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Bel Canto Technique

There have been entire books written about Bel Canto.[1]There is even a web site dedicated to the subject.[2]Probably my addition to so much writing will be of limited value. Never-the-less in this article I would like to present as simply as possible my understanding of what Bel Canto, the standard of Western Classical Vocal Pedagogy, is.

Breathing
My best voice teacher used to have us repeat after him over and over “when you breathe in, the tummy goes out. When you sing the tummy stays out. When you breathe out the tummy goes in”. Two parts of this mantra are intuitive and obvious. If you're trying to fill up your lungs you have to expand everywhere, from the clavicle to the waist, everything expands when you take a deep breath. Of course, if you let the air out, the same area deflates—like a balloon which is blown up and then allowed to loose its air. But the middle like “when you sing, the tummy stays out” doesn't seem to make sense.

When we sing, we would expect that our tummy would be pulling in (it does, but not the way some people thing). But there are two reasons this is not the case. One, is, proper singing requires very little air. The air is released through the voice in such small amounts that the tummy's delfation is imperceptible. Fundamentally, the “tummy stays out” as the air is expelled from the body so slowly that you cannot see the tummy move in. The second reason is just slightly more complicated—the dynamics between the abdominal muscles contracting to pull in and the diaphragmatic action pushing down.

To breath a full inhalation of air, the diaphragm must push down against the stomach wall. As a singer produces a tone with the voice, the diaphragm continues to push down. But there is a dynamic, calisthenic resistance automatically created by the abdominal muscles, resisting the pressure downward and outward from the diaphragm. This creates a pressurized system. This pressure results in two further aspects of proper breathing support: a controlled air column, and natural vibrato.

Controlled Air Column

Many teachers speak of “support”, the mysterious power great singers have to sing loud or soft, high or low, and longer than seems possible for a mortal. That support comes from a controlled air column created through the dynamic interaction described above. When I was a teenager, sometimes I came home a little later than I should have, or I stayed up well past the time my parents went to sleep. When I walked around the house and wanted to close a door I had to do so as quietly as possible. I would always use both hands-one pushing and one pulling—dynamically creating a very controlled closing of the door. This way I could close the door silently. It was controlled action. This kind of dynamic control of the air column is the key to the first aspect of Bel Canto technique. It is also the beginning of another aspect of a well-trained voice—natural vibrato.

Natural Vibrato

As the diaphragm pushes against the stomach wall, and the abdominal muscles contract to resist that action, a nerve between the stomach wall and the diaphragm is stimulated. When stimulated, it fires 5-7 times per second. This firing causes the diaphragm to vibrate, which causes a pulsation of the air. The pulsation of air flow causes the voice to increase and decrease slightly in both volume and pitch; this is natural vibrato. Vibrato is not created by any action of the throat or any artificial muscular activity. It is the natural product of proper breathing and the dynamic tension between the diaphragm and the abdominal muscles. This is the foundation upon which a great vocal tone is built.

Tone (“point and space”)

Bel Canto tone can be described with contradictory terms: bright and warm, focused and spacious, pointed and round. Proper tone is all of these together, and together these elements are wondrous, when produced by a skilled singer. Various teachers use fancy terms when discussing tone. Some of these terms make them sound very, well, fancy, but can be confusing to the beginning student. In simple terms, the voice has to resonate somewhere. If it resonates only in the mouth, and the nasal passages are closed, you have what most people call a “nasal” tone (I know that sounds like a contradiction—the nasal tone is produced when the nasal passages are used for resonation!). If it resonates only in the nasal passages and the throat and mouth are not properly utilized, the sound becomes “throaty” or, as some teachers call it, the sound comes “out the mouth”. This is the reason for an overly round or open sound. The best tone quality is produced by the proper balance and utilization of both the nasal passages and the throat and mouth. This balance is both bright and round, both focused and spacious. It is the balancing of these apparently contradictory qualities which results in the tone which everyone longs to hear from a singer. There are two main keys which unlock the door to this glorious tone, “lift”, combined with proper diction.

Lift

Different terms might be used by voice teachers to describe the same phenomenon. In order to understand this technique it might be helpful to imagine looking down from above, through your head and into your throat. Looking from this angle, the throat can be open in two main shapes, an oval, or a circle. If it is the shape of an oval, the voice will usually sound a bit too bright. If it is in the shape of a circle, the voice will usually have that magical combination of brightness and space. This circular shape is achieved by lifting the back of the mouth. . . if you look in the mirror and yawn, you can see the little piece of flesh hanging down in the back of the mouth, at the top of the throat, lift. This is the “lift” that voice teachers talk so much about. Such a position of the throat accomplishes many goals: it opens the nasal passages, it relaxes the voice box, and it creates the space needed for a focused tone. The most important skill a singer must develop to maintain this lift consistently is proper diction.

Proper Diction

Have you ever gone on a long bus trip and fallen asleep? Did you ever wake up with your jaw hanging down and your mouth wide open? That's the ideal position for you to sing all vowels, with your jaw hanging down, “as if it isn't there” as Tetrazinni described it (Caruso's description was not as kind. He said you should let your jaw hang like you're an idiot). This is the base position for the pronunciation of all vowels when singing. It is also the rest position from which all consonants are created.

Consonants can be tricky because they can drop down the back of the throat if they are not produced properly. This is one reason Bel Canto style is usually taught through Italian songs—the Italian consonants are all pronounced forward and with tongue out of the back of the mouth. You can actually rest the tip of your tongue on your bottom teeth while pronouncing Italian consonants like n, and t, and l (all tongued consonants). This keeps the voice bright and the throat lifted. Consonants that are produced by an explosion of air can be problematic for the singer. The Italian consonants are all produced with the air focused downward, and kept in the mouth. If you say k and put your hand in front of your mouth, you'll likely feel a puff of air. But if you adjust the k so that the air stays in your mouth, the same sound can be produced without a puff of air. Apply this technique to all exploded consonants and you get the Italian Bel Canto technique for consonant production. The tongue stays and the bottom teeth, and the air stays in the mouth. It really is that simple (well, simple to say and to understand, not always simple to do). Once these principle techniques are mastered the singer is ready to work on the refinement of vocal production, to sing with legato style and technique.

Legato Style

Anyone who has taken music lessons knows that legato means “smooth and connected”. This is a fundamental technique for the Bel Canto singer. Legato singing requires that the voice flow smoothly through all vocal registers (vocal registers is a topic for another article), from the highest to the lowest points in the range and back again, with no apparent break. Part of Bel Canto style is learning to slur between notes, even large leaps, with no perceptible break in the sound. This is accomplished by quickly slurring between notes, so quickly that the listener is not able to hear it. The young student must be careful and avoid confusion. Slurring is something to be avoided in general in classical technique, unless it is called for in certain styles. But this is a slurring the audience does not notice. The other aspect of legato style is the uninterrupted flow of air, even in long or florid, melismatic passages. This is one of the most difficult aspects of Bel Canto style to master, but one of the most rewarding to listen to.

Though it may only take a few minutes to read and understand the principles Bel Canto, it normally takes at least four to ten years for a serious student to master all aspects of technique described in this article. The fact that you have reached the end of this tome indicates you are willing to make an effort to learn. This attitude will take you a long way in your journey to developing your voice and bringing it under your conscious control.

“Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”

~Berthold Auerbach




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