THE VOCATHLETIC SYSTEM™ FOR VOICE, SINGING & SPEECH


Developed by Bülent Güneralp


A universal holistic training method combining tradition, science, and athletic principles designed to find, express, and optimize the natural voice.



Overview | Origin | Comparison | Pillars | Characteristics



INTRODUCTION


I started this page on July 4, 2019 to share my vocal method. I hesitate to call it my own, as I feel I haven't found it, but it found me, as you'll read below. But I had to name it, so I first called it the Güneralp Vocal Method, and later The Vocathletic System™ for Voice, Singing & Speech. This page will organically grow in time with written materials and visual demonstrations. I hope it will help students of singing informationally, instructionally and inspirationally. I am grateful to everyone who contributed to this method, but first and foremost, to my mother, dramatic coloratura soprano, Aysel Tunalı.



WHAT IS THE VOCATHLETIC SYSTEM?


The Vocathletic System is the apex of my three decade long comprehensive transformational journey, a journey that did much more than aligning terribly misaligned vocal cords, correcting and freeing a squeezed and non-functioning larynx, and helping with transitioning from an artificial tenor to a true baritone. It is a holistic training system based on tradition, science, and my discoveries and continuous inventions as a singer, voice teacher and athlete, which helps students to realize vocalism, express the natural voice easily, and develop it organically. It applies the athletic principles of mind and body control, nutrition and growth to vocal training. Singers and speakers learn athletic efficiency, and send brain signals to only those parts of the body required to be activated for vocalization. The Vocathletic System explains the whats, hows and whys of vocal technique in a manner easily understood and immediately put into practice with unequivocal results. The key words are: natural, simple, direct, effective.



THE ORIGIN


I studied at three well known conservatories in two countries for fourteen years and went through a dramatic vocal ordeal. I entered my first school as a baritone in 1990, but after one year I was switched to tenor repertoire, which continued throughout my studies until I graduated from the last school in 2004 with almost no voice left. The only way to produce and sustain those tenor high notes was to squeeze and lift the larynx for years. I did not know I was not a tenor. I believed and followed what I was told at schools, and in the end my throat became a knot. It was similar to forcing a violin repertoire onto a cello or double-bass. It required extensive and intense misuse of the vocal organ and the whole body. Through all those years my larynx never had a chance to learn how to function naturally and properly. All I knew was to push the voice, the body and the mind. My teachers did their best to help, but no one could show the right path. It was very difficult to detect and diagnose what was happening.



A TURNING POINT


When I graduated I took a break from singing for one year. I stopped listening to anyone, turned and opened inward, and decided to listen to only one voice, my own. An amazing journey of correction, healing and transformation ensued. And a breakthrough occurred upon coming across the book Vocal Wisdom, which contains the maxims of Giovanni Battista Lamperti. It spoke to something deep inside, echoed and confirmed my inner voice, and started to clarify so many things. As I put everything in proper perspective and started to chisel away all the wrongs, and especially as I learned to breathe correctly, my throat started to open for the first time in my life and my larynx started to settle. In 2005 a baritone sound started to emerge, followed by an even more unexpected bass-baritone sound.



FROM ORDEAL TO METHOD


The tenor ordeal had come to an end. It was an indescribable marathon, which required a superhuman focus as if I kept emptying an ocean with a teaspoon until reaching the goal in about 14 years, following another 14 years I had already spent at three conservatories. The entire experience of almost 30 years gave birth to a vocal method rising like a phoenix from the ashes of the past through a comprehensive journey of self-guidance, intuition, contemplation, meditation, education, teaching, science, tradition, analysis of many great singers and artists in other disciplines, yoga, functional body-weight athletic training, voice-building, martial arts, athletic plant nutrition and more. I restarted my career in 2005, first singing baritone, then bass-baritone, and even bass roles in operas in Boston and New York.



COMPARISON


The dramatic difference between the pre-2004 tenor sound and the ensuing bass-baritone sound can be heard in the videos below.

TENOR

BASS-BARITONE

THE VOCATHLETIC SYSTEM RESTS ON THREE PILLARS


1. VOCAL TRAINING

Internalizing universal vocal fundamentals and applying them through specific Vocathletic vocal exercises, including breath and body work, to optimize voice, singing, and speech.


