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Toward a functional vowel chart

We’ve all seen the classic vowel chart – [i] in the front, [u] in the back, etc.  But that’s not how we make the vowels, in classical singing, at least. 

I feel that [a] works best focused between the upper front teeth.  Not driven there, but loose and clear.

 [i] [e] [æ] etc. are all made by touching the upper molars with the back of the tongue.  The tip of the tongue touches the inside of the lower front teeth, as it always should.  The tongue should still feel loose.  “Make your tongue like raw liver” is still the rule!  The lips should not change.  Grimacing or pulling back the lips for these vowels only causes tension.

[u] [o] etc. are all made by protruding the lips in a perfect circle, with the tongue lying there uninvolved.  You can turn an [a] into an [u] by covering your mouth with your hand while you sing [a].  Try it!  If you’re not making these vowels in this manner, your tongue is closing your throat.  That’s why some people with big [a]s have tiny [u]s.

[u] is the most forward vowel, [i] is the farthest back, [a] is at the upper front teeth.  I go into more detail starting here:  http://phillauriat.com/id-like-to-buy-a-vowel/

So, here’s a first jab at a functional vowel chart:

Lips Teeth Molars
Most closed [u] [i]
Mid space [o] [e]
Most open aw [a] [æ]

(I couldn’t figure out how to get Word to do the IPA for aw)

I tried to do this on a drawing of the vocal tract, but it looks kind of dumb with a static picture.  An arrow pointing to the lips saying “[u] [o] and other lip vowels”, another pointing to the back of the tongue saying “[i] [e] and other tongue vowels”.   Not particularly useful.

Ah, but what about ü, ö and other vowels that use both?!?  Yup, ü has the lips like [u] and the tongue like [i].  For me, I find they work best if you focus on imagining (feeling, placing) those vowels at the point of the lips. 

So in practice, you can “place” the vowels where they’re made.  Alleluia could be thought of as front teeth, molars, lips, molars, front teeth. 

Thoughts?

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Open

Some singers seem to fill the theater effortlessly, while others blast to be heard. What is it that gives a good opera singer the carrying power to soar over an orchestra, even at piano?

There is an aura around these voices, an extra bit of zing, that flies to the farthest reaches of the theater. This goes by various names: resonance, 2800, squillo, singer’s formant, mask, etc.

Another way to ask this question is, Why do some singers get hired by larger companies, while others don’t?  A while ago, I went to a performance in NYC of singers chosen from a particular ex-conductor’s masterclasses, and marketed as the singers of tomorrow, or some such.  I sat next to a baritone who has sung major roles at the Met, and he asked, “Where’s the resonance?”  Most of these singers, in addition to singing repertoire they never should have sung, did not have this zing, and so the companies and managers there left quickly.  They all had big voices up close, but not the thing that will actually carry to four thousand seats.

What is this thing? The names “2800” and “singer’s formant” are the most accurate names for this. When sung with this, there is an extra bump in the overtone series of any given note, in the vicinity of 2800 cycles per second. (remember, middle A is 440 cps, so this is near the F 3 ½ octaves above middle C, or an octave above the Queen of the Night’s top.)

If you chart the combined overtone series of the orchestra, you will see that the higher the overtone, the softer it sounds, in general. Charting a good operatic voice, you’d see that the volume of the sound mostly diminishes as you go up through the overtones, except for a major bump around 2800 cps. There is a good chart of this accompanying an article in Scientific American from March, 1977 called “The acoustics of the singing voice” (Sundberg). The link to a copy of the article is here. I highly recommend you read the entire article, but take a look at this chart:

Description: artials

This chart is not particularly well reproduced, and old technology, but you can see there are three curves, all normalized for a fundamental of 440 hertz, our tuning A. One is the averaged distribution of sound in an orchestra, the second is the same for normal speech, and the third is Jussi Bjorling. He’s the one with the bump, the other two are nearly the same.

