PHNG PHP THANH NHC CA ANTHONY FRISELLENTRY #1 Nhng s tht v cng quan trng v ging ht ca bn, c th bn thn bn v ging vin thanh nhc ca bn cng khng bit.K thut thanh nhc m chng ta hc ngy nay, l nhng k thut c kim chng t rt lu. 95% ngi tng hc thanh nhc ni vi ti rng h thm ch cn khng ht ni mt bi ht n gin. Ti nhn ra rng, nguyn nhn ca s tht bi ny l do hu ht ging vin thanh nhc v hc vin khng hiu r ngun gc cn bn ca m thanh v cha luyn ging ng cch bng nhng phng php luyn thanh ca cc ca s bc thy trc y. Ging u l yu t quan trng to nn mt ging ht ng cp, cng l cch duy nht ngi ht c th ln n nt rt cao trong m vc ca mnh. Ht nhc c in c xem l mt hnh thi ngh thut v l mt b mn hp dn m nhiu ngi a thch. Nhng cng nh nhng ngnh khoa hc kh khan khc nh vt l, ton hc ht c in c nhiu quy nh v nguyn tc cng nhc. Ging vi cc b mn khoa hc khc, ht nhc c in i hi nhiu yu t, bn cn hc nhng nguyn tc quan trng v luyn tp chm ch tch ly kin thc v kinh nghim. Ngi hc thanh nhc cn phi lm vic ct lc trong mt khong thi gian rt di. Bt u t vic nghin cu, c, iu tra, quan st v suy ngh, sau t t p dng l thuyt hc vo thc hnh.

ENTRY#2 Bn, ging vin thanh nhc ca bn, v qu trnh luyn tp.|"Hu ht nhng ai c tham vng tr thnh ca s chuyn nghip u phi hc vi gio vin thanh nhc. Vic gip h c th hiu ging ht ca h hn, hc nhng nguyn tc c bn ca m thanh v cch luyn ging. Tuy nhin, mt cht ging hay cha chc c th tr thnh mt ca s ln, bi v mt ca s ln phi bit cch truyn ti ci thn ca h vi ngi nghe. tm ging vin thanh nhc gii khng phi l mt vn n gin. Trc tin, bn cn tm hiu mt s thng tin v ging vin nh : tng hc u, trng phi no, kinh nghim v.v..

Dame Joan Sutherland, n ca s ging soprano tng pht biu trn t The Guardian rng : vic hc thanh nhc mt cch bi bn l iu v cng quan trng. Nhiu ngi, ngay c ca s vn khng hc cch th, ly hi khi ht, thm ch h cn khng tp ht xng m. C rt nhiu bi tp luyn ging gip bn c th ht legato v chuyn t ging trung ln ging cao hn. Nhng by gi h thng ht trong c v sau h gng sc ht ln cao. H khng bit cch ht sao cho ng, v cui cng h phi tr gi (hng ging). Luyn thanh khng bao gi d dng, vic ny ging nh bn ang tham gia vo mt cuc phiu lu, khm ph nhng iu b mt m ngay c chnh bn cng khng bit bn c th tm ra hay khng. Hc tp y l nn tng c bn nhng iu khng c ngha s xy dng nn mt ging ht hay. Bn phi phn bit r rng gia mt ci my bit ht vi thm m m nhc. L d nhin, ging vin thanh nhc ca bn s phn bit c hai iu ny, khi c mt thm m m nhc tt th bn s c nhiu c hi thnh cng hn. Thnh cng hay tht bi u ty thuc vo chnh bn thn bn. Vi ngi mi hc, mt ging vin c kinh nghim s hiu c iu g tt, iu g c hi v phng php no ph hp luyn cho tng ngi. Nm nguyn m u (oo), I (ee), e (eh), o (oh), a (ah) c pht m theo ging ca ngi bn x, chnh l yu t quan trng trong tt c cc cu trc cn bn. Nm nguyn m ca ting ni cng chnh l nm nguyn m to ra ging ht. Ngi ca s phi hiu rng c mt ging ht khe, v bn thn vic pht m cc nguyn m trn, tt c u b chi phi bi hi ngc v nhng phi hp khc nhau trong hot ng ca thanh qun v hu. to ra m thanh y n, ngi ca s phi t ng v tr ca thanh qun v hu. Cng lc l hot ng phi hp gia mi, m v li. iu ny s quyt nh cao , cng v trng ca m thanh. Dnh cho ging nam cao Mt vi m s kha Fa, v mt vi m cao hn s c chuyn ln vit kha Sol. Trong mt s trng hp, thun tin hn, nt nhc cho ging nam cao s c dch ln mt qung 8 v vit kha Sol. Dnh cho ging n : n cao v n trm. Dnh cho ging nam trung v nam trm

Mi nt trn l mi nt kh ht ng v tr m thanh nht. V mt phu thut hc, khi bn ht nhng m trn, cc c trong vm hng s tng h ln nhau. Minh ha bn trn ch ra v tr ca khu vc chuyn ging. l khong gia Mi thng v Fa thng nm trn gia ( 4), y cng l khong chuyn ging cho tt c cc loi ging ca nam v n. Tt c cc m nm di Mi thng trn 4 u thuc v ging ngc, bao gm c Mi thng. K t nt Fa thng nm trn 4, tt c cc m u thuc khu vc trn, thuc v ging u, bao gm c nt Fa thng trn 4. Khu vc chuyn ging ny khng h thay i tt c cc loi ging, t ging mi hc cho n ging c th biu din trn sn khu. Bn nt trong khu vc chuyn : Mi ging-Mi thng nm di khu vc chuyn, v Fa thng Sol thng nm trn khu vc chuyn. iu quan trng khng phi l bn gng cc c hay c gng ht to, lm nh vy s sn sinh ra lc bn cn th lng v y hi t t, t thp ln cao. l l do ti sao ti a ra nhiu m nh vy Only a rare few voice teachers and singers believe that the problems of blending the registers break which divides the two vocal registersand which is permanently located between Enatural, and F-natural above middle Ccan be accomplished by restructuring four unique

pitches in the Registers Break area. Two of these pitches, E-flat and E-natural, are situated below the Registers Break, while the other two, F-sharp and G-natural are situated above the Registers Break. The fallacy of that concept is that, no matter how much one attempts to bring the two antagonistic registers into total harmony by solely altering those four particular pitches, since collectively they do not contribute a sufficient force necessary to nullify the antagonism between the chest register and head register, and allow the singer to create a totally muscularly harmonious range of tones, from its bottom to its top. It is for that reason that I have extended the number of pitches from four whole tones to ten half-tones which are precisely sufficient to totally transform the registers break muscles away from their inherent muscular antagonism towards each other, and create a totally harmonious middle area range, in the center of the complete range, which is situated between the bottom range and top range.

The Long Neglected and Forgotten Principles and Applications of the Breath Force Khng mt bi tp luyn thanh no c th ch ra chnh xc bng cch no bn c th x l qung chuyn ging sao cho tht mt m, khng b l. None of the vocal exercises that must be employed to correctly structure the critical tones of the wide passaggio can be applied effectively without clear, precise knowledge of how the motor force of breath tension and it specific exercise must be applied to a selected tone of wide passaggio area, and its appropriate vowel. During recent decades, whats been taught about the breathing system has dwindled down to an inadequate litany which merely deals with how to breathe air in and out of the lungs. This fails to explain and impart any of the complicated exercises which all serious students of voice structuring need to know, in order to first build their singing voices, then to sing in a superior manner with it.

Giovanni Battista Lamperti (1839-1910), made one of the greatest statements of them all about the breathing system:

The motives and movement of your mind and body (the musicianship, the coaching, the style, the communication, the spirit and the physiological movements involved), make up only half of the proposition of singing. Natural phenomena of vibration and resonance contribute the other half. And sadly, we are paying less attention to that half than did the great teaching lines of the past!

On Giovanni Battista Lampertis sage note, I will end my second Blog entry. At out next session, I will discuss how appropriate applications of the breath force must be used with special exercises that help the singer build a superior singing voice.

