Beautiful Singing: A Singer's Guide to Improving the Voice

In this extensive guide to classical vocal technique, Dr. Stanford Felix provides original insights into the great teaching masters of bel canto ("beautiful singing"), presented in a scholarly yet readable and accessible way. A fresh approach to this time-honored technique, Beautiful Singing addresses the physical, mental, and aesthetic elements of the art of singing in a style designed for vocal teachers and students of all levels."Stan Felix isn’t just a singing guy. Above and beyond his many years of exceptional leadership as a singing-actor and teacher, his broad life-experience has led him to a practical pedagogy that is more accessible than most. The act of forming and supporting shapes and sounds to create what we know as good singing should be a simple, soul-driven activity, yet it is often blown up into intense techno-processes that can easily drive one away from the very reason singing should happen at all. This book will help the singing-actor become a natural communicator of this great art." —Robert Swedberg, Associate Professor of Music Emeritus, University of Michigan"Stanford Felix’s Beautiful Singing contains invaluable information for the beginning voice student, the seasoned professional, and every level in between. His approach is both scholarly and personal and should find a place on every singer’s bookshelf."—Neal Goren, Founding Artistic Director, Gotham Chamber Opera; Associate Professor at Mannes College, The New School for Music, and author of Beyond the Aria"This book is a must for every vocal coach, teacher, and serious singer and will sit on my piano or desk for reference. Stanford Felix has written an intense conversation on the art of singing that contains valuable information packed into every paragraph. Beautiful Singing may become the next must for every vocal pedagogy class."—Robin Jensen, Opera Program Music Director and Instructor of Collaborative Piano in the Vocal Arts, University of Central Florida"An informative and authentic resource for teachers and students alike. Bravissimo! "—Wendy Zaro Mullins, Associate Professor of Voice, University of Minnesota School of Music"With his thorough guide, Stanford Felix has made a significant contribution to the community of serious singers and their teachers. The aural experience of vocal sound is evanescent and hard to measure. Dr. Felix has managed to grapple with all these different aspects both separately and in conjunction. . . . For me this is the unique strength of this exhaustive volume; at every point the reader is reminded to be aware of the final goal: integration of means and ends. Felix eschews a microscopic repetition of areas that have been over-represented in singing texts such as phonetics and pronunciation and seeks rather to guide the reader into myriad practical ways to combine basic exploration of the different fundamentals and construction of a coherent overall technique. Throughout, he draws on his own experiences in a profoundly didactic manner."––Jonathan Khuner, Musical Director, West Edge Opera, and former assistant conductor at San Francisco Opera, Metropolitan Opera, and Lyric Opera of Chicago Read more