Overview of Bel Canto

1. Breathing: thoracic, elevated sternum, mm of upper abdomen against breath (epigastrium)

2. Larynx: very low depending on voice type (Girolamo, Rome), through activity of

sternothyroid and sternohyoid

3. Larynx: firm adduction (appoggio), Stauprinzip, Minimalluft, glottal fry, low pitch onset

4. Larynx: cover mechanism (see Stark quotation, Bel Canto pp 84-85)

5. Larynx: jaw relaxed inward, back of tongue raised (loose)

6. Larynx; portamento, legato, staccato, messa di voce

7. Registration: blended through firm adduction (active TA)-cover mechanism,

Lamperti: “the appoggio does not move” and portamento.

8. Resonance: epilarynx, laryngopharynx, soft palate (Garcia: mouth of voice is pharynx)

9. Resonance: mouth (only finer shades of the vowel); mask not a bel canto strategy

Overview of Current Standard Pedagogy

1. Breathing: low but not necessarily ribs expanded, lower abdomen dominant

2. Larynx: low but not too low (low larynx called “depressed” by some writers and presenters)

3. Larynx: flow phonation, pouring breath, Bernoulli effect, imaginary ‘h’ (Vennard), soft onset

(Miller). Use of straws, lip trills, tongue trills. Semi-occluded phonation. Inertance.

4. Larynx: cover mechanism avoided as too artificial or replaced with back pressure over the

larynx.

5. Larynx: no discussion of portamento or messa di voce (old fashioned-sloppy)

6. Registration: blended through discussion of soft palate; sometimes blended by isolating

head and chest registers and blending them in a middle voice resonance or by avoiding

chest register altogether.

7. Resonance: mask, brilliance, frontal resonance, sinuses. (The sinuses are not resonators.)

Overview of the Belt Voice

1. Breathing: low and probably heavily reliant upon the diaphragm because:

2. Larynx: firm adduction

3. Jaw relaxed, but probably not as relaxed as for bel canto because the “smiling position”

related to:

4. Larynx: medium to high in the throat, definitely not low. This limits the range of belt singers

because the higher pitches depend upon a lowered larynx, unless the singers raise the larynx

to a very high position and squeeze the backs of their tongues: then: high notes. But not for

long. Power belters who disdain the help of the microphone usually burn out. Those who

make the “belt effect” without pushing last longer. Some belters learn to “flip” into a “head

voice” adjustment. Most of them grimace when approaching a “high” pitch.

5. Resonance: mostly mouthy, bright American vowels, usually nasal.

6. Resonance: frontal, bright bright, no - brighter, “farther in the front.”