Staccato in Voice Teaching, Part 1

The quick and fast on staccato

(Writer’s note: Occasionally I will make longer form essays available to paid subscribers to my Substack. This article is the first. Thanks for your support! JP)

Staccato: adjective

shortened and detached when played or sung: staccato notes.

characterized by performance in which the notes are abruptly disconnected: a staccato style of playing. Compare legato.

composed of or characterized by abruptly disconnected elements; disjointed: rapid-fire, staccato speech.

Staccato as a Breath Management System

The moment before we sing the entire voice arranges itself to emit a sound. This phenomenon is called pre-phonatory tuning. I learned this term from reading Richard Miller though I’m sure it didn’t begin with him. Per Miller, staccato is one way to improve this pitch tuning as well as to develop a technique of breathing.

For Miller, the acquisition of staccato was the key to finding a technique for breath management, which he calls appoggio. Appoggio comes from the Italian word to lean. This lean describes the ribs staying in an inhalatory position to resist the collapse of the sternum. (NB: I cannot find this Italian term anywhere in the historical canon. Miller appears to have taken it from a modern 20th-century Italian pedagogy, but I digress.)

Mastering a well-balanced tonal onset is the key to discovering an optimal breath system. Clean abduction (parting) of the vocal folds produces the precise onset and sets the stage for the subsequent phrase. There is no perception of “holding the breath.” Silent breath-management exercises develop early awareness of the appoggio.

Miller, Richard. Solutions for Singers: Tools for Performers and Teachers. Oxford University Press.