Ep. 3: All About Vowel Modifications | The Path to Vocal Mastery
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.ค. 2024
- Phil Moufarrege and Marnell Sample discuss vowel modifications: what they are, how they work, and how to use it in an actual song.
____________________________________
TABLE OF CONTENTS
0:00:00 -- Intro
0:00:43 -- What are vowel modifications
0:02:08 -- Why do we modify the vowels
0:02:53 -- Application to The Beatles' "Yesterday"
0:03:32 ----- First verse, original key
0:08:26 ----- First verse, higher key
0:14:27 ----- Bridge, original key
0:20:24 ----- Bridge, higher key
0:28:00 -- Demonstrations on various vowels on scales
0:28:23 ----- AH
0:28:48 ----- OH
0:28:55 ----- More on the AH
0:31:07 ----- OO
0:32:00 ----- EE
0:35:20 ----- The shape of the back of the throat
0:36:03 ----- EH
0:37:17 -- Closing remarks
________________________________
PHIL'S CHANNEL: / philmoufarrege
PHIL'S SITE: grow-the-voice.com
MARNELL'S SITE: www.vocalliberation.com - แนวปฏิบัติและการใช้ชีวิต
I just wanted to drop a line and say that I've taken lessons with both Phil and Marnell and they are by far the two best vocal teachers I have worked with, after studying with about 10 different teachers over the years. I am very glad that they have been so proactive about sharing their deep expertise in singing to people all over the world.
+Owen Korzec Thanks man! :-)
This is just absolute gold.
Really appreciate you guys!
Great demonstrations and explanations. You guys are the real deal. Thanks.
+Shahab Edalatian Thanks for watching!
Great great lesson Marnell and Phil!
+MEVExperience Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it.
Tell me, what did you find most surprising out of all that we said?
+MEVExperience Glad you enjoyed it Meverik! You're the man
Love what ya'll are doing!
Thanks a lot! Stay tuned -- there is more to come. Also, if you haven't already done so, make sure you subscribe to Phil's channel as we bounce the videos back and forth between our channels.
This is truly a profound video.
+Raffster A That was deep. We've never gotten that comment on a video before. Thanks. :-)
This was great!
Thank you guys so much!
You're welcome!
This is good stuff. Im starting to finally get this. 🙂 And G4 and up is starting to free up for me. I have been stuck on F#4. I have found out that at least for me all the modifications feel actually pretty similar to each other. There is this feeling of release and creating space for the sound to go where it wants to go instead of fighting it with your throath. 😆 Thanks guys! You both have created great content over the years.
Congrats on the progress! The more advanced you get with this, the more your THROAT POSITION will feel similar between all the vowels. The vowels will all feel like they go into a similar space inside the back of the mouth.
very nice lesson, you guys rock
+Ranieri Augusto Faraoni Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching!
+Ranieri Augusto Faraoni Thanks bro!
My former teacher who was an opera singer and practiced bel canto also taught me to keep it narrow, you guys do it much more relaxed though.
One of my biggest critiques of her was she had me powerhouse my way through everything. Super tall and narrow mouth, always raised soft palate , no tilting of face etc. it really took me out of my own voice and just tried to cut n paste physical imagery to satisfy her at points. I notice I’d be able to hit notes more relaxed on my own but with her all of a sudden cracks and limited range were present. Felt like I was drowning sometimes. Always kinda shouty and nasal.
I think she wanted me body and mouth to do things beyond it’s limits. I literally couldn’t open my mouth any larger and she still asked for more.
She’s a pretty solid singer but she’s also larger and I think she overestimated someone without a big bone structure just isn’t gonna be able to do it all the same.
I ended up getting tinnitus and hypersensitive ears bc of all the nasal harshness with shouty belty loudness. I appreciated my progress with her yet I feel she kinda screwed me over by ingraining in my mind the only way to sing higher is louder and more nasal and not just fed my way too and allow myself to see where my natural strengths were.
I couldn’t then write songs (which is why I started with the vocal lessons, as I’m a guitarist who writes a lot of songs) bc my voice was just too loud to practice melody writing with, imaging belting all your notes one by one as you try and write melodies for hours.
I also don’t know why opera singers love to blast you in the face with high db singing to show you something from 2 feet away instead of control their volume a bit.
