From: Karen Mercedes
To: VOCALIST <vocalist>
Subject: Re: Tongue position on high notes
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

On Wed, 26 Jan 2000, Anne Cohen wrote:

> Where is the back of your tongue on high notes, fellow sopranos? My new
> teacher tells me the back of my tongue is down, but frankly, I watched
> Pavarotti the other night on TV and his tongue was UP in the back on high
> notes. Comments?


It depends on what vowel I'm singing. If I'm singing "i", as I drop the
jaw more, I actually raise the back of the tongue more to compensate, so I
continue to approximate the right vowel sound. With "a", obviously, the
back of the tongue is down regardless of which register I'm singing in.
With other vowels, I will - as with "i" - tend to raise the back of the
tongue a slight bit more as I unhinge the jaw, again to maintain the vowel
sound as I get higher.

KM
=====
There is delight in singing,
tho' none hear Beside the singer.
- Walter Savage Landor
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