What the
Heck Are Diphthongs? And, no, they don't have anything to do with Victoria's Secret.
They're the two part vowels we probably learned about in the third grade and
promptly forgot by the time fourth grade rolled around. Stuff we were certain
we would never have any use for.
Well,
singers, we were wrong.
A
diphthong is a sort of "uber" vowel, in that it has two different and
sequential vowel sounds instead of one. Although exactly which specific vowels
fall into this category is hotly contested, and may have something to do with
regional accents, I think the following five vowel sounds are generally
accepted as being true diphthongs:
ay, ai Eh-ee as in Say
I, y Ah-ee as in Lie
oh Uh-oo as in Go
ou, ow Ah-oo as in Out
oy Uh-ee as in Boy
The percentage of time allotted to the first part of the
word is about two thirds, with the second part finishing the remaining one
third. These percentages are very arbitrary. American English is a complex
amalgam of influences and depending upon where we live, some of us have
probably gone through life without ever following through with the second part
of the vowel!
But when you link like sounds together you can very clearly
hear the double vowel effect. From childhood we might remember the little
jingle: "How Now Brown Cow?" Or this song from the Broadway musical
My Fair Lady: "The Rain in Spain Stays Mainly on the Plain."
So why is this important for a singer to know?
There is (0r should be) an uninterrupted flow in the
singer's vocal line. Like a river, it takes twists and turns and may even
disappear underground for a while but it never ceases to flow.
All too often we singers fail to include the tail of this
double vowel in the musical line; instead, we let the tone drop down and out of
its place in the line. We lose control of the resonance because it drops into
our throat momentarily as we swallow the tail of the note. The tone after this
happens gets muddy for a second, pitch suffers and the lyrical line becomes
unwieldy and stiff. You have momentarily dropped out of your resonance zone.
Be careful not to over-do it in the other direction though,
and put too much pressure on the second half. Simply remember the tail is an
important part of the singer's line and is not to be ignored.
Nashville
vocal coach Renee Grant-Williams reveals the trade secrets that have already
helped hundreds of aspiring singers become celebrities: Tim McGraw, Martina
McBride, Dixie Chicks, Miley Cyrus, Huey Lewis, Kenny Chesney, Faith Hill,
Jason Aldean, Christina Aguilera...
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