Stabilizing the 'ee' vowel

kickingtone

New member
Hi! Can I borrow your ears for a few seconds, please?

(Apologies to anyone who knows and likes this Beatles song. I've hacked bits of it from long lost memory. I know what it's like when folk mess with favourites, but I always do this with practice stuff.)

I heard that the 'ee' vowel eventually gets unstable as you ascend in pitch, and you have to shift it -- probably towards 'ay'. But I don't like it when singers do that.

I picked something with a few 'ee' vowels. Do they sound stable enough, here? (It failed my muffle test :( )

LIB004LEP by kickingtone | Free Listening on SoundCloud

Thanks for your assessment.
 
Sounds ok to me, of course a tasty false etto helps me with notes or phrases that's hard for me to hit and with some good compression, it can still sound full
 
"ee" is a tighter vowel sound than "ay" (or "oh" or any sound that has your mouth wide open)

High notes require you to tighten up your vocal chords more than lower ones.

Singing is all about keeping everything as relaxed as possible. So compounding tight mouth to sing "ee" on top of tight vocal chords to hit high notes, and you may get less accuracy and less sustain.

That being said, you seem to be doing ok on these ones. It helps to open your mouth more if you can on those ees
 
^^

N2, it's an identical copy, lol!

VHS

Yes, that's exactly what I discovered after some practice. I got the "singer's smile" thing going a bit more, and created more space between cheek and teeth. That makes the ee a lot more stable, and the vocal tract shape is good for naturally amplifying the ee, so that I don't find myself pushing. But you mustn't overdo the "smile". It has to be relaxed at the same time, as you said.

For reaching the higher notes, I borrow from the appoggio technique, to counterbalance the pressure at the larynx. So, I am not feeling much strain there. I did use a trace of falsetto, but that was just a stylistic choice to capture emphasis. Some people would use "grit", instead, which may require a bit more diaphragmatic balance.
 
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