A key component of developing singing skills is receiving and implementing useful feedback. As I have blogged about previously, there are two primary forms of feedback: augmented and inherent. Augmented feedback comes from an external source, like the instructions your voice teacher gives you. Inherent feedback is the feedback you provide yourself based on the things you notice when you're singing—what you see, hear, and feel.
In our voice lessons, you receive both kinds of feedback. When I ask questions like, "How was that?" or "What did you notice?" I am asking you to self-assess and provide yourself with some inherent feedback. When I offer my own suggestions, adjustments, or tactics to try, that is augmented feedback.
When you are by yourself in the practice room, the only feedback you have to rely on is inherent. Obviously, while you have 24/7 access to your own voice, you only have access to a teacher's augmented feedback for the limited amount of class or lesson time you have each week. Therefore, a primary goal of voice training is to help you develop the ability to give yourself quality inherent feedback.
There is a lot written about feedback in the motor learning literature (which we discuss at length in vocal pedagogy class). Research studies have examined different aspects of feedback and how they impact our ability to learn, including how much feedback to give, when to give it, and whether feedback should focus on negative or positive results.
I recently read about a different aspect of feedback in a Journal of Singing article by Professor Lynn Helding. Citing a 2015 article by Telio, Ajjawi, and Regehr, she notes an increasing amount of evidence that points to how our satisfaction with any feedback we receive is often linked to the emotional impact that feedback has on us. As Helding states, "The receiver may care more about the way the feedback makes them feel rather than the quality of the feedback's content." Therefore, if an effective suggestion makes us feel bad, we may rate it as less valid feedback than a less-effective suggestion that makes us feel good.
Have you ever experienced that? Maybe someone made a valid suggestion but did it in a way that shamed you, embarrassed you, or made you feel "less than." Or maybe someone gave you a suggestion you didn't ask for, sharing an opinion that wasn't welcome. As a result, we usually reject these forms of augmented feedback and look for other solutions instead. I've certainly discarded potentially good advice in my life because I didn't like how (or from whom) it was given.
As your teacher, I try to be mindful about how I'm delivering my augmented feedback, anticipating how my comments might land with each of you. Admittedly, since I'm a perpetual work in progress, I'm better about that in some instances than I am in others. But I'm always aware that my choice of words or my tone of voice can significantly impact whether or not a suggestion is well received. I would hate for any of you to reject potentially helpful instruction because I was clumsy or insensitive in the way I stated it.
Now think about the inherent feedback you give yourself. How mindful are you about how you give it? Do you correct yourself gently, offering adjustments with kindness? Do you encourage yourself to keep trying with confidence that you can improve? Or are you "your own worst critic," giving yourself feedback laced with judgment and cruelty? Do you blame yourself for not already being better and discourage yourself from further exploring and enjoying your own voice?
If the feedback you give yourself was coming from someone else, would you accept it or reject it because of how it made you feel?
How might you adjust your inherent feedback as you prepare for your final performances of the semester?
Now go practice.
This blog is incredibly timely! With juries (vocal and dance), callbacks, and agent days coming up, feedback will be very much present in these next couple of weeks!
ReplyDeleteI have definitely had plenty of experience in recieving valuable feedback but the way it was phrased/the tone threw me off. That being said, I've made a concerted effort in my past years at the U of making sure I know that I can take notes that resonate and leave others.
Also in my time at this university, I've worked on how I critique my own work. In my first two years here, I found myself using non productive language in how I spoke to myself. This year, I feel as though I've found a balance between tough love and also using verbiage that comes from a place of kindness.
Alexa Shaheen
I have definitely struggled with feedback in more areas outside of singing. I am definitely guilty of having negative self-talk and giving myself constructive feedback that might help me. I have been trying to keep an open mind about receiving feedback in a positive manner more often. And so far, I feel like I have been doing that better recently. Still, there are triggers that will come up depending on tone of voice, but all I do is tell myself that it is a sign for improvement and to keep pushing on. Receiving feedback will always be hard, but I am learning how to handle it better going forward and establishing good habits that prevent me from beating myself up. Going forward, I definitely think I will take more notice of how I talk to myself, and implement more positive self talk so that I will take what I tell myself more seriously and accept good critiques to improve.
ReplyDeleteJack Anderson
Yet another mic drop from Dr. Brian Manternach. I’ve been thinking about this as well as I have reflected over my college experience and the different professors or guest instructors I have worked with. There have been a few instances or individuals who I have had to learn to “take what resonates, leave what doesn’t” when it comes to their feedback. It doesn’t come from a lack of respect, but more so the fact that I may just not agree with their methods. I’m willing to try everything at least once, but feedback is not one-size-fits-all. Putting that into perspective with the way I give myself inherent feedback, I could be nicer to myself, because I am sure that if the same words came from the wrong person, it would rub me the wrong way. As we round out a difficult (for many reasons) part of the semester, I will try to give myself grace and not let the outside factors of stress dictate my overall view of self-worth.