Thanks for commenting.
I know a lot of opera teachers prefer more narrow vowels, but, in my opinion, the voice is incomplete if you can't do the vowels both narrow AND open! You should have both options available to you. Sometimes, one will feel more intuitive than the other. It will just depend on how the phrase (from a song) sits in your voice. There are some GENERAL rules for this, but really, the combination of each individual melody plus the words makes for many unique instances that you just have to learn as you come across them.
Although I haven't heard you, your description of "nasal harshness" and "hypersensitivity" sounds like you may have been overemphasizing the bright part of the voice and not giving enough attention to the roundness or dark aspect of the tone. The lower tones in one's range are usually the brighter ones; as you go higher, the tone/vowels begin to round out a bit more, and tend to feel LESS forward. (Forward to a degree, but definitely LESS forward than the lower notes. The tone will be felt more in the center of the skull, near the junction where the hard palate and soft palate meet. It's the level of the skull right in front of the jaw joint, if you were to draw a line straight through both ears.)
Being loud is good at first, as it helps to build initial strength you need. But, you also eventually MUST practice less loud and more nuanced singing. Otherwise, the voice becomes imbalanced. Too much of ANYTHING imbalances the voice.
Did your teacher ever work on "mezza voce" with you after doing all the loud stuff? If not, then mezza voce work is in order for you now.
Please keep doing videos together guys! You're my 2 favorites singing coach on the net! ;)
+Julien Castle Thanks, Julien. We do have another video planned coming up soon!
Marnell Sample Great news! :)
Great video guys, glad to see you are both still at it. I think it is important for people to know that vowel modification is to keep the larynx low or stable, the vocal tract open and the air passage into to head resonance clear. Vowel modification is actually a backwards way of expessing these ideas. If you can get the idea across to open the airway and allow the resonance into the head the vowels will modify. With all the talk you hear about not being nasal, even with vowel modification I was having trouble. The idea is to allow Air into the nasal passage but let the sound come out of your mouth. Once I realised that, the vowel modification actually made sense and started to work for me.
+mdew24 Thanks for watching!
Yes, you are correct that vowel mods help you to achieve those things.
With that said, for most people I've come across, when they think of "allowing air into the nasal passages", they actually end up going nasal and raising the larynx and just overall get the sound wrong. So, this might be instruction that helps you specifically since we all have habits, patterns, and ways of thinking about the sound.
There IS the sense, though, that the BONES of the nose/face/skull/cheeks come into vibration, and that is very different than trying to send the air into the nasal passages, but I do totally understand how some people might interpret it that way. It's hard to concretely describe our subjective feelings in a way that everyone will understand.
It's funny because when people hear me doing a very bright AH, they think I'm making the sound by forcing it into my face/nasal area when instead, I'm doing the exact opposite -- I'm always thinking of the sound as being directed towards my soft palate. Do I feel vibrations in the face and nasal area? Yes. But that's not where I'm thinking of making the voice go. I just NOTICE the vibrations there as a by-product.
+Marnell Sample You are correct, it is hard to know what someone really means by using sensations as a guide. I hear the terms resonate in the mask and forward placement, low larynx but until you have someone to guide you you can get yourself all mixed up. .... I totally missed the boat on head resonance because of not wanting to sound nasal. Closing the passage to head left me with a high larynx and a voice that stuck at F#4. The falsetto flip that results is not the one that will help your voice grow. You can still get the sensation of forward placement there and cord closure but you cannot get the deeper "Chesty" sound.
Really cool :) no tons of video editing, no "my mix is a bit of today", no BS :P Keep rocking.
+Felipe Carvalho Thanks man. Appreciate it!
Just found your channel! great great great great video!
Wow! Thank you for such a GREAT comment! Be sure to check out the other videos in this series. (I think we did 6 so far.) There's lots of good info in each one. ;-)
I have pretty low voice. Like I'm speaking in F#2 area and I worked on my resonance so now I can sing A#3 pretty freely but higher I go I feel tension. Before I shout it to A3-D4. Is it alright to connect head voice at E4-F4 since I'm a low bari
Thank you for your wonderful work you both! :) is there a vowel modification chart to download - that would help.
You're welcome.
