Teaching Vocal Technique to Mariachi Students

Noé Sánchez has started seven mariachi programs in San Antonio, Texas, and has published mariachi curriculum guides for schools starting mariachi programs. He recently coauthored the first mariachi method book published by a major American publishing company and just released six new mariachi arrangements with Hal Leonard.

When you break a string on the violin, you can re­place it. When you dent a valve on the trumpet, it can be fixed. When you damage the voice, how­ever, it might not be so easy to correct. The human voice is a delicate instrument—it reflects the mood and well-being of the individual. Perhaps one of the most neglected instruments in the mariachi ensemble is the voice. Correct vocal technique must be part of every mariachi student’s daily regimen. There is nothing worse than to see a beautifully dressed mariachi ensemble that plays with finesse only to have the vocalist ruin it for everyone listening.

Directors should take special care to incor­porate vocalises (vocal warm-ups) into every re­hearsal to ensure correct vocal technique. Direc­tors should spend at least 5–10 minutes every day on vocal technique and incorporate these vocalises into the songs. The problem is that many mariachi directors are not trained as vocal teachers. Listening to recordings, going over the song texts, and singing the song repeatedly has been the norm in many mariachi programs across the country. Mariachi instructors should be aware that there exist specific vocalises designed to expand vocal technique, allowing our singers to perform the mariachi repertoire correctly. These vocalises reinforce certain principles in singing that every singer should know. Whether you sing opera, pop, or mariachi music, these principles are the same and should be taught to every singer.

The Basic Principles of Singing

Principle 1: Posture
The student should stand up straight, one foot slightly in front of the other (shoulder-width apart), shoulders back and relaxed, knees slightly bent (not locked), and head straight (chin parallel to the floor). This will ensure that the body is aligned and in correct posi­tion for optimal performance.

Principle 2: Breathing
When the student breathes, the lungs should expand fully without raising the shoulders. Perhaps the best exercise for developing breathing is swimming. Swimming strengthens the muscles, which helps singers to sustain long notes. A good visual example for students is to have them lie on the floor face up and place a book on top of their abdomen. The only thing that moves should be the book going up and down. This type of breathing should also take place when they are standing.

Principle 3: Dropping the Jaw
To help students drop the jaw properly, encourage them to imagine that they are yawning while having a small apple in­side their mouth. The tongue should be placed on the inside touching the bottom teeth when holding a long note. Vowels should be tall (north and south) not wide (east and west). Raising the soft palate is also necessary. The soft palate is toward the back of the mouth where the tissue becomes soft. By smiling and raising the eyebrows, the soft palate can be raised—these same muscles are con­nected to the soft palate. Many vocal problems can be corrected very quickly by applying this prin­ciple.

Principle 4: Developmental Vocalises
When warm-ups are taught, each one should have a specific purpose. These should include, but are not limited to, register blends (low, chest, head), scale passages for intonation and range expansion, agility exercises for fast vocal passages, vowel modi­fication (to help through the passaggio), resonance exercises (for a rounder sound), mesa di voce for shifting from chest to head voice, arpeggios, and falsetto exercises (for expanding the male voice and teaching falsetto in huapangos). The purpose of all exercises is to improve the quality and sound of the voice throughout the entire vocal range of the student. The student should be able to sing high and low sounds both softly and loudly while still maintaining a good voice quality.

Principle 5: Relax While Singing
Tension creates a harsh sound while singing. The singer should be relaxed. Do not misinterpret “relax” as meaning “do not concentrate.” On the contrary, in order to relax, students will have to learn to apply all the principles above while singing.

Principle 6: Maintain Vocal Health
If the student is sick, the voice will sound weak. Stu­dents should not be singing if they have a cold or other illness that prevents them from singing cor­rectly. Drinking lots of water is a must for any singer, since the vocal cords have to be moist in order to vibrate and produce sound. Screaming and coughing should be avoided since these actions create hoarseness. Singers should always vocalize before singing in a performance.

