My mother had a beautiful soprano voice and learned her technique from the famous Bel Canto singing teacher, Enrico Rosati. Rosati also trained Mario Lanza. My mother was a professional organist and singer in Catholic Churches in and around the Boston area for over twenty years. She taught her children some of the tips and tricks of Bel Canto singing. They have proved to be very helpful in practical singing. Here are some of her suggestions:

• support singing with diaphragm---the stomach and abdomen muscles

• sing on the vowel and never on the consonant

• the vowels in singing are a (ah); e (eh); i (ee); o (aw); and u (oo)

• Latin and italian are the easiest languages to sing in because the vowels are open and clear

• German and English are hard because the vowel sounds are unclear---usually combinations of more that one vowel sound

• The sounds of the vowels should be clear, open, round and warm rather than harsh, closed down and angular

• Never sing with your throat---pushing with your throat. The throat should remain open, letting the sound come right through and not clenching the sound with your throat.

• If you have a sore throat after singing, it is indicative of a closed throat

• sing the vowel clearly and with the most beautiful sound you can imagine

• don't sing back and inside yourself, but out front and outside yourself

• sing tone to tone concentrating on a clear vowel and a beautiful sound

• sing with head voice in all registers---low and high

• fill sound and chest resonance around the head voice tone in the center

• don't let chest resonance touch the beautiful head voice sound that should always be in the center

• singing is like making a string of pearls with each vowel/tone as a pearl

• don't concentrate too much on breath control, if you're singing well, breath control will come much easier

• to sing a high note---think it's easy, imagine a beautiful sound of it, think little, light and almost pure head voice---no chest resonance---you can't shove your fist through your nose