From what I understand, if the ear hears the overtones, or partials, and cannot hear the fundamental, the ear will recreate the fundamental from those partials. So, even if Bjorling’s note was buried by the orchestra, the ear will get the overtones (especially around 2800 since it has such a bump) and recreate that note.

So, how do we do that? That’s a subject for next time.

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Vowel Non-Modification

Here’s a different way to look at “vowel modification” – the goal is not to modify the vowel, but to modify the way we make each vowel so it sounds the same throughout the range.

Singing is communication, and the vowels carry the meaning and beauty of any language.  If the vowels are generalized or incorrect, then communication, meaning, and beauty are all lost.

But, you say, what about vowel modification?  All those charts?  Well, the voice does change throughout the range.  If you kept the same shape of the mouth, tongue, lips, etc., going from low note to high note, the sound will tend to get nastier.  Keeping the same shapes going from high to low will tend to dull the sound. So, we modify the shapes to make the best tone for each note.  We should also aim for the best vowel for each note.  Change how we make the vowel for each pitch. 

I know that the vowels tend to go away at some point above the treble clef, but Steber showed that “Now is the night one blue dew” can be reasonably approximated up to at least B flat.  Was it the same shape and or feeling of her “oo” in mid-range?  Of course not.  But, it gave the impression of “oo” all the same.

So, go ahead and modify, but don’t modify the vowel, modify how you make the vowel.

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Gimmie some tongue!

Last time, we looked at the lip vowels, oh, oo, etc., and now let’s do the tongue.

(yes, I’m deliberately avoiding IPA)

So, ee, eh, etc., are tongue vowels.  Basically, you keep your mouth as it is for ah, and move your tongue so that the sides of your tongue are touching your upper molars, while the tip of your tongue is still just touching your lower front teeth.  This divides the mouth into two resonating chambers.

Important note:  the tongue has to move to create these vowels, but it still needs to be loose!

Try this:  sing a nice “ah” on a comfortable note.  Move your tongue into the position I described above, and you should get some form of eh, ee, or some such.  Keep it mushy, and don’t let the lips pull sideways – that’ll create tension!

The more space between the center of the tongue and the roof of the mouth, the more open the vowel.  Try sliding it up and down, forward and back, and find the right spot for eh, ih, ee, etc., all on a single note.  These vowels can be completely clear, and still have the same basic quality and quantity of sound.  That is the goal!

You can actually use this to help loosen the tongue, by quickly alternating ah and ee on a single note.

If you sing an “eh” without touching the upper molars, the sound will be dull and tend to spread, especially when singing an ascending line.

Again, an important thing to remember in all this is that the tongue needs to stay loose, like raw liver (as Ellen Repp used to say)!

The goal with all this vowel work is to create sounds that are clear and consistent, so that the vowels are easily understood while the quality and quantity of the vocal sound stays the same.  When formed as I’ve described here and in the last posting, the vowels can stay clear and well sung throughout the range.

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I’d like to buy a vowel

As I’ve often said, the vowels carry the beauty and meaning of every language, and if they are generalized all that is lost.  Singing is communication!  If your concept of vocal production does not make that clear, you might as well play the kazoo.

What do I want to hear in a voice?  I want the vowels to all be clearly defined, so that even if I don’t understand the language I could write down what is being sung. I also want a consistent quality and quantity of sound and resonance, whatever the vowel and whatever the range. That shouldn’t be too hard, should it?

Well, maybe, but how to do that? Let’s take the vowels apart a bit, and see how we can accomplish all this.

When you just open your mouth, an ‘ah’ falls out. Actually, more like ‘uh’ but it take the slightest attention to turn that into ‘ah’. So, instead of the root of all evil, ‘ah’ can be considered the root of all vowels.

I don’t mean that you need to perfect the ‘ah’ before going on, or that ‘ah’ will be your first and best vowel. I’m just thinking of this in terms of vowel formation, in the physiological sense.

