.sherlynchia.com. Vocal coach. Performer.

Singers who insist on singing absolute language values that conflict with the written pitches experience as a result discomfort, an out-of-tune tone lacking in beauty, and a serious diminution of the air supply. The more we approximate the sounds of speech vowels, the more nonharmonic our voices will be.  Speech vowels give the voice a reduction of carrying power (a fact no longer germane to musical theater singers because of the insistence on amplification).

When the most resonant vowel on one particular sung note is found, it is invariably different from the one used in speech patterns. The use of speech vowels often gives rise to inexact pitches, flat or sharp, that are not controllable, even by a singer’s attentive ear. Singers who utilize many nonharmonic sounds (speech vowels) do not sing as long, because this practice is physically unhealthy over time. Contrary to common belief, adherence to speech vowels does not promote clear diction, because of the tonal interference produced by incompatible vowels and pitches.

It is, in short, advantageous to sing with good interaction, where the vocal cords and the vocal tract augment—not fight—each other. Furthermore, this interaction releases the singer’s spirit and energies for that supra-human effort called artistic performance.

The same acousticians hired to correct the deficiencies of a concert hall’s acoustics tell us these facts. When vowels are correctly modified, three advantageous things happen: the singer experiences more comfort; the tone is more beautiful; the air supply lasts longer. When the vowel is incompatible with the sung pitch the opposite happens: the singer experiences anything from slight discomfort all the way to actual pain; the tone is anywhere from slightly less beautiful all the way to actually ugly; the air supply is diminished radically because it takes more air to sustain an inappropriate vowel.

The research done on perceptibility tells us that, when each voice reaches the pitches of its high passaggio, the human ear can no longer tell the difference between that voice singing one front vowel or another, one back vowel or another. So why sing a vowel that is incompatible with the sung pitch (and more difficult to execute) if the listener cannot even tell that you are singing it?

Artistic performance is vital, vibrant, and exciting. Certainly, it is dependent upon the human spirit, the musical and poetic imagination, and health, but it also hinges upon the physical events of vibration and resonation that are brought about by certain muscular activities related to the vocal instrument. Non-singers’ tendency is to forget that the voice is a musical instrument, responsive to the laws of acoustics just as any other instrument is. (They probably forget because the human voice is located inside a human body rather than inhabiting a carved piece of wood or a metal housing.)

Artistic limitations will result if the proper muscular activities do not become almost reflexive. Insistence upon singing the vowel written on the page will stultify the natural ability of the singer to find the modification that serves the needs of the music. When the vocal tone is correctly formed by acoustical phonetics, the singer avoids many muscular problems, basically hyperfunction and hypofunction, both of which may result in stiffness of parts of the vocal tract.

Stiffness of the singer’s vocal tract can translate into hoarseness, register problems, unacceptable deviations from the pitch, limitations of range, color, and dynamics, poor vibrato, as well as other malfunctions and/or dysfunctions, all of which present the singer, the voice teacher and the choir director with very real problems.

∙ Singers who are suffering from hoarseness caused by the vocal cord erosion that speech vowels induce will find it difficult to concentrate on the details of their musical and vocal responsibilities.

∙ Singers who are experiencing register problems find it difficult if not impossible to handle the musical and vocal problems that occur at register breaks.

∙ Singers who are chided for off-pitch singing that seems unfixable simply by more acute listening often cannot think of anything other than pitch.

∙ Singers who cannot handle the high notes or the low notes, the loud notes or the soft notes, well enough to please themselves, their teachers or their conductors usually become disheartened at their own lack of technique and, as a consequence, are incapable of attending to the musical and vocal qualities of their singing.

And so on.

All these maladies have the same result: in the end they will produce a faltering and more or less inept performance. High on the list of appropriate remedies for performance problems is vowel modification.

There is no disputing the fact that modification of vowels inspires much controversy. However, the conviction that modification of vowels is unnecessary does betray a certain ignorance. It is true that singers can sing any note on any vowel, limited only by the physical boundaries of their range, but some vowel forms will have constructive interaction with the vocal cords (aid and amplify their air pressures), and other vowel forms will have a diminishing acoustical interaction (distort and diminish the cords’ air pressures).

