Introduction to Vowel Modification and Formant Tuning: What is Vowel Modification?
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- Опубликовано: 19 июл 2024
- This video is an introduction to vowel modification, in which I talk about what vowel modification is - and what it isn't - and why singers modify their vowels. I discuss passive vowel modification, active vowel modification, and vowel substitution.
www.singwise.com
karyn@singwise.com
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I love that you're discussing this! I'm a voice teacher and this is so helpful in explaining formants and vowel modification to my students. I really appreciate all of your videos. They aid my teaching immensely! Blessings!
I'm so glad to hear that!
Excellent video! So well explained, really helpful and easy to digest! Formants can be TRICKY and complex to explain, and I've now watched several of your videos and they are all AWESOME. I will be referring your channel to some of my students who wish to understand some of these things in a bit more depth. You explain it better than I can! Thank You!
Karyn! This is a brilliant explanation of a concept I didn't have a good grasp of til now. You take it down to the basics. Love, love it. Can't wait to hear the next installment!
I'm so glad it helped to clear things up!
Your explanation of this is so clear. I am a voice teacher as well. Looking forward to checking out the rest of your content. :D
Amazing explanation! just the right amount of emotional and logical balance
oh my God, this is essence! Thank you so much for telling this!
Great explanation. Thank you.
Yay!! More videos to learn from! I'm healing from surgery right now, but I'll get to this in a month.
Hoping for a speedy recovery!
Thanks!
Fascinating. Thank you for making this.
You're most welcome. Thanks for watching and commenting.
Great video! Karyn is such an awesome coach! 😀
Thank you. That's very kind of you to say so. Let me know when you're ready to join me on camera for a discussion. :)
singwisevocals can’t wait! 😀
Just name the date and time.
That was so didactic! Thanks a lot, it surely helped.
Glad to hear it. Thanks for watching and taking the time to leave a comment.
Very good explanation.
Thank you.
I feel like that some of your theories place the cart before the horse. For example, when you say that aligned frequencies make elements in the vocal tract feel more comfortable. I think it’s the other way around: releasing tension and therefore creating more comfort in the vocal tract allows for more closely aligned resonance.
Hi , congrats , really wonderful !!!!!
Nice to see you here, Michelle! And thank you. If you care to weigh in on this topic and help me demonstrate vowel modification in the female upper range, I would LOVE your help! :)
sure let me know how
Can we connect again over Zoom and talk about more of the specifics of how you navigate the upper passaggio and adjust your vowel resonance?
Yes e-mail me then we can see when and where ...with pleasure
thank you very very much!!
Ekagra Singhal You're most welcome.
Bhai mast gate ho tum.. Really liked nibhana :)
Thank you for your consistent and intelligible information. Gonna put into practice.
I sent you some videos of my voice to your facebook. I'm so anxious to get your feedback.
I'm so sorry for not getting back to you. With the holidays, I've fallen a bit behind in a number of areas. I'm trying to catch up... before the Christmas season gets me super busy.
singwisevocals you are amazing regardless and I understand. Take your time.
I appreciate your patience.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Good video! But what vowels do you reccomend to lean towards for the note(s) right in the 2nd passagio for belting/middle voice?
This is the kind of question that I'm hoping to address in the next two or three videos on this topic. If you want to belt, you need to raise the first formant so that you can avoid the turning over of the vowel and keep your second harmonic coupled to (tuned with) your first formant. (F1/H2 is considered a 'yell' resonance coupling, and belting is, for all intents and purposes, artistic yelling.) This will also help ensure that you're remaining in M1 for a proper belt technique. So, once you reach the juncture of your first formant and second harmonic, you would start leaning/shading your vowels toward vowels with the next highest first formant frequencies. (There will also be some other changes taking place behind the articulators, including pharyngeal narrowing, laryngeal elevation, and a narrowing of the aryepiglottis,). So, going up, EE will lean toward IH then AY, which is a better belt vowel. Going higher still, AY would start to lean toward AE (as in 'cat'), which has an even higher first formant vowel and is nice and bright inherently. I tend to shade as many of my vowels as possible toward AE, including those in the back vowel series, although I also use mixed vowels. For example, because of its very low first formant, OO is a bad mixed voice and belt vowel. So I will tend to use the umlauted U or OE (as in 'Goethe') with a fair bit of glottal compression to turn OO into a belt vowel above its F1/H2 juncture. As I write this, I realize just how complex this topic is and wonder just how I'm going to address all of these possible scenarios for both male and female voices in just a few videos.
Thanks for the reply! Well, it sounds very complex to me at least haha. If you make videos about it, it would be interesting to see you doing examples of it, for it to be easier to understand.
I agree Nikolai. The written explanation above is far too technical for most of us readers and listeners to understand. Only someone who has already studied this could understand the answer. The video was excellent but this answer is not helpful. I hope she will keep things more simple in future so that we can all understand.
