There was another important factor that Dr. Verdolini Abbott presented in that same lecture that I want to discuss as well: self-efficacy.
The American Psychological Association website states:
Self-efficacy refers to an individual's belief in his or her capacity to execute behaviors necessary to produce specific performance attainments (Bandura, 1977, 1986, 1997). Self-efficacy reflects confidence in the ability to exert control over one's own motivation, behavior, and social environment. These cognitive self-evaluations influence all manner of human experience, including the goals for which people strive, the amount of energy expended toward goal achievement, and likelihood of attaining particular levels of behavioral performance.In short, self-efficacy has to to with your belief in your ability to carry out a behavior. It's similar to an internal locus of control, where you believe that your own efforts and choices are responsible for your success as opposed to outside factors like luck or fate, but it applies more directly to choosing the behaviors that will lead to that success.
Unsurprisingly, hundreds of studies with medical patients have shown a positive correlation between self-efficacy and compliance, several of which are referenced in Vocology: The Science and Practice of Voice Habilitation by Dr. Verdolini Abbott and Dr. Ingo Titze (p.245). This means that patients who had a strong belief in their ability to carry out a behavior were more likely to follow through with doctor-directed therapy and treatment.
Once again, can we apply this to teacher- and student-directed practice schedules? Perhaps students with strong self-efficacy will be more likely to follow through with practice schedules and practice regimens because they believe in their own abilities and that those steps will lead to the vocal progress they are seeking. Do you truly believe that practicing will lead to positive results or do you think it won't make much difference? Do you believe that you can be self-motivated enough to stick to your practice? Do you believe that you can overcome the many temptations in your environment and in our society that encourage you to slough off or spend your time in other ways?
These can be tough—but necessary—questions to answer, especially if you have had difficulty sticking to your practice schedule. If you are concerned that your self-efficacy is not as strong as it could be, there is another factor shown to have positive results with compliance: social support. In clinical settings, patients who had a social support system were more likely to follow through with rehabilitation and health maintenance than those without a social support system.
This blog is partly intended to serve as a social support system for all of you so you can read about your classmates' and studio mates' vocal journeys. Can you take it a step further by making yourself accountable to someone else (besides me!) who is invested in keeping you practicing? Try checking in with one or two classmates and ask them about their practice schedules and routines. Talk with them about what is or isn't working for you in your own practice. Ask for their ideas and share some of your ideas.
If you know that people are going to check in with you about your practicing, you may just be more likely to practice so that you have something to tell them. It's as simple as that.
How has your practicing been this week? Are you pretty good with self-efficacy or would you benefit from setting up a social support system to encourage you to keep working toward your vocal goals?
Now go practice.
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| Dr. Verdolini Abbott in class. |
Singing this week has been awesome. I’ve been feeling way more in tune with singing firmer, not necessarily louder. I automatically listen to my diaphragm when I’m singing which is something I wasn’t so use to before. My throat can sometimes feel sore and stingy but that’s just my genetics. I’ve been trying to always sing for more than 20 minutes and I’m pretty i am. I personally would like to set up something as a social support system to help improve ourselves. I don’t think there’s any problem with getting more help. People should realize how many similar things people face when trying to improve our voice. But I’ll always try and keep improving it by myself.
ReplyDelete-Max Villa
After singing "True Love" this week I sort of surprised myself by how much I've learned so far and that in itself has taught me I need to be more on myself when it comes to singing outside my comfort zone. In addition getting out of the mindset that says I can't do this no matter how much I practice because just by performing on Tuesday that I can do it, maybe not well but it is possible and keeping myself honest with myself and laying out what I need to do to achieve certain goals is what I will now focus on.
ReplyDeleteMy singing practice this week has been pretty great! I’ve been efficiently working on a couple new pieces for my private voice lessons and I think that they’re going super well with my progress on them, and my vocal coach thinks so too. I honestly think that my voice has improved so much in the past year, and even in the past couple months, especially since I’ve started ATP singing class and private lessons. I’m always surprised by the richer tone of my voice, the control I exhibit when singing, and the variety of my range. I think I’ve become much more aware of my vocal ability, and I think I’ve found it easier to let go of inhibitions, and in turn I have found it easier to sing and “hit the notes” so to speak. Overall I’m pretty satisfied with how my voice has been sounding, and I’m proud of myself for sticking to my practice. I think I have pretty good self efficiency, and I have a strong support system from my family. I will admit though that sometimes I do skip practice once or twice a week some weeks because of stress or negative feelings I experience that just make me feel bleh. For some reason I can’t find it in myself to practice those days, but I do believe that I can overcome that hiccup. And, if I don’t have time to go to a room where I can sing loudly, I do practice in my room by singing quietly and studying the sheet music I need to as well. I’ve also been implementing more warm ups into my practice, which I usually don’t do in my past, but I’ve realized the importance of them, even stretching, so I’m adding some into my routine, which I’m also proud of.
