Jump to content

VOWEL MODIFICATION COMBINATIONS THAT ARE POWERFUL?

Rate this topic


Robert Lunte

Recommended Posts

  • Administrator

HELLO

TMV World Forum Athletes...

I am doing some research...

Please add your experience or what you believe to be really powerful and great vowel modification combinations inside of sirens to build strength and coordination. Inside of an octave siren:

Example:

Eh < Uh

I would like to hear from people that have actually trained with different vowel modifications and hear what you feel it did for you. Im working on some possible cool updates for "Pillars". So you experienced guys, chime in.. thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 299
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • Administrator

HUh, interesting, I thought there would be more suggestions here... maybe there is a need for someone in the industry to pull out some key vowel modifications for training?

Owen, notice that when we say "Eh < Uh" in our training at TVS... it is a spectrum, there are other 'vowels' or implied vowels that you pass through from "Eh < Uh".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Robert for me the Eh > Uh siren works okay but not great. Why? Idk.. I could get away with belting as a kid and I think the concept of "wide open" singing could be mentioned for the way I use to sing.

Meaning for someone who already had an abundance of "chest" voice, a high enough chest voice... could get away with singing "openly" for longer than someone whose voice naturally thins out INTO m2.

Imo for my voice UH is useful only for finding correct darkness and helping remove super high-larynx tension.

The thing that did it for me was Eh > Ouh (book). Timing the switch in VOWEL with the bridge forced me to transition more "appropriately" into m2.

Combine this with Lift up pull back and some ass to grass basic training and resonant feedback and you definitely have a MUSCLE-BUILDING workout =)

I have to give creds to Danielformica for introducing the vowel to me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The more I train pure head voice, and the lower I take it, the less I feel I have to modify my vowels. I'm better able to make a stylistic choice between modifying or not, rather than a physical need to do so. Robert, a lot of your exercises have helped me in that endeavor. In rock, sometimes pure vowels just don't sound right, so I modify based on the style. Singing something like Journey, or early Queen, I feel less inclined to do so.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A really easy way to modify any vowel is purse your lips slightly just very slightly and say the the open vowel, ah goes to uh or ou(book). Eh goes to ih, ee goes to ih or eur. Or squish your cheeks or lips with your fingers a little and do the same thing. Now where you decide to modify the vowel is a different story for everyone. And once you nail it how to keep the position and stay on the open vowel instead of modifiying and just think about the modification that is the tough part.:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Imo the "uh" vowel won't help GROW the voice until some "muscle" is built up.

Robert the ih/ouh/ER vowels combined with the hmmm-eh siren... is a powerful... POWERFUL tool.

I feel like if all I did was siren on hmmm-eh-(ih/ouh/er) I would develop a fairly "strong" voice IF I put a lot of time into resonant tracking as well =)

@Owen & Rob the ih/ouh/ER/and oo vowels are super underrated imo!

The FEELING of lift up pull back WORKS WITH the vowel! If you do a hmm-eh-ouuuuuh! then follow up with a hmm-eh-UH then imo you get to play with more variables.

Owen try this... descend from head voice. on an OOOOOO. Keep that oo strong and stable... the best you can.

Go as LOW as you can. Now set yourself up for a siren all the way from the bottom on hmm-ey-(turning voice)-Ouh.

You will feel your voice PULLING you towards that "oooo" simply because the VOWEL assists you! That's where the ouh beats out Uh in my opinion... Ron told me the UH didn't workout for him as well so its up to the student to decide what will help more!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Robert... I feel like the "narrower" the vowel the more LUPB NATURALLY comes into play.

As soon as I feel the bridge coming I think LIFT UP PULL BACK.... and right when I feel the bridge I switch from EH to OUH. VERY VERY POWERFUL! I hope TVS adds a lot of this vowel-based stuff to pillars 3.0!

When is it coming out ! =) LOL

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Administrator

JAYMC

That is the plan.. I am building research for new vowel modification combinations for the vocalize, namely, the sirens. I believe that the sirens remain a fundamental strength building requirement for framing the entire voice in the beginning... that being the case, I am now going to attempt to update the application of the siren by inserting specialized vowel training combinations to achieve different results... similar to the specialized onsets, but now working with vowels. In the end, TVS students will be able to work with specialized onsets inside of sirens with specialized vowel combinations... Im honing in on something here that is going to be really powerful training content... kinda excited about it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Meaning for someone who already had an abundance of "chest" voice, a high enough chest voice... could get away with singing "openly" for longer than someone whose voice naturally thins out INTO m2.

It would be cool to hear that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Administrator

Owen, your on the Mark, but I think you underestimate my understanding of formant tuning... I got Henny's presentation as well...

I don't think its a good idea to train narrow vowels with beginners. They are just awful to work with. They are chokey and impractical to train with in most cases. There is nothing wrong with working with Eh and Uh to get the student moving down the right path... It would be more difficult to get them to bridge on closed vowels, and then suddenly turn around and ask them to begin opening up to "Eh"... you would have to retrain habits and break down others... I think it would be a confusing mess. I believe SLS advocated that as well and it did nothing for them... one could argue, it wasted a lot of time and money for people and teachers that are now leaving that organization by the droves today. obsessing with narrow vowels did nothing for them. Nothing for their students, teachers or pedagogy.

In the meantime, me, Kevin, Ken and others are blazing forward with open vowels. I suspect the narrow vowels are better applied for resistance training, to build musculature. For example, take our "contract & release" onset and release it into a narrow "uh" or "ih"... and you can really feel how the narrow vowels will give you good resistance strengthening.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For you guys who like to go from Uh to Oo, where do you usually make that transition? At C5? Or perhaps somewhere else?

