A friend of mine recently informed me about SLS (Speech level singing) and it sounds interesting, but I don't really know much about it and the stuff I have found on the internet has not been that explanitory. Do any of you know about it or have any opinions/advice about it?
Thanks!

by the sounds of it, its probably singing at the place where your voice is
katyjay probably knows

Katyjay is in manchester today so you may have to wait awhile for a her reply, but I'm sure she'll put her 2penneth in when she can.

Sorry to disappoint folks, but

(1) I'm now back from Manchester and

(2) I must confess I'd never heard that term. At a guess, I'd think it was something similar to the technique Rex Harrison used in "My Fair Lady" or "Doctor Doolitle", which was a mixture of speaking and singing. I'll see if I can find out any more, and I'll let you know.

Cheers

Katyjay

thanks for the help. I'm still at a loose end about what it is exactly and how they teach it! One day we'll all know the answers!

Speech level singing is basically speaking at pitch. You pronounce vowels exactly as you would if you were speaking - the shape of the mouth and the pharynx are not altered at all. I was taught with this system for two years and one thing which struck me was that every note is treated the same. The resonant space is not altered in the slightest even on very high notes.

A lot of Broadway singers use this technique. It does make words clearer and easier to understand, but it does tend to close up the throat and raise the larynx in the upper range. And you really really don't want to sing classical music at speech level. I've been there and it isn't pretty .

There's a very informative article about speech level singing here - there's a lot to wade through, but it's very interesting.

Thanks Satine! Was a very interesting read!

yes, very interesting, but also a little confusing, and it also sounds hard to do and hard to distinguish -thanks

I'm not convinced by "speech level singing" - especially the one-dimensionality of it all (not mentioning the dangers - see the last paragraph of the article posted above!) - the beauty of the human voice is the varying tonality of the registers; although it is possible to create a continuous tone by crossing in the right places, the contrast caused by flipping between registers can be very creative & greatly enhance the performance dynamic & feel of a song.

It seems that the treatment of the top register (otherwise known, slightly innacurately as "head voice") is not a healthy way to produce the voice - also the description of "belting" - Ugly word! - tends to suggest pushing the bottom register to it's upmost limit, which is not necessarily the case & this can be done safely provided that the middle & top registers are treated properly - speech level singing doesn't cater for this as the throat space is too closed for the top register to resonate properly)

Just resurrecting an old topic here - SLS is NOT at all anything to do with belting or stretching the lower ranges of the voice to reach the high levels - it does NOT cause the larynx to rise as the voice rises - quite the reverse, the central tenet of SLS is keeping the larynx stable in all voice registers and producing a supported tone throughout the range.

It is an excellent way to teach supported, well coloured tone and expressiveness with little effort (once you know how to do it! ).

I speak from experience of having had years of lessons with traditional teachers (all of whom just got me to sound more and more like every other classical singer with no expressive difference) before going to a teacher of SLS (which is based on the principles of Bel Canto singing) and finding that within a few months my voice felt free, light and the vibrato was natural (instead of the bleating nanny goat tremolo the other teachers were instiling into me).

My vote goes for SLS - especially for classical singers. Although it is very important to find an SLS teacher who has experience of teaching classical singers as a lot of them do only broadway or jazz and, beyond basic technique, wouldn't be much help.

Also be prepared to pay a lot for it - last count was around 90 GBP per hour when I left the UK.

Allan

Speech Level Singing is certainly not what some of these people above have described.
It is a far healthier technique than a lot of teachers out there are doing.
It allows you to keep the layrnx relaxed and ensures that you use the correct muscles to sing with (Techniques such as belting encourage singers to use swallowing muscles to close the vocal cords- not at all healthy and can result in nodules etc.) And get the best results for singers of ALL STYLES of music- increased range, ease in singing and NO BREAKS!!!
If you want to know why this is the most sought after technique in the world today- just have a look at some of the UK teachers websites:

www.thesingingteacher.biz
www.speechlevel.co.uk

Or give them a ring- they're all quite friendly- I'm sure they'll be able to describe in more detail.