As a general rule, EE and OO are bad vowels for belting. For belting, shade as many of your vowels as possible toward AY (as in 'late') and AE (as in 'cat'), without making them sound so radically altered that diction is compromised. Lowering the jaw for notes of higher pitch and greater intensity will help these vowel changes happen more organically and subtly. Twang - that brassy, teasing quality - will keep everything bright and healthy. For the OO vowel, try using EW, as when you see something really disgusting. OH is likely to become something more like AH. Hope this simplifies it a bit for you.
Excellent. Just to be clear, passive vowel modification would entail not modifying the vocal tract at all as pitch rises?
Yes. Passive vowel modification occurs when we're still thinking and shaping for the original/intended vowel, but the resonance/acoustical qualities of that vowel change due to the harmonics rising above the formants and tuning to higher formants still. The differing relationships between the harmonics and formants will cause the vowel to sound a bit different, but it's not from deliberately leaning or modifying the vowel toward another vowel. Passive vowel modification occurs when we keep a degree of stability within the vocal tract, as when classical singers maintain a comfortably low larynx as they move through the passaggio, as opposed to allowing the larynx to rise with pitch. (Of course, it's nearly impossible to avoid any alteration of the vocal tract as pitch ascends. Things want to move and adjust. My video before this one was an attempt to demonstrate the turning over of the vowel that occurs when we try not to move anything at all within the vocal tract as we move higher in pitch, forcing a resonance shift - the second harmonic rose above the first formant. That's not exactly how I would actually (artistically or technically) approach the scale because it doesn't sound great, but it demonstrated what happens when we maintain a degree of stability within the vocal tract.)
Thank you for taking the time to respond to me. So very much appreciated.!! I always learn a lot with your videos. Your Web site is also one of the best out there. Everything you present is based on a real understanding of vocal pedagogy, and techniques of Bel Canto signing. So much misinformation out there!!!!
You're most welcome. And thank you for the very kind words.
Subscribed cuz I wanna learn to song like Chris Cornell rip
I always thought the harmonic frequencies were the formants. Now you have piqued my interest. I use a program called spectrogram, which basically is an audio frequency display tool. I have sung an example on my channel of a Patsy Cline song to show an example of what is going on when I sing that particular song. So if formants and harmonic frequencies are just that, then one could potentially identify the formant visually. I can't wait for the next video as I'll be tracking your singing.
I'm trying to figure out how to use my Voce Vista voice analysis (spectrographic) software in a video. I just don't know a useful or practical way to incorporate that information into a lesson without losing the majority of my audience. I don't want to let this topic get away on me. It's fascinating, but not necessary. I'm still trying to figure out the direction to take for the rest of this series.
I am a retired software engineer, so for me, I need concrete methods for understanding things. I have been to so many coaches in the past with their flowery ways to describe sensations or perform physical manipulations to my face to get a particular sound, is something I cannot buy into. The one that bugged me was raise my cheeks. I don't have cheeks like she did, so it wasn't possible.
If you don't feel the need to use a spectographic analysis, I can live with that as I'll learn from your examples by analyzing my tool.
It also reminds me of "experts" who say "nice falsetto" when they have no clue what falsetto is harmonically. I was watching the voice tonight and blake shelton used that term for one of the male singers on another team and wanted to chastise him publicly for being misleading. Granted the singer did incorporate some falsetto, but a good portion was solid head voice. That you can see with a spectragraphic tool. I also can feel how a person sings internally to know the difference.
Didn't mean to hijack your posting, but I am a very serious student of the voice.
It's not hijacking the discussion! I love discussion, especially about all things nerdy. And yes, spectrographic software is a tool that can be very helpful and practical for some individuals. But it's something that is best used individually. For singers who are not used to analyzing spectrograms, I can't imagine that a video showing them would do those viewers much good. But talking about which vowel modifies to which vowel or the slight adjustments that can be made to the specific parts of the resonator is something that more people will understand and be able to apply directly. I can see how, to you, this might seem vague. But for practical purposes, it works for the vast majority of singers. I just don't want my teaching to go way over people's heads.
I got ya. I am just the opposite! LOL! I cannot begin to tell you how frustrated I have been with coaches in the past. Nothing like being a "bagel in a bucket of grits!" (vocally of course)
Can you check out the video I emailed you a month or so ago? My head voice doesn't sound good, and I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Also, amazing videos!!
So sorry about the delay. I just listened to the file and sent you a brief reply. I recorded another head voice video today - did you see my first one posted just before this one? - and I think it will address your training needs.
Why I understand your english? Usually I don’t understand americans
You make some good points, but no example? Singing is about seeing and hearing, give people an example so they can actually learn, unless you can’t show what you actually teach? I wanted to actually come away with something but I guess not.