Inhalare la voce

Thank you, Chris for your comments and input.

I do not mean to imply that the teaching of “bel canto” (beautiful singing) applies to repertoire and not to the technique. My point is that the bel canto art of singing has no boundaries pertaining to repertoire. The usage of the term bel canto emerged in the late 17th century Italy, referring to the Italian style of singing. Throughout the next centuries, the bel canto style required a technique to support the vocal performance style of easy tonal production, inhalare la voce, legato, coloratura, etc.

I did not say “throat”, but “upper pharyngeal” area. The hard and soft palates are very important to the resonance of the voice. They belong to the feeling of inhalation including the “mask” and head resonance by reacting with the tongue and movement of the lips. For example, by using the “th” or “ng” in exercises, the resonance is activated and the tone is actually directed AWAY from the throat (We certainly do not want to produce tones in the throat! Never!) Vowels will also serve to produce the resonance that the voice requires. An “u” is a great help to inhalation of tone.

I would also never “place the tone”. As I have mentioned, I am convinced that “placing” causes tension and limits the tone to a certain area. With the feeling of inhalation and the lightness that comes from feeling tone production from above the tone, there is no reason to “place” a tone. The body support and strength allows any tone in any range possible without placing or forcing. With the correct support, the correct opening, the feeling of inhalation (that begins outside the body) and hearing the tone before one sings, the tones will come automatically. The tones will autmatically take their required “place”.

And…oh yes, the students are curious. But when they are able to visualize your instructions, they are usually convinced that it works. They hear that a breathy tone achieves clarity, they feel that the onset of the tone is so easy, and finally they hear their voices grow in size.

• Author and date: Brenda Roberts (2010-01-09)
• Permalink: Inhalare la voce
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1 Comment »

  1. Hey there!

    Sorry, I just noticed that you responded here.

    I agree with you entirely that Bel Canto has no boundaries pertaining to repertoire. I know singers who use the technique for everything from Italian opera to heavy rock.

    About the throat… when you said “upper pharyngeal” I thought you meant the top of the throat. I apologize, but I am missing your distinction between the two.

    When you use “th” and “ng” in your exercises, is that to help focus the tone on the front of the hard palate?

    I’m finding your views on this to be very much in line with the way I was taught, and where they are different,I am gaining interest to find out more.

    Do you use the “h” to help facilitate inhalation of tone? The exercises I learned didn’t use “th” or “ng” in them, but certainly focused on open vowels. A typical one might be “ha - ah - hey - ay - ho - o - o, with the scale degrees going 3 - 1 - 3 - 1 - 3 - 2 - 1. In each case, the “h” happening on the top note of each part of the sequence helped to facilitate the inhalation, though of course, you would need to inhale *each* note.

    On that site with the videos by Ed himself (my instructor), the ninth video shows a couple of the exercises in detail. The sixth one describes the act of inhaling the tone.

    http://belcanto.myseriestv.com/showList.php

    Thanks for continuing to engage in this discussion with me.

    Chris

    Comment by Chris Tondreau — January 24, 2010 @ 11:24 pm

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