Simple Vocal Wisdom #3
Hi, it’s voice teacher Linda Lewellyn in Boulder, Colorado, coming to you today with my Simple Vocal Wisdom #3!
We covered dropping the jaw in #1 and the basics of breathing in #2, so today I want to talk about vowels. It’s also called placing or shaping vowels. We can actually control many aspects of our vocal tone, the actual sound of our own unique voices- you might wish that your voice had more clarity, brightness or energy, or more depth and richness, or you may be wishing for both. All you have to do is experiment with the shape of your mouth. If you widen your shape, adding a bit of a smile to it, your tone will brighten. If you lengthen by dropping your jaw, your tone will be richer.
I had a voice teacher when I was a teenager who used this visual — imagine you have a big apple in your hand and you’re about to bite into it. That’s the perfect shape for an Ah vowel, it’s both wide for clarity and dropped for richness. Try it out! Experiment with how you are shaping or placing your vowels. Start with the Ah shape and when you love the sound, move on to all the other vowels and find what feels right and sounds great to you.
Try out this technique with my quick video.
If you’d like exercises to help you with this, please see my Video Downloads or book a Private Session with me. Thank you!