Smooooth!

We have been working this week on the legato line, so in today's post I'll look at the fundamentals and the building blocks of technique; in subsequent posts we'll look more closely at practical manifestation of that theory.

Breath support/breath and breath management.

This is crucial for real legato singing. In singing a legato line, the singer must learn how to make a low breath into the lower back, not too much breath, however it is always a low breath". Over-breathing will encourage you to"blow out the vocal cords " with too much breath pressure. This manifests itself as "pushing" the voice or too much "pushing of air pressure" through the cords. Over-breathing will certainly distort any legato line. A slow and gradual release of breath is crucial for the basis of a legato line.

The Jaw.

The proper position of your jaw is"hanging slightly down and back" (a sort of gormless look) much as the jaw would hang down and back if one went to sleep with the head back. The jaw NEVER goes forward. Too many singers open their mouths too much until the jaw "pops forward" out of its socket or joint. This is completely incorrect for healthy singing. It also makes a legato line impossible because the jaw cannot manage the relationship between vowel and consonant function. If the jaw is "slightly down and back", the relationship between vowel and consonant is smooth. This creates a longer vibrational time between vowel and consonant function: a pure legato line.

Try a "gentle chewing motion" of the jaw.

• chew several times before singing.


• Then sing "ee,oh,ee,oh,ee,oh". When a "gentle chew" is achieved, as in eating food, the pressure in the jaw muscles is released. This exercise creates a smooth, gentle, and elastic motion of the jaw muscles.

The Tongue

Think about the "ng" position of the tongue as in the word "singing" or "hanging". This "ng" position of the tongue is the basis for resonance to be present in singing a legato line; without this technique there is a "muted" or "darkened" sound in the voice. True resonance is lost.

Some simple exercises:

1. Try leaning slightly forward from the waist" then sound a "hiss" creating a lot of resistance at the tongue/teeth area. This will give the you the feel of "holding back the breath pressure" with the body and allowing a "small controlled breath stream" to be used. Then (when there is no-one around) do the same thing but create a small moaning sound, this will give you the proper feel of breath support.


2. The "hanging" relaxed jaw. Use chewing exercises and imitate the jaw function of chewing food. Sing from a closed vowel to an open vowel . This could be "ee, oh, ee, oh, ee, oh," etc. or "eh, ah, eh, ah, eh, ah," etc.


3. Try it again but use Italian syllables such as: da, me, ni, po, to, la, be, da. Use the "hanging jaw" as proper position to pronounce these sounds. This can be properly found by using the position of "drinking out of a large glass". Allow the tongue to do all of the pronouncing. This will keep the jaw from closing and the result will be a more "open ". Note: (if you raise your eyebrows, the "relaxed hanging jaw" will be much easier.)


4. Use a "ng" sound and gradually open to an open vowel such as "oh" or "ah". The result will be a vowel that has resonance and this resonance can maximise the length of the vowels and minimise the time spent on consonants.

It is important to remember that the core of good musicianship in singing is a good legato line, when the legato line is present in your performances, the audience is moved and touched emotionally.

Hi All,

We spoke on the last rehearsal of the old year about commitment - I want to share a very old video clip with you of my absolute favourite singer (well almost) - Giuseppe di Stefano.

Being a deeply flawed character myself, it will come as not surprise to you that one of my musical heroes (despite his genius) was not perfect. Giuseppe di Stefano was a natural talent, a voice with an immediacy and passion unrivalled in this century. His story was the story of a tenor who was more than liable to yield to temptation - and he did, singing without precaution.

During the decade of 1946 to 1956, Di Stefano performed onstage and on recordings with a beauty of tone and an intensity unique in this century. His lifestyle was as intense as his performing - it made the behaviour of the wildest player in Manchester United seem more sedate than that of a house-bound Baptist preacher.

His technique, which in some respects was extraordinarily good, spread his tone and negotiated the transition of vocal placement that occurs in the tenor range around F above middle C in the worst possible way. But while the voice lasted, it was unlike anything heard this century. Its sound was beautiful beyond compare and Di Stefano could manipulate it with nuanced expression of seemingly endless subtlety. His diction in both Italian and French was perfect. Every syllable he sang was suffused with meaning. He shaded the music so that the listener seemed to sense the meaning of what he sang without understanding a single word of Italian or French. He could also make a seamless transition from the very loudest to the softest sound without losing support of the tone, and he could do it over his entire vocal range.

Both Plácido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti were asked which tenors had influenced them. They both named the same two - Enrico Caruso and Giuseppe di Stefano. The recently published biography of Jussi Björling written by his wife describes how taken that great tenor was by Di Stefano's singing, how Björling said that if Di Stefano kept going the way he had started, he would leave everyone behind.

The aria is E lucevan le stelle is the last solo aria in the Opera ra Tosca by Giacomo Puccini. It is sung by Tosca's lover, the painter Mario Cavaradossi,when lamenting his coming execution. Mario Cavaradossi is a beautifully shaped character who, being in love with a passionate and extremely jealous diva, Floria Tosca, endures all her doubts and jealousy and loves her more and more every minute. But he is imprisoned for treason and he is to be executed at dawn.

