Not a note was sung, but voice coach Ciara McPartland helped Róisín Ingle find her 'soul voice'
At the start of our session in a room high above Westmoreland Street, Dublin, voice coach Ciara McPartland requests the "great spirit" to generate an atmosphere of safety and love. As incense and candles burn, she explains that she is asking this of the "great spirit" so that we will be able to access our "soul voices" more easily. When she has finished and the water music emanating from the hefty stereo system behind her has faded away, she says cheerily: "you don't have to believe any of that of course, it's just the way I like to start."
It would be a huge mistake to think that you are coming to a singing lesson when you make an appointment with McPartland, who dreamt up her company, Soul Voice, while on holiday in Morocco. That's not to say that by the end of a few sessions with her, your fantasy of being able to stand up at a party and belt out one of your favourite tunes won't be realised. What it does mean is that if you come looking for theory or technical expertise, then McPartland - who has a heart-stopping singing voice herself - will gently steer you elsewhere.
"What Soul Voice does is allow you to have a look at what might be blocking you," the professionally-trained actress explains. "Maybe you were criticised during a school play or other performance, and the voice has held on to that trauma ever since. If you just try to sing through it without acknowledging those blocks, you could end up with a technically impressive voice, but you will have no connection with that voice. Soul Voice is all about connecting you with yourself. I like to tell people that while it's not therapy, it can be very therapeutic."
Her customer base has grown quietly but steadily through word of mouth. Lorraine O'Brien, youth arts officer with Dún Laoghaire Youth Service, came across Soul Voice while looking for innovative workshops catering for children.
"I am very interested in the therapeutic benefits of sound, which is what drew me to the kind of work Ciara does," she says. "In the days and weeks afterwards I had greater clarity and a greater peace and wellbeing. I don't know if it would be everybody's cup of tea, but I would describe it as self-discovery through sound. You may not think much is happening at the time, but you see the changes in your life afterwards."
During one session, she just sat for 20 minutes making primitive sounds with McPartland. "It's an intuitive, abstract experience," she says. "When we are born, we can't speak, and we express ourselves only through sound. Sometimes words are useless. At times of deep grief or high euphoria, words have a limit, sound goes much, much deeper."
Mark Aherne, a freelance art history lecturer, came to McPartland because he was exploring creative areas he had wanted to pursue for years. "I had a mild phobia about singing as I hadn't sung, even in private, for five years, for various reasons. I was terrified my singing fantasy would be shattered, so at first, going to Ciara was quite a fearful experience," he says.
He describes what developed from his Soul Voice sessions as "a small miracle". "I went from primitive sounds, to singing solo, to harmonising with Ciara, to working with drum and keyboard accompaniment," he says, still amazed at his rapid progress. "She approaches singing from an emotional, heartfelt and expressive place rather than an academic or technical one, which worked for me."
"For what I do to work properly, all you have to be is willing," McPartland says. "It's not always comfortable working with such a vulnerable part of ourselves, so you have to be open to it."
During our hour-long session I didn't sing a note, which would have been disappointing if the experience weren't so powerful. Instead of a singsong, we sat and talked about possible blocks I might have and walked around the room having passionate conversations with my "soul voice". There were tears, and it felt a bit silly at times, but I left the room lighter of spirit, genuinely surprised at the insights McPartland, and more importantly my very own "soul voice", had revealed. (And it's done wonders for my singing in the shower.)