Principle 7: Appropriate Vocal Range and Repertoire
Women singers with high-pitched voices are usually classified as sopranos; those with low-pitched voices are called altos. Higher male voices are usually classified as tenors, and lower voices are called basses. Selecting the proper range and songs for each singer will ensure a better experience for the entire mariachi ensem­ble. In general, women soloists should not sing songs in the same keys as those that men would sing in. Instead, songs should be transposed to the appropriate vocal range for them. It is important that adolescent males whose voices are undergoing the changing process should not be pushed. Perhaps solos should be avoided until more stability is found in their voices.

Principle 8: Interpretation and Style of the Song
After vocal problems have been fixed, pro­nunciation, translation, style, and mood need to be addressed. Gestures, if needed, can also be worked on at this time. Improvement in the quality of the students’ voices will be apparent if these principles are put into practice. To facilitate teaching these concepts, es­pecially the vocalises, the director should have a piano in the room. During each practice session, every vocalise should be per­formed, in sequence. With the exception of num­ber 1, the vocalises should be played on the piano in two octaves using both hands. They can be played chromatically up for about a fifth, depend­ing if you are teaching middle school or high school students. You may also choose to go downward to expand the low range.

When interpreting songs, one must think of the lyrics as poetry. Translating the lyrics and understanding the poetry is crucial for interpreting songs. Sometimes we do not think of a song as a poem, but indeed some of the best poetry written today appears as song lyrics—this includes mariachi songs. Many instructors just teach the notes without teaching the meaning of the song, but an understanding of the lyrics completes the total picture of preparing a song for performance, along with singing the notes in tune, singing the rhythms correctly, and using good diction. Later, gestures can be added to the performance based on the lyrics.

Teaching with Vocalises

These vocalises were created by prominent voice teachers and performers such as Manuel Garcia II (1805–1906), John Wilcox, Alan Lingquest (1891–1984), Enrico Caruso, the great tenor (1873–1921), Mathilde Marchesi, the great soprano (1821–1913), and Virginia Botkin (1925–2002). This is not to say that these are the only vocalises, but these are the ones that em­phasize all the principles stated earlier. Here is a brief expla­nation of vocal pedagogy terminology. The vocal cords (also called vocal folds) are located in the Adam’s apple. When they touch and vibrate, they produce sound (phonation). This happens when you talk or sing. When a person breathes, the vocal cords are apart. When a per­son talks or sings, they touch. In the voice, there are three acceptable vocal registers: low, chest, and head (also referred to as low, middle, and upper register, respectively). In males, there is usually a break in the voice from chest to head register. The place between the chest and head register is nor­mally referred to as the passaggio.

Exercise 1: Stretching the Vocal Cords
At the beginning of every warm-up, a student should start with a yawn feel and stretch out the vo­cal cords. Exercise number 1 provides a demon­stration of this technique. Throughout these vo­calises, the singer will be practicing and applying breath management. Most of these vocalises are usually performed in one breath before moving up or down chromatically.

Exercise 2: Blending Registers and Using Falsetto
Wilcox and Lingquest recommend that students should blend the upper register to the lower regis­ter by keeping the falsetto (in males) as far down as possible without hearing a break through the pas­sagio. Exercise number 2 provides a demonstration of this technique. The passaggio is the place in the voice where a shift in mechanism has to occur in order to create higher sounds. It is also where males feel constricted or the Adam’s apple begins to feel constricted (going up). The challenge of this exercise is to blend the falsetto with the chest voice without breaking. Falsetto will be­come stronger as proper muscles are strengthened. This will help smooth the break between the chest register into the head register. Many tenors are trained in this fashion. For mariachi purposes, this vocalise helps develop the proper singing technique for falsetto in huapangos.

