Lee Morgan wrote:
> > "Ah" is the only vowel that is listed on vowel charts with both a > forward placement and a back placement... It has been my experience... that > if the ah vowel is placed too far back, the sound can become too heavy. I > recently heard a fine young singer who is a student of a colleague of mine > who has just learned to bring her ah's forward a bit, and it has > tremendously improved her higher range. It doesn't sound like she's trying > to lift a ton of bricks anymore. > > I certainly wouldn't go so far as to say that you should avoid a pure ah > to cure this, but do realize that balancing an ah vowel can be problematic. > My favorite exercise for finding the right placement for ah...
Thanks very much for your post. You made me realize something. [Think--lightbulb going on.] A year (or two) ago My teacher worked on getting what he described at some occasions as more of a inner smile on my "ah" and at other times as putting more of a "a" sound (as in cat) into my "ah." I think that it is the same concept as what you describe as making the "ah" more forward. He also always uses in his lessons a 5 tone descending scales alternating between two vowels, not usually with "ah," but I think he used "ah" in this excercise when he was working on getting me to change my "ah" a bit. The thing is, that I didn't know why or what would be accomplished by chaing my "ah" this way. I knew my "ah" was bad, but It was hard to do what he wanted because to me it sounded too strident (like a bad NYC accent.)
Barbara Roberts Miami, FL
|