ReplyDeleteHailey A. Petersen
This is yet again such a wonderful blog post. I did not know that there was a name for the different types of feedback that you receive, it is very cool.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I used to have a very negative mindset and would not be nice to myself when giving inherent feedback, but over the course of this school year, I have flipped a switch and have started to look at things differently. I do agree with the saying that we are our own worst criticizers (or something along those lines) and so it is easy to get caught up in your own doubts and regrets. I have taken the route of making everything a learning opportunity. My voice cracked? Instead of being hard, I gently remind myself that voice cracks are a thing that happens to everyone, and then I search for the reason why, and grow from there. Didn't like an acting choice or how I sounded singing a note? I investigate on how I can fix it for the future. Although I am not always satisfied with the work I put out, I am always trying to reflect and modify as needed. I find that this is a mindset that a lot of people struggle to come upon, again, as we are our own worst critics, but it feels very relieving not always bashing on my work, and I try to spread this joy with others when I can because we all deserve to be proud of the things that we do. When it comes to augmented feedback, I definitely take it a lot more personally than I do with my own because I think that there is only so much that you can notice in your body. I don't think I have ever had strong feelings regarding feedback that I completely rejected it because feedback from an outside perspective, to me, always deems useful whether you think it applies to you or not because it's another point of view separate from your own, and if my own feedback that I give myself came from another person, I would definitely accept it, regardless of how it made me feel. Feedback in itself is a gift.
I definitely am of the mindset that all (augmented) feedback is good feedback, or at least I try to be. I try to take every note as a different opinion, and if that opinion hurts me then I think about why and then try to evaluate the feedback and see where that person is coming from. But honestly, not a lot of feedback hurts me. There have been times I've gotten notes and classmates have told me that someone was relatively mean to me but I didn't even notice that until after they said it, and at that point I've already considered the note and have found ways to positively interpret it. So, I don't really brush off a ton of augmented feedback, I just listen to it and see what I want to implement as my own.
ReplyDeleteInherent feedback is a little different. For me, I find that the farther away from a performance, the easier it is for me to remove myself from the performance and feedback. I was watching old videos last night and was actually really proud of myself in the performances and in the progress I've made since then. But I judge what I feel really fast, and most of the time that is negative until I watch it back and find it wasn't really as bad as I thought it was. It's hard for me to remove myself from it immediately, but the more time passes the more objective I can be.
I think in the last few years, the way I give myself inherent feedback has shifted a lot as I have gained more experience as a performer and through my training. When I was working on myself as a performer and singer before I was in a program for it, studying it every day more rigorously and methodically, I would be quite hard on myself, and in many cases unnecessarily. These critiques felt heavier and were more closely associated in my mind with my worth as a performer. I think especially in the last year I have really shifted that and eliminated a lot of that association of identifying possible adjustments or fixes in my technique and work with my worth of a performer, since we all have things we can improve upon no matter our level of experience. I also think I would take all kinds of feedback from others to heart a lot more than I do now. I think it has to do with myself maturing in the way I view the world in general, but also in the way I view the work of curating myself as a vocalist, actor, and dancer. It is no different than working a muscle and identifying fixes in technique while weight training to make that muscle stronger more effectively. Most of the time nowadays I don't really think hard about the feedback I get, because I've learned how to seperate observations on me as a performer and actor from criticisms of me personally and I always assume people intend the best when giving notes or critiques. of course, if it crosses the personal line of having to do with personal things out of my control, it's a different story, but if it is evidently constructive I usually just focus on implementing the feedback that resonates and leaving what doesn't.
ReplyDeletealec
I am definitely not mindful about how I give myself inherent feedback, but I will say that my feedback has become better rooted in just changing my technique and making slight adjustments instead of just bashing on myself and deciding that I can’t do it. I am always my worst critic, but often it just stems from a place of “I’m unhappy with it because I knew I could’ve done better” which I don’t think is the most harmful mindset, just because it keeps me striving to do better. Of course, it’s virtually impossible to do my 100% best because it’s impossible to be perfect. I think that if someone gave me the same feedback I give myself, it would probably make me feel worse about myself, but it would keep me even more motivated to making changes and doing better. As the semester and year keeps going, I want to focus on keeping my feedback rooted in what went wrong and how I think I can improve it, rather than just thinking “God that sucked.”
ReplyDeletePersonally, I NEED feedback from professors and actors to better myself and help myself learn a different way to go about my process. Rarely do I find myself upset with how I did in an audition setting, but it does happen. In those moments, I have trouble with feedback from myself and from other people to get through to the open part of my mind. I find myself not being too hard on myself most of the time, but when I am, I'm INCREDIBLY hard on myself. If someone else gave me the feedback I give myself, I would feel much better about it coming from someone else if I trusted them, and I'd be able to implement it better. I have to make sure that for the rest of the semester I can be critical to myself and still push myself in a constructive way, and to not give up on the work. It will pay off.
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