From there we have three types of vowels: tongue vowels, lip vowels and those interesting French and English vowels that need both tongue and lips.

“oo” is the most forward of all the vowels, “ee” is the farthest back.  Let me show you.

Lip vowels first:

You can turn an ‘ah’ into an ‘oo’ with your hand. Try this: sing a good ah, then while you hold it, cover nearly all of your mouth with your hand and it becomes ‘oo’.

That might not work in performance. For most singing, you’ll need to purse your lips like blowing out a candle. Loose lips in a tiny circle, slightly protruding, with the inside of the mouth open and the tongue forward and relaxed. If the lips aren’t forming the ‘oo’ then the back of the tongue is closing your throat for it. That’s why you can often hear singers who have a big ‘ah’ disappear when they get to ‘oo’ – the tongue closes off the resonance.

If you have a hard time convincing the tongue to stay out of it, try this mind game: Sing a long ‘ah’. Just ‘ah’ the whole ‘ah’ and nothing but the ‘ah’. While you’re singing it, more your lips into and out of the position I described in the above paragraph, and you should get a good ‘oo’. It may sound different from your customary ‘oo’ if you’re used to the back of the tongue getting involved. I’m working on an ‘oo’ for the paying customers in the nosebleed seats!

‘Oh’ is half way to ‘oo’ and the other lip vowels (‘aw’ etc.) are just varying degrees of this formation.  To get the hang of it, which shouldn’t take long, practice singing these vowels on a single note, easy mid-range at first, then moving higher and lower. Work to get them consistent clear, and loose, starting on an easy note and then throughout the range.

No tongue! That’s for next time.

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An Open and Shut Case

Let’s talk about an open voice.

Now, I’m not talking about open and closed vowels, open and covered registration, or even open or closed mouth, but an open voice.  What is that?

We’ve all heard singers who seemed like there was a lot of sound, if someone could unzip the top of their heads.  Not open.

I sang with a mezzo once who had one vowel, and it was “L” – not open.

Then, there are the singers described by one of two phrases:  “Open mouth, close throat” and “When push comes to shove.”  Still not open!

There are two parts to this open – a clear sound and a resonant sound.  I’ll tackle clear first.

The old saw “if you listen to yourself sing, you’ll be the only one to enjoy it” works here.  Lower voices are more often guilty of this – singing to themselves through the Eustachian tubes instead of to the paying customers in the audience.  (The Eustachian tubes help balance the air pressure across the eardrum, and open in the back of the throat.)  Many singers sing to themselves in this way, sounding swallowed to the rest of the world.

The vowels carry the beauty and meaning of every language, and if they are generalized, all that is lost.  Good singing technique should give you clear vowels throughout the range.

Now I know higher women’s voices lose a bit of understandability at the top of the range, which is why composers who want the text to be understood will repeat high-flying text in the middle of the range.  That said, in Knoxville, Summer of 1915, the B flat to A at the end of “Now is the night one blue dew” can and should approximate real [u] vowels.  And how many tenors, at the end of “Recondita armonia” try to make the F as loud as the B flat by singing “Tosca, sai to” instead of “Tosca, sei tu”?

So, we need to sing with good, clear vowels, but how?  Next time, I’ll tackle vowel formation, or how we can sing clearly throughout the range.

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Repertoire thoughts

Having cast and led over forty productions, I’ve spent a lot of time on both sides of the audition table, and, as you can imagine, I have a few opinions.  Here are a couple of points I’d like to make about what people sing.

Point 1 – Having technique problems does not mean you’re a dramatic sized voice.

I’ve seen this countless times – someone sings too heavily, pushing the voice in a way that sounds big on the inside, but outside?  Not so much.  Because of this, they cannot sing works that are lyrical and demanding and appropriate for them, and so feel they are ready for the dramatic sized roles.  They are aided and abetted by teachers who only know voices in small rooms, who went to one school for undergrad, grad, and then joined the faculty at that same school.

