Singing has been described as sustained speech. The sounds used when we speak can be divided into vowels and consonants. Of the two, the easiest to sustain are the vowels. So, when we say sustained speech, we are specifically talking about the vowels. You might try an experiment and attempt to sustain some consonants. Some actually can be sustained. We sustain an “m” when we hum. Sustaining an “s” creates a hissing sound. Legato is an Italian word meaning “bound” or “connected.” Legato singing is defined as “in a smooth flowing manner, without breaks between notes.” The beauty of the human voice lies in the vowels. The consonants are necessary to articulate in a way that the words can be understood. If we only wanted to sound pretty, we could eliminate the consonants altogether. The reason we don’t is because we speak and sing in order to communicate.

One of my teachers likened legato singing to water flowing from an open faucet. The constant stream of water represents the flowing, connected sounds of vowels. The way most people sing can be likened to turning on and off the faucet for each word. Instead, in order to have a legato we need to not “turn off the water” but let the consonants be like flicking your finger quickly through the flowing water, allowing the vowels to be as connected as possible.

The simplest way to accomplish legato singing is to connect the ending consonant of a syllable or word to the beginning consonant of the next syllable or word. As an example, let’s take the following sentence and examine it phonetically:
Text: Sing to the Lord a new song
IPA: sɪŋ tuː ðə lɔːd ə njuː sɒŋ
Legato: sɪ ŋtuː ðə lɔ ːdə njuː sɒ ŋ
For those who don’t know IPA. Here is the phrase phonetically:
Regular speech: seeng too thə lord ə nee-oo sahng
Legato: see ngtoo thə lo rdə nee-oo sah ng
The tricky part is learning how to combine the consonant sounds together and speak them quickly. If you are doing it correctly you will sound like you are Count Dracula from Transylvania.

Singing legato is a very powerful technique to master. It will help you economize your breath so that you can sing longer phrases using one breath. You can sing louder because you can sustain the vowel sounds. When you are singing vowels, your mouth is open, and your tongue is out of the way. It is easier to tune and blend with the rest of the choir by staying on the vowels. It is easier to achieve an ensemble because the consonants are crisper and more precise. If you listen to really good choirs, one of the biggest reasons they are good is because they sing legato.