Dear Margaret and Vocalisters:
There are, of course, many slightly different versions of the "uh" vowel but all of them are useful to singing unless they represent an extreme distortion of correct pronunciation.
The "uh" vowel is the only vowel formation in which the vocal tract is conformed in an almost perfect tube or pipe shape. The tongue is relaxed on the bottom of the mouth and the throat us allowed to be open and can even be expanded. The "uh" vowel is the best vowel for the female voice when singing above the treble clef (G5 and above) because it more easily allows the singer to open the mouth and, in so doing, raise the first formant frequency of the vocal tract to match the sung pitch. Since all the other vowel formants (with the exception of the second formants of the /i/ and /e/ vowels )are positioned below the G5 it is not physically possible for the female voice to maintain accurate vowel distinction above these pitches.
The fact that the throat is open and the tongue down does not necessarily mean that the vowel is too far back. In fact the "uh" vowel is the closest the voice can get to an absolutely open sound that gives maximum resonance to the vocal instrument. It is for this reason that it is automatically used when we yell loudly for help
-- Lloyd W. Hanson
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