The Natural Organization of Classical Vocal Technique
The Interconnected Voice
The Voice Beyond the Microphone
Dear friends,
Today, I would like to talk about something that is becoming increasingly important in the 21st century: the influence of recordings, videos, and microphones on classical singing and the opera industry.
Anyone with a deeper knowledge of vocal technique knows that not all voices are captured equally by microphones. Some voices sound extraordinarily rich, round, and impressive in recordings, while others lose a significant part of their natural beauty. The opposite can also be true: a voice that seems merely pleasant on a recording can be overwhelming, thrilling, and unforgettable in a live performance.
Also very often in recordings, natural big voices sound thiner and small while small voices sound thicker and bigger and sometimes even darker…
Even the most sophisticated microphones and recording technology cannot fully reproduce the complexity of a human voice in a theater or concert hall. Certain frequencies are emphasized, others are diminished. The balance, the projection, the overtones, the physical sensation of sound traveling through a space—these elements simply cannot be completely translated into a recording.
This brings me to a concern about our profession today. More and more artistic decisions are being made based on video material and digital content. I understand the financial realities. It is no longer easy for casting directors, artistic administrators, and intendants to travel across Europe, the Americas, or the world to hear singers live. Nevertheless, we should never forget one fundamental truth:
Opera, Lied, and concert singing are live art forms.
They were created for the theater and the concert hall, not for screens, algorithms, or compressed audio files.
Recordings are wonderful. They allow us to preserve artistic legacies, study interpretation, learn style and phrasing, and enjoy music at home. They are invaluable tools. But they are not the complete reality of a voice.
The true experience of classical singing happens when sound meets space, when the human voice reaches another human being directly, without technological mediation.
Perhaps that is why, after all these years, live performance remains irreplaceable.
I could write much more on this subject, but for today I will leave it here.
Stay healthy, stay close to the people you love, and keep creating art in every possible aspect of your life.
Warm regards,
Aris Argiris
The "I" Vowel Position
The I Vowel Position – One of the Most Misunderstood Concepts in Classical Vocal Technique
—Note for English speakers: By “I vowel” I mean the Italian “I” (the “ee” sound, as in pizza, Italia), not the English letter “I” (“eye”).—
The I vowel position is, in my opinion, one of the most misunderstood aspects of classical vocal technique. Unfortunately, it is often viewed with unnecessary suspicion, both in vocal pedagogy and among professional singers.
I had the great privilege of studying with several extraordinary teachers during my life, among them the legendary German baritone Josef Metternich. He was a passionate advocate of what he called the I vowel position—not the vowel itself, but the position created by a properly articulated, rounded, yet horizontally organized I.
Please don’t be alarmed by the word horizontal. I am not referring to a spread or smiling mouth. Metternich’s concept was based on the natural articulation of the I vowel. The sensation is created in the space between the upper and lower molars, deep in the back of the mouth. It is the subtle widening that occurs naturally during a yawn—the small muscular expansion behind the back teeth. That rounded internal space was where he felt the articulation of the I.
Finding this sensation is not easy. Many singers become afraid as soon as they hear the word I, because an incorrectly produced I can indeed become tight, thin, or squeezed. But this happens because most people have never learned to articulate the vowel naturally. Contrary to popular belief, a healthy classical I is not produced in the very front of the mouth. Its organization is lateral and posterior—it develops toward the back of the oral cavity rather than simply forward.
Once this rounded I position has been established through vocalization, the goal is to maintain that same internal organization while articulating every other vowel—A, E, O, and U—without manipulating the lips or jaw externally.
When this happens, something remarkable occurs.
First, the entire body becomes connected to the voice. The resonating spaces open naturally, without the need to “place” the sound somewhere or consciously direct it toward a particular resonance cavity. The voice simply finds its own acoustical balance.
Second, articulation becomes effortless. The tongue becomes an active participant in diction instead of an obstacle. Legato becomes easier, breath management improves, and the voice acquires a freedom that is difficult to achieve when technique is based primarily on O or U.