Exercises 3, 4, and 5: Recognizing Correct Pitch and Intonation
Scale passages help students recognize and correct pitch and intonation. Exercises number 3, 4, and 5 demonstrate this concept. Lingquest provided Italian syllables nie ri tu mi kia nia bella to introduce vowels. Another applicable method is to use the Kodaly syllables do ti la sol fa mi re do. It is impor­tant to mention that when a student moves up the scale and close to his or her passaggio, vowel modifica­tion needs to be practiced. Vowel modification means that a singer will go from an open vowel to a closed vowel (the sequence “a, e, i, o, u,” exemplifies going from an open to a closed vowel). An example of this concept is when you start a vocalise with an “a” vowel and as you move higher into the passaggio, it closes and changes to an “o” vowel. Exercise num­ber 5 must be performed in this manner.

Exercise 6: Executing Fast-Moving Notes
Agility in singing is often ignored by mariachi teachers. There will come a time when fast moving notes are required, and the singer should be pre­pared to execute them. A proper technique can be built by using exercise number 6, created by the great soprano, Marchesi.

Exercises 7 and 8: Achieving Vowel Unity
Vowel unity is extremely important. Open vowels in Spanish or Italian are the best to use when prac­ticing vocalises. Exercises 7 and 8 should be prac­ticed by leaving the mouth as open as possible, making the vowel changes inside the mouth. Once a student understands this concept, then vowel changes can be practiced by using the lips. When singing, consonants should be executed as quickly as possible, thus leaving most of the sound to a vowel.

Exercise 9: Creating a Focused and Resonant Sound
There are many singers that have no intonation problems but have a thin sound. In order to create a more focused and resonant sound, vocalise num­ber 9 can be applied. This exercise adds na­sal sounds to the existing vocal sound. My voice teacher, Virginia Botkin, introduced me to a visual metaphor for this concept. She stated that there are two types of sounds in singers: a singer with a thin sound seems to sing as if wearing a plain necklace, but when a singer adds resonance, it is as if the singer has added pearls to the neck­lace. The result is a more refined, focused, and pleasant sound.

A word of caution: This exercise gradually in­creases vocal resonance, which is sometimes con­fused with vibrato. Vibrato will occur naturally when the voice has resonance. Unfortunately, many vocal teachers try to teach vibrato to their students, who, through time, develop a rather harsh, unpleasant wobble. Students should be taught focus and resonance, not vibrato, which will gradually de­velop through time as they continue to increase their vocal technique.

Exercise 10: Employing the Mesa di Voce
One of the most prominent vocal teachers the world of singing has known was Manual Garcia II. Garcia developed many of today’s vocal technique practices including the use of the laryngeal mirror. He was the first to see the vocal cords using this invention. The mesa di voce (ex. 10) exercise is one of the most difficult vocalises, yet one of the most helpful for vocal development. The exercise was used well before Garcia. Garcia’s contribution to this vocalise was to blend all the registers, from the softest to the loudest sounds and from the lowest to highest ranges, using all three registers. This vocalise should have full control of breath, reso­nance, and support from beginning to end. This is one of the most widely used vocalises in all of the opera world.

Exercise 11: Building Interval Skips with Arpeggios
The last vocalise was introduced to me by Virginia Botkin. The arpeggio, exercise 11, is crucial in building interval skips in tune. The word “aleluya” places the concept of vowel modification into prac­tice. Many songs have this unusual challenge of moving from note to note in large intervals of a third or more, not step by step.

Extremely crucial to vocal technique is to apply the concepts taught in the vocalises to the songs. Do not vocalize perfectly and then sing the song with­out any application of what you have learned. All principles mentioned above should be applied to the song being learned.

Applying Vocal Technique

Perhaps the best way to improve students’ vocal technique is to provide individual voice lessons. Un­fortunately, this is not possible in most classroom scenarios. When this is the case, vocalize the entire class while they stand. Sing the vocalises ascending and descending chromatically, thus building the voice ranges for all students. Notating all vocals completely is crucial so that students apply knowl­edge of musical concepts when singing. Giving stu­dents only the lyrics to a song without music nota­tion should be discouraged. Special time should be taken to at least audition students to hear their strong and weak points as well as to classify their ranges. This will facilitate choosing repertoire for your mariachi.

