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Most experienced voice teachers focus on vocal production through exercises based on vowels - sing on 'ah' or 'ee,' for example.
However, musical expression often comes through the consonants. When you listen to your favorite singers, do you notice how they shape particular words? Most likely, they are using a word's consonants to give a certain 'color' or tone quality for the word. When I work with my singers, I really pay attention to how they express the music through both their acting and their word shaping. A little change in how you say a word - lingering on the 'l' in "love" or a sharp 'b' in "bitter" - can have a tremendous impact on the audience and how well you convey the song. DWS So about that promise to start blogging...
As you can imagine, having two little ones running around has caused quite the time crunch. I am finally getting around around to my commitment to resuming my regular blogs on technique. I want to focus my attention on the "ee" vowel, which can cause considerable issues for singing. In particular, male singers seem to particularly struggle with tongue tension when singing "ee." The result of all this tongue tension can be a muffled tone, strained high notes, and nasality. One of my favorite exercises to combat this is to hold your jaw down and alternate between the "ah" and "ee" on a scale. The key is to only move your tongue to form the two vowels. The jaw should remain immobile. Try it. It's a lot harder than you think! After using his exercise for a few lessons, most students can produce a better "ee" vowel with noticeable reductions in tongue tension. As with all vocal exercises, you need a good teacher to tinker and adapt this exercise for your vocal needs. DWS |
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