My lovely Coaching Circle know how often I will steal a technique from opera to help our singing voices to be more efficient in musical theatre or any style. I’ve recently helped a couple of singers who were pushing their voice, or carrying too much weight into their upper register, with the power of staccato and it was too effective not to share with you all.
Staccato allows us to establish a light, balanced, vocal tone and it demands our breath to be well supported. I’ll start with some staccato scales or arpeggios to find that balance and experiment with the amount of tone and effort involved. I’ll then replace some or all of the musical phrase in question with staccato, or alternatively write a new staccato run-up to that phrase, so that you can enter it with a better vocal weight. The results speak for themselves….give it a go!
Pictured here at Opera Holland Park’s opening night of ITCH by Jonathan Dove this week. Brought back memories of working on Glyndebourne’s FLIGHT years ago when I developed a huge admiration for his musical brilliance.