After almost two years of studying, I'm pleased to say that I passed my first Estill exam! The test looked at all aspects; the physiology of the voice, listening to common vocal problems and suggesting solutions, and of course the history and values of the Estill approach.
It's been over a decade since I last took an exam and boy was I nervous! In the lead up to the exam date I certainly suffered from brain fog and crippling doubt. But I took some of my own advice, I created a revision plan, and stuck to it! Cue cards, bright colour pens, translucent post-it notes (a complete god send when learning the names of all the different muscles in the neck!) and lots and lots of tea! IT WORKED!
The pass mark was 90%, so I'm pretty thrilled that I came through the exam first time, especially as being dyslexic, remembering the spelling of all those muscles and ligaments was a real challenge!
The best bit of the experience? Meeting my fellow students - due to the pandemic, we've received all our lectures online, which has worked well and opened up many more possibilities, our cohort is spread across Europe, with many different musical genres and experiences represented, which has led to classes being rich in diversity and opinion, utterly brilliant! After almost 2 years, it was great to meet (most) of my fellow students in-person and share a long awaited hug!
So what next? Well I now need to do a couple of practical exams (the Estill Voice Print for those of you who want to know) and then will soon begin my observations. I've got at least another year before I qualify as an Estill Master Trainer, but it will be so worth it, I feel so lucky to me part of this amazing community who share my passion for vocal pedagogy are research!