Hey there, this is John Henny, and on today’s vocal tip, I want to talk about Vowel Tendencies.
What do I mean by Vowel Tendencies?
Well, in singing and in speech, vowels will have a tendency to help us be stronger or go higher and you can feel this. When you want to whoop and holler, you say “wooh“, you don’t do it on “aah“ because you can’t go as high on an “ah“.
But if you want to shout and get someone’s attention, you will use a more open vowel. “Hey“, as opposed to “hoo“, because the closed vowel “ooh“ won’t carry with the same intensity as the “A“ of “hey“. But how does that relate to singing? Well, the more closed vowels will actually be easier. Their tendency is to help us sing higher. Whereas the tendency of the more open vowels, like “ah“, “ahh“ will be to give us more power, to help us get stronger low notes.
So we want to utilize vowels in our favor. If you’re working to sing higher, more closed vowels will probably be a better choice. But if you want to start working on power, you need to start opening those vowels up. And as you get more advanced in order to sing strong high notes, you will utilize the strength of both vowels. So pay attention to the vowels you’re using and use their tendencies to help balance your voice.
Hey, if you want to know more about me, please visit my website johnhenny.com and be sure to subscribe to my podcast The Intelligent Vocalist, we’ll talk soon.