A bad tone fights with itself; that is, two vibrators interact badly with each other. For example, in stringed instruments the conflict is between a string and the resonator; in the organ the conflict is between the reed and pipe. In the voice, the conflict is between the vocal cords and the vocal tract.

The belief that singers should sing the exact vowel written by the composer is entirely logical. However, to do is not natural to the vocal instrument. A singer whose vocal resonance is even and consistently good from note to note—high or low, soft or loud—is changing the vowels semitone by semitone (whether or not the listener can sense it), and the vocal tract is constantly changing form (whether or not the singer takes note of it.)

This cannot be avoided. This is the way the voice works. As Oren Brown, the noted vocal pedagogue reminds us, “Good singers, whether consciously or not, depend on finding an easy adjustment for the pitch. This will be a modification [my emphasis].” Moreover, when voice teachers or choral directors ask their singers to, for example, sing [i] (ee) but drop their jaws while doing it, they, too, are modifying the vowel, for an [i] (ee) sung with a very large mouth will be an [ɛ] (eh).

With the aid of vowel modification singers will have fewer intonation problems, better resonance across their ranges, more carrying power, easier production of forte and piano, clearer diction, and, if choral directors could persuade themselves to use the modification suitable to each section in place of that common vowel indicated for all the voices, a much better blend.

Perhaps this sounds too optimistic to be true. Your doubts will be alleviated by understanding that the described results are governed by the extent to which the tongue controls events of the resonator tube (the vocal tract), and the tongue’s effect on laryngeal efficiency. For optimal results, the tongue tip should rest at the top of the bottom teeth. This position can be taught by saying, “Hmm!” which maneuver will place the tongue tip correctly. Trying to use other tongue postures in an attempt to achieve more resonance does not allow the proper shapes for the vocal tract and creates tongue tension.

Putting the tongue tip at the root of the bottom teeth produces a dull sound.
Pulling the tongue tip up and back distorts all the vowels.
Pulling the tongue back into the mouth forces the larynx into a very low position, delivering
unclear diction and a muddy sound, if a darker one.
Pushing the tongue tip against the back teeth makes for harsh and tinny timbre.

Each inhalation is best executed with the tongue tip on the top of the bottom teeth. Using this position is not difficult and the rewards are great.

When the listener hears a song, the words and music create an image, feeling or emotion to which they can relate. When the song is heard repeatedly this creates familiarity and the listener starts to understand the sentiments further, picking up words, even non-sensical ones that encourage participation.

Although both music and lyrics are important, in vocal music it is the text that provides an explanation for the musical accompaniment. If the words cannot be understood, the song can become meaningless.

This is not the case with all forms of compostitions. Instrumentals and classical music have their own 'spark' that ignites the listeners imagination, however, in most forms of contemporary music, pop, rock, blues, jazz, soul, rap etc., the words are an integral part that need to be expressed clearly by the singer in order for the sentiment or story to be understood.

Now, I know there are singers whose vocals are barely understood or mixed low in the track and in some cases the effect is intentional to fit the type of song that is being performed, but in most cases, the singer needs to pronounce and project the words clearly.

Probably the best example of this is a local live music venue. How many times have you attended a live gig, only to be frustrated that you cannot hear the singer..... sometimes thats caused by a lack of professional sound engineering, or a problem with the volume of the band, but often it is caused by the singer slurring or muffling the words due to bad diction.



Listen closely to the majority of singers and bands who attain acclaim within their field of music, the one connecting factor is the ability to distinguish the lyrics. The words that form the story or identifying feeling of the song can be understood, even if the call backs, shouts and odd screeches cannot.

They are successful not just for the quality of their music, but also because they recognise that their fans want to understand the song and it is the singers job to make it look and sound as easy as possible.

Another important aspect of practicing pronounciation is the way the shape of the mouth and placement of the tongue for each vowel and consonant effects the tone and brightness of the notes produced. Learning how to manipulate these shapes and positions in conjuction with correct breath control can aid in improving tone, range and clarity. Part of developing a good vocal technique involves improving vowel and consonant production so sound those E's & T's!

Taken from: Vocalist.org

Stay tune for the next post- Diction part 2

Sorry guys I was very very busy over the weekend.

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