All rights are 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 Bulent Guneralp. 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. 

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 call it The Güneralp Vocathletic System. This page will organically grow in time with written materials and visual demonstrations (videos are at the bottom). 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 Aysel Tunalı.

WHAT IS THE GÜNERALP 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.

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. 

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 revolutionary vocal method, the like of which I have never heard of, 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.