Chris wrote: (Snip)"BTW, I have a serious problem with my students' [u]
vowels. I thought they'd
all be too closed, but they aren't. They're this bizarre mix of [I] and [u]
that I can't even begin to describe with a single syllable and it REALLY
affects the resonance. And they don't hear it. When they DO find an [u],
they can hear the difference, but they don't feel it when they do this weird
mixed vowel thing and have no idea they're doing it wrong."
Chris:
Many of my kids (students) do too! I thought it was an Albany thing, since
I'd never heard it before. And you're right, they have no clue. I have to
keep a list of what each has to think or think they're doing to produce [u].
And it seems to be the hardest vowel for them to get a physical memory of!
We always go through all the vowels and see what the tongue is doing and
where it's touching and how it changes as we move through the vowels. They
produce a beautiful [u] while we do this. But when we go to sing and they
get to a familiar words with an [u], it all reverts to habit. The most
common shift mine seem to need to make is to 'think' [o] while they sing
[u]. Eventually they get it of course, but for some, they just don't hear
it! They dutifully do what I ask, but only because they love me - not
because they can hear that it's an [u]!
Funny, aren't they? I still think it's the result of a dearth of good
diction role models.
Laura Sharp
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