Unfortunately, there isn't really a chart. It's partly because everyone hears and perceives the vowels differently. So you'd basically have to make up your own chart.
For instance, when I have an OH and it modifies as I go higher, I hear it as going more towards OO. But when I work with some singers, they hear it as going more towards EH when they do it right. So go figure.
The best thing you can do is just listen to the demonstrations for each vowels we give towards the end of the clip, and write out your own chart of what each modification sounds like TO YOU.
Interesting what you said about ee going to ö, Marnell! That seems like quite a classical approach :) I find that with the "ah" vowel, going to "aw" and then towards "oo" (especially around b4) helps me keep the sound powerful throughout - although I sing opera, so it's a bit of a different sound colour. A lot of people have said they go for "uh" in the 4th octave, which is interesting. For some reason "oo" works better for me!
The AH --> AW --> OO modification is exactly right when you want to sing your most powerful sounds. (Actually, the highest range is kind of hard to describe. It's not quite OO. More like something between OO as in "good" and the British way of pronouncing ER as in "together".) This all comes from classical music, so it should seem familiar.
In contemporary music, because people aren't usually singing at a true fortissimo volume (usually just a medium loud at best in many cases), you get more options for the top of your range. You can spread the vowels a bit more there than what is typically done in classical music and be ok.
Modifying AH to UH tends to be more helpful in the middle range around C4-F4, especially when you want a more powerful or dramatic sound. So shape the mouth as if trying to say a big AH, but pronounce a deep UH on the inside. This tends to be done much more around Eb4, E4, F4, and sometimes F#4. (In females who are belting, Bb4, B4, C5, C#5.) You hear this very often in operatic tenors and baritones in that range as well as contemporary singers with big voices. Doing too much UH above this range can make the voice get a bit muffled and wooden sounding, and takes away the flexibility in the voice.
Just one clarification. EE goes towards Ü, at least in the middle range and first bridge. Then as you get to the top of your range, it is done with a wide open mouth -- so thinking EE or Ü, but with the mouth open as if saying EH or AH.
@@VocalLiberation 😊👍👍👍
Been watching this whole series over and over again. I was finally able to implement this technique after hearing and mimicking the examples in this video. I have a question though! I've been able to hit G4 over and over again today because I've been implementing vowel mods, but, when I go to G#4 it still seems so high compared to G... I have yet to crack on a G since doing this but I have cracked once or twice on G# and I've yet to hit an A.
I say all of this just to ask- how long should I expect to wait before other notes start coming in? Like is it a reasonable goal to expect A4 by next month? Or?? Hope that makes sense. You guys are amazing and I look forward to future vids!
The range from A4 on up has a different approach than what you do for the range from F4-Ab4. That's a separate study all by itself. For now, we can just say that from F4-Ab4, the vowels have to close more. As you go from A4 on up, the begin to open back up again and get slightly brighter. This is an oversimplification of what happens, but it's just to give you the basic idea.
Thanks for watching.
Initial reaction on seeing the this video: "OMG, YAY!"
Second thought: Phil, is it quite cold where you are? lol. I like your coat and scarf! :)
Some of my favorite moments:
19:50 - Phil, these are great examples of wrong/overdone vowel modifications. Preach!! It's definitely not supposed to be the "land of the fray." XD That reminds me of Marnell's previous observations that some people *completely* change the vowel and make it unrecognizable as they ascend and descend within a scale exercise, which is not helpful for vocal development.
21:21 - WHAT? Whipping out the falsetto; I love it! Super smooth and sweet.
24:38 - Phil, thanks for this tip on how not to tighten the larynx before a climb by using "portamento." (Marnell's got all the fancy Italian down. ;)] I definitely could use any tips to prepare my body to relax in situations like that. I recently noticed last week that I sometimes tense when I breathe even *before* making a sound, which was eye-opening in a good way but also annoying. :p Not sure when I picked up this bad habit, but I'm glad I noticed because I'm able to counter that now by actively relaxing. That sounds like an oxymoron, but I'm finding that relaxation isn't always a totally passive thing that happens on its own. I have to actively de-activate certain unhelpful muscles-specific patterns of tensions that I hold in my body by default-in order to be relaxed.
