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?