Today, many social media “gurus” encourage singers to build their technique almost exclusively around O and U. In my opinion, this can be dangerous, especially for developing singers who lack several years of technical experience. Those vowels certainly have their place, but when used as the primary technical foundation too early, they often encourage excessive darkening, artificial covering, and unnecessary muscular tension.
Ironically, what many singers seek through O and U is already contained within a correctly organized I. The true roundness, the sense of affondo, the stable foundation of the breath, the balance between horizontal and vertical organization, and the natural activation of the resonating cavities all emerge from this position.
Of course, I know this is not a universally accepted point of view, and I welcome respectful discussion. Healthy pedagogy grows through thoughtful debate. But this approach has proven enormously valuable in my own singing and teaching, and it is a concept that deserves much more attention than it usually receives.
Aris Argiris
Ciao!
We need to understand which elements of articulation and diction in classical vocal technique are natural, clear, and free from unnecessary muscular tension, stiffness, or obstacles to projecting and sustaining the voice. We must also understand how these elements help us preserve legato while allowing the necessary consonants to resonate naturally.
For me, the first and most important element is the tongue.
If we understand the function of the tongue—its plasticity, elasticity, and freedom of movement within the oral cavity—we begin to understand that articulation is created primarily through the tongue’s ability to change the internal space of the mouth. This continuous and natural reshaping of the vocal tract is what allows the vowels to be articulated efficiently, freely, and without unnecessary tension.
The second element is the jaw.
The movement of the jaw should always adapt naturally to the pitch and tessitura. Working together with the tongue, it contributes to healthy articulation and allows the voice to project with freedom, balance, and ease.
The third element is the lips.
For some singers, greater lip participation may work, and there is no doubt about that. However, if we are speaking about the healthiest and most natural form of articulation, one of the most common mistakes is to shape the vowels primarily with the lips.
The moment we begin forming vowels with the lips, we often create unnecessary muscular tension around the mouth and jaw. At the same time, the tongue gradually becomes passive or even stiff, because it is no longer allowed to perform its natural function. If the lips do the work, the tongue loses its purpose as the primary articulator.
Therefore, my order of priority is:
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The tongue
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The jaw
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The lips
The lips should participate only when absolutely necessary. The mouth should remain relaxed, energetic, alive, and free—not fixed or manipulated.
This is a natural continuation of my reflections from the last years.
Aris Argiris
Ciao!
Breathing and Support in Classical Vocal Technique
Dear Friends,
I would like to share another topic that has occupied my thoughts and still is an important part of my singing, teaching, and research over many years.
I sincerely hope you will find it useful, thought-provoking, and interesting.
Breathing and Support: A Functional Perspective
Another essential aspect of classical vocal technique that must be addressed with clarity and precision is breathing, or what singers commonly call support.
This subject has probably generated more discussion than any other aspect of singing. Countless teachers describe it through personal sensations, images, metaphors, and analogies. While these images may be extremely useful, they are nevertheless subjective. They describe how one individual experiences singing, not necessarily how the physiological mechanism actually functions.
For this reason, I believe it is important to begin with physiology and then explain the sensations that arise from it, rather than the other way around.
There is no doubt that breathing—and more specifically the management of the outgoing airflow—is one of the fundamental pillars of classical vocal technique.
If one were forced to estimate its importance, one could even say, with a slight exaggeration, that breathing and support represent more than half of our vocal technique. They influence not only the production of sound itself, but also colour, dynamics, pianissimo, fortissimo, endurance, phrasing, vocal stability, and ultimately artistic freedom.
The question often asked is:
Which is more important—breathing in or breathing out?
My answer is that both are indispensable.
However, if I had to assign greater importance to one of them, I would give slightly more weight to breathing out, because it is the controlled release of air that ultimately produces vocal fold vibration and therefore sound itself.
Nevertheless, without a healthy inhalation there can never be a healthy exhalation.
The two are inseparable.
-Inhalation-
A correct inhalation should always be natural, relaxed and silent.