29:44, 30:08, and 30:18 - I love these demonstrations of a wide AH and explanations of how the voice still needs to thin out even if you're trying to sing in a full-out coordinated chest. This is SUCH a key concept, but you see so many people counter-productively losing power while trying to sing chesty up high because they're unwilling (or unable) to thin out the sound at all.
30:34 and 30:57 - I LOVE the "AW" sound here. I think that's just my favorite color everywhere all the time. XD
Great closing remarks too, such as the fact that it takes time for singing to become "natural." You two make a good tag team duo; keep up the great work! :D
+Jen V Thanks for the great insights!
At 21:21, I ended up singing the phrase much longer than I expected, and only had enough breath left for falsetto, hahahahaha. Last minute save, and something that was unexpected.
Relaxing the right parts of the body is definitely tricky for a lot of people. I've been using a different word than relaxation lately, though. I say, "Be CALM!" It's just a mental attitude to take that also helps the right parts of the body to relax, especially the breathing and also jaw tension.
+Marnell Sample That's hilarious! I had a little suspicion about that since I didn't think you'd intentionally breathe between "yester" and "day" otherwise, but the falsetto ended up sounding VERY nice! :)
I like that "BE CALM!" cue; thanks for the tip! I've used a mental cue of "Don't Freak Out!" before to remind my larynx not to shoot up, so that mental attitude does help.
+Marnell Sample @the 21:21 part - i KNEW it!!! Somehow I could sense, while hearing in the notes leading up to it, that you weren't going to get that last one in full voice, based on the approach of the phrase. I just don't what I was hearing to know that! But a very tasty save for sure!
I like that "be calm" idea. Relaxation never worked for me, because I would interpret it as physically letting go into an unsupported sound. But one can certainly work on being calmer while singing correctly!
yo +Jen V thanks for watching!!
+Owen Korzec sounds like me, I basically "unlearned" support about 8 yrs back cos I was told on forums that I needed to keep the belly relaxed and ANY TENSION WAS BAD!!! I since learned that all athletic endeavours require muscular coordination and that means tension, but we need the RIGHT tension in the RIGHT places at the RIGHT time. And to avoid anything else that hinders that. Sounds simple and obvious but it's so easy to forget this.
Hey! this is a very useful lesson! Sometimes I can sing up to G4 on a scale/ but most often my voice cracks> To put it simply, what should I change in my vowls? Do I need to develop my chest voice in the C4 - F#4 area more?
Like dropping an anvil on your foot.. FOOOOOOOOOUU!! LOL....at 5:55 this guy makes a very good point of how narrow vowels can be done wrong. Just because it's an E...doesn't mean it's right. great show.
+MrMemyselfandi415 LOL! I sometimes use that anvil description with people, hahahaha. But for another reason.
Glad you enjoyed the video. :-)
+MrMemyselfandi415 for sure man. in fact most people struggle the most with the narrow vowels like EE and OO.
Marnell, what is the best way of getting a balance of not going into the Operatic sound at the back of the throat, yet not getting too nasal? Is there are trick to it or a matter of doing scales until the co-ordination becomes perfect?
+Raffster A You must learn to sing with a bright, clear focused sound first and make sure that you have sufficient connection. If you try to apply vowel modifications before these two criteria are met, you will end up going into the sound you describe.
Got it. Thanks!
The audio you're playing from Munich '66 has been either sped up or pitched up artificially to the key of A. Watch the video clips of them from that Munich concert and you'll see they play it in the key of G.
+Kevin Richards Rock the Stage NYC I'm not quite sure where you're getting the key of A from. When I listen on my end, I hear them in the key of G, which is the same as what we did in the video.
This is the clip we used: th-cam.com/video/rRen3jDqViI/w-d-xo.html
+Marnell Sample Sorry. Something on my end is streaming your entire video here sped up a little. Not my computer so who knows. My bad
No problem.
this is very helpful to me! thank you so much for uploading this :) I have a request :) I was wondering if it is possible for you guys to do a video together and talk about intensity, belting the proper way around the female passaggio which is around A above middle see to even high C aka A4 - C5 notes , those are the ones I feel like I choke every time I wanna sing ,I am using all the support like you and Phil talked about but still my jaw seems tight , can you guys please make a video about those ranges and how to control the volume up there and not screaming? also how to blend in the head voice from the mix voice but still sounding strong as mix voice?