___________________________________________________________________

Entry #3Does your singing voice posses a complete range of tones?Has your singing teacher assigned you a lot of ascending scale exercises, which utilized the raw chest voice a (ah) vowel? Are you satisfied with the results they have had upon your singing instrument? Perhaps, it is time for al all voice teaches and their students to rethink why they employ certain vocal exercises. Or, at least, ask themselves what specific results they expected to achieve, by applying them. What should the teacher be listening for when assigning a student a particular exercise? What informs him/her that the chosen exercise is being properly executed? How should he/she communicate to the student what he/she wants to physically accomplish with that particular exercise? Generally, present day singing teachers listen mainly to the quality results which their student produce, in response to the vocal exercises assigned to them. And they invariably urge their student to try and produce beautiful sound, that are only possible at advanced levels of muscular development. Therefore this approach is inappropriate, because there are many more factors, appropriate for beginners, which the teacher should be listening for. He/she should be judging the various ways in which a particular exercise has influenced the muscular behavior of a selected pitch, when the singer attempt to sing a simple song. But more importantly, the singing teacher should be concerned about how that particular pitch interacts with its neighboring pitchesnegatively or positively. A singing teachers hearing judgements, concerning an assigned exercise, are not alone sufficient, to grant him/her all the required skills necessary for developing a superior singing voice for his/her pupils. Indeed, there is much more than merely listening to the sound quality of a selected pitch, after the student has completed an assigned exercise. The challenges of creating a superior singing voice require much empirically proven knowledge and experience about the muscles which are involved in the building process, and what must be done to them, by way of development. Many present-day individuals who proclaim themselves to be qualified voice teachers, but who do not possess such critical knowledge and

nor empirical experience are merely doing untested and unproven guess work. They are naively and irresponsibly operating on a trial and error lets see waht happens basis, which is not acceptable. When many vocal structural mistakes have been made with a students voice, they cannot easily be undone. Beside the psychological damage which had been caused, there is also mental imagery damage that lingers on, seemingly eternally, which seems to operate on its own will power, and against the wishes of the student to rid himself/herself of it, and regain control of his/her run-away singing voice. I hope that presently, no one is foolish or naive enough to believe that we are living in a Golden Age of great singers and great voice teachers. If the old saying still stands, Dont look back and merely complain, make a new and better start! I fully agree with that positive and hopeful go-forward attitude. But it will never happen in a million years, as the old clich goes, not until present day singing teachers stop trying to structure superior singing voices, by making the same mistakes over and over, of assigning to their students ascending scales that utilize the raw chest voice vowel, almost exclusively. A proper and highly productive new start to vocal training can begin by removing your focus away from the pitches of the Bottom Range, an refocusing your complete attention upon the pitches of wide passaggio! This is valid for all singers, of all vocal categories! Please understand this: No vocal exercise, no matter how appropriate and highly productive it may be, can not be effectively applied to any of the pitches of the wide passaggio, without the singer possessing clear, precise knowledge of how the motor force of breath tension operates, and precisely how it is to be applied to a selected pitch and its accompanying vowel, in order to fully and appropriately develop it Therefore, we will now present some technical ideas concerning the importance of the breath force. No matter what approach one adopts for structuring the singing instrument, you must quickly come to understand this critical fact: that all ascending scales and vocal phrases possess a potential for damaging the singing instrument. It is through mastering all the usages of the breath force that such potential damage can be averted. The upward journey of the ascending scale, when performed to perfection will reveal the physical nature of the Two Vocal Registers, The Chest Voice and the Head Voice, and it will also reveal the two registers inherent, permanent antagonism towards each other. But understand that all ascending scales are for the latter part of the long and time consuming process of structuring a superior singing voice, but that they are not to be performed at the beginning of training. Some critical facts to know about the two muscular systems of control which are generally known as the vocal registers, which all singers must become totally familiar with, in order to first build a classical singing voice, and then to learn how to control it!

Undeniably, there exist two primary and extremely different muscular controls which all singers encounter when they attempt to ascend and/or descend the pathway of their complete ranges. If the muscular adjustments of these two separate, antagonistic muscular controls are not properly dealt with, there is no chance of vocal success. Most singers, and especially female singers, naively believe they can sing with a small group of pitches, carefully selected from their complete ranges, which appear to be cooperative, without the rest of the range suffering any negative consequences. Male singers, and especially inappropriately categorized Basses and Baritones, make the same mistakes generally made by many female singers, as described above. Understand that, any time a singers neglects certain selected notes from his/her complete range, the neglected notes with soon start causing them vocal problems, and if these problems are not quickly attended to, structurally, they will eventually deny those singers complete usage of their singing voices.

The Lower, or Chest Register Range

The lower range of all singers voices is dominated and controlled by the muscles of the chest voice. While the upper range is dominated and controlled by the muscles of the head voice,or falsetto voice. Certain sections of the chest and head voice ranges can be made to overlap each other in unusual, but beneficial ways, in the middle range area, or what I call the Wide Passaggio. Passaggio is an Italian word which means passageway. Understand that all passages ways or not traversed merely once, but many times over. This method of using the muscular controls of both the head and chest voice registers outside of their original borders and making them operate within the borders of each other, represents the first major step which the singer is taking to overcome the antagonism which the two registers inherently hold towards each other. This can be accomplished by many masterful applications of the breath force, using the detached falsetto u (oo) and i (ee) vowels, alternatingly, and descending scales exercises. The slow process of overlapping of the muscular controls of the head voice or falsetto register, downward in the range, overlapping the top area of the chest register, has a specific purpose, which is presently not known of, but which is the main factor that contributes to the success or failure of making the two registers give up the inherent antagonism they hold towards the opposite registers, and to muscularly, and harmonious way work together as if they but a single muscular control, which allows the singer to sing freely , accurately, and musically, in a synergistic manner, throughout his/her complete range of tones. Admittedly, many individuals, internationally involved with classical vocal pedagogy have been aware that the singer must blend, or mix, his /her two vocal registers together, in order for them to become cooperative with each other and allow the signer to sing smoothly and beautifully with them. However, practically no one presently know how this can be accomplished, and by what, magical, unknown method.

However, that so called unknown and magical method of blending or mixing the two vocal registers, are making them muscularly harmonious with each other is no longer unknown , since the publication of my vocal manual, The Art of Singing on the Breath Flow, in 1995. And that former secret method is simply this. The muscular setup of the Chest Voice Register does not allow any singers to use the force of the breath flow, if the singer attempts to any chest voice pitch which has not been infused with the power of the breath flow. And conversely, the head voices pitches, from F-Natural to the B-Natural above Middle C, for all male signers, and the F2-Natural to the B-2 Natural above C-2, for all female singers possesses no vibratory, resonant power what so ever . And most importantly, the resonance cavity in which these Head Voice tones are located, at the very top of all singers ranges, act as a sort of breath reservoir, from which breath flow energy can be accessed (through deep, exaggerated inhalations of air), then transported downward in the complete range, to its very bottom, and infused into each and every individual pitch. Please understand clearly that this is a longtime, very slow process, which is very unappealing to most American, who are too much in a harry but which must be highly learned, trusted, and applied. By infusing each and every pitch of the entire Chest Voices range with the force of the Breath Flow, that will yank free the old stopper which has for blocked the full and powerful force of the breath flow from traveling beyond the restrictive point of the Registers Break, and enable it to flow fully and freely throughout all singers complete ranges. Of course, all the above information represents merely a highly simplified version of the complete and full process. But I hope it will be sufficient bait, to catch a curious, failed singer and give him/her the courage and incentive to make a new start, and to finally acquire his/her dream of possessing a superior singing voice. By nature, the chest voice register is inherently and negatively thick and inflexible. These negative factors enable the vibrato action of the vocal cords, when passing through the chest voice range, situated so close to the place where the vocal cords are located, at the bottom of the range, to deceive neophyte students into believed that they can immediately utilize projecting power and tonal brilliance, with their untrained voices. This self-deception is only possible because most students are seeking quick results and readily grasp at mere potential straws of success, even when they are worthless. The fact that the chest voice registers contributes a greater percentage of vocal cords folds amplitude to the singing voice than does the thin, narrow vocal cords folds amplitude of the head voice registers, also fools many students to form inappropriate concepts of the bottom part of their complete ranges, as well as fooling many advanced singers. Before the raw undeveloped chest voice range has been restructured, by infusing all its pitches with generous amount of swirling, highly energized breath flow, which is accomplished by applying the detached falsetto u (oo) vowel exercises, it gives the neophyte student a false impression that he/she can easily produce vibrant, projecting professional sounding tones. And, that all these thick, unwieldily and hard to manage chest voice muscles and the sensations they generate, are operating below his/her tongue, can also serve as a model for

structuring his/her top range. To the contrary, highly musical students intuitively understand that all correctly produced tones are evoked and sustained by the breath force. And they are felt operating above the tongue. And, that the narrow and highly energized force of the breath force stream which is generating and sustaining them, must be titled upwards in the throat and directed towards the posterior area of the throat, and not downward, toward the floor of the mouth and the chest register. However, with faith, and thorough development, the falsetto muscles prove to be stronger than those of the chest voice. The wise singer will immediately understand that all of his/her chest tones but be converted away from their inherent thickness and bulk, and gradually transformed into thinner and narrower version of themselves, which match those of all the entire Head Registers thin and narrow factors. With correct singing, all properly mixed voice sensations are felt by the singer above his/her tongue. The inherently thin and narrow nature of the falsetto ranges muscles are quite the opposite of those of the chest voice register. Generally, the neophyte quickly forms a false impression that the falsetto voice is useless, because it lacks vibrant power and tonal brilliance. And because in its undeveloped state it communicates nothing of the level of strength to which it can be developed. However, with faith and persistence and total development , the falsetto muscles prove to be stronger than those of the chest voice. The wise singer will immediately understand that all of his/her chest tones must be converted away from their inherent thickness and bulk. They must gradually be transformed into thinner and narrower versions of their old selves, which match those of the entire Head Registers thin and extremely narrow muscular contours. All falsetto tones sensations are felt by the singer above his/her tongue. When employing the falsetto voice, the glottis, which is the opening between the vocal cords, remains open for a brief, but longer than usual duration, with every shutter-like opening and closing movement it makes. Therefore, the singer can only control the head voice tones by applying passive, indirect (breath) tension as opposed to active, direct (muscular) tension, to each selected pitch.

