Why there are no 'Optimal' Vowels in Modern Vocal Technique: A Brief History

Whether you are aware or not, the shape and size of your vocal tract impacts your tuning, your sound quality, and your vocal projection! If you've ever been told by a singing teacher, coach or choir director to 'narrow your vowel,' you know what I'm talking about. 

The vocal tract is the 'singing tube' that runs from the larynx to the tip of the lips. Articulators like the tongue and the lips allow us to shape the vocal tract easily. Different shapes produce different vowel sounds like AH as in apple (open/low/more space in the mouth) and EE as in eat (closed/high/less space in the mouth). Shifting and adjusting the vocal tract shape for musical phonation (singing) is called vocal tract shaping or VTS for short. 

The first and most obvious role of VTS is to pronounce lyrics. VTS helps us to articulate lyrics and ensures they are clear and understandable. However, vocal tract shaping is about more than enunciating lyrics. Shaping the vocal tract can influence the sound quality of your voice (timbre), the perceived volume of your voice (projection), the tuning of your voice (pitch), as well as the register you sing in. (registration).

You can learn more about the vocal tract from the good people at voicescienceworks.com

Certain shapes – or vowels – can make the voice sound fuller, brighter, rounder, louder, or gentler. Some vowels will make it easier to sing higher, and some will make singing lower a breeze! Great singers take advantage of this to produce their desired vocal qualities!

Traditionally, there are strict rules about which vocal tract shapes singers should use.

Shaping the Vocal Tract for Traditional Projection

Traditionally, singers had to project in large spaces through the pure strength of their own voices. Before amplified sound, singers needed to use every resource at their disposal to sing over instruments and noisy halls! Early singers quickly learned that certain tongue placements, lips postures, and overall vocal tract shapes would produce sounds that could easily be projected into large, raucous spaces!

The vocal tract shape in question is an open and backed vowel shape! The tongue is low, the lips tapered, and the mouth is often as open as possible. It produces higher volume levels with minimal effort on the singer's part. As many singers learned instinctively, this shape could produce soundwaves that could cut through space and travel further. This narrow and rounded vocal tract shaping produces sound waves that generally pick up more harmonic information and, therefore, have more carrying power.

A Quick Science Break!

FUNDAMENTAL FREQUENCY (Fº)

Each time you sing a note, bang a drum or strum a string, you hear an organized cacophony of sound waves! The lowest and loudest sound wave is called the fundamental frequency (Fº). Fº is the pitch we hear. (Like a middle C)

THE HARMONIC SERIES

The other sound waves produced along with the Fº are called harmonics. Harmonics exist in a measurable pattern called the harmonic series. Each harmonic in the series is quieter and higher than the one before it. 

RESONANCE, TIMBRE, AND PROJECTION

All of these sound waves bounce around whatever space they're in. This is called 'resonance.' Depending on the size, shape and consistency of that space (i.e. the resonator), the Fº and its harmonics will behave differently. These differences will determine the sound's colour (timbre) and perceived volume (projection) in impact tuning (pitch):

• Larger spaces with less internal interference allow the lower/larger/louder harmonics to resonate successfully. Higher/smaller/softer harmonics may get lost in that space. When the lower/larger/louder harmonics resonate, the timbre will be fuller and rounder. It will also carry further, as the waves themselves are longer. (high projection) Within the vocal tract, open (lots of space in the mouth and throat), rounded (lips narrowed), and backed (backed tongue posture) shapes fulfill this type of resonance, like a rich "AW" vowel shape, like the word bought.

• Smaller spaces with some or lots of internal interference may stifle the lower/larger/louder harmonics. Higher/smaller/softer harmonics, however, will resonate successfully! When the Higher/smaller/softer harmonics resonate, the timbre will be brighter and clearer. However, it will not carry as far as the waves are shorter (low projection). Wide (lips smiled) and fronted (fronted tongue posture) shapes fulfill this type of resonance within the vocal tract. Like a crisp "AH" vowel shape, like the word bat.

And the Winner of Most Efficient Vowel is…

So, there is an ideal or optimal vocal tract shape that benefits the singer during an un-amplified (no microphone) performance. This means a singer's vowel should generally reflect the criteria of 'most-efficient-sound-wave.' The sound quality of this shape is rich, full and complex! The sound quality produced by these vocal tract shapes would be called 'classical,' like an opera diva or Pavarotti!