Contrary to what many singers believe, we do not need enormous quantities of air in order to sing operatically.
In fact, excessive inhalation often creates unnecessary tension before the first note has even been sung.
The sensation during inhalation should be that the air travels deeply into the lungs.
Physiologically, air fills the lungs from top to bottom, but the muscular sensation we perceive is that the expansion occurs low in the body.
The greatest feeling of expansion should occur:
* behind the body, in the posterior ribs and flanks,
* beneath the sternum,
* and only secondarily through a gentle expansion of the thorax.
-This creates a broad, relaxed and stable foundation for singing.
-The objective is not to collect as much air as possible.
-The objective is to establish an organized and balanced respiratory system before phonation begins.
-Exhalation-
The outgoing air is what actually creates sound.
It passes through the vocal folds, initiating vibration, which is then transformed into resonance, language, phrasing and musical expression.
For this reason, support should not be understood as muscular force.
Nor should it be understood as “holding the stomach.”
What many singers call diaphragmatic support is, in reality, the sensation of maintaining the respiratory system in the expanded condition established during inhalation.
Of course, anatomically there are no “upper” and “lower” compartments of the lungs.
The lungs fill as one organ.
When singers speak about “keeping the air low,” they are describing a functional sensation, not a literal anatomical location.
The diaphragm itself is a dome-shaped muscle separating the thoracic cavity from the abdominal cavity.
-Its purpose is not to push sound.
-Nor does it directly project the voice.
Its movement allows the lungs to expand during inhalation.
During singing, the singer experiences the sensation of maintaining this low expansion while regulating the outgoing airflow.
The goal is therefore not to force large quantities of air toward the vocal folds.
Quite the opposite.
Before continuing, I would like to underline one further observation that has become extremely important throughout my own artistic life.
I also wish to emphasize that this is my personal sensation as a singer. Like many internal sensations in singing, it should not be interpreted as an absolute physiological truth, but rather as an individual perception that has consistently helped me throughout my career.
While producing a sound in classical singing, I do not have the sensation that the air is leaving my body.
Paradoxically, I experience almost the opposite.
The stronger and more projected the sound becomes, the stronger the sensation that the breath is moving deeper into my body rather than escaping from it.
Of course, physiologically I know that the air is leaving the lungs. Without outgoing airflow there would be no vibration of the vocal folds and therefore no sound. This is not a description of anatomy.
It is a description of an internal functional sensation.
For me, this sensation creates a beautiful balance between two opposite directions.
Acoustically, the sound is projected outward toward the audience.
Internally, however, I experience a continuous sensation of depth, stability and expansion downward into my own body.
These two opposite directions balance one another naturally.
-The voice projects outward.
-The body organizes itself inward.
This contrast prevents me from “throwing” the sound.
Instead of chasing the voice toward the audience, I maintain the sensation that my respiratory foundation becomes even deeper, broader and more stable.
This inward sensation helps me preserve what I would call my fundament—the platform upon which the entire vocal mechanism rests.
The breathing apparatus remains quiet.
-Not passive.
-Not collapsed.
-Not rigid.
Rather, it remains flexible, elastic, and continuously energetic.
This distinction is very important.
When I speak of relaxation, I do not mean laziness or muscular inactivity.
I mean the absence of unnecessary tension while maintaining complete functional readiness.
Within this stable and flexible foundation, I am then able to canalize the outgoing airflow according to the musical phrase, regulating it continuously according to the tessitura, the dynamics and the expressive demands of the music.
Rather than imagining a thick column of air, I prefer to think of a very thin stream with an enormous concentration of energy.
This fine, highly organized stream passes efficiently through the vocal folds, allowing them to vibrate freely without unnecessary pressure.
The vibration is then amplified throughout the resonating cavities of the body.
-The Sensation of Support-
Because support cannot be observed directly, singers naturally describe it through sensation.
One sensation that I personally find particularly useful is the healthy reflex that occurs when we cough or sneeze.
During these actions one immediately notices several simultaneous muscular events.
-The area beneath the sternum remains broad.
