About Session
Personal journal writing about singing – Helping voice students to help themselves
In an increasingly complex world, vocalists benefit from learning to sing quickly yet thoroughly. This includes understanding all aspects of singing: practice, repertoire, performances, defining their art, song interpretation, and more. Personal journal writing about these aspects can help them gain clarity. A singer’s journal is not only a tool for reflection and understanding their artistic self, but also for exploration, expression, and organisation. Yet, how might keeping a personal journal work for an art form as inherently auditory as singing? I will explain what personal journal writing about singing is and what it is not, and discuss its benefits for the writers’ mental and emotional state. The writing itself follows the proven approach of psychotherapist and leading expert in the field of journal therapy Kathleen Adams. It enables vocalists to write about various aspects of their singing without fear of the blank page, and without overload by spontaneous revelations. To successfully implement personal journal writing about singing, both in individual work with vocalists and in groups, brief guidelines are necessary to instill and guard trust. At the end I will present examples from singers of popular styles from my private voice studio and at the undergraduate level.