The illustration below shows the position of the Registers' Break for all singers, of all vocal categories.

Whenever a singer successfully executes an ascending scale without making graphically noticeable muscular changes, nor radical changes of sound qualities, he/she is operating the ascending scale under the negative antagonism which is occurring between the muscles head and chest voice registers . If this singers head and chest voice registers had been structured to an advanced level of muscular harmony, these noticeable muscular changes and radically unmusical sound would not be heard. When the singer possesses muscular harmonious vocal muscles, with both registers, he/she is continuously obliged each higher note of a rising scale away from the chest voice's muscular controls, and transferring the muscular controls of each higher note, over to the muscular controls of Head Voice's register. Thereafter and, while continued upward with the ascending scale, he/she is operating with the muscle controls of the head voice dominating every pitch of his/her complete range of pitches. These muscular maneuvers are possible to be accomplished through applications passive (breath) tension, which the vocal ligaments of both the head and chest registers enable, working as a synergistic team. Also, the singer must rearrange the vowel socket of each rising pitchs vowel throat socket. Which, when properly accomplished occurs in the posterior, upper region of the mouth-pharynx cavity, along with similarly important adjustments of the tongue and the soft palate. All of these factors need to be thoroughly understood and smoothly applied, in order for the singer, after having switched from the controls of the chest voice to the controls of the head voice, to further and successfully ascend through the pitches of the Middle Range, ascend further to the Top Range. These factors may seem overly complicated, but they are acquire gradually, one by one, basis, as the teachers creates them and explains them to the student. When correctly performing an ascending scale, it is critically important that at a specific, critical point in the ascent, the singer must completely abandon andy all all usage of the muscles of the chest voice, and switching completely over to the muscular of the head voice. The precise pitch where this switch- over technique must be applied is at B-Flat below middle C for all male singers, and B-Flat above middle C for all female singers. This particular B-Flat represents the lower doorway, or entrance into the span of the wide passaggio, for all singers.

However, it is important to understand that this critical B-flat switch-over pitch is not available at the beginning of training, nor at that specific B-Flat point in all singer's complete ranges, unless it has first been structured, and then placed exactly there. This takes a long time to accomplish, and much special knowledge. And they can only be learned through in person, direct instruction, from a master voice teacher.

For all female voices

Below is an illustration for all female singers which shows precisely where the critical B-flat switch-over pitch is situated. To the left, at the bottom of the arc line.

For all tenors, the ten half-notes of the wide-span passaggio, as presented in the illustration below, are more difficult to understand and to structure, than it is for singers of all the other vocal categories, males and females.

We remind all tenors that while all the pitches of their complete range are notated in all present-day published sheet music as represented above, the pitches of their complete range actually straddle the Registers' Break, between the bass and treble clefs. Tenors are confronted with more difficulties in their efforts to successfully structure their complete vocal range than are all other categories of singers. To carry the brilliant vibrato action of the vocal cords through their passaggio tones, then further upward in the range to the pitches of their Top Range (above F-Natural above middle C and upward), they must employ the pitches of their lower range (from middle C, downward to the bottom of their range) sparingly. Their goal is to transport brilliant, core power upward into the Middle Range, then further upward to

the Top Range, all while every tone is being generated and sustained exclusively by the force of the breath stream! While tenors are engaged in the long, testy process of structuring their Wide-Span passaggio pitches (see Fig. 2, above), their voice will remain disconnected from all chest voice power. This will result in their complete range being temporarily, but appropriately dominated by the head voice muscular controls. It may seem to them that their mission to accomplish a superior singing instrument has become a nightmare, and an unreality and an unattainable goal. Admittedly, most of all tenors earliest structuring experiences can be confusing and painfully frustrating. However, patience, faith, and persistence will allow them to achieve their goal in the end.

For Baritones & Basses

With so many chest register tones of their complete range situated below the registers' break, and so few head register pitches located above it, it is understandable why so many baritones and basses are reluctant to get involved with those fewer head voice pitches, at the very top of their ranges. However, the singing voice requires synergistic contributions from the two registers, not those of but one register, to sing properly and superiorly. This demands that the singer become fully responsible for making structurally sure that the muscular contributions of both are being addressed, with every vocal exercise, he/she applied to his/her developing vocal instrument. Without this critical synergism operating through his/her full range of pitches, he/she will unavoidably passes through a brief period of false success followed by a rapid decline, then complete failure! Most importantly, only this synergism of the both vocal registers will permit the singer to maintain the health and function of his/her voice on a high level, for the many years of a professional career. Many Baritones and Basses seem, to other categories of singers, to get off to a faster, superior start with their singing voices, then they themselves. This is because so many of the pitches of Baritones and Basses ranges are located within the borders of but one register, that of the chest register. This is because lower voice singers readily have at their disposal, without having to work hard to attain them, many pitches which possess tonal brilliance, projecting power, and often, a rich, sonorous quality. Many Baritones and Basses also appear to have superior singing diction. However, it does not take long for all of these seemingly superior attributes to gradually fade, and then completely disappear. This is due to the fact that without the participation of the head register's tones, few as they may be with all lower male voices, , the exclusive chest tones, creates a rapid deterioration of the voice. It dries out. All the incompletely structured chest tones, lack head voice help, lose their vibrancy and projecting volume, and become veiled, hollow, and difficult to manage.

For Baritones and Basses

The head voice register's primary contributions, to the chest voice register of Baritones and Basses, is that of helping them to maintain all the tones of their complete ranges fresh and youthful sounding. This is accomplished by always maintaining the free flow of the breath force throughout the entire range. This is structurally accomplished through many usages of the detached head voice i (ee) vowel, first and the many usages of the detached falsetto u (ooh) vowel, accompanied by a steady, strong, never ceasing flow of the breath force. Precisely how this is accomplished will be explained later. There exist many other important contributions which the head register grants to Baritones and Basses, such as tonal focus, core brilliance, and vocal flexibility. It also permits the singer to possess facilely used, superior sounding tones in their passaggio, plus thrilling, sparkling, squillo high tones. Squillo is an Italian word which means to blare out, in the fashion of a trumpet. Most Baritones and Basses, as well a high, thin soprano voices repeatedly make the same mistake. They erroneously believe that because the greater portion of their vocal ranges lie away from the opposite register-head voice tones for the baritones and basses, and chest register tones for the supposed coloratura, they can get by without the missing register's muscular

contributions. In my next Blog, Entry #4, we will be dealing with the structural principles and exercises of all the pitches of the Wide-Span of the passaggio, collectively and individually, and for all singing voices, of all categories, male and female singers. It is nave for a beginning singer to apply ascending vocal exercises to his/her singing voice, utilizing the raw a (ah) vowel, since doing so forces the chest voice's muscles upward in the range and into the sensitive, and easily damaged passaggio area. This causes muscular blockages and jam-ups, along the full length of the resonance channel, which are time consuming to remove. But these negative factors must be removed in order to make a new, proper start in the building of the singing voice. A new, fresh start should begin with the singer addressing the needs of the ten half-notes of the Wide-Span of the passaggio. And this new start continues afterward all the pitches of the wide-span of the passaggio, by addressing the structural needs of the Top and Bottom Ranges. _____

1.It is more advantageous to structure each and every pitche of the complete range individually, on by one to one basis, so that, if any exercise proves to be wrong and counter productive, it can be put aside, thereby sparing any other tones of the complete range from abuse. 2.The five classic Italian vowels, u (oo), i (ee), e (eh), o (oh), and a (ah), as they are pronounced by native Italians, are of major importance. This is because no particular exercise can be applied to any selected pitch of the complete range without it being accompanied by a particular vowel. 3.Most importantly, when ascending the vocal range from its bottom, with intentions of proceeding upward in the range to its very top, a basic principle must be understood. There exists, within the complete compass of the entire vocal range, two distinct and separate muscular controls, the Chest Voice, and the Head Voice. At the very bottom of the range, the chest voice can be actively and easily accessed in order to start the ascent from the bottom of the range to its very top. And while the chest voice can facilely be carried upward in the range to its highest, top border at E-Natural above middle C, doing so will defeat all the principles of superior vocal structuring. Therefore, the chest voice's overall contributions and its range of operation must be restricted to A-Flat below middle C downward for all singers, males and females. And, in order for the singer to ascend the complete range further upward than B-Flat below middle C, for all male singers, and B-Flat 2, above C2, for all female singers, the singer is obliged to make a major muscular switch from the muscular controls of the chest voice to the muscular controls of the head voice at the point of the B-Flat below middle for all singers. 4. Once the singer has changed the muscular mode of producing the tones of an ascending scale from the active muscular controls of the chest voice to the passive muscular controls of the head voice, he/she can then only control the currently sung pitch, and all the pitches that follow it, by the force of the breath pressure.

