The Lamperti School: Panting

Did you know that Francesco Lamperti taught his students to pant?

Knowing this to be the case, I developed an exercise geared to help students understand it and another Lamperti School concept: inhalare la voce, or what Lamperti called "drinking" the tone. It's simple really.

I have the student pant silently in one second intervals with the accent on the inhalation. This gives the student an immediate sense of lift or extension of the muscles of the body, and is observed in the student's "open" face, which telegraphs to both student and teacher that the ear is now ready to do its job, the muscles of the face and head feeling quite busy. Keeping this activity going while singing exercises and scales is not only necessary, but imperative. The way I see it, Lamperti knew in his bones what we are just beginning to understand: the ear is the body.