great vid on a true "Ah"

[Danielformica]

just sing.....

[Felipe Carvalho]

gotta ask....

why is there no such thing as a pure vowel on a given note?

what prevents it's purity? if a vowel is basically a throat shape why can't we call it a pure shape?

center of the mode or whatever....

Because it would sound poor, singing from bottom to up on OH for example... Don´t you think so?

NOOHHHHSOOHHMM DOORRHMOHHHH

[trauha]

She claims: "Americans don't have a pure AAHHH"?? 
I would respectfully disagree. Just think of how you as an American you might say 'ma' meaning mother, as in 'aaaawww ma, I already did my homework...'

[KillerKu]

The way vowels are taught is pretty much a combination of cultural and personal influences. It's often part of a dialect, purity doesn't seem very logical to me.

 

For my country, I've encountered many in person and they've been pretty documented.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dialects_of_the_English_language#United_States

 

I've never been to Italy, but I'd imagine if Italy is anything like other cultures there are probably sub regional dialects, past, present, and likely future and there likely isn't a magically pure aspect of the Italian language. Since I lack first hand experience, all I've got is a link:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_Italian

 

I do think globalization will reduce these dialects and already has. With the advent of radio, cultural transferrence of dialect could transcend region. When national and even international TV hit, there was even more shift. Now that we have the internet and are poised for possibly the greatest shift ever towards the 'average' voice as various cultures meet each other for the first time. I've seen 'movement' first hand, having southern relatives who in my childhood spoke with a serious twang and drawl, but by the time I reached adulthood spoke and sounded much more like me as a west coaster. 

 

My theory is they see saw large amounts of news casters and mainstream television in general where people were speaking very differently and it likely was subconsciously absorbed. Being social creatures, most people will tend to gravitate towards 'mainstream, normative' climate. My country (USA) in general poised with the most social influence to dominate as we have a really strong international presence. I think it's kind of saddening to lose the diversity.

 

Some people hold onto their dialects: I stumbled onto this video of a Jamaican born woman, who came to my country and kept in touch with her roots. She might teach her children:

 

 

But other times it can be lost with time: Almost no one would say 'aks me instead of ask me' on national radio so innocently these days like Mary wells did 20 seconds into one of her songs in the 60s.

 

 

If someone says 'aks' now it has a lot of connotations and even a lot of black people have turned against it, feeling it makes them sound 'ignorant.'

 

http://articles.latimes.com/2014/jan/19/opinion/la-oe-mcwhorter-black-speech-ax-20140119

 

I think the closest thing you can get to purity is maybe an average of a given population, of a given region, of a given culture at a time. Even then there is divergence as people within the same region and upbringing don't necessarily speak like clones either and aren't guaranteed to maintain their current dialect for life.

 

So for singing, I'd say sing whatever vowel sounds good to you and works. Different vowel shapes have strengths and limitations in timbre and sometimes range so they are all unique, but unless you have a cultural heritage you're trying to preserve, which is cool, imo, purity probably doesn't need to be a big concern for most singers.

[Robert Lunte]

Yes, honestly... this first video is a bit... way over simplified and it seems to kinda ... repeat common ideas that float around the lexicon of vocal technique. I guess its fairly benign, but I don't get anything from it. Without a serious demonstration of what it can do and how to train with it, its just jive talk'n to me... I want to see coaches demonstrate in their lessons and do it.  I digress, but ...