ICMP songwriting tutor Angela Blacklaw has published a new piece of ground-breaking research into Jungian archtypes in songwriting teaching.

Angela has had her article, 'Using Jungian Archetypes in Contemporary Songwriting Education', published in the UEL Cass School of Education and Communities periodical, Research in Teacher Education (RiTE).

Archetypes are global and universal and used in a wide range of media such as TV, films and song.

Songwriting examples include Ed Sheeran's 'Shape Of You'  which illustrates the pursuit and passion of a lover, as does Justin Timberlake's 'What Goes Around'

Commenting, Angela said: "

As both a songwriter and a development specialist, it seemed natural to me to put archetypes and songwriting together. I was curious though, whether and how it would be useful for that creative process to happen consciously. That became the subject of my ICMP undergraduate dissertation and then - after I started to teach at ICMP - I started to experiment with embedding it into the creative songwriting curriculum." 

Archetypes now forms part of the Writing Techniques curriculum where students explore 12 archetypes using writing briefs. 

Angela continued: "We find it is particularly helpful to inspire songs that might be very different from students' usual repertoire, which helps to keep things fresh and to keep the archetype in mind when editing the song to ensure it is really focused." 

Jonathan Whiskerd, BA Songwriting Programme Leader, added: "Angela's work on the use of Jungian archetypes in songwriting teaching is, as far as we can ascertain, the first of its kind. It is a great example of innovative practice and not only shows off the quality of songwriting teaching at ICMP but the creativity at the heart of our faculty."  

Visit freedomfoundry.co.uk to find out more about Angela and her workshops using the technique. 

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