Hi, Listers
I know many of you don't agree with the placement concept, while others have
their own concepts about that. Today, I experienced something 'anomalous'
which I started to think might happen eversince I read a post by Lloyd
available in Alain's ( I guess ) website. But, first, I have to explain
something:
I have two conflicting placement charts from two different teachers which
I'd like to share with you:
1) By my present teacher:
-Ah: forward in the mouth
-e, as in the first vowel in 'day': around the nose, in the sinus cavities
-Oh: in the laryngeal area in the back of the mouth
-EE: in the jaw
-Eh: in the neck
-o, as in the first vowel in 'go': in the skull
-OO: not in the chart...gotta ask him!
2) By a prospective teacher whose workshop I attended last week:
-Ah, Eh and Oh: oval-shaped mouth, making the sound go back in the mouth and
vibrate in the soft palate as you go up in the scale
( Ah: tongue resting down all along the mouth. Upper teeth are shown ( to
some, this is unavoidable at any time, but...)
-e and EE: smile and place them in the back of the upper front teeth. The
higher you go, the mouth must become more and more oval-shaped ( but the
smile must be kept, jsut don't ask me how ) and they're placed in the sinus
cavities and ultimately in the eyes or forehead
( EE: tip of the tongue touching lower teeth.)
-o and OO: oval-shaped mouth and protruded lips ( French-like ). As you go
up, the chin goes down and the sound is felt in the sinus cavities too
The latter follows the concept of chiaro/escuro: open vowels placed
backward, 'closed/dark ( ? ) vowels placed forward, so that they can be
highlighted.
Sooooo... I was practicing today and was trying to 'feel' those different
resonances when I had a strange experience: I felt my 'Ah' in the back of
the mouth and in the throat, as if going out through a hole in my neck too
but not only. BTW, someone mentioned that experience here some time ago )
AND at the same time it was forward. My teacher has always told me to place
it forward, but it has always been a big effort to me.
Then, I tried the 'EE' sound and felt it both in my jaw and my sinus
cavities simultaneously. When I paid attention to my jaw, I felt it there
more strongly, and when I focused on my sinus cavities, I felt it mostly
there too, although the sound quality never changed. And when I paid
attention solely to the sound, I felt both, although weaker!
Also, it was the first time I really felt the sound as being produced and
vibrating mostly in my neck and mouth. I could feel as if I had no body,
only the eyes, and the sound was being produced by someone else beneath my
eyes. Even when I went up to the higher pitches, I still felt the sound in
the same place.
That gave me a clear idea of how questionable placement concepts are,
although I still think they're helpful as crutches, as long as we try the
many models available in the market to find the ones that best work for each
of us.
Bye,
Caio Rossi
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