2. PHYSICAL TRAINING

Calisthenics (your choice, I do it at home)


3. FUEL

Athletic nutrition, which is based on the  nutrition principles presented in the Thrive book series, particularly Thrive, and Thrive Fitness, by Brendan Brazier, Canadian former professional Ironman triathlete and two-time Canadian ultramarathon champion. I discovered Thrive in 2011, and it changed my life. I have no affiliation with Brendan Brazier beyond being connected on LinkedIn.



PRIORITIES


Vocal training is the foundation of the studio and stands complete on its own. Physical training and the Thrive approach are optional, but in my experience and professional view, they are essential for students to achieve fully optimized vocal performance.

TECHNICAL INVENTIONS AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE VOCATHLETIC SYSTEM


The following are core technical concepts that define the Vocathletic System - principles, mechanisms, and exercises rooted in physiological awareness, energetic efficiency, and signal discipline:


  • Vertical engagement of the lowest abdominal muscles to create pneumatic energy through the syringe-like use of the body.


  • Riding on the pneumatic energy without any air release.


  • Epilaryngeal vowel initiation.


  • Active inhalation vs. passive inhalation.


  • Signal-less, “Blank Canvas” Vocal Posture:
    The white screen from which the movie of singing is projected.
    As you play the movie, be always aware of the unaffected vocal screen behind.
    Send signals efficiently for vowels, consonants, facial expressions, etc., in the awareness of — and through — the     signal-less state.


  • Training the thyroid and cricoid cartilages while maintaining the neutral (left alone) larynx and full contact of the vocal cords.


  • Constant awareness of the vowel-less space in which all vowels are formed.


  • Closed-mouth training with a still, statue-like, blank exterior.


  • Closed mouth – lips apart alternating training:
    Sing in your closed-mouth position with lips parted by gravity.


  • Specific exercises using 4 consonant points, 7 vowels, 8 consonant sounds.


  • Frontal sinus (Third Eye) vocal focus.


  • Drum-like use of the head as resonator.


  • Precise hand and finger movements combined with factual visualizations to activate specific parts of the body during vocalization.


  • Efficiency training: sending signals only to the parts of the body actively involved in vocalization.


  • “Vocathletic” training.



LONGSTANDING AND WIDESPREAD TECHNICAL DOGMAS

DEBUNKED BY THE VOCATHLETIC SYSTEM


The following techniques and ideas — long held as foundational or necessary in many vocal traditions — are challenged or entirely rejected within the Vocathletic System™, based on direct experiential research, functional inefficiency, or physiological misalignment:


  • Trying to use the mouth as the main resonance chamber


  • Opening the mouth big, especially for the top notes


  • Lifting the soft palate


  • Covering the voice


  • Pulling the larynx down


  • Dropping the jaw


  • Yawning


  • Releasing the air to vocalize


  • Moving the air


  • Singing on the breath (vs. on the pneumatic energy)


  • Using different vocal focuses for different registers


  • Vowel modification


  • Vowel substitution


  • Placing the voice “here” or “there”


  • Not having a specific vocal focus


  • Trying to breathe only through the nose between phrases


  • External and / or internal smile


  • Lifting the facial muscles


  • Trying to create different spaces for different notes


  • Approaching the voice in a compartmentalized way (registers)


  • Passaggio


  • Using all abdominal muscles to sing


  • Trying to keep the rib cage expanded as much as possible while singing


  • Keeping the abdominal muscles pulled out while singing


  • Flexing the muscles around the nose


  • Flexing the glutei for high notes


  • Putting one foot forward


  • Leaning forward or backward


  • Giving more importance to high notes for technical progress


  • Having twang


The Vocathletic System™ is a trademark of Bülent Güneralp. All rights reserved.


No part of this page may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of Bülent Güneralp. The information presented here is true and complete to the best of my knowledge. This page is intended only as an informative guide for those wishing to know more about vocal issues. In no way is it intended to replace, countermand, or conflict with the advice given to you by your own teacher. The ultimate decision concerning vocal care should be made between you and your own teacher.