PS I am new in singing so forgive me for my bad english
+Stefan Salvatore Hi! Just a few things first.
If you're male and wondering about the range from A4-C5, that is the second bridge range for men, first bridge being from F4-G#4. Most of what needs to be addressed in the second bridge range is normally very detailed work, and can only really be addressed in a lesson. That's where EVERYTHING in the voice comes together -- vowel modifications, support, freedom of the jaw, cord closure, resonance, etc. If you're having trouble in that range, it's probably a good chance that you still have more work to do in the range from C4-G#4. Learning to control your dynamics in that range will help a LOT when going to the second bridge. So that means learning to sing those notes loudly, at a medium volume, AND at a soft volume WITHOUT disconnecting! See episode 1 of this series for more on that
th-cam.com/video/Gg-0bXT1o34/w-d-xo.html
Next thing. You're not trying to blend your head voice to make it sound like your mix. That point was also covered in episode one. If it feels like you're trying to blend anything, it means you're disconnecting and trying to disguise the fact that you're disconnected. What it feels like when you do your second bridge range correctly is that you stay in your chest voice, but the chest voice continues to thin out more and more. When you first keep this range connected, it might feel very much like you are screaming, but should feel comfortable in your throat. The control of it comes over time.
As for jaw tension, that one is hard to diagnose without working with you. A lesson would be the best way to address that.
Marnell Sample I see,thank you so much for replying me in details , I am definitely gonna check out the episode 1! I noticed that when I do Messa di voce around C4-D#4 its easy but anything above that and I can feel a flip when going loud,like its not controlled and as I go up it gets more " not controlled " like lets say I am saying A in A#4 I start in head voice and as I belt there is a sudden loud noise,like not controlled , like the volume increases at once ( i am bad at explaining this but I hope you get the point). Do you doing messa di voce around C4 - E4 will help me get better? like what exercises I should do to get better at it?
Marnell Sample also bro I want to sing songs of the bang PANIC AT THE DISCO,he does a lot of belting around A4-C#5 check out the songs Victorious,At the emperor's new clothes and this is gospel , I wanna be able to sing songs like those :) he is belting in those songs right?
+Stefan Salvatore Messa di voce is normally built one note at a time. The flipping you're feeling is normal; it's just lack of coordination. Get the E4, F4, and F#4 controlled before attempting to get an A4 or Bb4. You may have to do a reverse messa di voce -- that is, start LOUD FIRST, then go as soft as you can WITHOUT DISCONNECTING, and then go back loud again. I had to practice this one myself a lot when learning it, because if I started off soft first, I would start off too disconnected and get a big flip as soon as I tried to go louder.
Also, remember that the messa di voce is considered one of the hardest vocal exercises ever, so don't get too caught up if you can't get it all at once. This is an exercise you master over time as you become more familiar with your voice.
Marnell Sample okay thank you so much bro!! I shall work on that range from C4 - F4 cause that's where I can pretty much control the volume, I also noticed that my thyroarytenoid muscle is sore from all these belting so I am taking a week off from singing. Should I drink green tea with some ginger slices and some black cloves and honey for faster recovery?
I can hear Phils voice is more compressed than Marnels, could it be a factor that determines stamina? I dont mean crazy breathy vocal vs super compressed, i mean this little difference your voices (i think they) have, could a small change result in poorer stamina?
In short, if i add/remove a bit compression could it help with stamina? I am not breathy except when style - rarely - requires.
+Yo Sto By compression, do you mean vocal cord compression? If that's the case, the difference you're hearing is coming from my vocal cord paresis. But it's part of why we wanted to have different voices on here. Some people's voices will be closer to Paul McCartney's, some closer to mine, and some closer to Phil's. Everyone has to find the ideal amount of compression that is sustainable for them.
In the beginning stages, though, you will probably need a bit more compression to build up the necessary strength in the voice. Once that strength is there, then you can see how much you can back off and still hold everything together, finding the level that's more comfortable for you. And yes, that is tied in with stamina.
The way I sang the song in this video -- I normally wouldn't sing it that lightly. I did it only for demonstration purposes to show how to go towards what Paul McCartney did. My voice ideally feels more comfortable with a little more compression.
