♬
Hi singers!
My name is Justin Stoney and I'm the founder of
New York Vocal Coaching here in New York City.
Welcome to episode 96 of Voice Lessons To The World.
The show where we want to help you as singers
by answering your questions from all over.
And I'll give you a chance to ask questions later,
but our question for this week comes from Marcus L. in Würzburg, Germany.
And Marcus writes, "Dear Justin, I've always enjoyed
your vowel episodes.
How can I improve my AY vowel?"
Well Marcus today is your lucky day
because we're going to be talking all about the "AY"!
Its benefits, its limitations, we're gonna hear it in a song
and give you a vocal exercise to practice.
But let's start with the four benefits of the AY vowel.
The AY vowel is honestly one of my favorite vowels to use with singers
because it can be a game-changer for the voice.
Its biggest benefits stem from formants.
Now remember, formant is just a
fancy-pants vocal-pedagogy-nerd way to describe
the resonance of the vocal tract.
And when we sing the AY vowel
both are first formant and our second formant are raised.
So Justin what the heck does that mean?
Well it means that the AY vowel helps us to increase
both the vocal strength and the vocal brightness of our tone.
Some singers lack power in their voices.
Now I'll admit most of this has to do with
what's going on at the level of the vocal folds.
We've got to learn to use the right amount
of compression and chest voice to truly get stronger as singers.
But resonance plays a big part in the strength of the voice as well.
And the AY vowel allows us to release the jaw a bit
and get a little bit more mouth opening in the front.
Mouth vowels like AY and AH and AW raise that F1 formant.
This assists singers whose voices might be a little undesirably weak.
It helps them to buff things up a little bit.
But the AY vowel is also a solution for voices that are too dark.
When singers do have a voice that's too dark
they're often asked to make their voices be more forward.
But this word forward is often a very vague and confusing term.
For lots of info on what it actually means,
go back and check out episode 91 of our show.
But you're not going to struggle at all at
making the voice more forward, more bright, more vibrant,
when you're singing the AY vowel.
That's because of that raised F2 formant.
It raises the upper frequencies of the voice
and makes it more shiny and pingy and ringing.
In some ways the AY vowel can even assist
with adding twang to the voice.
Now many of these brighter qualities happen because
the tongue position of the a vowel is a forward tongue.
This is also a very helpful consideration.
In episode 33 of our show we talked about tongue retraction.
Tongue retraction is simply the tendency to
pull the tongue backward into the throat while singing.
This interferes with the larynx and also is an indicator
that the voice is being pushed around a little too hard.
But you shouldn't have any tongue issues with the AY vowel.
No siree!
The AY vowel is usually AY-AY with the tongue forward in the mouth,
the tongue tip touching the bottom gum line,
and the tongue's base nice and high just the way we like it.
So in other words the AY vowel is among our most friendly vowels
for fixing tight tongues, retracted tongues,
and misbehaving tongues of all kinds.
So I'd say that's a lot of benefits for one vowel.
So since the AY vowel has so many benefits
I think it's time to test it out in some song repertoire.
For today's song example I tried to think of a song
that contains several AY vowels all in a row.
Now great songwriters know how to position vowels
in a way that helps singers and certainly them cats at Disney
know a thing or two about how to write a great song.
So this example comes to us from the Disney repertoire.
This is "Santa Fe" from the Newsies film.
It's written by Alan Menken and Jack Feldman.
And I can hardly wait to sink my teeth into this AY vowel
and everything that it can do for the strength and brightness of the voice.
♪
♪ Santa Fe are you there ♪
♪ Do you swear you won't forget me ♪
♪ If I found you would you let me come and stay ♪
♪
♪ I ain't gettin' any younger ♪
♪ And before my dying day ♪
♪ I want space ♪
♪ Not just air ♪
♪ Let them laugh in my face I don't care ♪
♪ Save my place ♪
♪ I'll be there ♪
♪
♪ So that's what they call a family ♪
♪ Ain't you glad you ain't that way ♪
♪
♪ Ain't you glad you've got a dream called Santa Fe ♪
Well thanks for that Jack, thanks Alan.
