■ 183 Chapter 12 Reflective Journaling in the Singing Studio Cathy Aggett T his chapter investigates the effectiveness of reflective journaling as a ped- agogical learning and teaching tool for use in the singing studio. The chapter has three parts. It begins by discussing reflective practice, reflective and reflexive journaling, and describes the author’s reflective journaling process for a musical performance. The second section presents writing from a mezzo-soprano and a soprano’s (the author) viewpoints when engaged in short and long-term reflective journal writing during the preparation of Australian art songs for public performance. Entries from the journals are given to show aspects of different levels of critical thinking present, and related to musical examples from the repertoire. The entries are analysed using categories of reflective thinking based on Mezirow’s (1991) levels of reflection (adapted by Kember et al., 2000). The third and final section focuses on aspects of reflective journaling relevant to the singing studio and a peda- gogical approach to learning repertoire, discussing how the analysis of differ- ent levels of reflection can encourage deeper learning in the studio context and details some of the drawbacks of reflective journaling. A range of ques- tions are posed to stimulate all levels of reflective action that can be applied to assist the learning and teaching process in the singing studio. In her article, “Making a reflexive turn: Practical music-making becomes conventional research”, Jane Davidson suggested that: … in the western art tradition performance is typically a more pre- sentational than a reflexive activity … [urging] practitioners to begin to consider their own musical and performance processes and examine why certain elements which contribute towards creating a Perspectives-Singing.FinalText.x:Perspectives-Singing.FinalText.x 17/8/10 2:26 PM Page 183