Matching vowels, modifying the vowel to
find what is sometimes termed ‘the narrow place’
Matching the
vowels is a necessary ingredient for a legato line and vocal stamina but what
does that really mean?
It means moving
from note to note and vowel to vowel on fullest natural acoustic with legato
line whilst the vowel and consonant are still perfectly distinct in the
theatre.
The pressing
question is how do you achieve this?
Before you can
match the vowels it is necessary to have correct formation of each vowel without
tightness of any kind in the throat. If this is achieved, this makes an
enormous difference to the amount of vocal freedom that a singer has in
performance and produces also a natural pathos in the voice directly from deep
in the body.
The opposite of
this is a tight throat and a feeling of squeeze and shove from the throat.
Sometimes lovely artists who have magnificent and robust voices are able to
push in this way for quite a while, a few years perhaps, before the effort in
the throat regrettably takes its toll.
Here is a list of
things to look out for which cause that feeling of shove from the throat which
is the opposite of freedom in singing:
·
Lip
tension will cause grab on the throat
·
A
tense neck and shoulders will cause tension in the throat
·
The
jaw thrusting forward
·
A flat
tongue and retracted tongue
·
A
feeling of adjusting the throat as the voice goes up in pitch or even from note
to note.
If a singer forms
the vowels in the mouth in the way that they would when they speak it is not at
all satisfactory. The more difficult the piece that you are singing the more
difficult this way of singing vowels is to sustain. It seems that every singer
has sometimes unwittingly done this, myself included, as it is not usually made
very clear to a singer what they are supposed to do instead.
Some singers who
come here to the studio tell me how they have tried to find the ‘narrow place’
by trying to place the voice forward into a tiny focus by one method or another
which inevitably causes constriction. The cords eventually become preloaded
with tension before the singer even breathes to sing.
For the sake of
simplicity I am going to mainly concentrate in this article on the vowel ‘i’ as
in the word ‘feet’ because it is a good vowel on which to base the others. This
vowel is at the centre of the
So let us take the
‘i’ vowel, the shape of which is generally thought to be wide in the lips,
horizontally wide, in other words a narrow letter box shape. Occasionally some
singers come here to the studio having been taught to use this letterbox shape
for vowels and then to ‘place the sound in the mask’ to smile. This does not
produce an easy resonating vowel. This facial posture will cause the larynx to
raise and get stuck and will cause tightness under the chin and most certainly
the tongue will flatten and pull into the pharynx, thereby constricting it.
Also when you attempt to go from this smiling letter box ‘i’ position to a
rounded ‘o’ as in singing ‘ioioioio’ it is a very awkward movement and does not
help he voice to go from one register to another smoothly. This is particularly
felt in a rising scale up through the passaggio as the cords are preloaded with
weight from a squeezed throat. To sing with legato line and clear vowels through
the vocal range, economy of movement is needed which does not pull down the
pallet. Sometimes the singer will feel
that by smiling when taking the breath that they are lifting the palate ready
to sing when actually the opposite will be what is happening.
In order to
explore correct singing pronunciation of any vowel, make a soft oval shape with
the lips. That is oval from top to bottom not from side to side. The teeth should
be apart, almost two fingers width apart at front teeth. I say this as singers
sometimes do not realize they are clenching the jaw. Release the tension at the
corners of the mouth. Rest the tip of the tongue gently just behind the bottom
teeth but not pushing against them and lift the middle of the tongue and then
release it so it releases wide, spread out either side as though flying under
the side top set of teeth to the cheeks. Have this feeling of the tongue flying
out at the side and then see how much tension you can release. The jaw must be
persuaded to go back and down loosely then the tongue will flop up into a free
position. The mouth is feeling rounded but the tongue is releasing wide towards
the cheeks. Inside the cheeks between the molars the muscles should be relaxed.
Lifting and stretching the pallet is an involuntary action. These latter
instructions are stimuli which will help stretch the pallet and lift it. Each
vowel must have pallet stretch on an open throat
This will feel at
first a very strange position in which to form vowels if you are used to doing
something else. If it is done correctly the vowel will bypass the grab at the
throat and go to the ring in the cheekbones and acoustic of the head. The
singer should never have ‘to place it’ there. This makes the term ‘the narrow place’ a little misleading
To achieve a
resonance that filters through the cheek bones the jaw really must release
easily back and down (see article on the jaw). This will eventually result in
the total avoidance of responsibility for phonation by ‘muscling up’ of the
jaw, neck and tongue. I have an acquaintance who is elderly and of course
perfectly entitled to a relaxed afternoon nap in his chair. When he snoozes his
jaw drops in a beautifully relaxed way. Try literally chewing your jaw loosely
back keeping the mouth gently oval.
