Forming Your Formants

The vocal tract shifts its shape to create different vowel sounds. Each vowel shape is better suited to different parts of a singer’s range. Sometimes there is a need to adjust the shape of the vocal tract while singing a vowel to create a more open and resonant sound. This is usually when the vowel is being sung outside its ideal formant. This is why when we sing higher notes on the “ee” vowel sound, we have to adjust the vowel to the more open “ih” sound. This is often called vowel modification.