5. This is accomplished by applying different, alternating amounts of breath pressure to a selected tone in order to depart from a lower pitch and to ascend to a higher pitch. Simultaneously, the singer must adjust the laryngeal muscles at the upper, posterior area of the throat, from one vowel throat socket to the next different vowel throat socket. 6The detached falsetto i (ee) voweldetached from chest voice's power and muscular controls and the chest voice's a (ah) vowel, with different and opposing timbres which the singer can easily perceive, play major roles in allowing the singer to understand the switching-process. This process was once widely known of as The pull back, and lift upward process. I will discuss this subject more throughly in a future blog entry. _____________________________________________________________________

Thank you for you attention and patience Looking forward to our next session

Let me hear from you www.operarella@gmail.com

With much affectionAnthony Frisell

NB: All the above material has been copyrighted by S. Anthony Frisella. All rights are reserved by Mr. Frisella, domestically and internationally

Comments on Entry # 3

SJF: It is refreshing to hear a teacher in this day and age referring to the old Italian methods, and actually giving detailed explanations as to how they did it back then. Most of the teachers I have worked with in the past, freely and arrogantly toss around phrases such as "bel canto....old Italian" method and many other catchy clichs, without really going into concrete details or providing demonstrations with actual exercises that can accomplish said promise. Mr. Frisella on the other hand, is a breathe of fresh air because he not only is an established singer himself, but has a knowledge of ALL of the past great teachers and methods but has gathered the information and worded it into a specific way, so as to make it far easier to comprehend than if

one were to pick up Garcia Pre's "Hints on Singing" in the hopes of becoming a star! Maestro Frisella is urging us to pick up the fallen torch and to start anew the old Italian ways of singing, so that we may return this once glorious art form of singing and the teaching of singing to its former high and much respected status! Thank you for your vocal wisdom Mr. Frisella!

Tuesday, August 7, 2007 - 06:48 AM Seanycreature:Thank you, Mr. Frisell for the time and effort of laying out all of this information. This is a lot to think about! And it is intimidating to think of all the different components needed to build a viable voice. But it is encouraging 1. that there IS a method that will do this and 2. that a singer doesn't do it ALL AT ONCE. It's very popular to be incredibly impatient, both with learning about the voice and with building a career. But no one can deny that even the most popular and promising singers right now are fading out more quickly than singers of the past. I appreciated the attention paid to singer and vocal pedagogical history. It's the best written argument for the veracity of the method proposed here. I really look forward to your next installment. This is a volatile time - in the politics of the world and the politics of the voice! It's a chance to learn and grow.

Tuesday, August 7, 2007 - 07:11 AM John Moody:I'm looking forward to the fourth installment. I know that the wide passaggio is of great importance, but I am really confused about the lower part of the range - so I am hoping it will be addressed. I love all the Frisell writings - and almost all of them start out with the thesis that the head voice has to totally overlap the chest voice. In my own studies I struggle with the lower range. I seem to be able to carry the head voice down, but in the lower range I can't add the chest quality in the same way that I can in the upper range. I, then, am left with the choice of using a weak, diffused, mainly head-voice quality in these low tones, or a raw, seemingly uncoordinated chest voice (that knocks out the head voice contributions) My gut instinct tells me that with patience, the diffused head voice quality is preferable, and that by using it, I am strengthening my head voice, and that eventually it will be strong enough to thread the core power of the chest voice into the tone in a correct and lasting manner. Well, I have read many, many vocal manuals - and I think Mr. Frisell's manuals are the only ones that have really figured out singing. He is a genius, and I am looking forward to his next installment!

Thursday, September 20, 2007 - 06:27 PM Fernando Henriquez:Thank you very much Mr. Frisell for these wonderful articles! I am a tenor in training in Miami and, since I cannot study with you in New York, at least I am getting the benefits of reading your material. I think that common sense tells us that the voices of the past were better (in general) than today's voices. I think its is not that there was more talent, but

that the methods used to train voices were a more effective product, and the results of a long study, like you mention. Again thanks so much!

FernandoP.D. Wednesday, January 30, 2008 05:16 PM Thinking over what I have read in your Blog, I will eventually go to New York. I would love to study with you! Thanks again

Entry #4The Hole in the Middle of the Resonance ChannelBefore the singing voices resonance channel has been properly and completely structured, there inherently exists a hole in it. This hole is located at a specific point all the resonance channels full length. This so called hole unavoidable enables all breath pressure to escape through it, thereby denying the singer the ability to accurately produce the pitches located within the borders of the wide passaggio. As A consequence, the confused and frustrated singers attempts to seal up this hole by erroneously bringing into play the muscles of the chest registers. This results in highly unmusical pitched being produced by forced resonance. This is very damaging to the voice, and directly opposed to correctly producing highly musical and controllable tones which are almost generated and then sustained by the force of breath pressure. The pitches that are located within the borders of this hole are: middle C, C-Sharp, D-Natural, E-Flat and E-Natural. These are the very same confusing and troublesome pitches of the vocal passaggio! It is the lack of knowledge, as how to deal with this hole in the resonance channel which has caused the low present-day standards of classical singing. This troublesome hole can be seen. Take a hand-mirror and hold it up to your face. Open your mouth widely and arrange a light to shine towards the back of your mouth-pharynx cavity. Observe the reddish-pink, rear wall of your throat. The space slightly forward of the pillars of the fauces, on either side of them and downward to the floor of your mouth, represents this same hole in the resonance channel of which we speak. While actually singing, if you possessed a properly structured singing voice, you would not be able to see the reddish-pink, rear wall of your mouth cavity. It would be sealed off by a most unusual arrangement of your tongue and your soft palate, at the rear of the mouth-pharynx cavity. With the arrangement, your the forward section of your tongue correctly forms a mound in its center and its rear section connects itself to the soft palate, which must be lowered and positioned forward, facing the front of mouth-cavity. When the tongue and the soft palate are in

these new positions, they block your view of the rear wall of your throat. These rearranged positions of positions of the tongue and soft palate, when actually singing, are required. And they and correct for superior classical singing. They can only be accomplished by special vocal exercises involving the detached falsetto version of the i (ee) vowel and skillful applications of the breath flow. These special exercises allow the singer to create a wall which plugs up this undesirable hole in the resonance channel and stops the highly energized breath flow from escaping through it. As a result, the singer is then able to properly sing all the pitches of his/her passaggio pitches, as well as all the remaining pitches of his/her complete range, on the breath flow. This little known arrangement of the tongue and soft palates is correct and it is directly opposed to the erroneous method of forced resonance produced by forcing the chest register upward in the range, in an erroneous way, in order to block up the hole. Invariably, most of present-day vocal training methods employs ascending scales that use the raw a (ah) vowel of the chest voice. This causes male singers to produce rigid, unattractive lower and upper middle tones which are shouty and unmusical, and possess distorted vowels. They are without any variations in the breath-forces dynamics, and their pitch accuracy is questionable. All these negative factors deny the singer correct access to the vocal passaggio and all the head tones that are located above it. Invariably there is too much improper, negative tension operating throughout the singers complete range. With most female singers, the range from E-Natural above middle C is thin and muted, without proper vibrations and exhibiting unclear vowels. The faulty tones lack proper breath tension. Therefore, there is no projection of the voice out into the audience until after the singer has past the upper passaggio at E2-Natural. With both male and female singers, the structurally unfulfilled tones of the passaggio and the pitches located within the area of hole in the resonance channel do not allow the singer to properly produce a full array of tones from the bottom to the very top of the range. His/her efforts are thwarted by the hole in the resonance channel, at the area of the passaggio. The singer loses hope of achieving evenness of range, clear vowels, total control of all the breath dynamics from the softest fil di voce (a soft thread of voice), to thrilling squillo high tones that are beautiful and blare outward over the orchestra toward the audience in the manner of a trumpet. When properly structured, and while actually singing, all superior singing voices demand that the singer maintain a proper breath tension throughout his/her complete range. Of course, when stopping to take a new breath, this tension is momentarily inoperative, but it must be immediately reapplied when the singer begins to sing again. The confusing and troublesome pitches of the passaggio, where this hole in the resonance channel is situated, are located at different areas in the complete ranges of all male singer, than where it is located for all female singers. For all male singers, the hole in the resonance channel is located toward the upper middle area of their complete range. And for all female singers, this hole is located at the bottom of their complete range.

