to adduct inefficiently resulting in a very breathy/airy tone. The ee should be produced with slightly rounded and flared lips with one finger’s width of space between the upper and lower teeth. This stance will cause the larynx to relax and cre- ate a more open throat, allowing for efficient phonation. In essence, creating this fundamental sound is akin to establishing a healthy wind instrument embouchure, a relaxed bowing or sticking position that creates musical sound. The choral in- structor should give students definite pitches beginning the 9th above middle C (“D5”) for females and unchanged male voices and the D right next to middle C for changing/changed male voices. Descending by half steps to around Bb and then back up to D with the aforementioned mouth formation will assist students in experiencing the most efficient phonation. Once students are phonating efficiently and healthily, I introduced a simple five-note scale (SFMRD), using the same mouth forma- tion and starting pitches, always descending. With this pitch pattern I try to explore more range in the singers, working both lower and higher than with sirens.
Resonance Resonance is all about vowels and vowel placement. I like to refer to five key vowel sounds with my younger singers: ah, eh, ee, oh and oo, all made with good space between the upper and lower teeth and with a rounded lip posture. In instrumental mu- sic we typically use ah shapes for darker, warmer tones and yes, in singing the same is true. The back vowels—oo, oh, ah—are the hallmarks of warmth in singing tone. This is not to say that forward vowels such as ee are not conducive to fine singing. The trick is to sing the ee and other forward sounds through a rounded shape, such as an oo or ah.
With these key vowels sounds most diphthongs are created. A diphthong involves two or more of these key vowels, as in the word “night”—n + ah + ee + t, with the “ah” receiving the emphasis. Other common diphthongs are ay—as in the word, day (d + eh + ee), ow—as in the word, cow (K + ah + oo) and oy—as in the word, boy (B + oh + ee). If performed incor- rectly, however, diphthongs can be disruptive to pleasing tone and blend. A key factor is making sure all students are singing the same vowels at the same time; this will facilitate not only improved blend but also better intonation. Yes, these are some- what oversimplified but they are useful when working with younger singers. For detailed and more specific symbols and sounds, I refer you the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), which provides the various colors and shades of vowels and phonemes found in all cultures. The key is to ensure that your singers are making the same vowel sounds with the same kind of space between the upper and lower teeth.
For more popular styles of music, forward vowels can be the focus. The brighter instrumental sounds we hear in popular music may be, as in singing, associated with the forward ee and eh vowels. The bottom line is that in choral singing we want our students to be conscious of vowels and their appropriate shapes.
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Articulation The final common area for consideration is that of articulation. In wind music we use our tongues, jaws, teeth and palates to de- fine the pitches we play. In vocal music we use the same articu- lators to bring sense and meaning to our vowel sounds, which always should be the majority of sung sound via consonants. While there are many ways to classify consonants, the most important distinction is that of the voice/unvoiced consonants. Voiced consonants require phonation while unvoiced conso- nants do not. To know whether a consonant is voiced, simply putting one’s fingers on the larynx while enunciating will either yield a sense of vibration in the throat or not. Vibration means the consonant is voiced and requires a slight “uh”. Here are common pairs of voiced and unvoiced consonants—place your fingers on your larynx to feel the differences (the first conso- nant in each pair is voiced): b (enunciated as buh) and p, d and t, v and f, g (go) and k, z and s, th (then) and th (theta), zh and sh, j and ch. Other voiced consonants, which are not paired with others, are m, n, l and r.
One of the most difficult parts of teaching vocal music is to convince students to voice consonants; there seems to be uni- versal reluctance to make the sounds necessary to afford intel- ligibility to text. Therefore, at the end of the word, “love”, we must hear vuh; otherwise, it comes to the listener as an “f”. Another concern with voicing consonants is where to place the ending consonants. Simply put, if the consonant in question oc- curs at the end of the phrase and there is a rest immediately following, the consonant is placed on the rest. If there is no rest, the consonant must be “subdivided” into the existing beat. If the consonant occurs in the middle of the phrase, both the ending consonant and beginning consonant (if any) of the word that follows must be equally voiced within whatever rhythmic values are indicated.
This brief comparison of vocal and instrumental tone produc- tion is by no means perfectly parallel but for a music educator who finds him/herself in the position of teaching outside his/ her comfort zone, it is helpful to embrace one’s musicianship and look for the similarities between singing and playing in- struments. It is my hope that this provides an introduction to this mindset.
Charles Norris, Professor of Music Education at Grand Valley State University, holds masters and doctoral degrees from the University of Illi- nois at Urbana-Champaign. His undergraduate work was completed at Indiana State University in Terre Haute. A thirteen-year veteran of K-12 music teaching, he brings practical experience into a variety of music education methods cours-
es at Grand Valley State University. Dr. Norris also teaches au- ral perception and sight singing, choral conducting, conducts GVSU Varsity Men and directs graduate research. Dr. Norris can be reached at
norrisc@gvsu.edu.
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