-The posterior ribs continue to feel expanded.
-The lower flanks remain active.
At the same time, the lateral ribs gradually move inward and downward rather than remaining rigidly expanded.
This is an important distinction.
-Support is not the artificial attempt to keep the ribs permanently open.
-Support is the dynamic equilibrium between expansion and controlled release.
-The body never becomes rigid.
-It remains elastic.
This elasticity allows the outgoing airflow to remain constant throughout an entire musical phrase.
-Breathing as Part of an Interconnected System-
Like every other aspect of classical vocal technique, breathing cannot be separated from the rest of the instrument.
-Breathing influences articulation.
-Articulation influences resonance.
-Resonance influences registration.
-Registration influences airflow.
-Airflow influences vocal fold vibration.
-Everything influences everything else.
This is why I avoid presenting breathing as an isolated technique.
It belongs to the same interconnected physiological organization that governs vowels, articulation, resonance, consonants and legato.
Support is therefore not a muscular action added to singing.
It is the natural consequence of a respiratory system that remains organized while the voice continuously transforms breath into vibration, vibration into resonance, and resonance into music.
Have a wonderful day!
Ciao!
Another drive to Berlin. Another morning alone in the car. And as always, when I am on my way to teach my wonderful students, my thoughts start exploding.
Most of the time, those thoughts revolve around singing and vocal technique.
Lately, I have been observing more and more videos on social media: diagrams, animations, AI-generated explanations, and all kinds of demonstrations of vocal technique. Many of them are fascinating, and many are created with the best intentions.
One term, however, keeps appearing over and over again:
“Cover the sound.”
This is one of those expressions that belongs to the history of singing. The old school understood exactly what it meant. But we are no longer living in that world, and in modern vocal pedagogy, words matter enormously.
A teacher has the obligation not only to use terminology but also to explain it.
Because if a young student hears the words cover the sound, what is often understood is very simple:
“Make the sound darker.”
And that can be dangerous.
A student who tries to darken the voice too early will often begin to manipulate the instrument physically. More muscular effort. More tension. More widening. More weight.
For a singer who does not yet understand what lies behind the concept of covering, this can create real vocal problems.
This is why, personally—and I underline that this is only my personal opinion—I often prefer the expression:
“Round the sound.”
For me, rounding gives a healthier image.
It does not encourage darkness. It encourages shape.
Not every vowel behaves the same way. An “U” tends to fall back. An “O” can do the same. An “A” in its pure form tends to spread. An “E” can become tight. An “I” can become straight and overly exposed.
But regardless of the vowel, the sensation can remain the same:
A rounded shape.
Not an “O” vowel. Not artificial darkness. Simply a feeling of roundness.
When the vowel is rounded, the singer is protected from over-darkening, from carrying unnecessary weight, from widening the mouth excessively, and from creating tension in the throat.
At the same time, the voice can connect more naturally to the breath, to the body, and to the support system that should be doing the work in the first place.
This brings me back to something I believe strongly:
In vocal technique, words are not innocent.
Every word creates an image.
Every image creates a physical reaction.
And every physical reaction affects the voice.
This is also why we should be careful when consuming vocal content online. Social media rewards short, attractive, direct messages. A video of thirty seconds will always reach more people than a lesson of thirty minutes.
I am convinced that many of these teachers understand the complexity behind what they are saying. But the format often leaves no room for explanation.
So, to all young singers:
Watch. Learn. Be curious.
But be careful about what you watch, how you understand it, and how you apply it.
The voice deserves more than slogans.
Have a beautiful day, everybody.
— Aris Argiris
Another reflection on the interconnected voice
Dear Friends,
Today I would like to address another subject that has troubled me for many years, both as a singer and as a teacher.
It is the widespread tendency—if I may call it a kind of “disease,” metaphorically speaking—to direct, squeeze, or concentrate the sound into the nose or beside the wings of the nose.
During the last years of my observations, I have noticed that this has almost become fashionable, both in teaching and in singing.