Women singers should have songs transposed to their appropriate ranges. When performing duets or trios, make sure the voices are blended appro­priately according to the vocal quality of the singers. Out-of-range singing will make some voices natu­rally louder than the others. Special consideration should be applied when selecting soloists placed in these situations.

Listening to the recordings of many different sing­ers will improve the listening skills of singers. At­tending and performing in concerts will improve the stage presence and help overcome stage fright. Recording students will also provide teachers and students with a tool for evaluating progress and pin­pointing problem areas. Armonía players should learn the vocals first and then try to play and sing at the same time. I have found this to be the most beneficial application when teaching them.

Words of encouragement should always follow all vocal sessions. All students learn at different paces. Express to them that if they want to be good sing­ers, they should practice their voice as much as they practice their mariachi instrument. Vocal health should be part of their daily practice. All students should avoid screaming and coughing and should drink plenty of water every day. If it hurts to sing, they are probably not singing correctly. They should stop and have complete vocal rest, or if they are ill, they should consult a laryngologist.

The principles of vocal technique must be put into practice. I have placed a vocal checklist below that can provide you with some guidance when teaching voice. These concepts and principles will only improve singing if they are consistently used in the class­room. Do not vocalise once a week, pass out a song, and expect great results—this is not going to happen. It is the responsibility of the director to provide students with the tools necessary to im­prove vocal technique. When this is applied, re­sults will be noticed gradually. Also crucial to vocal technique is that students should not try to imitate other singers, especially in recordings. Everyone is different, and by continuous vocal training, the indi­vidual voice will start to develop. Singing in pitch and without intonation problems is expected of all students. What you do with your technique is what will make you a better performer.

Remember to ask yourself, “What is this vocalise going to improve?” before introducing a new vo­calise into your warm-up. There should be a pur­pose to everything taught.

Vocal Technique Checklist

• Posture
• Breathing
• Warm-up (Vocalises)
• Sirens/yawns
• Register blends from high to low/falsetto
• Scale passages for intonation
• Agility exercises of the voice
• Vowel unity
• Resonance
• Mesa di voce
• Arpeggios
• Auditioning students for vocal range
• Selecting appropriate songs for singers / male vs. female keys
• The male changing voice
• Listening to recordings and performances
• Recording students
• Vocal health—water, exercise, rest
• The importance of regular practice in school and at home
• Relaxing while singing
• Applying vocalises to your songs
• The importance of notating the song
• Singing and playing at the same time (Armonía section)

Endnotes

Coffin, Berton. Coffin’s Sounds of Singing, 2nd ed. Metuchen, NJ, The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1987.

Garcia, Manuel. Hints on Singing. New York, Joseph Patelson Music House, 1894, 1982.

Mathis, Barbara. “Selected Vocal Exercises and Their Relationship to Specific Laryngeal Conditions: A Description of Seven Case Studies.” Ph.D. diss., University of North Texas at Denton, TX, 1990. Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms International.

Miller, Richard. The Structure of Singing. New York, Shirmer Books, 1986.

VanManen, Adrian. Falsetto. Springfield, MO, Temple Press, 1978.

Vennard, William. Singing the Mechanism and the Technic. New York, Carl Fischer Inc., 1967.

MENC Voice Resources

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Getting Started with Vocal Improvisation
by Patrice Madura
This book is designed to help you introduce vocal improvisation to your voice students. Visit www.rowmaneducation.com to learn more and purchase.

Pronunciation Guide for Choral Literature
by William V. May & Craig Tolin
Use this resource as a pronunciation guide for consonants and vowels in Spanish, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, and Latin with your students of all levels. Visit www.rowmaneducation.com to learn more and purchase.