BEL CANTO VOCAL TECHNIQUE

Bel Canto, meaning beautiful singing, is an operatic vocal style originating from the courts of Florence and Venice. It features both the vocal technique and principles of this style.

Giulio Caccini inventor of bel canto opera

Giulio Caccini (1551-1618) was the father of opera and Bel Canto vocal technique.

Waves of Bel Canto

The Bel Canto style of singing developed in three waves. The first wave emerged during the late Renaissance, with the teachings of Palestrina, Caccini, and Pistocchi. The second wave developed during the Italian Baroque, with the instruction of Scarlatti, Porpora, and Bernacchi. Finally, the third wave found its full flowering during the Romantic Era within the schools of Garcia and Lamperti.

Shigo Voice Studio's teaching methods are based on Anna Eugénie Schoen-René's documented teachings. She was a student of Francesco Lamperti and a certified exponent of Pauline Viardot-Garcia and Manuel Garcia.

Bel Canto Vocal Training

Bel Canto vocal training begins with learning how to breathe and hold your instrument, then proceeds with the formation of tone, pure vowels, and vocalization.

Opera singers master key Bel Canto vocal techniques; including portamento, legato, sostenuto, staccato, marcato, mezza voce, messa di voce, crescendo, decrescendo and trill, as well as three schools of vocalization: Spianato, Fiorito, and Declamato. This training leads to role study, career development, and artistic and personal fulfillment.

The Bel Canto style will transform your voice, your life, and those who listen. You’ll be given techniques that create a beautiful, ringing tone that slices through an orchestra with unusual clarity, fullness, and depth.

Complete Vocal Technique

Bel Canto vocal training will enable you to speak and sing in multiple vocal styles without compromising vocal function. It will make your voice flexible, strong, and resilient enough to vocalize with full voice for up to 3 hours without fatigue.

Bel Canto's vocal technique provides the singing actor with a template for complete artistic freedom, expression of emotional truth, and profound interpretive ability.

As a matter of technique, the great teachers of the past warned against two things: singing through the nose and in the throat. What did they teach? The singer who sings from the center of the head and towards the lips—fior di labbra—can sing anything.

Engraving of Jean-Baptiste Lully’s Amadis, first performed at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in January 1685.

  • "Good singing is a matter of doing—at most—six things at once; simple in concept, but to get them all happening in sync requires intense mental concentration and discipline."

    Margaret Harshaw

  • "The great secret of the old Italian school of singing was patience."

    Pauline Viardot-Garcia

  • "A teacher can only help you a little. In the end, you must do it yourself."

    Pauline Viardot-Garcia

  • "Singing is seventy-five percent technique."

    Anna Eugénie Schoen-René

  • Ninety-five percent of the power of the voice is in its beauty."

    Manuel Garcia

  • "If you can speak, you can sing."

    Manuel Garcia

  • "The thought of greatness is the beginning of greatness."

    Pauline Viardot-Garcia

  • "If I tell you to jump out the window you will do it."

    Pauline Viardot-Garcia

  • "Learn to sing! Learn to sing! Learn to sing!"

    Pauline Viardot-Garcia

  • "It is not manna from heaven. You have to make it happen."

    Margaret Harshaw

  • "It's better than dope!"

    Margaret Harshaw

  • "Keep it forward because it's a long way out the other end!"

    Margaret Harshaw

  • "If you don't have bel canto, then you have can belt-o."

    Margaret Harshaw

  • “There are two things you cannot learn from a book: singing and sex.”

    Margaret Harshaw

  • "My technique, in a nutshell, is low support and high placement."

    Margaret Harshaw

  • "Vocal technique is like underwear: it should felt and not seen!"

    Margaret Harshaw

  • "You always think it's smaller and uglier than it is. When you get to that point; that's when it's really beautiful."

    Margaret Harshaw

  • "Start where you are going."

    Margaret Harshaw

  • "Learning to sing means learning to think."

    Margaret Harshaw

  • "The voice is like your hand. Listening is on one side. Feeling is on the other."

    Margaret Harshaw

  • "You must be a kid again to enter the kingdom of singing."

    Daniel Shigo

  • "Singing starts in the the ears and eyes."

    Daniel Shigo

Nicola Antonio Porpora (1686-1776) is the most famous vocal maestro ever. Manuel Garcia (1775-1832), the father of Manuel Garcia (1805-1906), studied with Porpora’s student Giovanni Ansani (1744-1826).

Principles of Bel Canto

  • The Italian tone is formed in the mouth and controlled by the ear.

  • The bel canto singer sings from the head down.

  • The basis of singing is the chest.

  • The pelvis is the basis of breathing.

  • Bel Canto involves listening for feeling and a feeling for listening.

  • The Italian singer has no throat.

  • AH is the father of vowels.

  • A perfect vowel combines ah, ee, and oo.

  • The Bel Canto-trained voice has a bell-like, ringing, and telling quality and carries throughout an auditorium without effort or amplification.

Benefits of Bel Canto training

  • Absolute vocal technique.

  • Prevent vocal problems and nodules.

  • Extend vocal range to two octaves and beyond.

  • Equalize registers, heal breaks, and increase dynamic range.

  • Sing and speak with one voice.

  • Sing with great ease, freedom of expression, and beauty of tone.

  • Sing without amplification and without losing your voice.

  • Vocalize in multiple genres without losing your way.

  • Establish the foundation to become a great artist.

  • Sing with a youthful-sounding voice for your whole life.

Bel Canto solves problems.

Do you have multiple degrees but not fundamental techniques? Have you had many teachers but been left with the same vocal problems? Can you name all the muscles of the larynx but cannot sing? Is your teaching system failing you and your students?

Did you go to a conservatory and lose the joy of singing? Do you want to be able to make a beautiful tone that moves your listener? Do you want to find your unique voice?

The Bel Canto training devised by the Garcias and Lampertis and taught by Anna Eugénie Schoen-René addresses your needs.

How long does it take to learn Bel Canto?

Learning Bel Canto is like learning a language: the quicker the ear, the faster the progress. Technical mastery precedes the study of repertoire and roles. Classical singers, especially, make a long-term investment. The study is in years rather than months.

Learn Garcia and Lamperti's vocal techniques. Submit your application.

Engraving of Jean-Baptiste Lully's Amadis, first performed at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in January 1685.