Begin as if you
know nothing about how a vowel should sound in your head or be pronounced and
look for some completely new sensations a few of which I will try to describe
in this article. I was rece
Vocal exercises
should be tailored to the individual according to type, size and weight of the
voice so that the singer can sense appropriate responses reflexively. I have
chosen to give some exercises below, and it may be just possible that you will
find them helpful and would like to try them. They are a way of illustrating
what matching and modifying the vowel means physically and my be useful for
somebody.
This exercise is
designed to encourage the tongue to stay out of the pharynx, the jaw to
release, the pallet to lift, widen and stretch from front to back on an active
body. Stick your tongue out in a relaxed way and seal your lips around it in a soft
oval, slightly flare your nostrils, and ge
Putting the tongue
out of the mouth also helps the imposto. This is the Italian expression for the
use of the muscles each side of the nostrils. It is as if the singer is
shutting off the breath to create resistance and allowing a slight thread to
come through at the same time. As if there were tiny feathers under you nose and
you were trying to shut you nose off and breath out at the same time to stop
them tickling. I have used the word airy to describe the feeling of ‘ng’ as
often in a singer the breath is shut down so much that the throat closes and
squeezes the nearer the voice gets to the upper passaggio. Allowing the air to
come through the nose in the way I have described can start to help the body
feel the natural resistance at the imposto co ordinate with the body If there
is too much air through the cords in repertoire in the lower or upper passaggio
then that will be caused by too much force of air pressure and not resistance
and this makes the voice very tired.
If this is all
completely new to you then I recommend that you read articles on this website
and
If you try the
vowel ‘i’ first the jaw needs to go back. Put your fingers on the chin pushing
back firmly but gently on a loose jaw – it should generally go back slightly
and slightly down. Looking in a mirror
is useful as you can see if the jaw jumps forward (Gently massaging the jaw
muscles in the cheek is one of many ways to help to loosen a tight jaw) the jaw
going forward is generally related to tension in the back of the neck. Let your
tongue rest gently behind the bottom teeth and lift the middle of the tongue,
to check that it is not pressed down to softly sing ‘i’ on a comfortable mid
range note for your voice. Make sure the tongue is lifting and widening out to
make certain of a proper ‘i’ vowel as in the word feet and not a watered down
version. Look for the oval mouth. You can put your fingers in the middle of the
cheeks each side of the mouth to encourage this shape. The sound should still
be slightly ‘woolly’ to your ears, with what I can only describe at the moment
as an airy feeling in your nose. You can
help it release a little more by putting your tongue out and singing the ‘i’ on
the same pitch and then singing with the tongue in a released position in the
mouth gently and singing. This sounds a little bizarre but it can sometimes be
very effective at releasing tension at the root of the tongue.
Try this exercise
on the ‘ng’. When the tongue is on the roof of the mouth in the ‘ng’ position
you will feel a light filt
ngingingingingi
1 2
3 2 1
If this
information is new to you then this way of singing a vowel will certainly feel
very unnatural. Indeed this is a first taste of how ‘unnatural’ a feeling it is
for us to produce free resonating vowels in the middle register. I can only say
that when you get used to it then it will be the squeezing version that feels
unnatural. It is unfortunate that it is much more usual for us to speak and
therefore sing on a squeezed pharynx and pulled down pallet with no connection
or very little connection to the body. An open pharynx demands a shifting of
responsibility for control of phonation from the throat to the body. Therefore
we are looking for sensations we are not normally used to.
The ‘i’ vowel is the deepest in the throat. It is the pharyngeal vowel to which all the
other vowels can be matched. (Sometimes some singers have another vowel that is
easier to work with at first this can also depend on what their mother tongue
is) It is the means by which weight in
the sound, warmth and volume at any level is added through correct use of the
body and not through pressure at the neck, tongue, jaw and pharynx. These at
all times should remain light and with the elastic muscles of the jaw chewing
back and the middle of the tongue lightly, ge
It is much easier to sing vowels if when the breath is taken in, the
act of doing so stretches the palate and opens the pharynx ready to sing.
Let’s turn the
attention to the vowel ‘e’ as in the word let. It will be tempting to allow
this vowel to be too shallow by not letting the jaw go back sufficiently. If the jaw hinges back enough to free the
tongue, the ring will naturally come to the cheek bones radiating out from the
narrow ring which will filter through the nose.
Another helpful
way of thinking of the open pharynx is feeling a deep ‘uh’ in the throat as in
the word hurt. This is an appropriate way to modify the vowel in the open
throat for the ‘e’ vowel. There must be no grab and bunch up of the tongue,
instead it should be wide and not pressed down in the middle. Within this deep
open ‘uh’ the cords can seal delicately along the thin edges on the appoggio.