Most female singers claim they possess two vocal passaggios. One, at the lower end of their complete range, and a second one, their upper passaggio, located at the upper middle section of their complete range. This concept is not accurate, since for all female singers, their the true and only vocal passaggio for all females is their bottom passaggio. In most cases, most male and female singers avoid dealing with the difficulties of their passaggio tones, This is because very little useful information is currently being presented to them which actually allows them to accomplish the difficult and time consuming task. Instead, their lack of effective structuring methods training forces them them make many compensatory adjustments to their inadequately structured voices. One example is, exercising the voice with but one of the five classic Italian vowels exclusively, for a certain period of time, while excluding the other four vowels, whereas proper vocal structuring utilizes all five vowels during all phases of training. Or, they play down the volume of one particular section of their range fir a while and instead feature another more functional section of their range, until their voice breaks down again. Then, they seek out new compromises and exclusions. When they run out of all these exclusions and compromises, they finally give up all hope of becoming a professional singer. Now lets go back in time, to just after the bel canto period, when the dramatic repertory of Italian verismo, and the German Helden or heroic compositions of Richard Wagners operas first made new, greater demands upon the singers voices, and when many other radical changes in vocal training principles and practices occurred. These new schools of vocal training were forced to find new ways of training larger and more projecting singing voices which were capable of producing more vibrant volume, in order to cope with the increased volume of larger orchestras of the new, dramatic repertory. The new question for the teachers of these new and experimental schools was, where and to what physiological component of the human anatomy can we turn to accomplish this need for more projecting vocal power? The answer was obviousthey turned to the chest register! As a consequence of trying to add more chest voice power to the complete ranges of singers of all vocal categories, the confusing and troublesome registers break boldly manifested itself and caused great problems in structuring voices that would possess a beautiful, smooth equal quality throughout their entire ranges. Great vocal training problems soon followed, such as What does this troublesome passaggio need for us to fix it, and where it is actually located? What is its purpose? Can anyone ignore it? Many frustrated singers and teachers claimed outright that the so-called passaggio does not exist because nature and human physiology gave no evidence that actually. The entire teaching profession was in an uproar. There were too many questions asked which that had no plausible answers. But one thing was perfectly clearly to all. The new dramatic repertory had struck a fatal blow to the training principles and practices of the old bel canto period. Slowly, thereafter, there emerged two new schools of vocal training that could successfully produce singing voices with greater projecting volume than those of the earlier bel canto period. The first successful new school started in Naples, Italy. And later on, its successful principles and practices were brought to new heights of perfection in Paris during the early 19th century,

with the teaching of Jean de Reszke and Giovanni Sbriglia. Then tragically, there came the lst world war. The 1st world war brought chaos to most major European cultural operatic centers. With them, the principles and practices of the Naples and Paris school of voice training had been greatly accepted and had flourished, since they had produced so many great singers. However, after the 1st worlds war ended, many highly competent voice teachers who had enjoyed successful singing careers, due to the Neapolitan and Paris Schools of vocal training, flocked to New York, London, and Rio de Janeiro. There, they set up their own vocal studios and passed down many of those Neapolitan and Paris schools principles to many singers from all over the world who flocked to the above mentioned cities for vocal training. Then came the Second World War. After it had ended, most of Europes culture and operatic centers were in shambles and the desire for art could not compete with the need for food and shelterand survival. Therefore, unlike the 1st world war, when many former great opera singers and voice teachers flocked to America, and taught so many great American singers, few of their like came to America, after the Second World War. That was the post-ward period of Tom Brokaws Greatest Generation book, and the rise of the Corporate State, which depersonalized the American society and transformed it into a greatly homogenized, monolithic, passive consumer society through the medium of Television. During this period, life suddenly accelerated to a hectic, carefree, reckless pace of existence. Practically everyone willingly and unquestioningly converted to this new, seductive, totally selfinvolved mode of life. Virtually everyone and everything succumbed it break next speedy waysexcept art! This was especially true of the art of classical singing. It loved to languor and dreamily crawl along at its own slow pace. But to the new, great, chosen generation, the demands of dedication, time, and money which all serious art made seemed to require an eternity to accomplish. And students demanded that all training programs be adjusted, trunked and speeded up, and to cost less. But True Art could not be compromised, and was stubborn. It could not be made to rush! It could not be commandedit did all the commanding and demanding! And art declared to everyone, If you wish to woo me and win my favors, then you have to obey my laws. But new generation belittled art and its unrealistic, not guaranteed demands for their total commitment, with out rigid guarantees! So, instead, the New Great Generation embraced and married Pop Culture. What a tragedy! Rapidly thereafter, new, clever, speedy voice teachers, and other teachers, in almost all other serious fields of endeavor, emerged upon the scene. Where classical singing was concerned, few of its new-approach teachers themselves, had every accomplished singing even a simple song, or a few phrases of a challenging operatic aria,

much less a complete operatic role, nor enjoyed a professional singing career. Nor did they have any interest in exploring and learning the vocal training principles and practices of the great historical vocal teachers of the past, who themselves had had highly successful classical singing careers. By comparison, These great singers of the historical past, after retirement from their great operatic careers, set up their own teaching studios and struggled long and hard to sort out and solve all the puzzling idiosyncrasies of the classical singing voice. And by stark contrast, the new-approach teachers brazenly sat down at the piano with hubris and immeasurably arrogance and declared, Come, let me show everyone how this classic stuff how is technically doneand in no time. I agree with all of you, that the old school of voice training took far too long. Huh! I can accomplish the task in practically no time, but mind younot cheaply! I could now present to you a long list of what this new breed of voice teachers skipped over and/or threw out of their teaching practices, of the tried and proven, empirical training practices and principles of the past great voices teachers. But that would be a waste of time, and would probably fall upon deaf ears. The new, nave voice students of this fast period of vocal training, anxious to enjoy a glamorous and financially profitable singing career, could not have cared less what training method their teachers where subjecting their voices to. The most significant and basic principles which this new school of voice teachers discarded were those that dealt with the nature and functions of the two separate and antagonistic vocal registers, the chest and head voices, and the difficult and confusing problems of the Registers Break area and the pitches that surrounded the passaggio, and how to solve them. They also did away with the invaluable understanding and applications of the five classical, Italian Vowels. This was so because they quickly learned that in order to employ all five vowels to a students unstructured voice and get positive results, they had to possess complete knowledge of how each individual vowel exerted its influences upon the singers vocal instrument, mentally and physiologically. And equally important, they had to know precisely when and why (during the long, progressive period of structuring a singing voice), and precisely how to apply a particular vowel, and when to temporarily withhold its use. They likewise had to know how all the vowels changed in sound and muscular influence when applied to different sections of the students complete range, as they are slowly being artistically shaped in the singers throat, into near perfection. Despite all the above criticisms, we concede that nature and the physiological components of the classical singing voice (what the old Italian voice teachers called the Vocal Organs) do not easily communicate their structural needs in clear details to any would-be, superior voice teacher. Nor to any highly disciplined, dedicated vocal student. Nor how to transform an undeveloped, amateur voice in to a superior professional one.

No, indeed! The truly sincere, potentially competent vocal teacher, despite being sincere, intelligent, musically qualified and highly disciplined has to first have studied long and hard with a master teacher in order learn all the required principles and practices of voice building. They must very slowly accomplish all that, while on the job, so to speak! Only then may he/she modestly and humbly dare to sit down at the piano and take the students untrained voice into his/her charge. To the hopeful, expectant voice student, his/her singing voice is the most precious, sacred thing in the world. When I think of the damaged conditions of the voices of most newcomers who have presented themselves to me in the past and recently, I often wonder how many present-day voice teachers ever consider that fact. When most contemporary vocal students perform an ascending vocal exercise and they arrive at middle C (which represents the first, lower pitch of the unstructured passaggio), they unavoidably encounter, at that middle C pitch, a hollow, breathy abyss which is the hole in the resonance channel with which this blog in essentially concerned. To the singers disadvantage, all the pitches of a rising scale that are located below this middle C point in the range, easily communicate to the student a solid, tangible method of producing all his/her lower pitches, below this Middle C point. But once the student attempt to pass above this middle C point, all tangible, solid feelings, which had been felt below middle C immediately vanish. The student becomes immediately confused. He/she asks him/herselfwhat should I do now? Without proper guidance, the average student will unfailingly reach downward in the range for the inappropriate and damaging chest registers muscle. Then rigidly gripping them, he/she will inappropriately push the solidity factor of the chest voice upward past the critical middle C, which represents the lower entrance of the unstructured vocal passaggio. Feeling confident that the right move has been taken, the student is highly unaware that he/she has erroneously executed his/her first major vocal structuring mistake. From then on, by repeating this same mistake for a second, thirdtenth, and possibly the hundredth time, it is unlikely that this student will ever succeed in achieving his/her goal of possessing a superior singing voice. Even later, when these mistakes are discovered and explained, and new directions and solutions are sought, success may remain illusive. because, without precise knowledge of how to undo all the earlier vocal mistakes caused by forcing the chest voice upward in the range, the chances of these students learning the correct method of ascending the range from its bottom, correctly ascending further upward and past B-Natural pitch below middle C, then ascending further upward in the range and passing correctly through the vocal passaggio to the top range without knowing and applying the correct method of applying the energy of breath force, success with all new ascending scales is not likely to be to occur.