If you can sing Puccini, but not Verdi, you may need to fix things.  Puccini fits very easily into the voice – his phrases tend to start high and descend.  That is why everyone starts with “Caro mio ben” – it is easy to sing those lines.  Verdi, on the other hand, starts in the middle and goes up, which takes some real chops.  You can’t get away with anything in Verdi, or Mozart, or a lot of French rep, and so they come highly recommended!

How to know?  All the big-voiced people I know and have worked with say they feel like they’re doing nothing, not working at all.  If you feel like you’re pushing your voice, if you get tired before three hours, if you can’t sustain the high-flying phrases, get some help.  Look in the mirror.  If everything in your neck is sticking out when you sing, if your tongue is up like a cobra, you need to fix it.  Find someone, a conductor, coach or teacher, who has experience with real world voices.   Bob Spillman said it at Eastman years ago, and it still holds true:  When you get to a new city, work with the coaches first.  They know who the good teachers are.  And contact me!

Point 2 – Who will hire you for what?

This will take some real soul-searching, but can help tremendously in repertoire choices.  When you look at a role, ask yourself what companies do this opera, and whom do they hire?  You could also ask yourself if you want to sing in big houses or small houses.  I think it’s better to do small roles in big houses than large roles in little ones.

Now, there are some arias that are good for Opera Pops events and the like, but are from operas that are seldom done.  I’m thinking pieces like that baritone aria from Die Tode Stadt.  First of all, the opera is never done.  Second of all, it has nothing to do with the rest of the baritone repertoire.  So, don’t bring it to an audition, unless they’re doing Korngold.  Same with “Zaza, piccola zingara” or “Nobles Seigneurs” etc.  Good arias for a party, but not for auditions.

In master classes I’ve given, auditions I’ve heard, and opera concerts I’ve conducted, I’ve had lots of mezzos want to do Dalila.  So, who does this opera?  Big houses with an orgiastic ballet.  There are only three roles in it, basically, so they’ll spend real money.  Also, the orchestra is big and thick, so even for opera love-ins it is difficult.

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t experiment, explore new repertoire, find some new niche.  But, you should do your homework, and research the companies you’re auditioning for.  What operas to they do?  Who have they used in the past? Where would you fit in?

In the end, what to bring to auditions?  Some questions to ask yourself:

What do I do best?

What are they hiring for?

Who have they cast in the past?

For me, I’d rather tell someone, “Hey, you should try this” instead of “You shouldn’t have done that.”

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Breath Support – How #4

First, watch this: Angelo Loforese at 92. Wearing his pants that high really help to show you what he’s doing.

As you have probably guessed from Breath #2, I’m a believer in abdominal breathing. There is some expansion of the rib cage and lower back when you inhale, but there just aren’t the muscles there to get the air out again and support a singing tone.

First, to recap:

Posture:
• The ribs are lifted and loose, and the shoulders are relaxed. If you’re wearing your deltoids as earrings, all is not as it should be!
• Lots of room between the ribs and the pelvis.
• Nothing is locked. We’re talking Opera – you must be able to move!

Inhalation:
The diaphragm flattens out, expanding the lungs to bring in the air, and pushing out everything beneath the ribcage. 

And now, Exhalation:
The abdominal muscles are the major muscles of exhalation. Yes, the intercostals can squeeze the ribcage, but not much. When you pull in the abdominals, the lower abdomen acts like a piston, pushing up on the diaphragm and expelling the breath.

Try this: Take a loose, low breath as I have described, using the diaphragm to fill the lungs and push out the abdominal muscles. Then, from about your belt buckle, make like you’re blowing out a candle. Not too hard, but you can get the air to move pretty quickly, while keeping your throat, jaw, tongue, etc., loose. It may take a few tries to keep it all loose, but this is important!