So what I'm getting here is the reason why a lot of people who do sultry pop songs and decide to transition into rock later... they always wonder why they don't have the harsh heavier rock tone they're looking for. This is because of opening the sound too bright and a lack of proper vowel modification, correct?
Well, in the case of someone going from pop to rock, it could be for several different reasons. The main one I'm thinking of is you might be used to singing lighter when you sing pop, but rock often needs you to sing into your chest voice a bit more, as well as using some distortion in the voice at times for texture. If you don't know how to do that, then you might sound out of place.
But how do those modifications apply to notes even higher than that. Like from G4 to C5. You guys didn't go past the F I believe.
If I recall correctly, when we're demonstrating each individual vowel in the latter part of the recording, we go up to G4. And even for some parts of the song, we sing it in a higher key to show how that changes things.
Up to around an A4, it's more or less the same for most guys. From A4 on up, that requires much more specialty work that needs to be done with a teacher, as the way you handle that range is a little individual. Some people keep doing what we described here in the video. Others have to open the vowel more. Others have to get more pharyngeal sounding with the voice. It just depends. So lessons are the best way of understanding that range.
Marnell Sample I didn't expect a reply lol. I appreciate it, and I'm glad to see you still help out your viewers. Thanks man.
I dig the lesson. Marnell's voice is distorting/clipping kind of funny... maybe you should back off about 1 foot from the mic or something because your resonance game might just be too strong, to put it in other words lmao I'm not even sure that could solve it... might be the microphone or program you are using to conference. What mic are you using? #resonanceonpoint
+buhreebs Glad you enjoyed it! What piece of information did you find most surprising?
As for the mic issue, you're right -- I forgot to back away. Got kind of carried away, hahaha. Also in that room, I sometimes can't tell how loud I'm getting due to the some of the sound getting absorbed. (Actually, I can rarely tell how loud I'm REALLY getting.) When I listened back to the recording, I was like, "Ooops, Was I really THAT loud????" I'm just using the internal mic on a MacBook Pro because I hate dealing with audio equipment.
Can't say I was too surprised because I have been reading and following you guys for years now on forums and TH-cam lol I really enjoyed y'all's explanations of different approaches to vowel mods and the reasoning behind why some folks have to consciously do them more than others. Like Phil, I had to consciously learn how to modify before it has begun feeling like a normal part of increasing in range. I've had teachers that told me "you don't do anything, you just let it happen" except I had never played around in pharyngeal voice as a child and didn't know how to make high notes happen after my voice dropped, so I actually did have to learn to "do something" before it felt natural.
I advise picking up something simple to increase the quality of the recording by a bajillion... a Samson Meteor for under $70! Pretty much just plug it in and make sure you pick it as the mic and it sounds beautiful. Can provide samples if you want to hear.
I'm totally with you on it not coming naturally, because it didn't come naturally for me either! I tended to go too high larynxed like most people, missing the resonance changes.
I'd love to hear examples of the Samson!
Hey +buhreebs absolutely man,. And even if you were to find "pharyngeal voice" it doesn't guarantee singing without laryngeal tension. I learned how to get into the high notes before I learned modifications but I was basically yelling up to them and didn't know how to "float" on the notes.
best regards
Phil Moufarrege Oh definitely. I am pretty sure I had been singing for probably 4-5 years before I feel like I was able to feel a relaxed throat while singing consistently when I was trying to. Finding pharyngeal voice/twang was like finding the ability to not overblow the pressure so I could make pitches up top with cricoid tilt (which I had to learn to feeling of too)... and then learning to support correctly as to not overblow and/or press (as I used to think was the "correct" sensation since it was so effortful)... The long videos you and Marnell make as well as Felipe and Jens' really have pretty much covered everything as correctly as I could imagine now that I've begun figuring things out piece-by-piece and I really appreciate y'all's work!
19:08 lol
I always noticed British singers can easily modify their vowels because their ooohs, ahhs, and eeees, is how they tend to speak on a regular day to day
In some dialects of English, they naturally modify their vowels exactly the way that's needed for singing -- for instance, the Canadian dialect near regions of Wisconsin and North Dakota, at well as the Scottish and Irish dialects of English. With British English, it just depends on that particular person's dialect since there are so many in Britain.
basically just retaining the same vowel that you are speaking with