Even if this naive student had been clearly advised that all tones of the passaggio must be produced exclusively, without sealing off inherent hole in the resonance channel, with all of his/her wide passaggio tones, it would not have been possible for him/her to establish and maintain the various amounts of highly energized breath tension, required to accurately produce each of the difficult to structure passaggios five half tones of(presented to my readers here again, to reinforce the principle) middle C, middle C-Sharp, D-Natural, E-Sharp and E-Natural. The breath tension required by any and all of these particular pitches would have been immediately dissipated as the breath arrived at the point in the the complete range where hole in the resonance channel is located, then immediately escape, by gush through the hole in the range, and out of the singers mouth! Prior to correctly structuring of the total resonance channel, all singers possess this hole in their resonance channel, due to the inherent physical structure of the mouth-pharynx cavity. The hole embraces the pitches of middle C, C-Sharp, D-Natural, E-Flat, and E-Natural. Since no one has offered a sound explanation nor usable solution to the problems caused by this hole, many incorrect, highly damaging methods to overcome the holes negative influence have been tried, but they have all failed. The most common, mistaken solution, is for voice teachers to instruct the student to first push his/her chest voice muscles upward to middle C, then push it further upward in the range, and into the remaining pitches embraced by the hole, C-Sharp, D-Natural, E-Flat, and E-Flat. For a short while, some singers, usually those with lighter voices, doing the above seems to have solved the problems of their passaggio pitches. But soon thereafter, the tones located just above the registers break, from F-Natural above middle C upward in the range to its top, start to malfunction. Then, the entire middle voice collapses. With male singers, all the notes above E-Natural above middle C become unavailable. And for all female voices, all the pitches from C2 to the F-Natural above it become hollow and dysfunctional, and in many cases they begin to wobble. I know this is all very discouraging news. But dont despair since, from this point forward, since we will proceed more rapidly now, in presenting all the necessary idiosyncratic solutions to these problems. They will allow anyone who is ready to make a new start, and highly motivated to succeed, and is patient and persistent to completely overhaul all the pitches of the his/her Registers Break. We present these pitches once again, to make a deep impression upon my readers: These critical five half-tones of Middle Range are: Middle C, C-Sharp, D-Natural, E-Flat and E-Natural, plus several border-pitches which are situated just below the passaggio, and several above the passaggio, which have led me to rename this troublesome area of the complete range the wide-passaggio! Rubbing Elbows With Super Great Opera Singes

As a young operatic stage director, I enjoyed the privilege of hearing such great singers as Zinka Milanov, Leonard Warren, Mario Del Monaco, Nicola Moscona, Norman Treigle, Richad Tucker, Jan Peerce and Victoria de Los Angeles (to mention but a few), at very close range, for days at a time. I was fascinated by the beauty and the wide range of dynamics of their voices, the clarity of their vowels, and the highly kinetic movements which they commanded their vocal organs to accomplish, while they were singing a particular aria, or one of my favorite operatic phrases. All their above mentioned accomplishments stand in stark contrast to even the best of contemporary singers, with whom I observe very little movement of their poorly trained vocal organs (the many smaller, separate individual muscular sections that make up their complete range). In placed of their vocal wonders, I observe an annoying stillness to their vocal organs and a monotony of vocal sounds which they visibly struggle to produce which lack interesting tonal colors and little of any interesting volume dynamic accents, nor variations. And, as for most contemporary female singers lower ranges, and male singers upper middle and top ranges are concerneddo these singers believe that no one notices the missing those, critically important missing sections of their complete ranges? Surely, the great Giuseppi Verdi was not artistically miss when he composed his great, Shakespearian-like operatic masterpieces which were enriched with the awesome and thrilling vocal sounds that almost all contemporary singers seem incapable of producing for us? Because these present-day singers passaggios have rarely been properly and completely structured, all their vocal organs appear to me to be straight-jacketed. During the long and testy period of creating a superior singing voice, one must maintain complete flexibility of all The Vocal Organs! Here is what the great Manual Garcia had to say about this in his book, Hints on singing: The pathway of sound, being formed of elastic and movable parts, varies its dimensions and forms in endless ways, and every modificationeven the slightesthas a corresponding and definite influence on the voice.

The Tongue and Soft Palate Are the most Flexible and Adjustable of all the vocal organs.

When not in and act of eating, swallowing or talking, the tongue seeks a resting position in the lower throat channel. While singing, in order to employ the tongue as solid substance for creating a wall that will seal off the hole in the resonance channel and prevent breath pressure

from escaping through it, the singer must lift the tongue must upward from its usual resting place in the lower throat channel, and place into the mouth-pharynx cavity. This is accomplished, while under the guidance of a superior voice teacher, by employing the detached falsetto version of the i (ee) vowel. A detached falsetto tone is one that has no connection whatsoever to the power of the chest voice. It can only be properly accessed at the very top of all singers ranges, from F-Natural above middle C upward in the range, for all male singers, and F2-Natural above C2-Natural and upward in the range, for all female singers. This is the head voice, or detached falsetto range for all male singers, and the head voice, or whistle voice for all female singers. Another important factor about this special, detached falsetto i (ee) tone when using it to structure the wide passaggio pitches, is that it must be fitted into the center of a fully open throat position of the head voice (ah) vowel socket. This is required in order to avoid employing the chest voices i (ee) vowels socket socket, which is essentially a closed throat position, and damaging to the voice. The chest voices i (ee) vowel will immediately cause rigidity of the lower jaw, block off the force of the breath stream, and immediately defeat the entire purpose of the forth coming exercises. Heres what the great Italian tenor Beniamino Gigli had to say about this: The i (ee) vowels on the low and lower medium notes are narrow sounds. But, when ascending the complete range, and when passing above B-Flat below Middle C, for all male singers, and B-2 Flat above Middle C, for all female signers, the i (ee) vowels throat socket must be given ample space for development, just as if it were the same aperture as the a (ah) vowels throat space, providing ample throat space for of tonal amplification. This particular i (ee) of which we are speaking, is evoked then sustained primarily with the mind and the will (cervella e volont) of the singer. During the long and slow restructuring process of the wide passaggio, from G-Natural pitch above middle C downward to the B-Flat below middle C, for all male singers, and B-2 Flat, above G2-Natural above C2 for all female singers, the open a (ah) vowels throat position must be carried downward from the top of the range to the B-flat just mentioned above, in the previous paragraph. This i (ee) bowels throat position must based upon the open a (ah) vowel, when singing from this particular B-flat, upward in the range to its very top. Every time the i (ee) vowel is sung with any and all the tones of the wide passaggio, it must first be fitted into the open space of the a fully open-throated, head voice a (ah) vowel. There is another critically important factor regarding this particular detached falsetto i (ee) vowel, where the process and goal of sealing off the hole in the resonance channel is concerned. The selected pitch of this particular i (ee) vowel that it must first be generated exclusively by a strong flow of the breath force, then totally sustained by that same level of the breath force for the entire time it is being sung. As a structural tool, what this particular detached falsetto i (ee) vowel can accomplish for the singer is to attach itself to the muscles that control the tongue. This will allow the singer to lift