As I have discussed in my previous articles, I am generally skeptical of any pedagogical concept that asks the singer to send, direct, or place the sound somewhere.
Very often these ideas eventually lead to stiffness, excessive muscular activity, vocal fatigue, a squeezed sound, and a limitation of vocal colours, dynamics, and expressive freedom.
It is also a relatively easy concept to teach.
One often sees singers lifting or widening the wings of the nose while adopting an expression of intense concentration—as if the sound were being projected into a very small point directly beside the nose.
For some singers this sensation may appear to improve intonation, increase brilliance, create more squillo, or give the impression of a larger and more metallic sound.
At first, this can even seem convincing.
But I believe that, in many cases, this is an illusion.
The apparent improvement often comes at the expense of the natural freedom of the instrument.
As I have repeatedly written, the voice functions as one interconnected system.
The muscles of the face, tongue, jaw, neck, larynx, shoulders, thorax and respiratory mechanism continuously influence one another.
This is precisely why I describe my pedagogical philosophy as The Interconnected Voice.
When one small muscular area becomes artificially fixed or overloaded, the rest of the system inevitably reacts.
Of course, there may occasionally be a particular colour or dramatic effect that justifies such a facial gesture.
But if this becomes the permanent method of singing, I believe we are moving away from healthy vocal function.
This approach can contribute to unnecessary tongue tension, reduced flexibility of articulation, a higher laryngeal position, and in many cases a progressively tighter throat.
Because the tongue itself belongs to this same interconnected system, excessive fixation around the nose and upper face often reduces the tongue’s natural freedom to articulate vowels efficiently inside the oral cavity.
Very often one also observes another consequence.
Instead of allowing the tongue and jaw to perform their natural functions, singers begin articulating vowels by moving the entire upper face or even the head itself.
At least to my eyes, this is neither necessary nor efficient.
The jaw should remain free and participate only when required.
The tongue should remain the primary articulator.
This is why I would encourage young singers to avoid this type of “placement.”
Personally, I do not even particularly like the word placement.
It suggests that the sound has one destination.
I do not believe it does.
Naturally, there are experienced professional singers with long international careers who use sensations that may resemble these descriptions.
I have no interest whatsoever in criticizing them.
After twenty years on stage, every artist has developed an individual way of organizing the instrument.
If it serves them well, there is little point in trying to change it.
My reflections are directed primarily toward students and young professionals who are still building the foundations of their technique.
For them, I believe it is safer to avoid searching for a fixed destination for the sound.
The sound does not need to be placed.
It needs to be allowed to vibrate freely.
When the respiratory system is organized, the throat remains free, the tongue functions naturally, the jaw stays flexible, and the resonating spaces are unobstructed, the vibration will naturally occupy whichever resonating spaces are acoustically appropriate.
The resonance changes continuously according to the vowel, the tessitura, the dynamic level, the musical phrase, the language, the style, and the artistic intention.
Our task is not to force the sound into one place.
Our task is to free the instrument.
To organize the breath.
To allow the vibration to travel naturally.
To canalize the airflow efficiently.
But not to push, send, direct, or place the sound.
In my opinion, these concepts often create more problems than solutions.
As always, these reflections represent my personal experience as both a singer and a teacher.
They are not intended as absolute truths, but as invitations to think critically about how we describe vocal function.
Because words matter.
Images matter.
And in singing, the images we create often become the technique we build.
Have a beautiful day, everybody.
Please continue following this series. There are many more ideas I look forward to sharing with you. Parallel to my performing career, this pedagogical exploration has become one of my greatest passions, and I hope these reflections may contribute, even in a small way, to healthier and more conscious singing.
Ciao!
Aris Argiris
Dear friends,
Today I would like to talk about a topic that creates a great deal of confusion among singers: resonance.
Almost everyone has heard expressions such as chest voice, head voice, mask resonance, or singing into the forehead. We use these terms constantly, and sometimes they can even be helpful as images. The problem begins when we start believing that these sensations are the actual source of resonance.
They are not.
The first thing we should always remember is very simple:
The vocal folds create the sound. The resonators shape it.
