When I decided to write this particular post to the blog I had a moment's pause (that's quite a long time for me!). Those of you who have read other sections on this blog will know that I've explained about assimilation, or to put it another way I've told you that my consonants may have a tendency not to be clear. So when I then decided to write about the apparent problems that I have with enunciating my vowels, I did stop to think.
If I can't do vowels and I can't do consonants, what exactly do I do when I open my mouth to sing (I can feel some thoughts on pitch and tone coming along soon!).
But really here I wanted to spend a couple of moments considering the length of a vowel. You see notes have different lengths, and since consonants are invariably short (staccato) beginnings or ends to a word, then the note length changes the length of the vowel sound. And that is not always easy.
Take our bolero driven 'The Impossible Dream' as an example. If you ignore for the moment the 9/8 timing and the need to come in on the upbeat of the bar, each phrase has a long vowel right at the start. The first line is 'to dream the impossible dream.' Two dreams, different vowel lengths. And this style continues throughout the song. When we get it right it sounds fantastic. The chorus, accompanist and conductor all in sync and wonderful harmony. But it's not easy.
So this week I intend to try my hardest at practising long vowels, followed by appropriate consonants.
I do hope that you'll be coming along on the 23rd or 24th of September to find out how we get on!
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