the tongue gently out of its resting place, in the lower throat channel, and then relocate it inside the mouth-pharynx cavity. During this process, the breath force must never stop flowing for a single second. The lower end of the tongue is attached to the hyoid bone which acts as a protective anchor for it, while still allowing the tongue great flexibility of movement. During the process of relocating the tongue from its low resting place and inside the mouth cavity, using the detached falsetto i (ee) vowel, the hyoid bone will immediately communicate to the singer, if and when the singer is putting excessive pressure on the lower end of the tongue, and it informs the singer, by easily understood sensation, stop exercising his/her voice, with this particular i (ee) vowel for a while, and give it a rest. After resting the voice, then continuing to exercise it again, and while moving the tongue from its resting place and then into the mouth-pharynx cavityonce the tongue has been placed into the mouth cavity, there will be an excessive amount of the tongues bulk, which the mouthpharynx is too small to comfortably accommodate. Therefore, the middle section of the tongue will automatically form itself into a mound which imitates the curved shape of the hard palate, situated immediately above it. Simultaneously, the tip of the tongue will automatically position itself downward and forward, behind the lower front teeth. During this entire process, the singer cannot precisely nor immediately understand how to accomplish all the factors that are involved, and what the results will be, when successful. That only comes later, when applying various exercises that are appropriate to this accomplishment. However, after the singer has learned how to properly evoke and apply this specific i (ee) vowel, he/she will come to clearly understand how and why only this specific i (ee) vowel can inform and control the tongue and the soft palate, simultaneously. Only this specific i (ee) vowel can instruct the tongue how to behave and adjust itself in order to compensate for the lack of available space for it within the mouth-pharynx cavity. And how to moved the soft plate downward, at the rear of the mouth-pharynx cavity, then to face it forward toward the front of the mouths. The above is only a limited preview of what will be expected of the tongue in order to utilize it as substance solid flesh material to create the bottom half of the wall that will seal off the hole in the resonance channel. Projecting forward, further in this process, the singer should know in advance that the tongue, when fully and properly utilized for the purpose of sealing off the hole in the passaggio, contributes only 50% of the solid flesh material to successfully accomplish this task. The remaining 50% will be contributed by the soft palate. The correctly produced detached falsetto i (ee) vowel will also precisely and simultaneously attach itself to the soft palate. It will instruct the soft palate of its duties and movements, and the precise amount of solid flesh material which will be used by the singer to create the upper-half of the wall in order to seal off the hole in the resonance channel.

In America, for more than fifty years now, most singers have been unable to sing a clear, vibrant, beautiful i (ee) vowel tone in any section of their complete ranges. This is because their voices are wrongly orientated to produce all five vowels based upon the ways they are formed with the muscles of the speaking voice, when actually speaking. Of course, this is a colossal mistake. Finding and utilizing the correct detached falsetto i (ee) vowel is critically related to how the singer does or does not understand how to correctly and masterfully apply the force of the breath, in order to evoke any/or all the tones of his/her complete range. We will go into this matter in greater detail later on.

Here are some important facts that you should know about the i (ee) vowel.

Presently, few if any contemporary voice teachers use the i (ee) vowel in their vocal exercises, while invariably almost all of them use the wrong, raw chest voice version of the (ah) vowel. Nor, for that matter, do they use the u (oo) vowel in its correct form, if they can avoid doing so. And strangely, no one seems to take notice of these preferences and/or exclusions of certain vowels, or questions anyone of authority as to why this is so. However, it must be understood that all five vowels, based upon the way they are pronounced by native Italians, and produced by the breath force, must be used to structure a superior singing instrument. This is so because each vowel makes it own particular contribution to the total process, and to the selected pitch to which it is currently being applied. And it is very important to understand that each individual vowel exerts its own particular influence upon the actual process of singing. The failure of contemporary voice teachers to produce great singers is also due to this lack of understanding about the five classic Italian five vowels, and what their contributions and effects are upon the building of a superior voice, and actual singing. Here is a list of several major voice teachers from the recent past, who strongly advocated that the i (ee) vowel played a major role in the voice structuring process: Freida Hempel, Leo Slezak, Enrico Rosati, Paul Althaus, and Beverly Johnson. However, none of the above individuals ever precisely explained to anyone, nor wrote down, how their concepts of the i (ee) vowel were to be used, nor presented us with particular exercises for its application. Enrico Rosati who was reportedly the New York voice teacher of Gigli, and also Mario Lanza for fifteen months, just prior to Lanzas departure on April 14, 1947 to fulfill a concert in Shippensburg, which Columbia Artists Management had booked for him. Later on, when Lanza went out to Hollywood to begin his highly successful movie career, which many thought destroyed his chances of becoming a great opera singer, Lanza begged Rosati to come out to Hollywood to continue teaching him. But Rosati declined, saying that he never followed the

great Gigli about, so why should he follow him. Lanza greatly admired and respected Rosati and accepted his decision. Later on, Lanza sent Rosati the following note: To Maestro Enrico Rosatiany success I am having or will have in the future I owe 100% to you, the greatest undisputed voice teacher in the world, past, present and future. I love you and you will always be close to me wherever I am, or in whatever I do. Especially on the stage, since you will always be there with the third register. All my love for you, Maestro. Mario Lanza I know that Rosatis third register, was, in fact, the developed falsetto voice, attained by applying the detached falsetto i (ee) vowel to the entire vocal range, in a specific manner, because Mario Lanza, himself, told me so. The Soft Palate The highly flexible and adjustable soft palate possesses a potential to form the upper half section of the solid, flesh material required to create the wall that seals off the hole in the resonance channel. This wall stops the breath force from escaping (while moving in a forward direction), towards towards the lips, and then through the mouth-pharynx cavity, then fully out of it. Some voice teachers who are somewhat aware of the fact that the soft palate plays an important role in structuring a superior singing voice erroneously instruct their students, while actually singing, to raise their soft palate upward and make the pillars of the fauces (the curtain like sections, to the right and left of the soft palate), to form a Gothic arch, as we often seen in many church windows. This must not be done. Doing so will immediately and completely block the breath force from freely passing through the passaggio tones, then traveling further upward in the range and arriving at the head voice and sinus cavities resonance chambers, all of which are important factors for the singer to produce superior high tones. It must also be known that the soft palate does not remain in the lowered and forward position, facing the front of the mouth, when all singers descend the range from it top and pass below the Bf situated below middle C to all the remaining pitches of his/her range below this particular Bf. With the tones below this particular Bf, the soft palate must be allowed to move backwards again, in the rear section of the mouth-pharynx cavity, to its preferred resting place. But it must never be allowed to become rigid and inflexible. When the pillars of the fauces have been incorrectly made to form a Gothic arch, that erroneous position (besides blocking the passageway through the passaggio and further ascent to the top tones), gives the lower octave of the voice an artificially dark timbre. As a consequence, many students are inappropriately placed into a lower vocal category than is their true vocal category. Now lets explain how the tongue, when lifted out of its resting place in the lower throat channel and then relocated within the mouth-cavity will come to represent the lower section of the wall that stops the breath force from dissipating and escaping through the front of the mouth.

The soft palate, when lowered and moved forward and facing the front of the mouth cavity, will come to be upper section of the wall that stops the breath force from dissipating and escaping through the front of the mouth. When applying a breathy, detached falsetto i (ee) vowel, one that has no relationship whatsoever to chest voice power, to a pitch above the registers break, preferably a Gn (a tone which is being produced exclusively by the force of breath power, and making sure that that this particular falsetto i (ee) vowel has been placed in the center of a pre-arranged position of a fully open a (ah)s throat space), then, and only then, will the i (ee) vowel simultaneously attach itself to the muscles that control the tongue (from below) and also attached itself to the muscles that control the soft palate (from above). Thereafter, the singer must slowly and carefully increase the volume of this specific, detached falsetto i (ee) vowels pitch, by swelling it in the manner of the messa di voce. Accurately accomplishing this task will bring the muscles of both the tongue and the soft palate together in a close and harmonious manner that completely seals off the undesirable hole in the resonance channel. This allows the singer to properly apply the required amount of breath tension to any and all tones of his/her complete vocal range. This is especially true for the critical tones of the passaggio where the hole existed before the bound together tongue and soft palate sealed it completely off. Thereafter, when the energized breath force reaches the pitches of the wide passaggio, Bf and Bn below middle C, middle C, plus Cs, D n , Ef, and En, that energized force of the breath, essential to creating and sustaining all these above mentioned pitches, will no longer be able to escape and incorrectly exit through the front of the mouth cavity. Finally, with the hole in the singers resonance channel completely sealed shut, the singer will be able to produce beautify, highly controllable, superior tones. To extend the i (ee) vowels positive influences upon all the tones of the wide passaggio (the pitches of which areGn, Gf, Fn, En, Ef, Dn, Df, and middle-C, plus Bn and Bf below middle C), all these detached falsetto i (ee) vowel exercises must be applied from the top note of the wide passaggio, Gn above middle C, in a descending direction exclusively, for quite a long time. Understand that the above information gives a mere preview. This has only been a rough sketch of what this complete procedure is capable of accomplishing, and will be expanded upon and clarify later on, in my following blog entries. But until then, here are some informative thoughts to dwell upon. Initially, the muscles of the tongue and soft palate, when placed in these new positions cannot yet withstand the increases of breath pressure that are needed to produce the remaining vowels of e (eh), o (oh) and a (ah). The singer must eventually fulfill the development needs of all of them, and when possible, in the same order in which they are presented above. While they use the same principle of swelling the selected, detached falsetto i (ee) vowel tone to develop, using the messa di voce exercise, each individual pitch must be exercised in the same descending order as presented above. As each individual vowels muscular controls strengthen, the muscles that control the tongue and soft palate when they are tightly bound together in the manner described above in order to seal the hole in the resonance channel, also develop in strength. Now, finally, they can totally resist