ReplyDeleteI have actually felt pretty good about my compliance with my set practice schedule! I have found that setting aside specific time helps keep me focused, and while plans do change, I have a basis to plan everything around. As far as self-efficacy, I have always been a strong believer that if you put in the proper practice and intent, then you will be able to successfully do what you want to do. I find that I will not become as distracted or tempted to do other things if I truly believe that the work I am putting in is going to help me in life. In this program, I've found a renewed motivation and momentum to keep working forwards to reach my goals. This week I've been fighting a cold, so my practice sessions have been shorter and a little more relaxed, so I'll definitely be glad once I'm back to full health! These first few weeks have been great though to find that rhythm and balance of school and life. I can already feel myself becoming more comfortable in my voice!
ReplyDelete~Caleb Hunt
My singing this week has been pretty good. I’m getting more confident in belty tones and I feel more comfortable in creating bigger sounds than I usually sing. With that being said it’s definitely not muscle memory yet and it takes a lot of focus but definitely getting better!
ReplyDeleteFor me I’m definitely a self motivator I set goals constantly for myself through the day. So if I put practice singing into my check list it will more than likely get done. However I like the idea of social support because it’s nice to know that others are wanting you to succeed in your goals.
I am finally getting my voice back! I have been stressing because my throat has not been good with me ever since the beginning of the school year, but I actually like it has been getting better. I am still trying to not use it all up. I am slowly easing into it. My lesson this week was actually really nice. I can still feel my throat not being to its potential but it is getting better. One thing that I know that was good from this is I am so much more aware of vocal health and the importance of keeping my voice to its prime. Also, what it is like for my breath management when I am sick. I know that when I am sick, I don't breath well, which definiteley impacts the way I sing. Also, we sang for the first time in our singing class and in all honesty, that was super nerve-wracking. I have sung before people, crowds, etc. I am always singing, but singing in the setting that was set up with our singing class was actually really hard. But it was cool to hear the rest of my class sing.
ReplyDeleteSinging has not been going great the last couple of weeks. I had a bad cough and head cold but I have recovered. My larynx is a bit sore and I've generally been trying not to push myself too hard. I struggled with "True Love" (obviously) and that was slightly because of my sickness. The song is low, also and my voice is fairly high. I struggle to hit most of the notes on a good day, so after that it got worse. I can only look forward to trying again and getting better.
ReplyDeleteSinging this week has been pretty good. When we sang “True Love” I felt like I had surprised myself, I felt like I could feel a difference in my voice and especially with my breathe control. For a long time I have struggled with breathing and having strong breathe control. But this week I was surprised with how I did in the performance, and how I kept my awareness of breath. Recently though, I have noticed my voice is getting tired quicker and I haven’t figured out what could be causing that, but it has caught my attention. One place I could improve is sticking to my practice schedule. I find myself forgetting until pretty late at night, or even the next morning. I have been brainstorming ways to remember and how to get better. But right now I’m leaving reminders on my phone to help get better.
ReplyDelete-Jillian DiNucci
DeleteSinging has been going pretty go for me the past week. I have been recently struggling with my breath when I sing;, and I have been working a lot on that. After talking about finding the balance between breath and muscle last week, I have found myself subconsciously focusing on balancing my breath and muscle while I'm singing, and I have noticed some pretty significant things about my voice because of that.
ReplyDeleteVocal wise I have been keeping up quite well. there's are times in the week that it has been getting stressful and has made it hard to keep up when I need to practice but it is rarely like that. I do think that a social support would be a good idea. I have been practicing this week just mostly on my Italian because I will be performing in demlab this week. I do not think social support is something that I need, I just know that if I concentrate hard enough I will continue to grow vocally. so far I have loved having a vocal teacher and a routine and its all still so new to me.
