THE VOICE LESSON - WOMEN

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Notice how the top note, once again, was more yelled than sung. Now you can hear what the principle of vowel narrowing accomplishes. Again we take our A vowel, as in the word "faith," but this time we pronounce it as of we had an Irish brogue, or Irish accent. Listen to our singer speak the word "faith" with an Irish brogue. Play example: 23 (Real Player) Play example: 23 (Mp3 format) Now, listen how this minor adjustment releases our singer into her mix, on the A and B flat. Play example: 24 (Real Player) Play example: 24 (Mp3 format) The principle of vowel narrowing is very important, and yet, highly overlooked. Sometimes, if there is a difficult vowel, (especially in the bridges) it helps to replace the difficult vowel with an easier one. Usually, a vowel is difficult only because it encourages too much chest voice by employing long, thick vocal cords. By simply trying a narrower vowel, we can gain access to our head voice or our mix. This is because the narrow vowel encourages the shortening and thinning of the vocal cords. Once we're in our head voice or our mix, we can color the vowel back towards the one we want. As we color the vowel, we maintain our new vocal placement, which our narrow vowel helped us to find. The following list may help you with this principle: If the difficult vowel is: Try:
a (as in "may") ee (as in "we")
a (as in "cat") eh (as in "let")
eh (as in "let") ih (as in "sit")
ih (as in "sit") ee (as in "we")
ah (as in "father") uh (as in "mother")
uh (as in "mother") oo (as in "foot")
oo (as in "foot") oo (as in "toot")

As we continue our voice lesson, we must acknowledge that in many instances, a woman is actually unable to access her chest voice. This would sound like this on a five-tone scale, beginning on A flat below middle C, ascending to E flat above middle C, using the vowel "ah" as in father. Play example: 25 (Real Player) Play example: 25 (Mp3 format) In cases like this, we must help the singer discover and develop her chest voice. One exercise we use is the sound of "ah," as in "cat", done on the same scale, but staccato. The staccato attack helps to bring the vocal cords together. Play example26: (Real Player) Play example: 26 (Mp3 format) Another exercise that works well is "gug". Play example: 27 (Real Player) Play example: 27 (Mp3 format) In most cases, this will wake up the chest voice, so the student can begin to familiarize herself with the sensation. As with the mix, finding the chest voice can take some time, but is well worth looking for, as the result will be a beautiful, balanced voice from the lowest notes of her chest voice to the highest extensions of her head voice.

One important element of beautiful, joyful and expressive singing, is vibrato. Vibrato is the result of two pressures in balance with one another. The pressure of the adduction of the vocal cords, which simply means, the pressure of the vocal cords coming together and closing; and the breath pressure. When these two pressures are in balance, there is a sympathetic oscillation of the vocal cords, which produces vibrato. A healthy, buoyant and correct vibrato is approximately 6 to 7 oscillations per second. That sounds like this- Play example: Correct Vibrato (Real Player) example: Correct Vibrato (Mp3 format)Sometimes, if there is too much weight in the voice, brought about by heavy singing, too much chest voice or too much compression, there will be a much slower vibrato or what's referred to as a wobble. That sounds like this - Play incorrect vibrato (Real Player) Play incorrect vibrato (Mp3 format)

This is a sign of vocal imbalance and should be dealt with immediately to prevent more difficulty.

If a singer has no vibrato, slow vibrato, very fast fluttery vibrato or inconsistent shaky vibrato, then there is an imbalance. Feel free to contact us if you need assistance.

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