Why Every Singer Should Be A Writer

There are so many reasons why writing and journaling is a great habit to aid in memorization, the processing of information, and the development of ideas, but not enough is talked about how it can aid greatly to the growth of collective knowledge in the long run. In singing, very few professionals take the time to write down their ideas, methods and experiences, which are then lost to history forever; and, unlike greater disciplines in science and because of the degree of personalization of every singer’s training, it is impossible to study large sample groups to develop research that can help the formulation of stronger theories and techniques to assist singers in their career.

How valuable would it be to be able to read about the sensations that Dmitri Hvorostovsky or Leontyne Price had when they were singing on stage? Or an example closer to home, how valuable would it be to be able to read about the vocal sensations of your vocal coach when they were your age? It would certainly make you feel closer to them and help you understand their approach to vocal care and singing so much better. And thinking about the future, how valuable would it be to your own voice students or fans around the globe to be able to read about your trajectory, your approach to vocal technique and interpretation, your journey on your studies, your approach to vocal care, and the overall meaning you attach to being a singer? That resource would be truly priceless.

One could say that there are already many books published by singers, but when you stop to read them with intention, you find out that many of them treat topics like vocal technique or interpretation superficially, assuming you already know much of what they are talking about, leaving you in many cases confused and wanting more. Plus, the older they get, the more outdated you find that some of their perspectives are around technique or etiquette or daily habits, so you need to proceed with caution. While singers shouldn’t read everything that’s out there to become a better singer—they would be reading all day and never sing,—they should certainly read about the singers that inspire them the most, and then compare their works, so other singers could come and compare the comparisons and so on, leading to the creation of much better works with revised perspectives and updated scientific knowledge.

Furthermore, there is not enough research to create a meta-analysis. If you were a medical doctor, you’d find there is a lot of research going on around specific treatments and medicines. One research may talk about a relatively new drug being used to treat 150 men and women, with rheumatoid arthritis in the UK around the ages of 40-50 for 3 months, but another research on the same drug may focus on 100 women in New York from ages 20-60 for 6 months, and yet another research in Chile may focus on an alternative treatment being used in 90 men and women from ages 30-50 throughout a year. It’s a lot of information, each with their own conclusions, procedures, time frames and different conditions and situations in which they are being tested. A doctor could take all three studies and put them together in a single meta-analysis in which he compares the results of each study to make new conclusions while separating the differences, identifying common results, and pointing out where more research is needed and how to get there.

In singing, you cannot have this. It is impossible to get a sample group large enough to contain the same singing method and teaching style, the same repertoire, or even similar vocal qualities. Every teacher of voice has only a couple of students, always with different voices, age range, and different stages and paths in their vocal development, so each of them needs a personalized approach to technique and repertoire, and the results may come faster or much slower to each of them. Plus, there are so many aspects to monitor throughout the practice as much as outside of it that will have an influence on the results a singer gets that it would be impossible to keep track of each of them on every single study session or performance.

This is why writing and journaling is one of the best tools to know your voice better. If every singer stopped to write about their practice every day, they would gain a greater consciousness of what they are doing and how it relates to the results they’re getting and, slowly, they would start to notice some common patterns that start to arise from their actions, which would allow them to form a personalized routine of vocal care and singing practice that would help them yield the results they seek to achieve in their professional career at a faster pace.

Additionally, if they had the chance of writing a bit about the qualities of the space in which they sing like the acoustics or the presence of air conditioning or dust, the weather and the temperature of the room, the mood they have at the start of their practice and at the end, the specific exercises they do to warm up their voice and cool down afterwards, the length of their practice and the times of day at which they do it, the repertoire they’re seeing, the food they ate that day and at what times, and how they prepare a song and study the music, it would give the reader a much clearer idea of how they could prepare for those circumstances or what they could do to achieve similar results.

In an ideal world, we could have a large group of singers, all with a similar vocal tessitura within a specific vocal type and age range, singing the same repertoire, with a similar competence level, warming up in the same space every day (with the same acoustics and room temperature), at the same hour, singing for the exact same amount of time, and following the same instructions of vocal study (with no teacher or coach present), and compare it to a control group doing the same, but with a change in one of these aspects—like a drier room or a different aria or at a different time of day, or within a different age group—we could definitely measure how these factors affect their performance results and compare them to groups of singers who don’t have these habitual conditions on a day-to-day basis. Moreover, it would allow us to measure how temperature, acoustics, warm up routine, approach to the vocal practice, resting periods, and the external factors like personal problems, diet, and personal life and habits affect their performance and draw some very solid conclusions on what works best and what could be improved on a broader level.

Acknowledging that this is impossible, we could conclude that the second best option is encouraging singers to write about their practice. They win greater clarity about their sensations in singing and the best practices in their career; the singing community wins by getting more bibliography over the long term that students and professionals alike can reference for further learning and the development of new research; and the world wins by getting singers who actually know what they are doing and can pass that knowledge to future generations and enrich the arts with higher standards of excellence.