From: Craig Tompkins
To: VOCALIST <vocalist>
Subject: Technique: singing ah
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

I've found, here in Vancouver, that starting from speech, using a phrase
like "my father bought more food" allows us to isolate four or five
different vowels, starting with a bright unrounded French [a] in the
first part of the diphthong in my [ma:I]. Any other word with this
diphthong will sork as well: bright, sigh, buy, eye etc. After you are
comfortable with the feel (and look) of the spoken vowel, retain those
sensations as you move to sustaining the spoken vowel, then progress to
singing short syllables with the target vowel in middle voice then
sustain the (sung) target vowel all the while maintaining that
comfortable feeling and appearance. As you move toward the extremes of
your range, some modification will become necesary. All of this works
most successfully when your spoken English contains the target sounds
you are after! ;-)
Cheers
Craig, Burnaby BC