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I hope you have been working on all the things that we have covered up to this point. It all builds on top of each other like building blocks to get that quality vocal sound. This month we want to start talking about vowel modifications. This is very important and we will probably take two or three months to cover this information completely. Be sure to read the next few months. Okay, let's get started.

The basic idea for modifying your vowels is to change the vowels so that the mouth remains open, placement of the tongue will be correct, and your pitch will be accurate. Many singers think that modifing the vowels is a waste of time or that it will change their singing style. The only thing that it changes is the quality of their singing. The pitch problems will instantly be corrected. If singing under pitch is your singing style, then yes, it will change your style. But it will be for the best and your audience can enjoy your singing rather than endure it.

The first vowel sound we want to talk about is the Short "U" or "UH" sound. You can NOT sing "UH" sounds. Words like; JESUS are sang "Jezahz." The letter "S" is sang like "Z" so that it takes the hiss out of it and the "U" is sang like "AH" so you pronounce it; Je-z-ah-z. Another couple of "UH" sounding words are "but" and "the." To modify them you sing them; "baht" and "thah." If you notice when you sing the "UH" sound it makes the jaw jut forward but when you modify it to the "AH" sound it makes the jaw drop straight down and the tongue will be in a down position and the soft palate will be in a lifted postion as it should be. The mouth will be open to let the full sound out which will double your volume with half the work.

The next vowel sound is Short "A". This sound should be changed to "EH" sound. A word like "that" is sang "theht" You change the "a" to "eh" making it "th-eh-t" Other words are "sad" and "glad". Modify them by changing the "a" to "eh" also; like "s-eh-d" and "gl-eh-d." When you sing the short A sound it pulls the mouth together,drops the soft palate, and make the corners of the mouth pull backward. This closes everything down instead of opening everything up as it should be. I hope you are beginning to see what a difference this can make in your singing. Let's do one more for this time so you can think on these and next month we will do some more.

Long "E" sound is changed to Short"I" and is modified by changing the "E" to "IH". For instance the word "Me" is modified to"Mih." A couple of other words are "see" and "king", we change them to "s-ih" and "k-ih-g. If you notice we dropped out the "n" in king and we will explain why in a later article. Again if you notice when you sing Long E's this closes everything down and makes it very difficult to stay on pitch and also cuts off your sound by cutting it in half. By changing to the Short I sound it drops the mouth open in a verticle position snd opens you up. I call this singing "open vowel sounds" and it will correct a lot of vocal problems instantly.

This month look for these vowel sounds in your songs and try modifing them and feel the difference it makes and how much easier it is to sing, stay on pitch and have correct placement. This will make the biggest difference in your singing and will make many of the other things that we have already talked about automatically start happening. It is worth the effort to try and understand and incorporate them changes into your singing. Remember that keeping the mouth open when holding notes and the jaw dropping in a vertical position is or goal.

Until next month, keep singing His Praises!

Marti Ledford

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