This optimal shaping can be seen clearly throughout vocal technique in classical training. Classical singers train for years to properly habituate this shaping. Over the centuries, the technique to fulfill optimal shaping morphed from practical to 'correct.' Vocal tract shapes that did not fulfill this traditional shape and sound were deemed "incorrect," "unhealthy," and snubbed by the community. This is where it gets messy.

The Vocal Tract Shaping Revolution at the Turn of the Century!

Fast forward to the 1860s and sound recordings allowed singers to capture their performances. By the 1900s, public announcement (PA) systems allowed singers to perform live with microphones that fed into huge speakers. This allowed them to be heard without being drowned out by their bands. Singers were no longer concerned about vocal projection in great halls, as the sound no longer had to reach the back row of a concert hall, just to the tip of the microphone. Projection was no longer the priority, making way for a timbral revolution in vocal style!

Ma Rainey

Simultaneously, globalization, immigration, cultural diversity, and civil rights influenced the kind of music people were making and listening to. Appalachian communities were taking traditional violins and turning them into fiddles. Blues singers took the 6-string guitar and gave it new life. Music born in African American communities was exploding into the popular zeitgeist! Blues music evolved into R&B. Jazz laid the groundwork for rock and pop. Gospel singers went on to define what a powerful voice can be! There was a lot of change happening in the musical landscape at the turn of the century!

New vocal sounds emerged with timbres that didn't depend on optimal vocal tract shaping for projection. Singers created wider and broader vocal tract shapes. They could be more creative and embrace their unique vocal qualities. The sound quality was often bright and strident, almost directly contrasting classical richness and depth.

Sound waves produced by these vocal tract shapes did not always fulfill the ‘most-efficient-sound-wave,’ but they didn’t have to! The singer was under no obligation to use any particular vowel shape and could let loose with innovative timbres and vocal qualities. For example, Billie Holiday’s soft, heartbreaking, and whimsical rendition of “Strange Fruit” would have never carried throughout a concert hall over an orchestra. But the microphone she used to record the haunting tune picked up every note, each breath, hints of vocal fry, long lingering sustains that fade to nothing, and soft, abrupt phrases that cut out, as if to say, “this is what I have to offer, take it or leave it, but this is me.”

Unfortunately, this shaping, timbre, and style were viewed by the singing elites at the time as 'improper technique.' Contemporary singers were often labelled as "untrained" due to the pedagogical bias toward euro-classical standards. Consider for a moment that most of these 'untrained' singers were people of colour. Undoubtedly, there were other more racist and culturally traumatizing issues at play than just traditionalism. 

The great Billie Holiday

Despite the divide between 'contemporary' and 'classical' singing technique, recording technology saw the popularization of modern styles. Music of all kinds was available to the average Joe, who could previously only hear music at expensive live venues. Now everyone had access to music. First on wax, then eventually on the radio, and now in your pocket!

There are a wealth of vocal tract shapes that produce the sounds that define modern pop, rock, and R&B music. We have recorded and amplified sound, along with the intrepid artists who were brave enough to sing authentically to thank for the gorgeous musical and timbral diversity in modern singing! 

Vocal Tract Shaping in Modern Vocal Technique Today - A Message to Modern Singing Teachers

You can sing the same pitch repeatedly in dozens of different ways simply by adjusting your vowel.

A spacious vowel provides robustness, while a smaller vowel can provide stylized twang! It's all about options, colours on your palate, and spices in your kitchen! As a singing teacher, it is my job to teach my students what those options are and how to use them! (Perhaps I will go into more detail in a future blog!)

Many young singers learn that to sing 'correctly,' they have to adhere to a particular set of vocal tract shaping 'rules.' (lower the larynx, narrow the lips, lift the palate…etc.) This, in my humble view, is detrimental to training modern singers. Instead of learning what is 'correct,' we should be teaching contemporary singers what is possible. 

As teachers and coaches, we need to encourage our singers to set intentions and make choices about how they want to sound. Not the way they should be sounding.

Instead of providing students with a 'guidebook,' we need to be providing them with a 'toolkit!'. This applies to all of the vocal technique pillars: Breath Management (the power source of the voice), Registration (the vibration of the vocal folds), and of course, Vocal Tract Shaping.

This can be overwhelming to new singers, who generally look for structure and standards as they refine their craft. It takes a strong sense of self to set intentions and make musical choices. Instilling this kind of creative confidence should be a singing teacher's #1 priority. 

In this way, there is no 'optimal' vocal tract shape in modern vocal techniques. Instead, there is a library of sound colours to be used as tools of creative expression. 

The joy of modern singing lies not in accomplishing something the same way as it has been done before but in fulfilling self-expression through a versatile instrument.