344 Exercises for Singers: A Linguistic Approach to Clear Diction and Flowing Tone is designed as a tool for voice teachers and their students. It provides advice on vocal technique including breathing, vocal acoustics, registration, vibrato, performance anxiety, and transferring skills learned on exercises to song literature. It includes 18 chapters of vocal exercises organized by segment of speech and focusing on singing strong consonants and flowing breath through them to connect consonants and vowels in the best legato possible.

Illustrations are included to show the jaw and tongue position for each consonant. Three chapters provide work on accurate vowel sounds by giving word descriptions and illustrations of the tongue position for each vowel. The final three chapters teach the technique of articulated legato used to sing fast coloratura passages. Three CDs are included with the book featuring singers of many voice types singing each exercise in three keys: one low, one medium, and one high.

Tenor Richard Hertel received his Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1989. He also holds Master's Degrees from UIUC in Teaching English as a Second Language, Applied Linguistics, and French. He started his academic career in music at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point where he received his Bachelor of Music Degree in Education. He received his Master's Degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Dr. Hertel has over 35 years of voice teaching experience in his private studio. To Schedule private lessons.

The exercises included in the book have all been tested in the studio over many years. They were developed applying not only principles of vocal production, but also the principles of linguistics, particularly articulatory and acoustic phonetics, to focus on singing understandable words with full flowing tone.

The book has over 200 pages with a coil binding that will allow it to lay flat on a piano or music stand.

Retail price per copy - $44.95 (US$)

ISBN-10   0-9814743-0-4
ISBN-13   978-0-9814743-0-4
Library of Congress Control Number 2008920856

A preview sample of a part of one chapter of the book is available as a downloadable PDF file. (216k)