Practicing for Singers is available on the CS Amazon Bookstore at www.csmusic.info/store. It is available both in paperback or kindle version.
Joanie Brittingham wrote her first article for Classical Singer in 2007, later taking the reins as associate editor in 2021. It would be logical to assume she would be nearly tapped out now in coming up with topics to write about. Her new book proves otherwise. In Practicing for Singers: A Guide to Solid Practice Habits (CS Music, 2024) she takes on what is arguably the most important and ongoing aspect of any singer’s career.
In the interview below, Brittingham discusses the benefit of developing effective practice strategies, how they have worked in her own career, and how they can even apply to fields outside of music.
In the Preface of Practicing for Singers, you clearly identify the “why” for the book before you delve into the “how”: “If you don’t establish good practice habits, the quality and quantity of work in your career as a singer will suffer.” At what point in your studies or career did you really learn how to practice effectively? What impacts did it have for you?
As a freshman voice major, I was at a total loss when it came to knowing how to practice. I’d had piano lessons for years and I could easily practice for hours. But trying to sing that way, I would leave the practice room hoarse from over-singing and not having made much progress. I started my journey of learning to practice then, asking older students—especially graduate and doctoral students, as well as the voice teachers in every combined studio class—for practice tips.
When we had guest clinicians in for masterclasses, I asked them too. It was a major point for my vocal pedagogy classes, but far shorter than I hoped. I built a practice routine throughout my undergraduate career, and by the time I got to graduate school, it was pretty well in place. My graduate school roommate told me she listened to me practice, and to the middle school voice lessons I taught, and took notes for her own progress! That’s when I knew I was on to something. I kept learning and asking about practice from those further along than me. I still do!
It meant that even if I was struggling with technical proficiency, or had music that was really challenging, I had a process for working through it. I sing a lot of contemporary music now, much of which does not have recordings in existence yet as reference points. I’m not afraid of breaking it down to the smallest portions, and I know how to maximize my private practice time so that I make the most of the coachings I am paying for. It has created good habits for vocal longevity and has the added benefit of costing me less money in coaching time.
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Some of the highlights of your book are the numerous handouts and worksheets you provide (available for download at https://www.joaniebrittingham.com/writing) with templates for tracking progress, articulating goals, and writing post-lesson reflections along with several other useful guides. Many singers think of practicing as what is accomplished while vocalizing. What is the benefit of this additional written work?
Writing things down, whether it’s notes in our coursework, or notes on our lessons or coachings, helps us to process the information. The same thing happens when we write down elements of our practice time. I mention in the book that when we have a bad practice day, we often just skip practicing the next day. That makes it hard to get back into a routine. If you write something down—even if it’s a generalized “nothing is working” or a more specific “I had that cadenza yesterday and today it’s like I’ve never seen the notes before and I feel really frustrated with myself”—we remove the emotional component.
Because our instrument is our body, it comes with us—to lessons, to loud, stressful environments like airports or the DMV, or to emotionally fraught environments, like family funerals. And sometimes, our voice doesn’t “work” the way we want it to in practice because of something outside of ourselves. So if we write things down, we can revisit them the next day. It’s sometimes as simple as “I was hangry. No wonder I was unfocused.”
Writing about our lessons helps us to discover the really salient points our teachers are trying to guide us to understanding. Writing about how an audition went helps us to focus more deeply on what we need to revisit in the practice room. By creating a clear plan for what your goals are, your practice time is streamlined, organized, and you avoid just singing your piece over and over. You’re able to make real, targeted progress. You’re able to see it on paper, or digitally, so you can celebrate how far you have come. If we celebrate the progress we’ve made vocally, it takes away the power of audition results to rule our self-worth.
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In chapter eight, Physical Awareness, you bring up the importance of rest and present “the laziness lie.” Can you discuss these concepts and how they relate to practicing for singers?
A major challenge for singers is workaholism. I remember being told as a student that if I wasn’t practicing, someone else was, and they would be more prepared for auditions and have more opportunities than me. That created a lot of unnecessary anxiety. We celebrate being “busy” in our society in ways that are actively damaging to our learning processes and well-being. It’s unsustainable, and it actively hurts both our vocal abilities through over-singing and fatigue, as well as our mental capacities. We process a lot of information in sleep and rest, and we’re not truly able to learn our music without periods of rest.
We can feel lazy if we are not constantly engaged in activity. But making accommodations for our bodies and well-being is as necessary for our vocal development as the time spent singing vocalises or tapping out rhythms. If we practice burnout and exhaustion into our music, we’ll perform it that way. We have to make the choice to be gentle with ourselves.
As both a singer and author, do you find that the practice strategies you advocate in the book for singing also apply to the process of writing (or to other non-singing activities)?
I do believe that many of the strategies I’ve laid out will be helpful in other areas of life. Time management in particular is something we can all use! I learned how to manage a calendar and be on top of my appointments (auditions, coachings, and more) while working as a temp for a finance firm when I first moved to New York. Singers are highly valued in other fields, because we’re organized and adaptable, which makes us extremely marketable. The reality for musicians is that most of us will work in another field alongside our singing careers.
Developing clear practice strategies make a lot of other areas of our lives more manageable. Some of the most organized people I know with the best practice habits are parents of young children—they do so out of necessity. As a writer and editor for CS, I apply the same strategies in ways that are beneficial to me and to my colleagues.
Singing is important in my life, but it’s only a part of it. If we hyperfocus on singing, we lose the forest for the trees. A grander view of life and living fully in many capacities enhances our singing, rather than detracts from it. That said, approaching other areas of my life the way I do practicing—breaking it down to small, manageable bits—reduces a whole lot of stress overall!