Cavaradossi, who is aware of the situation, bids his farewell to life, singing one of the most beautiful arias in the entire operatic repertoire. He starts recalling a night spent with Tosca - everything was so beautiful, sublime and almost unreal. But something is wrong with all that Cavaradossi's shows his anger over the unjust laws of life and death in the second part of the aria, when he cries out in complete despair:

This level of commitment to each note, to ensure that every phrase is what we want it to be is (in the words of Shakespeare's Hamlet) "a consummation devoutly to be wished" Please enjoy a masterful performance below.

Control freak!

We talked about controlling your breathing on long phrases in order to achieve a really good legato; this control is not just as the air leaves your body but also controlling it as it enters your body. So think of it in this way

1. As the air comes in let it enter deeply but gently; fill your lower abdomen as slowly as the music allows, feeling the rhythm of the music (the beats) as you breathe in.


2. Before you sing hold the breath firmly in your tummy, ready to use in those lovely long phrases


3. As you begin to sing there should be no sudden burst of air, just a steady stream of sumptuous sound.


4. Release all the air by the end of each phrase.

There is one big big big no-no! It is so important that I will write it in red, bold and capitals.

KEEP YOUR SHOULDERS RELAXED AND DOWN WHEN YOU BREATHE IN!

I would love you all to have a go at this exercise every day for the next week - just spend five minutes on it each day until you perfect it.

• Breathe in as above
• Gently blow the air out onto your index finger held in front of your mouth
• Practice until you can feel the air hitting your finger smoothly and evenly through the duration of the blow out.
• Listen to sound of the air and make it smooth and even through the duration of the blow out.

Smooooooth!

Do try this at home!

I didn't expect to be posting again so soon but I have had half a dozen emails asking for examples of exercises that you can do at home to improve the breathing without singing out loud, frightening the cats and having your better half looking at you as if you are nuts!

The following exercise may make you feel tired at first, but do keep at it as you will begin to notice that it takes less effort to breath, less energy is used when breathing plus it helps you learn to co-ordinate all your singing apparatus when breathing.

First up though, to find out if you are breathing correctly, place a hand on your belly button. This area should expand first when you breathe in and then spread upwards until your chest is expanded (don't lift your shoulders).

If you feel you are not breathing properly, practice the following exercise. Lay flat on your back. Place your hands on your waist, fingers pointing towards your belly button. Focus on filling up your stomach from the bottom to the top taking a slow deep breath. (The aim is not to fill yourself to bursting but to inhale enough air so that you can feel the difference between the shallow breath taken when breathing from the chest).

You should feel your stomach rise and your hands being raised gently up and outward until you feel your chest expanding. The expansion is not only at the front of the body but also to the sides and back as well.

Breath out slowly to a count of 5 Repeat the exercise 10 times Practice daily before you get up in the morning and before you go to sleep at night for 5 - 10 minutes gradually increasing this to 3 or 4 times a day. Once you get it right, practice as often as possible, sitting, standing and whilst at work until you are breathing naturally from your abdomen.

As easy as breathing in and out?

Is this always the case in singing? As we have discovered the two items that we want to work on are breathing and diction. But what do I mean by this?

This week we worked on these items in some detail. I don't intend these weekly blogs to be very long but just to recap on the principle and give one simple reminder of the weeks points. And of course feel free to post comments on this blog!

Good diction is about much more than "spitting out those consonants", the things we were working on this week are all about uniformity. This means that in order to get really accurate tuning the vowel sounds we produce need to match each other very closely.

Tuning is the process of producing a pitch in relation to one produced by another singer , both matched at the unison inside your section but also with the other sections in the choir who will be singing different notes. So when I say that a chord is "Out of tune" I am referring to a pitch that is too high or too low, or sharp or flat respectively.

But, I hear you ask, what has this got to do with diction? If our vowel sounds do not match there are very small differences in the sound, in essence this means that it will be impossible to create a true unison. This is a particular challenge in our choir as we all come from such diverse backgrounds, Ulstermen, Brummies, Welsh, Cockneys, Yorkshiremen et al, all with their wonderfully rich accents when speaking, I love hearing regional accents in speech but we need uniformity in singing.

So have a look at the picture above - this is the basic principle we started with on Tuesday in order to start thinking about open vowel sounds. I'll start looking at the vowels next time.

Breathing was the other item we worked on on Tuesday evening, I'll just recap the basic principles that we worked on here. A good air supply is fundamental to producing a good choral tone, good musical phrasing, good tuning and it makes it much easier and more enjoyable for you too!

So here are the headlines from Tuesday

• Breathe quietly through your mouth. A deep breath will relax your body
• Prepare your mouth for the vowel your are about to sing, for example if you are about to sing the word "Holy" breathe in to an "oh" vowel
• Make sure you don't suck the sound through your teeth
• Keep your shoulders relaxed and down
• Breathe in slowly until the air fills up your tummy very low down. Feel the air fill up the front and then the back of your abdomen!

If you could think about just these two ideas when practicing during the week it will make such a difference!

As you know I have given you midi files of the music with your part accentuated to help you learn the notes, if you are feeling brave here are some links to this weeks music with the parts and accompaniment all at equal strength, see if you can sing your part without extra help! If this doesn't work for you yet go back to your original file and try and master your own part - then try again!

for Sailing - click on this one

http://media.putfile.com/Sailing-all-parts

for Close thine eyes - click on this one

http://media.putfile.com/Close-thine-eyes---all-parts

See you all on Tuesday