This action should use all of the abdominal muscles, all the way to the pelvis. Although she was not overly shy, Miss Repp would say, “I breathe so low, I can’t tell you.”

Control:
Now, just using the abdominals would cause the lungs to empty pretty quickly, and without a lot of control. This control is imposed by using the diaphragm as well as the abdominals to control the airflow. It must not be a tightening of the throat, or hoping the vocal cords can control it.

Now, try this: Take another nice, low breath, then tighten your abdominals and your diaphragm at the same time, so that no air escapes. Keep your neck loose and don’t try to stop the air with your vocal cords. I’ve fixed many damaged voices, and don’t want to cause any!

Do it again, but first put your fingers just below your sternum. When you tighten the abdominal muscles and diaphragm, that part just below the sternum, called the epigastrium, will push out. There are no muscles right there, and so nothing to resist the push of the abdominals. (This is where you push for the Heimlich Maneuver)

So, using the ‘dynamic tension’ between these two sets of muscles (with a nod to Charles Atlas), you can control the airflow to a very fine degree.

Here’s an exercise: Take a nice low breath. Engage the abdominals and diaphragm, then make a long, light, smooth “ssss” while trying to keep everything from the neck up loose and easy. If you do this without engaging the abdominals and diaphragm, you will probably hear your heartbeat in the hiss. This will really show you the control you have, and the control you may need to work toward.

In conclusion:
• Keep the posture up, open and loose
• Use the diaphragm to expand everything between the ribs and the pelvis unopposed for inhalation
• Use the abdominals to get the air to flow through the voice, controlled by the diaphragm

Using the diaphragm and abdominal muscles to control the breathing in this way will allow the rest of the vocal apparatus to relax and do its work – creating beautiful, expressive singing.

In a future posting, I will talk about when there are problems in the way. Not just bad habits, but injured abdominals, asthma, pregnancy, etc.

But next time, I think I’ll talk about repertoire.

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Breath Support – How #3

Let’s start with generalities, and then get more specific.  Again, this is an experiential approach – what the singer should feel – but informed by the technical knowledge of what is actually going on.

  • Air flow makes the sound, not air pressure.
  • If the breathing apparatus isn’t controlling the flow, the singing apparatus has to, causing tension in the tongue, jaw, throat, etc.
  • Faster air makes for higher notes.
  • More air flowing makes for louder notes.

Let me dilate on these a bit:

“Air flow makes the sound, not air pressure.”

This is true not only of the air flow sustaining the pitch, but air flow starting the note.

Air flowing through the vocal folds keeps them flapping in the breeze, causing the vibrations that come to us as a singing tone.  If there is a feeling of pressure in the throat, that feeling generally comes from tension.  Of course there is a pressure differential across the vocal folds, or there would be no air flow!  However, if you feel that pressure, you are either extremely sensitive, or tight.

Starting the tone should involve air flow as well.  This goes back to the Bernoulli Effect, where air that’s moving has a lower pressure than stationary air.  Essentially, if the vocal folds are close but not touching, and the singer causes the air to flow between them, the moving air will suck the folds together to start the sound.  Otherwise, the vocal folds are closed, pressure builds up, and the air punches through, causing a glottal plosive or glottal slap, which is as violent a process as the name sounds.  This will harm the voice in no time, and it is about the only thing I won’t let anyone get away with.

“If the breathing apparatus isn’t controlling the flow, the singing apparatus has to, causing tension in the tongue, jaw, throat, etc.”

Something has to control the sound.  If the control is not from a well formed breath, then vocal tension will happen.

The flip side of this is that if you try to loosen a tight tongue, for instance, and don’t replace whatever control the tongue was trying to exert over the sound with well formed breath, then if you can get the tongue loose (which is unlikely) something else will take over, moving the tension to the jaw or the throat.

These last two are from Miss Repp.  I have not yet found reference, one way or the other, in Vennard, Sundberg, etc.  so they probably are not scientifically accurate. However, using these images can help loosen the voice.