The vocal folds are the source of the sound. They vibrate and generate the acoustic signal. From that moment on, the sound travels through a series of air-filled spaces that enrich, filter, and amplify certain frequencies. These are the true resonators.
The most important of them is the pharynx. It is by far the largest and most flexible resonance space, and it has the greatest influence on the color, richness, and carrying power of the voice.
The oral cavity—our mouth—is equally important. Every movement of the tongue, jaw, lips, and soft palate changes its shape, which is why every vowel has its own acoustic identity.
The nasal cavity also plays a role, mainly for nasal consonants such as m, n, and ng. During normal classical singing, however, we generally do not want the tone itself to become nasal.
Finally, there are the paranasal sinuses. For decades they have often been described as important resonators, but modern voice science shows that their acoustic contribution is actually very small. Their openings are simply too narrow for them to function as major resonance chambers.
So why do so many singers feel vibrations in the face?
Because feeling a vibration is not the same as creating resonance.
When we sing, sound energy travels through the bones and soft tissues of the body. That is why we may feel vibrations in the cheeks, around the nose, in the forehead, the jaw, the neck, or even in the chest.
These sensations are completely real.
But they are sensations, not resonators.
The chest, for example, does not amplify the singing voice. Neither does the skull. They transmit vibrations extremely well, but they are not air-filled acoustic chambers capable of shaping the sound.
This distinction is very important.
Many singers spend years trying to “place the voice in the mask” or “sing into the chest.” In reality, these are often useful pedagogical images that describe what we feel, not what is physically happening.
Personally, I find it much more helpful to think in terms of function rather than sensation.
Instead of chasing vibrations, we should concentrate on creating the best possible conditions for the voice to resonate naturally:
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a spacious and flexible pharynx,
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a freely adjustable oral cavity,
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an efficient breath function,
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a balanced laryngeal position,
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and a soft palate that adapts naturally to the demands of the tessitura, generally elevating more as the voice ascends.
When these elements work together, the voice develops its own richness, projection, and freedom. Very often, the pleasant sensations in the face or chest will appear by themselves—but they are the consequence of efficient singing, not the cause of it.
As with so many aspects of vocal technique, our sensations can be valuable guides, but they should never replace an understanding of what is actually happening.
The more we distinguish between acoustic reality and physical sensation, the more clearly we understand our instrument—and the more freedom we gain in using it.
Just some thoughts during another journey.
Warm regards,
Aris Argiris
Dear friends,
Once again, I’m on my way to Berlin, and, as always, traveling gives me time to reflect. Today, I would like to share some thoughts about a question that almost every young singer asks at some point:
How do I choose my singing teacher?
(I deliberately say singing teacher, not vocal coach. These are two very different professions, and perhaps I will dedicate another article to that topic.)
The first thing we need to understand is this:
There is no teacher who knows everything.
There is also no single, absolute way of teaching singing.
There are fundamental truths about vocal technique, but there are countless ways of explaining them. Experienced teachers often describe exactly the same technical concept using completely different words, images, or exercises.
Sometimes you may even hear two teachers apparently contradicting each other. With experience, however, you begin to realize that they are often aiming for exactly the same result. The destination is identical; only the language is different. Occasionally, the wording may even sound misleading, but the intention behind it can still be correct.
This is why we should never judge a teacher only by individual expressions or terminology.
If you are looking for a teacher, don’t choose the first one you meet.
Visit several teachers. Take trial lessons. Compare.
The most important aspect, especially at the beginning, is chemistry.
Do you feel comfortable?
Do you feel safe?
Do you feel respected, even when you make mistakes?
Do you leave the lesson feeling motivated?
Do you feel challenged in a positive way?
A good teacher searches for different ways to explain the same concept until the student understands it. It is the teacher’s responsibility to find the language that reaches the student—not the other way around.
Another point that is important to me personally is stage experience.
A teacher does not have to be world-famous or have had an international career.
However, I do believe that someone who takes on the enormous responsibility of shaping young voices should have spent at least a few years performing professionally on stage.
