Vocalist.org archive


From:  "Vale [^_^]" <valevanni@m...>
"Vale [^_^]" <valevanni@m...>
Date:  Tue Jan 30, 2001  3:09 am
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] how many vowels?


On Sat, 27 Jan 2001 08:15:05
Caio Rossi wrote:

>I think it is! I speak Portuguese and we practically have the same >vowels
that you have ( if we don't count their nasal variations ), >but it's a popular
assumption that we have only 5 vowels. Even >teachers in junior high say that.
>
>It's hard for most people to understand the difference between the >alphabet,
the sounds AND the phonetic symbols. And 'semi-vowels' are >Greek philosophy to
most people.
I agree, in Italy it's the same (perhaps more).

>That must not be as strong in English-speaking countries, since >they're
necessarily aware of the difference between pronunciation
>and spelling. It's not the same in our languages: as the spelling of >a word
is much closer to its pronunciation ( much more in Italian >than in Portuguese,
and, due to our Italian colonization, much more >in Sco Paulo than in the rest
of Brazil or in Portugal ), we can >learn to read without caring so much about
spellling.
>We have nothing similar to those Spelling Bee contests Americans >have, and I
guess Italy doesn't either ( you must have "Guess that >Dialect", hehehe ).
>Our problems here are graphic signs, something that Italians have >basically
gotten rid of, but must have given you a problem to >determine where the
stressed syllable of an rarely-spoken word lies. >Am I right?
Yes, I think you are right!

But, I think that when someone is learning singing should better take into
consideration ALL vowels he/she is going to use in his singing.
When I take lessons, my teacher makes me vocalize on /a/,/e/,/i/,/O/,/u/.
One day, some time ago, I began thinking: "But we are forgetting /E/ and /o/.
In songs they are present, and so I need to sing them. And, not including them
in vocalizings, I lack exercise".

Another thing I'd like to know is: when you repeat an exercise on "all" vowels,
do you follow a particular order?
There is some reason to put vowels in order? Perhaps something about
phonation...

Again, with my teacher I follow the order a,e,i,o,u, but I think even this
depends only from that popular assumption.
Now that I think to it, with my speech therapist I don't follow this order, I
want to ask her something about it (I don't know if she has another order or
no-order).



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