ReplyDelete-Alex Fish
This week has been a lot for me and it's not that I haven't been practicing, it's that I've been really focused on Curtains and 90% of my practicing is directed towards that show and not my other rep. My goal this week as I go into tech is to just do a quick warmup in the car on the way to rehearsal and work on my rep as soon as I get home, even if it's just for 10 minutes. Remembering when I was at Weber I found that a lot of my classmates were very unmotivated and I think that was reflected in how much I practiced and the progress I made in those 2 years. Fast forward to last year where I transferred, found 2 great roommates in the program who were super motivated totally helped me be more on top of my practicing and I got done more that first semester than I did in my two years at Weber. Now I've had a nose surgery, and seen incredible progress in my voice in a short period of time that I am convinced if I had stayed the way I was at Weber I wouldn't have gotten much better.
ReplyDeleteMy practice has been going really well this week. The week after my scooter accident my jaw just felt really tight and sore and singing just didn't really feel good after doing it id be really sore and it would hurt to move but this week that pain has all been gone. its really helped me just relax and release into my higher notes, since all of my rep so far this year is sitting a little higher than normal. Im also enjoying working through my new contemporary book learning so many new songs so quick is not only testing my brain power but my Piano playing power as well
ReplyDeleteYou know I think I am getting really good at managing my time with practicing! With school and shows it can get pretty taxing to spend your extra few minutes you could have to nap practicing, but i think i have found a good balance of time to practice. I have also found now that the mix of not having general education classes and not having to learn classical music in a foreign language has come about, that it is fairly easier to find the time and the motivation to practice.
ReplyDeleteI've been very good these past weeks with keeping up with my practice. I've noticed a few notable changes in my voice and the way a sing. When performing True Love on Tuesday, yes I was nervous, but my breath control was probably the best it has been in a while. I never felt out of breath witch I tend to feel when in nervous or performing. I've also noticed that when following along to the audio recordings of warm ups in class, I have been able to go lower in the scales down than I used to! I don't think that would have just happened with in-class practice, so, I'm happy I have stuck with my practice schedule.
ReplyDeleteMy practicing is like many other things in my life, a work in progress. It is getting better, but I am still learning to self regulate, which is a lesson I am learning the longer I am in college, and am becoming self reliant. It is interesting that social circles are mentioned, because this year, I am living with two roommates in our own house. Not only have balanced school, but also I have to regulate when to buy groceries, and toilet paper, etc.
ReplyDeleteBecause both of my roommates are in my year in the ATP, it would be interesting to ask them for help with practice, or maybe once or twice a week have practice together. It would probably be fun, and help us to be more consistent with practice.
On another level, I wouldn’t want to overstep any lines I have with my roommates. I do think we have good enough communication that we could avoid it. It is something to think about, however.
I think it’s interesting what this talked about with self-efficacy. I also see it as how much we believe in ourselves being able to practice well. I have had many experiences where myself or others refuse to practice not because of them believing they don’t need to take responsibility so they can achieve their goals(external locus control) but because they didn’t think they themselves were capable of identifying if what they were practicing was actually working. When I first started doing vocal lessons, I didn’t practice on my own because I felt that I wasn’t knowledgeable enough to figure out if I was doing my warmups correctly, singing my songs correctly, etc. I stopped practicing because I didn’t want to practice poorly and then end up performing the way I practiced. There is some validity to that because you don’t want to practice poorly. However, there’s a difference between thinking you’re practicing poorly and actually practicing poorly. We are all our own worst critics and we like to assume that what we are doing is wrong before we even consider the possibility that we could be doing it right. So a way to fix that is to go into our practice utilizing self-efficacy. Being confident in what we are doing and believing that it is actually helping. I eventually did that with my vocal lessons. I got past the doubts I had and started practicing using self-efficacy without even realizing it.
ReplyDeleteSo I definitely think that if students have a strong efficacy, they will be able to follow through with their practice schedules.
Now in answering the question “Do you truly believe that practicing will lead to positive results or do you think it won't make much difference?” I strongly believe that it all has to do with HOW you are practicing. So my answer to the questions is “yes” but only if it’s good practice. My answer is “no” if you practice poorly. And my reasoning is because you won’t get better if you practice poorly. I hate the saying “practice makes perfect.” I don’t see this as true because what if you practice poorly. If you constantly practice poorly, you won’t get better. I believe that “practice makes permanent” because however you practice will reflect how you perform in the end. I also believe that “perfect practice makes perfect performance.” So if you practice to the best of your ability, in this case “perfectly,” you will then perform “perfectly.”(I don’t believe in perfection either but I’m just using it for this example).
