Defining Vowels

“Vowels traditionally have been specified in terms of the position of the highest point of the tongue and the position of the lips. Figure 2 shows these positions for eight different vowels. The highest point of the tongue is in the front of the mouth for the vowels in heed, hid, head, and had. Accordingly, these vowels are classified as front vowels, whereas the vowels in hod, hawed, hood, and who’d are classified as back vowels. The tongue is highest in the vowels in heed and who’d, which are therefore called high, or close, vowels, and lowest in the vowels in had and hod, which are called low, or open, vowels. The height of the tongue for the vowels in the other words is between these two extremes, and they are therefore called midvowels. Lip positions may be described as being rounded, as in who’d, or unrounded or spread, as in heed.” Read the full article here:https://www.britannica.com/science/phonetics/Vowels

Using Vowels to Help our Singing

We can use vowels to our advantage to create the sound we want. For instance, think about that “Meow” exercise I love so much. In that exercise we leverage the buzzy m, and “ee” to bring our voice forward, finding a nice sweet spot when we land on the “ow” which is a little more in the middle - it’s more open, but not trapped too far back. Perfect for mixed belt or just accessing your upper register. The whole movement of the vowels in a meow allow us to free our tongue and jaw and place our voice into that “whiny” space we need to access our upper register.