Vowel Shapes

So about vowel shapes I know that as you get higher your supposed to like your mouth not that wide like a dopey "mum" but in the "ah" exercise we keep have it wide.  But when we get higher do we go more narrow or keep it wide?

If you don't get my question I'm just going to change it to, when do we want our mouth to be wide?  

A wider mouth position is good for bright tone or chesty quality (when it's both wide and jaw is dropped a bit). Wide mouth position just becomes problematic when you're singing higher in chest voice and starting to get an overly "shouty" tone. See below for an article on this!

A beginner’s guide to vowel modification

Camille van Niekerk

 

Vowel modification is simply: changing a vowel sound to make it easier to sing AND improve the tone quality. Why would we need to change vowels, though? Aren’t they all basically the same?

 

No! Each vowel is the result of a slightly different shape in your vocal tract (the pathway from your larynx to your lips). Different mouth posture, tongue placement and lip closure make up the difference between an EE sound and an OO sound, for example. 

 

It’s getting a little sciencey, but I promise it’ll make sense!

 

Your mouth and throat - which together make up your vocal tract - “boost” frequencies within the sound wave created by your vocal folds. You can hear this clearly when you move from an EE vowel to an OO vowel on the same pitch. Notice how your tone is very bright, maybe even nasal on the EE vowel, and notice how it gets significantly “darker” or “warmer” on the OO vowel. 

 

Now, pause right here and we’ve got one great usage of vowel modification!

 

1. Modify vowels to improve tone quality

 

If your tone is overly bright, for example, you might modify your vowels closer to a warmer UH or OO shape. Lewis Capaldi and Adele are two singers who use this kind of modification a lot, resulting in a warm, rich tone, especially in their low chest voice ranges. 

 

If your tone is overly dark, on the over hand, you might modify your vowels closer to a bright EE, EY (as in HEY) or A (as in CAT) shape. Notice how your tongue and lips are positioned to make these brighter vowel sounds, and use a similar position when you want that sound. 

 

On a related note, we can:

 

2. Modify vowels to help achieve our desired registration

 

In order to do this, we need to understand 3 basic vowel categories, adapted from John Henny’s “Teaching Contemporary Singing”:

 

Narrow vowels

Mouth position: closed

Examples: OO (as in cool) and EE (as in bee)



Great for: head voice

Use when: you want a lighter tone 

 

Medium vowels

Mouth position: neutral

Examples: UH (as in cup) and ʊ (as in book)



Great for: mixed voice

Use when: you’re in middle/mixed voice or crossing registers

 

Wide vowels

Mouth position: wide and/or open

Examples: EY (as in hey) and A (as in yeah)

Great for: chest voice

Use when: you want a heavier, chesty tone

 

See this video for examples and exercises to practice modifying narrow vowels: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pYq36TPd84&t=108s. 

 

Pro tip: these vowel categories really come in handy when you’re singing in your mix or middle range! If you notice that you’re “flipping” into head voice (and don’t want to), try a slightly wider or more open mouth shape. If you’re getting too heavy or loud, try a slightly more closed shape.

 

To summarize and simplify: medium vowels (UH as in CUP and ʊ as in BOOK) are almost always helpful! If you’re having trouble with a specific section or lyric:

 

1. Remove the lyrics and sing on a syllable like MUM or BʊB (“BOOK” vowel sound)

2. Check your mouth position in the mirror: are you gently dropping your jaw? Is your mouth in a neutral shape?

3. Modify the problematic vowel to a shade that’s easier to sing. For example, if EE sounds tense but UH sounds balanced, a good “shade” of that EE vowel may be something closer to IH (as in GIVE).

4. Rehearse until it’s muscle memory!

 

Summing up: Vowel modification is an art, not a science. If no modification is needed (ie: you’re happy with the tone quality and registration), then great! But most songs will require at least some amount of vowel modification, even if it’s just on a lyric or two. It will become more natural the more you do it. Just remember that as singers, we don’t need to pronounce our words exactly as we’d speak them. We prioritize beautiful tone over perfect diction, but we do our best to remain intelligible!

 

 

Homework time: listen carefully to your favorite singers - or even better, watch recordings of live performances - and see if you can identify some vowel modification. I bet you’ll begin to notice it more and more! 

So in the live stream in 30 day singer youtube channel in the live stream Vocal Range Extension   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXqiqTyxoBM         and then at around 8:54 you said if we keep our mouth more closed we could sing lower.  Is that true for all low notes or just the super low ones?

I find a more closed mouth position helpful for any notes that feel low (for me, that's G3 and below). I have run into a bass or two who prefer a tall, open AH position for their lowest notes. Try some different shapes low in your range, and whatever works best there should also work for super low notes!