“Faster air makes for higher notes.”

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!  Like the pig in the old insurance ad.

When you slide the voice up and down like this, loosely, you can feel how the air moves as you get higher.  Try it with a variety of vowels!

Now, the air doesn’t speed up as you get higher, the pitch gets higher as the air speeds up.  That may seem like picky word play, but the concept is very useful, especially if someone seems to approach high notes like squeezing toothpaste out of a tube.

“More air flowing makes for louder notes.”

Again, it is not the amount of muscle that someone is using, but the amount of energy in the airflow that determine the basic volume of the sound.  This is not to be confused with the resonance that gets the voice to carry over an orchestra, which must be there from ppp to fff.  That is for another discussion altogether, but the breath has to be working well first.

Well, I had hoped to get to the physicality of breath, but this post is already too long!  Next time, we’ll talk about just where and how to breathe.

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Breath Support – How #2

Inhalation

Breathing?  Nothing to it!  Just in, out, repeat, right?

Generally, yes.  However, for singing we need a bit more control.

The breathing process I will describe here is operatic, designed for voices that need to fill a theater of 4,000 seats with full orchestra, unamplified.  A lot of breath energy is needed.  At the end (probably another time), I’ll talk about differences in breathing for what good opera singers call “microphonistas,” or those who operate in the opera world relying on amplification, as well as many theater, jazz, etc., singers.

Okay – we have a lifted, loose, energetic posture, with room between the ribs and the pelvis.  When the lungs fill, everything around them is pushed out – the ribs will expand a bit, the stomach moves out and even the lower back will expand a little.  For the anatomically curious, the intercostal muscles (between the ribs –  what we munch on when we order spare ribs) help expand the rib cage, and the diaphragm muscle expands everything below the ribs.  This expands the lungs, drawing in a lot of air.  (For anatomical geeks like me, read Vennard)

The shoulders must not rise.  The only muscles that can pull up the shoulders are in the neck, which needs to stay loose.

Let’s talk diaphragm.  It’s a dome shaped muscle at the bottom of the rib cage, basically horizontal, that separates the heart and lungs above from the stomach and everything else below.  (Separates the vittles from the vitals, a college prof used to say)  It is the major muscle of inhalation – when it flattens out it opens the lungs, sucking in air.  In the process, it pushes out everything below:  abdominal muscles, sides and back.  If you put your hands on your waist, thumbs forward, fingers toward the spine, bend over 90 degrees, and inhale, you will feel the back expand.

Some people talk a lot about back breathing.  As we saw above, the back will expand when you inhale correctly.  I sometimes will use this with new students – have them go through the exercise at 90˚ to feel the back expand, then have them try for the same expansion standing up.  It is useful to get a low breath and stop a heaving chest.  However, there are no muscles of exhalation in the lower back, which we will talk about more when we get to exhalation next time.

Likewise, the sides will expand a bit, but the bulk (pun intended, in my case!) of the work is done in front.  The abdominal muscles will distend, and it is helpful to think of the expansion all the way from the ribs to the pelvis.  My last teacher, Miss Ellen Repp, used to say, “I breathe so low, I can’t tell you.”

Breathing in this manner can be very relaxing.  Think of it – if you’re breathing with the shoulders raised, every inhalation produces tension.  Not so good for the beginning of a phrase.  However, if, at the end of the phrase, your ribcage is still open but your abdominals are pulled in, if you just let go of the abdominal muscles, your belly will drop and your lungs will fill, assisted by the diaphragm flattening out.

Try this – stretch out your arms to keep your ribcage up and open (and loose!), and exhale by pushing in your abdominals, navel to backbone.  Really give them a squeeze!  Now, when your lungs are empty, drop your belly and get a good breath.  Relaxing, isn’t it? Now that we have a good breath, next time I’ll talk about the use of the breath in singing