(On a side note, I've been experimenting with this very recently and I'm liking it, in particular to use Uh as in "hook" and not as in "hungry". It seems to take weight off your voice.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Owen.

I want to add one thing. I think that SLS actually doesn't use ee and oo but rather modify them to the curbing I and O vowels just like in cvt.

Anyone want to answer my second question above, i.e. where in pitch do you make a transition from Uh/Ou to Oo?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Robert while working on twang... quacking to me is just an intro step to get a feel (according to gina as well).

I really like the word "nyet" that we use to train BUT there's an even cooler version.

I've been using the word NYIT. Just mentally thinking "no" really twangy. NYIT NYIT NYIT. The simple vowel change really helps me a lot I'm not quite sure why. ih vowel is cool!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Administrator

Jay, love the idea! Good job! You sound like a TVS student... experimenting with different onset ideas... Im proud to hear this and I think this sounds like a great idea... Try using the "contract & release" onset work flow into an "ih"... or the other strength building onsets; Attack & Release & Dampen & Release... so you can pump up the musculature before you release to your resistance vowel.

Coincidentally, what I actually started doing last week... Using the ever growing popular Dampen & Release onset we are doing a lot of these days in TVS which is getting incredible results for muscularity... I think quickly becoming the most important onset for muscular strengthening,... I simply just D&R into different vowels... so what originally was "Beh", is not "Bah" or in your example, could be "Bih"... so you get the benefit of the dampening of the larynx.. but then as you maintain that configuration, you get to rub-a-dub the new vowel into the voice and thus, work the resistance training benefit from that vowel with the proper larynx configuration. Get it? I'm proud of this... this is turning out to be, really what "The Four Pillars of Singing" has always been mostly, a product and content for training. Training content for people that want to actually train, not only read a book and listen to sound samples... its shaping up into something pretty cool for singers.

Good work Jay.

Did you guys see this? Its new content for Pillars 3.0... Im re-filming ALL the demonstrations... notice the Dampen & Release onset... and the onset work flow sequence. This is really hitting closer to what I want to teach people.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21DzKQo0f68

Looking into the future, I can see these specialized onsets being mixed up with certain specialized vowels... and then I think we have covered all possibilities.

Coincidentally, I film all the Pentatonic Blues and Groove workouts today... and then will be done with the demonstration updates which have been going real well... The new demonstrations will be ready for clients in about two weeks or so... those of you that have "Pillars" 2.5, don't be shy, Ill be happy to get you an update for a small upgrade fee, nothing unreasonable. Typically, the more recent you have purchased, the better the price for any upgrades that followed the date of your purchase. If you last purchase "Pillars' 2.0 about two years ago, there is still a special savings but honestly, the product is completely different now and I need to be compensated for my effort, investment and time in developing improvements to the product.

Or... if your somemone like Owen that trains with me every week and helps me on this forum and does other things that add value to my efforts... sometimes I hand out sweet heart deals...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For you guys who like to go from Uh to Oo, where do you usually make that transition? At C5? Or perhaps somewhere else?

(On a side note, I've been experimenting with this very recently and I'm liking it, in particular to use Uh as in "hook" and not as in "hungry". It seems to take weight off your voice.)

ah ha!!

that's the beauty of that throat shape (vowel) sequence jonpall!!

you get to a point where it's so fluid you can go up smoothly without having to overanalyze it. why? because that sequence of vowels corresponds with how the voice needs to narrow and shed weight as you ascend.

you're not fighting the voice.. the voice does what it needs to do....

basically, "you learn to track the vibrations of resonance as they move higher in your head." (this last sentence was taken from the book "singing exercises for dummies." recommended.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Administrator

Great discussion... !

Yes, guys.. the "Nyet" would be classified as a "Quack & Release" onset... also, if you do the slow and controlled onset work flows, as demonstrated in this video, that too would be classified as "quack & release" onsets... so we see that "quack & release" has its seat at the round table as well.. its used for training compression and in the case of the onset work flows... it turns out that "quack & release" by prove to be one of the 1st, 'noob' onsets to master, along with the standard, 'track & release"... after that, you quickly get into 'dampen & release' & 'wind & release' onsets...

Owen is right, one of the benefits of training with me in person over skype is because my ears and experience will know which onset to use to fix any given time. Until you have some experience and practice in using the specialized onsets, you won't know when to use which one... but with practice, you begin to learn when to pull them out... like crayons in a crayon box...

Im really digging the idea of specialized onsets and specialized vowel modifications for training... I think its a stroke of mastery and quite cool... ok Im patting myself on the back... but its just cool... Im excited about how these ideas are beginning to sort out... its like I'm having a feeling of, "... its all beginning to come together and make sense to me ... I can see where this is taking TVS pedagogy and where this is going...".

Its really exciting to see you guys speaking in terms of specialized onsets and understanding how they can be used to apply to different trouble-shooting and applications.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

rachsing,

don't get too caught up on the specific vowels.

it's a very subtle transition, and the changes and when they occur will vary by pitch, vowel and intensity.

for example, ah, (hot) goes to uh (book) which goes to oo (clue) are just very basic guidelines..you own voice has to factored in to this...but it's smooth.... to the point where it's not easily detectable.

what's really important is understanding why it needs to happen and why those vowels (throat shapes) are chosen.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A nice vowel transition for pure strength building is the OH ("go") to O ("hot") transition. This is really associated with building M1 musculature. Also good for training the dampening on higher notes, but also gives you a quite heavy phonation.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

×
×
  • Create New...