My practice has been going well. I haven’t don’t vocal lessons for a few weeks but I am starting back up again this Friday so I’ve been practicing my songs for that and it has gone really well. What we’ve been talking about in class helped me with those songs and I picked them up again quickly because I was thinking about those things; specifically the breathing. I would like to set up some sort of support group because I do believe that can also help motivate people to work towards their goals such as the ones we have for this class. And I know it will help me stay on top of things as well.
Singing this week has actually been pretty exciting for me because I have found myself making progress that I had not expected!! I’m finally reaching a place where I am feeling comfortable with these songs and I think I am sounded good?? It at least seems that I’m doing better than I sound in the recordings that we do in class. I have been having trouble with True Love still though. For some reason I can just not understand the best way to sing that song even though I’ve sung it a billion times now. I do think now that I am feeling better about my singing ability.. kind of, that I am gaining that confidence for the self efficacy. Which is really cool. And also what was suggested, I think talking to my classmates about all of this will help me stay on track with my practices and I might learn something from them. So that’s awesome. - Tristian Osborne
ReplyDeleteA lot of personal stressors were present this week, and I didn’t practice very often. I felt torn between dealing with my emotional state and sucking it up and practicing. Looking back, I wonder if maybe practicing would have made me feel better. Maybe I can keep that in mind for next time, singing IS a stress reliever. I am definitely someone who needs accountability to succeed, and because I know that about myself, I have made a promise to myself to always tell you at voice lessons how many times I ended up practicing. Finding the motivation has been hard when it feels like I have so many bigger things to deal with. The week before this one, though, was great. My phone reminder to sing says, “I am a person who follows through,” and that was very helpful in giving me some motivation. Also, doing dishes or folding laundry while singing has been a way for me to feel productive while practicing. I’m figuring out what works for me, slowly. :) -Serena
ReplyDeleteI haven’t been able to practice as often or consistently as I would have liked. When I am, I practice as efficiently and productively as possible. I’m looking forward to the coming weeks as I transition out of this huge show commitment that I’ve had for the past few weeks. Unfortunately I went into this process already in the headspace that I would have a hard time committing to regular practice, and I fully believe that having that initial doubt set me up to have difficulty setting regular practice times. However, I’m looking forward to having more time to practice and explore my growing vocal ability.
ReplyDeleteOver all I think that I can rely on my own self sufficiency to keep myself on task. That is probably because I genuinely enjoy doing it. It is a good time of the day to be to myself. I did think it was coincidental that this blog talks about someones belief in themselves drives them to stick with it even more because I had a little thing that happened. I posted a video of me singing and I didn't get the most positive feedback so it made me doubt myself. It was kinda hard to practice after that. But now I've gotten over it and I am ready to sing even more. -Grayson
ReplyDeleteWhich Grayson is this? I teach three Graysons. :)
DeleteOverall I've been really trying to focus on practicing with the continued intention of being kind to myself and my voice while its been sick. I've noticed a really positive shift with the outcome of my practice sessions when I use holistically rather that isolating and practicing in dissonance. I am sticking to my practice schedule better than I thought I would but I know that, heading into the month of October I am going to need to be on my game more than ever in an effort not to fall behind. I am looking forward to engaging the muscle of public singing more and more as the semester progresses.
ReplyDelete-Grace Cawley
Delete-Grace Cawley
ReplyDeleteI definitely think that this semester has been the hardest to stick with my practice schedule. However, I do feel that I have done a really good job of doing my best to stick with it by finding the motivation to get better. I one-hundred percent agree that the only way to get better and to improve is to find the motivation to work on getting better. I have followed my practice schedule pretty well up until this last week, with being sick and rehearsing every night I have found it very very hard to find the motivation to rehearse and practice my songs or warm-up. After reading this blog, I feel like I can come up with more ways to motivate myself even when my busy schedule is hard to find time and motivation. I feel that setting up a social support system would be very encouraging for all who are going through busy schedules and trying to find time to improve their singing.
ReplyDelete-Caden Tudor
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ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteTruthfully, my practice has been nonexistent this week. I have been sick all week and have had a nasty cough, so my throat has not been feeling up to singing. I strain my voice a lot by not listening to when it needs a break, so I respected that this time around and didn't push myself over the limit. Also, I'm very bad with self-efficacy, and just take this post as an example. I knew I had to do this all week, and I still waited to do it on the last day. I knew I had to do this all day, and I still let other things distract me and have me push this aside until I was submitting it while getting ready to go to bed. I honestly am not sure how a social support system would help me, because I've noticed a pattern of the "social" part being what pulls me away from my work, so as long as they can keep from also being distracted, we'd be golden.
