Date sent: Wed, 26 Jan 2000 14:34:54 EST
Subject: Re: TECHNIQUE: singing "ah"
To: vocalist
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

jessica,
try singing with a pencil between your teeth. you may find that there is
more presence of sound in the 'mask' and that it may sound louder and
brassier to you. you may also feel your throat moving gently around as you
change vowels. i strongly urge you to tape yourself doing this starting with
a sample of your normal singing first. you should be able to make all the
vowels perfectly clear and perhaps better than before. only some of the
consonants will get screwed up, especially S and TH.
when you are doing this, it is not holding your mouth still that makes
this work. the pencil is simply keeping you from 'screwing yourself up' in
the way you're accustomed to doing. listen and feel the things that seem to
be working so that they may be proactive targets for you without the pencil
in your mouth.
one more thing- hold the pencil lightly in your teeth. the goal of this
exercise is not to make more pencils. i hope this helps.

mike