and sustain the maximum amount of breath pressured being applied to them. Thus, the singer can successfully sing in a dramatic manner frequently required by the popular, present-day grand operatic repertory. This means that the singers now developed voice can successfully sustain all the challenging muscular rigors of a professional singing career. The detached falsetto i (ee) vowel which begins this structural journey is the starter vowel. It possesses an uncanny potential for precise alignment of the voice and creates precise muscular alignment and harmony between the two unruly, antagonistic vocal registers. It also reveals to the singer the perfect pathway of the breath force as it travels from the bottom of the singers complete range, enters into the dark, blind tunnel of the vocal passaggio (which is extremely thin, when finally and completely structured). It then rises above the passaggio notes and arrives at the top range, which, when perfect, become the crowning glory of the singers art, along with a perfect fil di voce, or a ravishing soft, pianissimo tone, spinning gloriously around on top the breath forces energized beam. The singer must understand something very important about applying the i (ee) vowel exercises. After using them for a day or so, they must be put aside and the voice must be given a day or two of rest. This is so because the i (ee) vowel tends to temporarily block the flow of the breath force. After resting the voice and returning to exercise it, the singer must exclude the i (ee) vowel for a day or two, and use only the u (oo), o (oh) a (ah) vowels, which will gradually restore the full, fluid flow of the breath force throughout the singers entire range. Also understand that you cannot properly evaluate what influence a particular exercise has had upon your voice in the same time period that it is being performed. You must wait a few days to learn those facts. The illustration below shows the manner in which the tongue and soft palate must be repositioned by the singer away from their natural positions, and brought into extremely close contact with each other. Once there, they must be held firmly together while the singer is singing a particular passaggio tone and its accompanying vowel. This is done in order to seal off the hole in the resonance channel which would allow the breath force that is generating the tone to escape through the front of the mouth, causing the tone presently being sung to collapse. This phase of this long process, as it has been presented above, is meant to represent the singers first encounter with just a few of the principles and practices of this difficult and unusual voice structuring task. It cannot be accomplish quickly. And, it can be very testy and frustrating, and the singer can easily become discouraged. This is not an assignment for the faint of heart, nor anyone who is not prepared for total, unconditional, passionate devotion and fidelity to this ideal.

Be informed that this process is a serious undertaking It will completely alter the physiological arrangements and behavioral patterns of certain muscles that generate the singing voice. Once you have embarked upon this undertaking, your old, familiar voice will gradually vanish, but your new one will not appear, nor be clearly or fully revealed to you for quite some time. When considering the initial condition of your individual voice at the beginning of this process, you will understand why no one can precisely predict the length of time you will be obliged to travel in fear and doubt through this dark time-tunnel of doubt and frequent discouragement. However, if you do enter into it, it will serve as a test of your courage, fortitude, will, and

character. And, if you have what it takes, you will eventually emerge from this dark tunnel into the glorious light of success and fulfillment. This is what the late, great tenor, Luciano Pavarotti, told Jerome Hines about the passaggio, in Mr. Hines wonderful and informative book, Great Singers on Singing. Luciano Pavarotti: Now this passaggioJerome Hines, (cutting in on Pavarotti) Is the transition from the upper middle voice to the high voice, and I know that students are interested in your approach, since you have a flawless passaggio; it is so smooth a change, one is not aware of it. Luciano Pavarotti: It took me six years of study, and one must be convinced of its importance from the first day . . . never change ideas. You know, the first five or six months it is very depressing because it does not come out right, and you become cyanotic, red in the face. Then the student begins to think this approach is wrong, and tries the other way, but it will never bring them security of voice. The End of this Blog Entry _____________________________________ Relative to the above blog, you may want to read my vocal manual The Art of Signing of the Breath Flow, I am in the process of obtaining some copies of the book, plus copies of A Singers Note book. More than three years ago, my publisher, Banrden Books.com made a agreement with Google to make Eleven of my book available to the public as E-books. You can check with Google Book Search. Type into the search window Books by Anthony Frisell. Or, Novels by Anthony Frisell. If Anyone manages to buy one of my books, please give me a phone call 212-23385 and let know that you have suceeded in doing so. _______________________________________________________________

Thank you once again for you attention and patiencelooking forward to our next session Let me hear from you www.operarella@gmail.com. If you wish to speak to me, leave me your telephone number and when I have a few free minutes free from my busy schedule, I will call you. With much affection Anthony Frisell NB: All the above material has been copyrighted by S. Anthony Frisella All rights are reserved by Mr. Frisella, domestically and internationally

______________________________________________________________

Comments for Blog Entry #4:

SJF: Thanks again maestro Frisella, for being so generous with your knowledge and your time. Also, thank you for being one of the few, in fact the only teacher I know these days, who tells it like it is and doesn't promise miracles or quick fixes, but rather shares the long and tedious but rewarding reality that serious voice study is. I hope this blog is the beginning of the new American school of voice! Tuesday, September 25, 2007 - 03:51 PM

Opera Poetic: Bravo, Mr. Frisell!! Well articulated truths in the midst of this dark ages of singing in which we live. Please continue to inform and enlighten us with your knowledge and insights!

Monday, October 1, 2007 - 08:54 AM Blazing Tenor: Thank you! As a singer, I will study your blogs to further my own struggles to resolve my passaggio issues. This is a very difficult topic but one that speaks to the core of what plagues many singers. I really appreciate your thoughtful and articulate writing on this subject. Monday, October 1, 2007 - 09:01 AM Anonymous: It brought tears to my eyes when I read "To the hopeful, expectant voice student, his/her voice is the most precious, sacred thing in the world.... I often wonder how many presentday voice teachers ever consider that fact" It is clear from this writing as well as all of your others that you care deeply, have vast vocal knowledge and the ability to impart it in a manner that is assessable. For those singers who's desire is so very great, true knowledge and understanding of the instrument and it's structure so very limited and hope nearly lost. I thank you. Sunday, October 7, 2007 - 10:21 PM

Msopera: Thank you, Mr. Frisell, for following your passion for presenting unparalleled insights into the

development of the vocal instrument. In addition, thank you for your patients while fulfilling a promise to shine the light of truth upon the many inaccuracies of assumption and ignorance that strangle the emergence of the pure singing voice Wednesday, October 17, 2007 - 06:13 AM

Entry #5The Relationship of Vocal Exercises to the Five, Classic Italian Vowels, and to the Motor Force of the BreathPresently, practically every voice teacher is indiscriminately and almost exclusively using the damaging raw chest voices a (ah) vowel and ascending scale exercises to train their vocal students voices, without questioning the purpose, or the actual results they will have upon them, in the near future. The raw chest voice a (ah) vowel, and counter-productive ascending scales are applied, whether the student is a beginner, or a professional, with vocal problemsin other words, they all get the same rote treatment!! This approach to vocal training is radically incorrect. Voice teachers and vocal students who do not utilize the structural contributions of all five of the classic Italian singing vowels, are ignorant of what the four vowels, other than the a (ah) vowelthe u (oo), i (ee), e (eh) and the o (oh) vowelscan accomplish, nor can they technically interpret what these same vowels progressive benefits will have upon the muscular behavior and quality of a selected pitch, because, with advanced development, the quality these vowels sounds are continuously changing. A correct approach to vocal structuring deals with each and ever pitch of the singers complete range individually, and on a one-by-one basis. All the pitches of the singers complete range must be structured individually, if they are to be transformed into a superior singing voice While actually singing, each individual pitch must be capable of producing its own precise vocal cords vibrations, which is different in numbers, than all the remaining pitches of the complete range. When that has been completely accomplished, which takes quite a bit of time, the final result is that each individual pitch has become structurally differently from all the remaining pitches of the singers complete range. But, at the same time, each individual pitch is completely harmonious with all the remaining pitches of the complete range. Look into your pianos resonance chamber

The above principle, that each pitch of the singers complete range inherently possesses its own unique individuality, may be more clearly understood by lifting the cover of a grand pianos resonance chamber and carefully observing the physical differences between all the metal strings that produce the pianos complete range of pitches. At the lower end, the metal strings are long and thick. They produce the pianos lower pitches. At the opposite end, we see the thinner and shorter metal strings they