Music Education: The Diphthong

A diphthong is two different vowel sounds that “glide” together, as in the case of the words cow (CAH-oo), eye (AH-ee), and my personal favorite, light (LAH-eet).  Admit it, you’re practicing those words right now, aren’t you?! I knew it!

Diphthongs present an easily remedied problem for unison singing.  I mentioned earlier that unification of vowel sounds is crucial in choral singing, initially more important than making sure consonants are articulated.  Right now is not the time to discuss breath control; to be sure, it plays an important role in the formation of vowels, but we’ll talk about that later.

To the unintiated, giving the second portion of a diphthong equal time (or more, depending on the length of the note) to the first vowel sound is very common.

Let’s take the word “light” (it is my favorite diphthong, after all).  All too often, it is sung as “lah-eeeeeeeeeeet“.  It’s a simple fix: everytime a word containing a diphthong is sung, concentrate on the first vowel sound: “laaaaaah” keep it pure and then, just as the duration of the note comes to an end, just hint at the second vowel sound: “LAAAAH-eet“.  As a matter of fact, you might even direct your choir to ignore the second part of the diphthong altogether, and go directly to the consonant without it.  Hence, “light” now becomes “laaaaaaht“.  Your audience will certainly hear the word “light“, and your choir will have a nice, unified tone.

Remember just “hint” at the second part of a diphthong,  and a very messy phrase will instantly clean up very well.

Ooh, by the way, never, NEVER sing a diphthong as two separate vowel sounds when the word is sung in two or more pitches; keep the first vowel pure over the slurred notes, and then just hint (or ignore – up to you) at the end.  A great example is the word “Hour”; too often it is sung “Ah – wer” over two notes.

Next time:   Avoiding sloppy consonant combos!  See you then.

 

Thanks to all the supportive comments below!

Unison vowel production in Music Education

I have been through many exercises for unison vowel production, and the best I have found was taught to me by my own vocal coach, Dr.Jan E. Bickel, D.M.A at Saint Xavier University in Chicago.  She gave it to me as an excellent way to practice a smooth phrase:

Take the phrase we used last time, “In the land of the living, I will walk with God all my days.”

• Take away the consonants, and now you are left with:    “I  e  a  o  e  i  i, i  i  a  i  o  a  y  a”     (In the land of the living, I will walk with God all my days).                                                                                                 
•  Have the choir pronounce the vowel sounds as they appear in the phrase (no  diphthongs):     i      uh    a     uh        uh  i   ee,      ah    i     aw    i     o    aw    ah    A  (In thuh land uhv thuh liveeng, Ah will wawk with God awll mah daze)

OK, get ready for mutiny….this takes a little time to master; visual handouts for the choir, or even the vowel sounds written on the board are essential; but what results!

• Now have the choir sing only the vowels on their correct pitches and then have them connect the vowels to each other, sing in a very legato manner to produce a smooth phrase.
• Finally, have them put the consonants back in (they’ll be soooo relieved), but lightly!  Just touch the consonants.

This is a wonderful way to get your choir to produce a lovely, smooth, truly unison phrase.  This same exercise is helpful for unlocking the breath.

….more later!

Music Education: Now the vowels….

Now that we’ve got the choir taking breaths simultaneously and completing phrases before taking the next breath, it’s time to move on to vowels.

Forming a unison vowel sound is harder than you think; before you even attempt to ask the choir to “enunciate”, you’d do well to make sure everyone’s vowel sounds are homogenous. The world we live in today is multicultural; the days of everybody in a community producing the same accent are over….besides, any trained singer will tell you that a spoken vowel is indeed produced differently when it is sung.  This student of the voice has learned to produce vowels, and can lead their choir in simple vowel exercises.  Be sure not to skip or be slack in this…remember, unison singing is far more than just all the voices of the choir singing the same part !

 A wonderful exercise next time……

Unison Singing in Music Education

 I cannot stress the importance of unison singing in music education!  Learning to sing as a single unit is the most crucial skill a music director can teach a choir.  I have heard many choir conductors say, “Now, make sure you really pronounce your words”, but exactly how to pronounce those words is not taught; likewise, I have also heard  “Make sure to put on your endings”.  Well, yes, that is important….but if it’s overdone, or if not enough attention is  paid to formation of dipthongs, we could be headed for a mess.

But let’s first discuss breathing and phrasing; just as there is no way you can teach your choir everything they need to know in a few sessions, neither can I impart the steps of good unison singing in one post.  Teaching your choir how to take a deep, quiet breath without letting all the air go in the first few words will have to wait; today you need to teach them when to breathe…..and by extension, when not to breathe.

Often we hear from our excellent instructors that the breath is everything in music production, no matter what the instrument. They will say that correct breathing, maintaining support throughout the phrase and learning to use the body correctly is the alpha and omega of learning to make music, and I couldn’t agree more.  But when we take the first step in choral singing, we first have to learn to sing, and breathe, in unison….