Dr. Bridget Sweet. “The Larynx is not a vagina.” Bridget advocates that we spend more time teaching kids about the physiology. The kids may giggle when you show a picture of a larynx, but they will get over it.

In this episode we talk about the issues created by the gap in choral music education about this topic and related research, as well as strategies for teachers to address the changes in girls voices and to normalize the experience in the same way we should for boys. We also discuss the realities that teachers face that cause us to focus more on the voice changes of the boys. It gets more of our attention, so often, the girls needs go unaddressed. Part of this occurs with the overly common practice of voice part labels applied to girls at way too early an age. This episode is helpful, challenging and so important!

Dr. Sweet’s Books:

Growing Musicians: Teaching Music in Middle School and Beyond

Thinking Outside the Voice Box: Adolescent Voice Change in Music Education

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Bridget Sweet is Associate Professor of Music Education at University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois. After completing her Bachelors Degree in Music Education at Western Michigan University, Dr. Sweet enjoyed a successful tenure as a middle school choir teacher for nearly ten years. Her interests in adolescent music education intensified during her Masters and Doctoral programs in Music Education at Michigan State University, which contributed to her research focused on characteristics of effective and exemplary middle-level music teachers. Prior to her work at the University of Illinois, Dr. Sweet was Assistant Professor of Music Education at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, PA. At the University of Illinois, Dr. Sweet teaches secondary music education pedagogy, including choral methods and literature, graduate courses in music education, as well as a course focused on the development of healthy practices for all musicians. She is a Licensed Body Mapping Educator through the Association for Body Mapping Education.

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Dr. Sweet continues to work extensively with adolescent singers as a teacher, clinician, and conductor; she has been invited to conduct middle and high school All-State Choirs and Honors Choirs in many states. Dr. Sweet wrote the books Growing Musicians: Teaching Music in Middle School and Beyond (2016, Oxford University Press) and Thinking Outside the Voice Box: Adolescent Voice Change in Music Education (2020, Oxford University Press). Dr. Sweet’s research interests include middle level choral music education, [assigned at birth] female and male adolescent voice change, musician health and wellness, intersections of LGBTQ+ topics and the music classroom, as well as intersections of motherhood and academia.

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Her research has appeared in publications of Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, Choral Journal, International Journal of Music Education: Research, Journal of Research in Music Education and Update: Applications of Research in Music Education. She has authored chapters within The Oxford Handbook of Qualitative Research in American Music Education (2014) and The Oxford Handbook of Care in Music Education. Dr. Sweet was initiated as a Friend of the Arts to the Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity (2021). She is a member of the Editorial Committee of the Bulletin of the Council of Research in Music Education, International Journal of Research in Choral Music, Journal of Research in Music Education, and Qualitative Research in Music Education.

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