Debra Lynn - The Bel Canto Buzz

2019 by Debra Lynn

Fourth edition

https://www.debralynn.org/

Illustrations by Sally Foster

Book design: Y42K Publishing Services

https://www.y42k.com/publishing-services/

I first heard Debra when we were both partof the Sayegh Garcia Marchesi vocal studio in San Francisco,California. I remember to this day the way my head turned to seewhere this amazingly clear and beautiful voice was coming from. Ifmemory serves she was singing O Luce di quest anima. Hergolden notes and sound drew me in along with her compelling statureand eyes. Ah! I thought, Another fabulously intense andinteresting person! Afterwards, a tea shared with lemon and honeysolidified the beginning of a long, warm friendship together.

During our shared training experience, inaddition to having a stellar set of pipes and natural expression,Debra always led the way with deep personal integrity for the workwith which she was involved. Everything about her was not only thebest she could be, but also easy and fun for whoever wasinvolved.

Debras choice to include teaching voicealong with her active concert performing is no surprise. Her lovefor people and dedication to vocal beauty make her a natural forsharing what she has learned. Her success in teaching, along withthe dedication, love and growth, which her students experience, inall fairness, should not be considered stop-the-press-news. Awonderful person, highly skilled, as well as a great communicator,it would be more surprising if she wasnt successful.

With her intelligence and general sense ofease and goodwill towards others suffusing the pages of her newbook, The Bel Canto Buzz should delight readers who areinterested in singing better, new voice teachers looking for waysto reach their students more effectively, as well as moreexperienced teachers who want a review of bel cantoprinciples or to borrow some of her suggestions to use in their ownstudios. Debras writing is fresh, understandable andclearsomething, which is not always easily accomplished in thevocal academic world.

After reading through the sections, I foundit easy to stand next to my piano (with mirror!), try out thesuggestions, and experience changes almost instantly formyself.

I hope you enjoy the book as much as Idid!

-Kate Michaels

Why did I write this book?

One day, I experienced effortlesssinging.

It was so easy, in fact, that I felt nothingbut complete control. I had been singing an Italian exercise at thetime (where elsein the shower). For what had seemed like aneternity to that point, despite having an undergraduate degree invoice performance, twenty years of lessons from six prominentteachers and an enormous financial investment in my journey, I hadbeen struggling to sing well.

And suddenly there I was, transforming fromamateur to professional, in a light-bulb illuminating moment ofunderstanding.

Many of us struggle to sing with ease. Yetwe remain fascinated by those who do seem to possess the secret topowerful, effortless pitch-perfect singing, as the popularity ofseveral reality television shows attests to. It seems our verysouls want to sing.

The Bel Canto Buzz refers to atargeted sensation in the mouth, that when activated, stabilizesour singing and speaking issues, allowing us to remain better tunedand more accurate. Were going to discover this spot together,exercise it and start you on your journey to effortlesssinging.

Heres the key: what if I were to tell youthat most of the challenges youve been having with your ownsinging have to do with the language you speak and the way youtalk? It is the piece of the vocal puzzle that is almost completelyoverlooked in mainstream music education. After years of privatelessons, I had never heard a single one of my instructors mentionthat the language I spoke was my primary problemand yet, now Iknow that, clearly, it had been.

So, from the moment I felt that effortlesstone emerge from my body, it became my fervent desire to share thisunderstanding with anyone who had been challenged in one way oranother with their own voice.

I will take it one step further: I now knowthat everyone can sing well and as a side note, love their speakingvoice, too. After almost twenty years of teaching myself, I canattest to the fact that every single person that has crossed mystudios threshold has left an hour later knowing without a doubtthat he or she could in fact access their voice with ease.

So, together, were going to unravel thedifficulty most of us face when we try to sing. These challengesextend to singing in a variety of other languages where the vowelstructure may cause the voice to resonate some of the sounds toofar back in the mouth, or consonant issues, where the tonguearticulates them farther back on the hard palate, like in thevarious Asian languages.

First, we will need to understand whatsinging is: its simply elongated vowel sounds. Next, we willdiscover that were built like an instrument, physically designedto vibrate or resonate sound. Once you have these two conceptsdown, it becomes a question of focusing the mind, stabilizing themuscles associated with singing, and establishing the Buzz.

As a result of discovering this amazing keyto ease within my own body, I was able to achieve my dream ofbecoming a professional singer. In the late 90s, I moved to Mauiand made another rather astonishing discovery; another group ofsingers who seemed to be creating effortless sound themselvestheHawaiians. I would often sit and listen to these joyful and radiantmusicians, singing in their native language. There was no strain;no aspects of their vocal range that seemed to create anychallenges for them. I would often ask if they had studied voice,and then curiously, their consistent reply would be, No.

I then put something together in my mind.The Hawaiian language was put into written form by using theItalian/Latin language as the basis for phonetic translation, thetwo languages being related through their vowel structure. Both usewhat is often referred to as pure vowels, something not common inEnglish or other languages. This forward, pure vowel componentbecomes key to singing ease. These Italian and Hawaiian vowels seemto resonate in one particular spot in the mouth, this place I nowcall the Buzz. When I help you to understand how to find andfeel this place, as well as shift your overall objective fromprojection to pulling, your singing will be transformed.

Too many people believe that they cannotsing well and often dont even like their speaking voices. Thismisunderstanding is caused by a lack of clarity about how singingmechanics work, not recognizing the challenges we all face. As anexample, Americanized-English can be out of tune about 80% of thetime, if theres no structural intervention. Unless you are trained(or are very lucky), our language-based issues create more problemsthan you realize.

If you do question your ability, suspendyour current reality for just a little while and I will share withyou my understanding. It could change your singing life, as it didmine. This journey holds the possibility of a complete paradigmshift in sound mechanics, bringing you transformation and endlesshours of joy! So, if youre ready, lets go find our Bel CantoBuzz together!

Did You Know You AreBuilt Like a Stereo Speaker?

Most who struggle to sing with ease dontrealize that humans are actually built to sing and that our bodiesare designed like a high-fidelity speaker. If you have looked atthe internal structure of an old-fashioned speaker, you may recallseeing three cone-like structures referred to as woofers, tweetersand mids; these cones are concave and respectively large, small andmedium in size. Each of these cones vibrates when sound is putthrough the speaker, and that sound is then amplified. The largercone amplifies the lowest notes and the smallest cone helpsresonate the highest pitches or tones.