Vaccai Book

280 pages of information and inspiration in premium color – you’ll WANT to practice! Appropriate for singers at all levels.

Inspired by bel canto principles, The Vaccai Project explores the optimal and healthy use of the un-amplified voice. Applicable to all musical styles. 

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Each book contains a QR code with access to 3 months complimentary membership to Bel Canto Boot Camp.

(If you are a teacher or organization and interested in buying 10 or more copies please contact us here for bulk pricing.)

Most modern music books are either scores or textbooks. Scores sometime have an Introduction or Appendix with information in tiny print; most textbooks have some score examples, but not enough to use in every day practice. Historical treatises often have both but can be impossibly long and difficult to read. This book combines the score of the Vaccai Method with historic exercises and essays on history and performance practice – solving the problem, uniting scholarship and music together in one place. For good measure, we throw in Italian poetry and libretto study and both basic and advanced Italian diction as well!

The Vaccai Project includes the 15 classic lessons of Vaccai’s Metodo pratico newly engraved in the medium (original) key. Higher and lower keys, as well as a bass clef version are available via link provided. Historical performance practice notes on the score help the singer unpack historical notational conventions.

The course kicks off with exercises to solidify fundamental concepts:

Basic Preparatory Daily Exercises

  • Exercises on one note on vowels
  • Exercises connecting two notes on vowels
  • Introducing Consonants

Advanced Daily Exercises

  • Messa di voce (dynamics)
  • Laryngeal registration (singing in chest and head voice)

The study of the lessons themselves are divided into 50 chapters designed to be used as practice inspiration. The singer should do no more than one per day. Each chapter has a Practice Journal to inspire the singer to write down their own thoughts. Many chapters have prompts or tasks to help the singer connect the lessons to their regular repertoire. Scattered through the book are QR codes linking to instructional videos.

Why 50 chapters on 15 lessons?

The course uses the Vaccai lessons to inspire a journey through the Italian Style including Italian Poetry and Libretto. Here is a run down of topics covered:

  1. Basics of Legato
  2. Introduction to Laryngeal Registration
  3. Dynamics
  4. Singing Coloratura
  5. The Why and How of the Appoggiatura
  6. Poetic Meter, Syllabification and Text Underlay
  7. Introduction to the Italian Libretto: Versi sciolti and versi lirici
  8. Verb Tenses and Moods
  9. Advanced Italian Diction: Phrasal Doubling and Assimilation
  10. The Mind/Body Connection
  11. Units of Pitches: The Building Blocks of Ornamentation, Variation and Coloratura Singing
  12. Scales and Ornamental Patterns
  13. Finding the Melodic and Harmonic Skeleton
  14. Ornamentation Practice Sheets
  15. Variation Practice Sheet
  16. Construction of the Cadenza
  17. Recitative Study Technique: The Libretto and The Score