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Tagged: advanced singing concepts, importance of vowels, John Henny, resonance tuning, singing nerd, singing resources, singing techniques, underlying UH, vocal pedagogy, vocal science, vocal techniques, vocal training, vowel masters, vowel modification, vowel research, vowel sounds in singing
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The Beauty of Vowel Sounds! (Singing Teachers)
Posted by Guest Teacher on July 1, 2024 at 2:36 pmHey gang!
I recently delved further into my knowledge of vowel sounds and their importance whilst singing and have fallen IN LOVE with how sneaky these simple sounds can be! I am a huge advocate of ‘the underlying UH’ and John Henny but do you guys know of any other vowel masters I can get researching into?
Brand me as the singing nerd if you must BUT I JUST LOVE VOWELS!
All the best everyone,
L xGuest Teacher replied 4 months, 4 weeks ago 3 Members · 17 Replies -
17 Replies
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I love vowels too! I find it’s all about lengthening them in singing and softening consonants which is what differentiates between singing and speaking.
I use A E I O U warm ups as well as “Ar”, “Ah”, “Eh”, “Ee”, “Oh”, “Oo”, alternating for each scale. I really know how to have fun in my lessons!!!
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Do you use harsh consonant pressure when singing staccato? Check out some crazy and amazing science about Vowels and harmonics. It’s changed my life!
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Also, if you get bored of your usual vowel sounds, try out the extended vowel scale:
I – AH – ER – EH – AY – EE – UH – OH – OO
The way the tongue moves on each sound is quite drastic so I’ve found helping students stabilise this movement creates a cleaner, more stable sound.
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And I LOVE that link! It’s pretty much what I just happened to be teaching at that moment as well! But explained better than I managed…
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And in answer to your question, I use fricatives.. but that’s more to get the balance and rhythm of breathing and connecting with the diaphragm.
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Ahhhhhhhhh John Henny is a genius. Try those vowel sounds on a skip scale exercise.
C D – D E – E F – F G – G A – A B – BC – C B A G F E D C
I – AH – ER – EH – AY – EE – UH – OHHHHH – OOOOOOI hope that’s explained it OK:)
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Fricatives! I’ve not heard of those – I’m on it B-)
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I do love a good fricative. Revving sounds! The diaphragm is the engine! The larynx is the gears. Pitch is the steering wheel! (Wow, I’m on a roll)
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@Eliza Woah, I’d love your analogy explained a little more! I’d say the larynx is the pitch!:)
@Lily: I have to say there’s a whole lot more I could learn about vowels, harmonics, formants etc., but if you’re interested in learning more about the acoustics side of singing, I thoroughly recommend checking out a guy called Ken Bozeman (http://www.kenbozeman.com/) I saw him talk at a vocal conference last year, and he explained harmonics really well and in a really practical way and it blew my mind:)
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I did go away and think about our body as a car and came up with this:
Diaphragm = engine
Larynx = gears (but probably should be steering wheel for pitch lol)
Mouth/tongue = Maybe this should be gears, like for different tones
Dynamics = accelerator
Eyes = indicator!
Radio = YOUR SINGING!!!Any more?!
It’s silly fun really.
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I’m sure Ken Bozeman would be more professional and academic in a lecture than me.. Lol
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Oh my god Kat! I love Ken Bozeman!
Check out this little page I discovered also –
http://www.singwise.com/cgi-bin/main.pl?section=articles&doc=VocalTractShaping&page=3 -
Yes! I love Karyn O’Connor! I’ve had some lessons with her before and her fees are surprisingly low given her expertise. She’s awesome.
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Ooooooh! Definitely going to look into this. I’ve never been so nerdy about anything in my entire life. I feel like a vowel wizard!
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