From: Isabelle Bracamonte
Subject: re: TECH: singing "ah"
To: vocalist
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

Hi Jessica,

I have found it very useful to sing the vowel "uh" as
in UP instead of the darker English "ah" as in FATHER.
So Gilda's first lines become, in my mind, "mi-uh
puh-dre ... uh, qw-und-uh-more." (Mio padre... oh,
quando_amore.) It sounds surprisingly normal on my
tapes.

It's not a schwa, because it's brighter than that.
It's a cross between the forward, bright French "ah"
(the [a] in IPA) and an "uh" as in UP or CUP.

This helps me to keep my [a] and [-at-] (I think that's
the symbol for the darker English ah) more forward and
in line with my [i] and [I] vowels, which is where my
placement feels the best. Singing the [oe] umlaut and
blending that into an [a] is helpful, as well.

I'll often sing a 5-note scale up on a "good" vowel,
hold the top note and mutate my mouth, "see uh ee uh
ee uh" or "see uh awe uh ee uh." One mushy monotone
slide to help feel where the [a] is.

In my repertoire, I find that an [a] followed by an
[l] or [r] or sometimes [p] can get too swallowed into
my throat. When this happens, I'll stop, replace the
backwards consonant with [s] or [z] or anything more
forward, and practice the line that way. Then, when
the vowel is feeling better, I'll put the original
consonant back in.

One of the least helpful things I can do is continue
to run through a piece if my vowels start to get
swallowed. If I don't stop to fix them, the problem
gets worse as I go on, and I've done nothing but work
in some bad habits.

Isabelle B.


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



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