Even two to five years of professional stage experience can make a significant difference.
Why?
Because performing teaches things that simply cannot be learned from books. It means having faced technical difficulties during rehearsals, solved problems under pressure, experienced both success and failure, and learned how a voice behaves in real theatrical conditions.
Those experiences become invaluable when guiding someone else.
If all these elements come together, you have probably found a teacher who is right for you—at least for this particular stage of your artistic journey.
But there is one final point that is just as important.
Trust.
The moment you decide to study with someone, you must be prepared to trust that person fully.
This does not mean accepting everything blindly.
On the contrary—ask questions. Be curious. A good teacher should welcome thoughtful questions and should be able to answer most of them. And when the answer is unknown, the honest teacher will simply say:
“I don’t know. Let’s find out together.”
That honesty is a strength, not a weakness.
However, once you have chosen your teacher, avoid constantly doubting every step or comparing every lesson with what someone else says online or in another studio.
Give the process time.
In my opinion, one to two years of consistent work is the minimum needed before you can truly evaluate whether a technical approach is working for you.
Building a voice takes patience, trust, and continuity.
As always, this is a subject that could fill an entire book, but I hope these thoughts may help some young singers who are searching for the right path.
I wish you all a wonderful weekend.
Aris Argiris
Dear friends,
Yesterday I shared some thoughts about choosing a singing teacher. Today I would like to speak about another profession that is absolutely indispensable in our field:
The vocal coach.
At least in my understanding, a vocal coach is first and foremost an exceptionally experienced pianist, répétiteur or collaborative pianist, with an enormous knowledge of repertoire, musical styles, languages, phrasing, interpretation, and performance practice.
A great vocal coach guides singers through the musical architecture of a work.
They help us understand style, phrasing, rhythm, language, articulation, historical context, and the countless musical details that distinguish Baroque from Classical, Bel Canto from Verismo, Romantic from Late Romantic repertoire, opera from oratorio, or Lied from concert repertoire.
There are many highly respected and extraordinarily qualified vocal coaches in our profession, and rightly so. Their knowledge is invaluable.
However, I would like to make one distinction that I believe is particularly important for young singers.
In most cases—and I deliberately say most, not all—a vocal coach is not trained as a specialist in vocal technique.
Their expertise lies elsewhere.
Sometimes vocal coaches naturally try to help with technical issues as well, usually with the best intentions. However, when working with young singers whose technique is still developing, this can occasionally create confusion.
A beginning singer is still learning how their instrument functions.
At that stage, receiving different technical concepts from different sources can sometimes make the learning process more difficult rather than easier.
This is why I believe that, when working with students or young professionals, the primary focus of the vocal coach should remain within their extraordinary field of expertise:
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musical style
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phrasing
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language
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diction
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rhythm
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interpretation
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score study
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breathing within musical phrases
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repertoire preparation
These are areas in which great vocal coaches possess extraordinary knowledge and experience.
The situation changes considerably when working with experienced professional singers.
An established singer usually has a stable technical foundation and understands how their own instrument functions.
In that case, the collaboration between singer and vocal coach becomes one of the most enriching artistic partnerships imaginable.
Here, the immense musical knowledge of the vocal coach allows the singer to deepen an interpretation, refine stylistic details, prepare new repertoire, and adapt existing technical skills to the musical demands of each composer.
This is where the true brilliance of great vocal coaches shines.
For young singers, however, I believe it is essential to distinguish clearly between the responsibilities of the singing teacher and those of the vocal coach.
Both professions are indispensable.
Both deserve enormous respect.
But they are not always interchangeable.
Knowing when you need a singing teacher, when you need a vocal coach, and how each can contribute to your artistic development is an important step toward becoming a mature and independent artist.
As always, these are simply my personal thoughts, formed through decades of experience as a professional singer who continues to perform on stage, and as a professor who continues to teach every week.
If these reflections help even a few young singers find greater clarity in their artistic journey, then they have served their purpose.
Have a wonderful day.
Aris Argiris