Reddit Reddit reviews Bel Canto: A Theoretical and Practical Vocal Method (Dover Books on Music)

We found 2 Reddit comments about Bel Canto: A Theoretical and Practical Vocal Method (Dover Books on Music). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

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Bel Canto: A Theoretical and Practical Vocal Method (Dover Books on Music)
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2 Reddit comments about Bel Canto: A Theoretical and Practical Vocal Method (Dover Books on Music):

u/keakealani · 7 pointsr/singing

Yeah... I really don't condone self-teaching for many reasons, but obviously you don't want to hear that right now, so this is just a bit of a disclaimer.

Personally, I think if you're going to study on your own, it's really worth it to get a good background in the "bookwork" elements of singing, like vocal anatomy and pedagogy, as well as language work.

On that end, I would recommend books like Doscher's The Functional Unity of the Singing Voice, McKinney's The Diagnosis and Correction of Vocal Faults, Miller's The Structure of Singing, and McCoy's Your Voice: An Inside View. These are really not easy reads, per se, but they should give you a really good foundation in understanding what's going on physically, and being aware of potential problems in vocal health and hygiene, which is arguably the biggest reason to study with a teacher. (In other words, a good understanding of the physical vocal structure can help prevent unknowingly contorting it in an unhealthy way).

I would also strongly recommend some study in language, diction, and text. Even for non-classical singers, it's worth it to know about how diction and articulation works. Diction for Singers, A Handbook of Diction for Singers, and International Phonetic Alphabet for Singers would be a good start. (And in general, a working understanding of IPA is crucial).

You can also work on text analysis - I'm not really a poetry/text specialist so I can't recommend any specific books, but I'm sure there are many out there.

Marchesi's Bel Canto: A Theoretical and Practical Vocal Method is another resource to look into, as it contains many exercises designed for technical practice - I liken it to the Hanon exercises commonly found in piano curricula. However, I will definitely warn that these exercises can be easily done incorrectly and can lead to the development of very bad habits, so please proceed with caution and be aware that there are many ways to execute the exercises, some of which are not healthy.

In addition, I would recommend a broad study in music theory, music history, and ear training. [Musictheory.net](http://www.musictheory.net] and Teoria.com are well-respected websites that offer lessons and exercises to learn beginner to intermediate level music theory concepts. Good-ear.com is another website I often recommend that focuses more on ear training. I would also recommend checking out the sidebar and FAQs over at /r/musictheory for more details.

In addition to these websites, some books worth mentioning include Berkowitz's A New Approach to Sight Singing, Music for Analysis, Caplin's Classical Form, Taruskin's Oxford History of Western Music, Grout's A History of Western Music, and Schoenberg's Structural Functions of Harmony. While of course you don't need to have a doctorate in music theory to begin singing, I think it can only be helpful to have a really broad basis of understanding in various parts of music, as they directly affect your ability to read, understand, and interpret music.

Anyway, that should give you a pretty decent start. Please feel free to post if you have any additional questions.

u/[deleted] · 5 pointsr/singing

Good on you for turning your embarassment into motivation! That's a tough step to make, and it will be very rewarding to work on your singing.

As for transitioning from one note to another, just practice scales. The bigger the jump between notes, the more challenging it will be; there is a whole lot that goes into blending the registers so I won't get into that. So just start with scales in the easy part of your range, and try and make the transitions smooth as though you're just singing one sustained note (that is, the breath stays constant between notes-- you don't need to "stop the air" between notes). And as a matter of fact, when I say start with scales, don't let ambition push you to doing scales that cover too large of a range or are in a difficult part of your range. Start with just 2 or 3 note patterns, like "do-re-do" (but all one one vowel, such as "ah"), or "do-re-mi-re-do" and so forth. The old-school singing schools started very slow with this kind of stuff-- like this book for example:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0486223159/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_2?pf_rd_p=1944687542&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=1423438736&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1EVP16YWAGXYX5QPGN1C

There are pages and pages of simple 1, 2, and 3 note figures before you start getting to the point of singing bigger scales. Singing a full octave scale with even tone and easy production is surprisingly hard for a true beginner. The "grand scale" of 2 octaves (maybe with a turnaround at the top making it 2 octaves plus a whole tone) is certainly "advanced." Adding consanants and vowel changes is another added layer of difficulty. I'm just mentioning these things because I came to singing a complete beginner, and thought it was silly that it should be so hard. On guitar, violin, or piano, which I had played for years, there is really very little difficulty or adjustment required in moving around from low to high notes. The voice is really clunky, and by nature not very smooth from bottom to top. It takes a lot of time to get a consistent tone throughout one's range. Just bringing this up to say-- take pleasure in small victories, and don't get discouraged! ;)

As for vibrato, it's a nice milestone to strive for, but it's not really recommended that you try to create it consciously. It will come naturally as your technique gets better. Strangely enough it is just one of those things that emerges on it's own once you've found a nice and relaxed and resonant mode of singing. It can be created artificially in various ways but this is usually considered to not sound very good, and some of which could be downright unhealthy for your voice.