Video transcript
The Arts Unit @home Art Bites - Choral singing tips with Ian - 2. Exceptions, the schwa and diphthongs

[whooshing]

[music playing]

[music playing]

IAN JEFFERSON: You may wonder why I analyse the way we make sound with our mouths when we sing. Well, it's interesting because it's weird. And most of the time, we don't even realise how weird these sounds are.

[drumming]

Today, I'm going to talk about variations to the five pure vowel sounds we use when we sing. I'll also briefly explore the sound of the schwa. What's that? I hear you ask. 'Erh.' And I'll delve into the challenges we face when we sing diphthongs. Oi!

[base guitar music]

Even though we take for granted the way we talk to communicate, there are an enormous number of mechanisms going on in our mouth to make this happen, often without us even knowing it. To make a choir sound well-blended, you need to analyse these tiny mechanisms, particularly in the production of vowel sounds, and make a unilateral decision. That's the conductor's job-- to ensure each choir member is singing the same sound.

CHOIR: (SINGING) Hallelujah.

IAN JEFFERSON: If you're able to grab a small mirror, press pause, and go and get it.

If not, you just need to concentrate on the feel of your lips and your tongue as you join in these exercises.

[piano music, lip trill]

The five main pure vowel sounds are 'ah,' 'eh,' 'ih,' 'orh,' 'ooh.' See my previous video. But there are slight variations on each of these, which you can hear when you slide between them.

I'll sing in E flat

[piano chord]

and take two beats to change gradually from 'ah' to 'eh,' 'eh' to 'ih,' 'ih' to 'orh,' and 'orh' to 'ooh.' Remember, the mouth should remain open in a relaxed vertical position. Here we go.

[piano chord]

[vocalising]

Try it yourself and starting on 'ah.' And if you change slowly, you can hear and feel the in-between vowels.

[piano chord]

Take a deep breath. Here we go.

[vocalising]

Often, these in-between vowels are the right sound to sing and will help the lyrics sound more natural. Although there are many, I'm just going to give two examples. The first example lives between 'ah' and 'ooh.' It is 'oah,' as in the world 'saw,' S-A-W. Listen as I slide between 'ah' and 'ooh.'

[piano chord]

[vocalising]

The sound changes gradually as the lips move forward. You try it.

[piano chord]

[vocalising]

And one syllable word example using 'ah,' 'oah,' and 'ooh' might be

(SINGING) song. Soah. Sooh.

The second example is a bright

(SINGING) ah

sound that is

(SINGING) aah

for instance, in the word 'sat,' S-A-T. If you keep your jaw and mouth shape still, and then toggle between

(SINGING) ah

and

(SINGING) aah

you can feel the back of your tongue rising slightly to make a brighter tone. Let's do it.

[piano chord]

[vocalising]

So singing 'sat,' you get

(SINGING) sat

instead of

(SINGING) 'saht'

or if you're a kiwi

(SINGING) set.

[chanting in maori]

This brighter tone partly achieved by raising the back of the tongue, and partly achieved by smiling and getting the sound to resonate behind the cheeks can be useful in getting a more forward, in-tune, twangy sound, although you want to avoid nasal singing. Eh.

You just have to listen to 'ah' as I toggle between a bright sound and a dark, cloudy Kermit the Frog sound.

[piano chord]

I'm doing it on an E flat.

[vocalising]

So try it with me.

[vocalising]

Generally, your default position for singing should be in the middle.

[vocalising]

[drumming]

The schwa 'erh' is another vowel sound that we tend to avoid or at least adjust when singing sustained notes in a choir. The schwa sound is somewhere between an 'ah' and an 'erh,' and is considered ugly. It's often used as an unstressed syllable in multi-syllable words for example, water. Water. Water. Ter. Ter. Water.

Now, if we sing the schwa of 'water' only in passing

[piano chord]

(SINGING) The water is wide.

The 'ter' of 'water' is not emphasised, so we just sing it the way we would speak it.

(SINGING) The water is wide.

Sing that with me. And one. [snaps fingers]

(SINGING) The water is wide.

Now, but if we had to sustain the word 'water' at the end of a phrase for example

[piano chord]

(SINGING) How blue is the water.

Sing that with me. And one.

(SINGING) How blue is the water.

Now, there's nothing wrong or against the law with sustaining

(SINGING) 'ter'

but to make it a warmer, open sound, we can switch the 'erh' to 'ah.'

[piano chord]

(SINGING) How blue is the water.

Sing with me. And one.

(SINGING) How blue is the water.

The word 'the' T-H-E has three ways of being sung - 'the', 'thah,' and the schwa 'therh.' We use this last version of 'the' when it's used only in passing or for fast notes.

(SINGING) The water is wide.

Sing with me after two. One, [snaps fingers] two.

(SINGING) The water is wide.

Now, if the word 'the' is given a longer note-- say, a crotchet rather than a quaver instead of singing and one.

(SINGING) The water is wide.

We would open 'the' to 'thah,' and sing and one.

(SINGING) The water is wide.

Try it. And one.

(SINGING) The water is wide.

So normally, we use 'the' to precede a word beginning with a vowel. The apple, the egg, the ice, the orange, the umbrella.

So what do you think of the schwa? Ubiquitous, useful, but ugly. 'Erh.'

[drumming]

Diphthongs are vowels you produce using two pure vowels on one syllable. For example, the word 'boy' uses 'oh' and 'ih.' Boy. Boy.

The word 'my' uses 'ah' and 'ih.' My. My.

The work 'way' uses 'eh' and 'ih.' Way. Way.

So on a sustained diphthong note, which vowel do you sing, the first or the second? Well, 99% of the time you hold the first vowel sound and put the second vowel at the very end.

So Frank Sinatra shouldn't be singing

(SINGING) I did it my way.

Although he sort of sang it a bit like that. Have a listen.

[music - frank sinatra, 'my way']

FRANK SINATRA: (SINGING) I faced it all. And I stood tall and did it my way.

IAN JEFFERSON: It's a bit pitchy there, Frank. Now, let's have a listen without the band covering up his voice.

FRANK SINATRA: (SINGING) I faced it all. And I stood tall and did it my way.

IAN JEFFERSON: You know, Frank Sinatra is a solo performer. And he can sing any way he wants. He can sing it

(SINGING) his way.

But if he were part of a choir, he should have sung

(SINGING) I did it my way.

Check out Robbie Williams' mouth shape on 'my way.'

[music - robbie williams, 'my way']

ROBBIE WILLIAMS: (SINGING) I faced it all. And I stood tall and did it my way.

IAN JEFFERSON: Another example that has irritated me since 1977 is that the little girl who played Annie in the original Broadway cast sang the final line of the song 'Tomorrow'

[piano note]

(SINGING) Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow. You're always a day away.

And changed the diphthong of the world 'away' a fraction too early, from 'way' to 'ih.' Have a listen to what I mean.

ANDREA MCARDLE: (SINGING) Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow. You're always a day away.

IAN JEFFERSON: But I mean, she's got some pipes, belting up to an E flat. And of course, you only hear it on the cast recording because when she sang it in the show, the audiences started applauding while she was still singing, so they never heard.

ANDREA MCARDLE: (SINGING) Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow. You're always a day away.

[applause]

[drumming]

IAN JEFFERSON: It may seem laborious going through every syllable of every lyric in a song to work out the best way to achieve a nice, round choir sound, but if you approach each song with the idea of singing with a relaxed, tall mouth, most of these decisions are made automatically. But it is up to the conductor to keep an ear out for anything that doesn't sound quite right and to fix it.

[drumming]

Keep singing.

[music playing]