Because that's just so much fun to sing that AY vowel.
The voice just feels like it's soaring with bright resonance and power.
But while the AY vowel does give us a lot of advantages,
let's look at some things that might be limitations.
While the AY vowel can certainly help to brighten the voice,
we don't want to sing with too much brightness
unless we're doing some character voice
or brightening our sound for some sort of specific effect.
Otherwise our Fonsi AY will start to go haywire.
And one way that this can happen is with a lifted larynx.
The thing is bright vowels and brighter sounds in general
do have a tendency to lift the larynx.
Now we know that's not bad in all instances.
With our character voices of course we might lift the larynx a lot.
And for pop, rock, and R&B we might lift the larynx a little bit.
But for optimal vocal technique
we need to make sure that the larynx stays neutral.
So be careful that the AY vowel doesn't end up
hiking your larynx up too far.
One way you might know that this is happening
is when the mouth starts to spread.
I would say one of the worst vocal habits
is to open the embouchure, the mouth, more and more as we go up in pitch.
While opening the embouchure does indeed encourage stronger resonances,
it's easy to fall in love with open embouchures like the AY vowel
and start to substitute it in all the wrong places.
♪ O'er the land of the fray ♪
The "fray"?!
I saw them in concert once.
And they totally sang all the right vowels.
The other thing they didn't do is spread their lips
at all the wrong times.
It's a funny thing.
Many singers have actually been taught
that spreading the lips is a good way
to achieve the brightness, brilliance, and ring to the voice.
And while it is certainly one way to do it,
we have to remember it must never be our first option.
Remember your strength and your bright light
come from within not from without.
So there is truly no reason at all to spread your AY vowel
when you're practicing.
In fact there's many reasons to let the
beautiful inward resonance of your vocal tract be responsible
for your great vocal destiny to come.
So when you're practicing this AY vowel exercise in a minute,
be sure not to spread your lips as a means
to achieving that ringing beauty
that the AY vowel naturally possesses.
The exercise is NYAY, N-Y-A-Y.
It sounds like this...
♪ NYAY ♪
When you're doing this make sure again
to not spread the vowel.
Let the inner strength and brightness of the AY vowel work for you.
We're gonna start with guys and then bring in the ladies in a second.
Here we go!
♪ NYAY ♪
That's right.
♪
Mhm!
♪
Let's bring in the ladies...
♪ NYAY ♪
Beautiful!
♪
Keep it bright.
♪
That's right. Keep it strong!
♪
Very good.
♪
That's right.
♪
Excellent.
♪
Good.
♪ NYAY ♪
♪
Two more!
♪
♪ NYAY ♪
♪
Excellent job with that exercise.
So Marcus and all, I hope that this has helped you
with your AY vowel and many other things in your voice today.
If you've got questions you'd like to see us answer on the show
you can send an email to Questions@VoiceLessonsToTheWorld.com.
And remember, don't lose that joy don't lose that passion, [♪]
don't let people tell you that you can't sing. [♪]
You and I both know that's not true. [♪]
Get with a great voice teacher in an area near you [♪]
or if you're in the New York City area [♪]
or you'd like to Skype with one of our staff, [♪]
visit us at NewYorkVocalCoaching.com. [♪]
If you'd like a vocal course you can do in the comfort of your own home [♪]
check out the Voice Lessons To The World Vocal Course. [♪]
A 12-part course that takes you on a singing journey [♪]
from beginner to master level vocal exercises. [♪]
You can find that at VoiceLessonsToTheWorld.com. [♪]
If you'd like free vocal tips sent to you each day [♪]
sign up at DailyVocalTips.com. [♪]
I'm Justin Stoney. [♪]
Until next time, make a joyful noise. [♪]
♬