Next are ‘a’ as in
the word hat, ‘o’ as in hot and ‘u’ as in hoot.
These 3 vowel sounds are related to each other, as generally they
present the same problems of the depressed tongue at the root.
Try singing the
sounds ‘ngu ngu ngu ngu ngu’ down the 5 tone scale all the while helping the
jaw hinge back and slightly flaring the nostrils. Look for a very light feeling
of the air filt
The vowels will
only match for a perfect legato line inside an open pharynx with the tongue
being free to form the vowels in a relaxed fashion on a good body hook up and
with no help from a tight jaw. Only then can balance in registration naturally
be found all the way up and down the scale. The singer will eventually trust
the body to work and the jaw to free first before the sound can happen. This is
the pre phonation stage and as a result of this the cords will close and you
will have phonation as a reflexive result. The definition of phonation is the
making of sound in the larynx. The pharynx will naturally adjust itself for the
formation of each vowel but it will not be the initiator of sound by squeezing
to close the cords. The tongue will adjust itself slightly for each vowel too
but it will still be required to release consta
Where we are under
most pressure to tighten the throat is at the upper passaggio. In the rising
scale the pressure will already want to start at the pharynx several notes
before you even get to what is unflatt
The lower break is
also a problem for singers. The same applies. Several notes before you get to
the break in the downward scale the vowel needs to look for this narrow
acoustic with the tongue wide without tension at the corners of the mouth and
the jaw softly instructed to go back and the body encouraged to work. The head
and neck will be buoyant and free if the body works well and then the jaw will
naturally free up.
Vowels should pick
up the natural acoustic cover which always carries perfectly in the theatre but
this will mean that the singer does not hear the voice as the audience will
hear it. Once a singer has mastered this way of singing vowels there comes a
wonderful lightness and rightness in the neck and face at any volume and a
beautiful stream of full resonating sound. Crescendo and decrescendo on high
notes will become much more easily available.
On up through the
voice the vowels will feel at first more removed from speech than ever but to the
listener the vowels will sound distinct and carrying. It will mean that the
singer will, as
When I was a young
student I was told to modify my vowels in the upper passaggio to an umlaut ‘u’
but I didn’t really know techniques to train body hook up, tongue, jaw etc.
There are so many inventive ways of modifying the vowel to ask the body to
accept the open throat including the French nasals. They are all efficient
depending on how they are used and the different needs of the singer and
different types of voices. When I was younger and my voice lighter I could find
the room in the throat and body but as my voice got heftier a larger packet of
help was needed.
It could be said
that the concepts in this article are for the advanced student. I can honestly
say that if the correct exercises are chosen for each individual and then are
applied skilfully the voice naturally goes this way and the singer immediately
senses the authenticity of the feelings. Every morning a singer gets out of bed
and wonders how the voice is behaving today. Singers are not happy unless they
know how to persuade their voice into vocal freedom. Much of singing is reflexive including the
free resonating vowel. So the singer needs to know exactly what actions to take
in order to stimulate the body to let these reflexive actions take place at
optimum efficiency. This is the remarkable thing about this work the package is
given. (Look at www.voiceteacher.com
for history of this.)
Case histories:
The first is of a
lovely soprano with a coloratura range. She came because she had pain on the
roof of her mouth and had had a tonsillectomy which had caused her more problems.
It was very soon evident what the problem was. The whole body was tight and
pulled down with the effort of forcing the voice up and down the scale. The jaw
was forward, the lips very tense and the tongue bunched up tight in the
pharynx. If this kind of technique is persisted in it eventually results in
serious vocal damage. With gentle exercise and correct stimuli for the palate stretch
and instruction on how to use her body, her jaw and tongue started to let go so
that her voice could find it’s own focus through the registers. It really did
not take much to let her feel release so that she could see the way forward out
of the problem. .
The other case I
have chosen is of a baritone who came to me with one of the tightest jaws
caused by trauma and injury I have ever seen. It was impossible for him to
pronounce anything without squeezing the throat and severely depressing the
tongue so even his speech sounded very strange – tight throaty vowels and
difficulty in pronouncing most of the consonants. The face muscles were pulling
down and the jaw was stiff particularly on the right side. When his body was asked through exercises to
hook up to the correct facial and throat posture the muscles in the face and
body gradually lengthened into a better state. Deep seated tension was unlocked
in his body and head as muscles acquired their natural elasticity. His command
of the exercises is growing all the time and the 2 octave Cuperto is such a
useful tool in taking the pressure off the voice. His facial expression is
different – it is radiant and open and very fine. His singing has freedom he thought he would
never have.
Cathy Pope
Email cathy@cathypope.com