Vowels
Elements of Music #3.1
Can You Read This?
oh ay ă oo ee,
ī uh aw ur ee ī
How About this?
— s—y c—n y— s—,
b— th— d—ns —rl— l—t
Singing Consonants
and Vowels
Consonants help us
understand words,
but vowels make them
beautiful.
We spend only about
10% of our singing
on consonants;
90% of the time, we
are singing vowels.
The Dimensions of Music
Time
Color
Pitch
Meaning
• Tone
• Vowels
• Volume
One of the best ways to make your voice sound
better is to make your vowels sound better.
Different styles of singing use slightly different
vowels sounds.
Different languages can also use different sets of
vowel sounds.
Italian and Latin use 5-7 vowel sounds
German uses 16 vowel sounds
English uses 18 vowel sounds
Different spoken accents use different vowels
sounds.
In choir and classical singing, it sounds better
when our vowels are rich and consistent.
That way they can always be understood, blend
with others, and sound their best.
There are 5 main vowel sounds that we use in
all languages in singing (from Italian):
A - E - I - O - U
Pronounced:
ah - ay - ee - oh - oo
The 5 Main Vowel Sounds
Open
AH
AY
Closed
EE
Front
OH
OO
Back
Closed Vowels
EE
Beat
AY
Bait
AH
Bought
OH
Boat
OO
Boot
Open Vowels
IH
Bit
EH
Bet
AA
Bat
OH
Bought
(Darken when (Not used in
singing)
America)
OO
Book
UH and Schwas
UH
UH as in “cup” should be sung with a tall
open mouth in the shape of AH.
Sometimes when a syllable is not
accented in English, the vowel converts
to a schwa. Sing schwas with a more
closed mouth and less volume.
Nation = “Nay-shun”
Exterminate = “ex-term-uh-nate”
Candle = “can-dull”
Diphthongs
1st vowel long, 2nd just at end
AH + EE(Y) = Ǐ (“eye”)
EH + EE(Y) = AY (“May”)
OH + EE(Y) = OY (“boy”)
AH + OO(W) = OW (“now”)
OH + OO(W) = OH (“toe”)
Vowel Corruptors
Don’t corrupt your pure vowels with R or L.
CAARRRRRRR
• FAALLLLLLLLLL
•
Instead, keep the vowel pure and add the
consonants short and crisply at the end.
• Caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaruh
• Faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaluh
Long, Pure Vowels;
Short, Crisp Consonants
Since we sing on the vowels 90% of the time,
make them as pure and resonant as possible.
Make the consonants crisp and short,
accenting them more than in speech so the
words can be understood better in the
audience.
Practice:
Met, right, happy, nothing, natural, farewell
“Translating” to Pure Vowels
Rose, rose, rose, red.
Shall I ever see thee wed?
I shall marry at my will, sire, at my will.
Roh—s roh—s roh—s reh—d.
Sha—l ah—ee(y) eh—vuhr see— thee— weh—d?
Ah—ee(y) sha—l meh—ree a—t mah—ee(y)
wih—l sah—uhr A—t mah—ee(Y) wih—l.