A Singer’s diction must have 2 main components
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It must be easy to understand and
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Be pleasant to listen to
To be easily understood we need good open vowel production.
Open tone or open vowel production is dependent on a particular way of creating your vowel sounds. The back parts of the mouth all react to make different shapes which turn the phonated or unphonated breath stream into voiced or unvoiced sounds.
This calls for great flexibility of this part of the vocal mechanism. This flexibility is dependent on the “forward-in-the-masque”
Procedure:
Use the two affricates, the ch in “church” and the sh in “sheep”, and the consonant^ as in “judge” to establish an open puckered position of the lips.
Repeat the following words: Sheep; judge; church.
Use large mirror or small hand mirror to observe the form or shape of the lips. This lip position can be described as an open square or a bell shape or as a small megaphone.
Sustain the following tone syllables on one pitch, using care not to re lax the open position of the lips:
Jah – jay – jo
Chee – chay – cho
Shee – shay – sho
Conclusion: The elimination of the use of the lips through the open-square position tends to bring in an enunciation of the vowel sounds by the pharynx as well as a forward-in-the-masque illusion of “nasal resonance.”
