From: Isabelle Bracamonte
Subject: singer's formant (that pinging thing)
To: vocalist
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

List,

I believe it was Dr. Hanson who said, in a post I have
now misplaced, that the presence of a singer's formant
(ping, ring, brilliance, that thing that cuts through
40 pieces of brass, etc.) is not related to either
brightness/darkness of a tone, or vowel positions.

This statement is interesting to me, because I have
always believed that a bright tone will "ring", or
carry and cut, more than a dark tone. I also believe
that it is an inherent quality of the "eee" [i] vowel
to have more of the singer's formant than the dark [a]
vowel. At least, a bright, forward "eee" is how I
find the feeling of "formant." I then use the memory
of that position and attempt to "lend" it to other
vowels and colors.

However, now that I think about it, I have heard dark,
piercing voices. I have also heard brilliant, pingy
ah's and oo's and oh's [a] [u] [o]. So my theory
about a bright [i] being more forward and ringing must
not be correct.

I am interested to know other ways to teach the
singer's formant. If it's unrelated to
brightness/darkness or to which vowel is being sung,
how do you teach a singer what it is, and how to build
it into the voice? Are there exercises which are not
vowel-specific to help build this vital quality?

Thank you, anyone who answers, for your thoughts on
this matter.

Isabelle B.

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Isabelle Bracamonte
San Francisco, CA
ibracamonte-at-yahoo.com



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