I have really been enjoying what we’ve learned in class and it’s all been extremely beneficial for me especially what we learned in our lab on Friday. It’s all been very helpful in letting me take care of my voice and understand what it needs and how to help it, especially during Macbeth. I have to yell quiet a bit in my fight scenes and I have to really work to create sound in 115 so it’s been really helpful to know how’ve to take care of myself better. I think it’s a great idea to pick somebody people that can help me keep on track with my singing and I am excited to apply that in the future.
ReplyDelete-Sophie White
I found compliance part 2 very interesting. I remember at the beginning of the semester I felt kind of silly doing the vocal exercises every day because I found so weird and it was kind of hard. However, I struck through it and feel like after 3 weeks I could defiantly feel my voice feel stronger. I feel like praCTICING HAS BEEN GOING WELL BUT (sorry for the all caps haha) I am excited to get new sessions as the weeks go on. I think had I not been practicing since the beginning that I would not be as good with Self efficacy as I am. I don’t know how much I would benefit from social support systems however I did like the idea of what my friends like doing and I do enjoy talking about singing with my friends.
ReplyDeleteAlexis Pullen
I definitely think that my self efficacy is pretty strong in terms of practicing consistently and with good intent. This is what I set out to do in August and I’m proud that I’ve stuck to it pretty consistently. However I think I could improve in the realm of practicing on a regular time schedule. This helps with having a time blocked out to do it so I don’t have to find time to do it, and also it helps connect cognition with the physical voice in order to help process what you are learning about the voice every time you practice.
ReplyDeleteI had never really considered how an accountability partner might work for the voice. I actually feel like it could be very beneficial as a lot of the work and results you encounter are not necessarily things you can see. By being accountable to tell someone else what you’re feeling and how it’s going might help you actually understand what you’re doing ! I I think it would benefit me to do this.
Practicing this week has overall gone really well. Keeping a positive mindset and attitude has helped me see a lot of growth even in the past two months. Ultimately being accountable for yourself is the most important thing because you’re the only person who can do the work for yourself!
Trejourni
I think that for the most part practice and maintaining my practice schedule has been fairly easy. Although sometimes I don’t practice at the exact times I had planned I think I do practice every day in some way. I often find myself just doing the warmups or singing something learned in class and then that leading into my practice sessions each day. Though I do like the idea of having a group/people to support me so maybe i’ll Have to give that a try.
ReplyDelete-Amona Faatau
I love the idea of social support systems. I think it carries over in so many facets of my life just how useful this tool is; when I have classes with friends, or even just people I know, I am so much better at staying on top of it, partly because it does make me feel more accountable, and also in part because if I feel confused, there's others that I can comfortably connect with to understand, share and collaborate.
ReplyDeleteI think I'm doing well with practice, if I find myself with a spare minute, I take that opportunity to initiate practice, because it can be fun, and I can adapt it so easily into my schedule on the fly if something comes up around my outlined rehearsal times.
I have found that when I am more passionate about my songs that I practice them more regularly and they become memorized much faster. I also spend more time on little things like diction, tightening up rhythms, where I place thought out breathes, etc. This goes with self - efficacy because I have a belief that I sound good singing the specific song choices so I make more of an effort to make it to the practice room to rehearse. So when it comes to songs that I do not feel as invested in, I tend to lose the drive I need to practice.
ReplyDeleteHaving a good support system would definetly help my ability to practice more consistently and more productivley. I am part of a choir that is very demanding and is requiring me to learn a lot of pieces in the next few months. We have a group chat going, and even though I am not really active in it, it is nice to see how excited everyone is to come together to perform certain pieces and that helps to drive me to prepare the best I can.
Practice this past week has been really rewarding. I feel like a breakthrough is on the way, taking pedagogy has helped too.
Alright now this whole voice practicing thing is starting to sound too much like church... being held accountable and using guilt to drive better behavior haha. Practicing is going well. Two weeks without you and Julie so I'm gonna work on memorization so that we can really hone in on whatever we want at a good pace.
ReplyDeletePracticing isn't really something I've been good at making myself do. I find it easier to practice when someone else holds me accountable because then I feel like I have to do it for them and not necessarily for myself. As I'm typing this I'm realizing I'm bad at doing things for myself and I generally do things for other people. Damn. Thanks for that realization I guess.
ReplyDeleteAnywaaay, I haven't been practicing as much as I should because of the repercussions Dracula closing and some things in my personal life. But now that I have more time I do fully plan on practicing more. I guess it's just up to me to follow through with that.