One of the most important things for any singer to learn is being able to sing legato. So we've asked Thomas Whitson, one of our Young Artists, to tell us what it means to sing legato and show us how to do it in two video tutorials.
Legato in Italian means “tied together”, and therefore it means singing with smoothly connected notes.
The ability to sing legato can distinguish the more powerful, full-voiced and lyrical singers from the untrained singer.. Let’s dive in and discuss how we can better achieve this.
One thing to consider when singing legato is the musical phrase. Typically a musical phrase is 2-4 measures long. This musical phrase or “line” will be sung uninterrupted without a break until we get to the rest where then you are free to breathe and prepare for the next phrase.
Successful legato singing occurs when the singer uses the breath efficiently and connects all the notes in a free and lyrical manner.
So what are some of the things we need to consider to sing legato?
1. Breathing
Plan your breaths. Take a nice low breath that will take you to the end of the musical phrase. Maintain a nice even pressure to eliminate tension and strain in your voice.
Don’t pressurize on higher notes, or decrease for lower ones.
Don’t breathe until there’s a punctuation indicating a pause: a period, comma, etc.
When speaking you would not stop to breathe in the middle of the phrase so in singing it is no different!
2. Singing on just the vowels
Practice the melody on just one vowel(or even just “hum”.
Work on connecting all the notes in the phrase smoothly with each other.
If you are able to glide smoothly between all the notes, try doing the same phrase with the same vowels used in the phrase.
If you are able to connect the changing vowels smoothly the final progression is to add the words back in. Here is how to do it in my short video tutorial.
This takes us to...
2. Elongating the vowels and shortening the consonants
Consonants can obstruct our airflow and stop our vocal folds from oscillating the way we want.
So lengthening the vowels and shortening the consonants is key to singing legato.
Delaying ending consonants and pushing them to the beginning of the next word is another technique that helps. It gives you more time “singing on the voice” not interrupted by pesky consonants.
This gets you that smooth, connected legato that you want to achieve. See how to do it in my video tutorial.
4. Shape your musical phrase
Sing with dynamics and emphasize the important words and syllables in your phrase.
There are many different shapes in phrasing but a common one is the “arch” shape: starting soft, getting louder in the middle, and tapering off at the end.
Stressing the important words not only gives meaning to the text but also gives the phrase a sense of direction.
Knowing your text allows you to correctly interpret the musical phrase and sing a nice legato line.
Singing a beautiful legato line requires a free voice that can move fluidly and consistently.
This allows you to express the text freely and convey it to the audience. It is not just a sign of excellent singing technique but also superior artistic expression.
Any aspiring singer should strive to achieve mastery in legato!
More About Thomas
Korean-American Tenor Thomas W. is a personal trainer based in Washington DC. Growing up in Tokyo, Japan, Thomas spent his high school years at St. Mary’s International School performing in musicals(West Side Story and Oklahoma), choirs and special ensembles.
Thomas spent all 4 years at St. Mary’s International School as a member of their special Varsity Ensemble and Show Choir groups, touring in the United States and Europe.
After a decade-plus hiatus, Thomas decided to get back to singing and started lessons at M Institute for the Arts in early 2020.
Despite the pandemic shutting down in-person lessons, Thomas continued with zoom sessions and made enough progress to be selected for the M Institute Young Artist Program in June 2021.
Now that Thomas has resumed in-person lessons and started booking performances, he is looking forward to taking the next step in his artistic development as a singer.
For more on our Young Artist Program please visit www.m4arts.org/yap
To apply for music lessons please fill our New Student Application here.