“The Divine Couplet Of Singing”—The OO and EE Vowels

On a bio/mechanical level, singing is, one might say, flexing vocal muscles musically; this means that the actions of singing organize the vocal muscles in such a way that they could perform the physical requirements of artistic singing in a strong and coordinated fashion. It’s in this light that the oo and ee vowels, in particular, have special significance. When they are properly created during the voice-building process and effectively deployed, each represents extreme muscular actions, positions, and configurations in the larynx (voice box) and pharynx (throat and soft palate); they, in effect, establish the general muscular framework of artful singing and—compared to all other vowel sounds—have the most control over its movement.

The operative word here is extreme. The two vowels—both in their construction and actions—typically work antagonistically with respect to each other. When performed correctly, the oo sound has the unique affect of lengthening maximally the pharyngeal cavity (i.e., simultaneously lowering the larynx and raising the soft palate (velum)—a movement that is basic to strong, healthy, full-throated singing, especially in the higher ranges. The ee vowel, moving in a contrasting direction, widens maximally a narrow area of the oral pharyngeal cavity at the back of the throat (the ee vowel also has the particular ability to elongate the vocal folds). The antagonistic relationship between these two vowels is the key to their special effectiveness: this muscular-tug-of-war—when amplified through voice-building actions—results in increasing the strength and stability of each vowel (and, in fact, all vowels) as well as greater coordination in the overall movement of the vocal muscles. On an acoustical level, these actions could produce high-energy resonance that both energizes a voice and aids in high-note singing.

Together the oo and ee vowels orientate and shape the essential movements, positions, and configurations of the vocal musculature during artful singing. I call this ee/oo vowel combination the “divine couplet of singing.” Why do use the word divine—a term that is normally reserved for spiritual matters? Because it’s through the combined influence of the ee and oo vowels on the vocal muscles that the authentic sound of one’s voice, as well as its athletic capability, is fully expressed, permitting a singer’s truth—and the transcendent truth of the music itself—to be spoken with unforced power and honesty. By highlighting the two vowel sounds does not mean, however, that other vowel sounds don’t play crucial roles in managing artful singing; they do and also require concentrated effort to establish their actions, positions, and configurations. The point is this: with the exceptional singer—one whose voice is both aesthetically and athletically remarkable—the oo and ee vowels create the muscular skeleton for all vowel sounds. Let’s see how this happens.

Think for a moment of the oo vowel as a vertical line (reflecting vowel depth) and the ee vowel as a horizontal one (reflecting vowel width); and imagine that they intersect each other in the middle of each to create a perfectly balanced figure of a cross (visual). Working with a five-vowel model and continuing our metaphor, the other three other vowels could be understood as emerging out of, or otherwise, filling in this cross-like figure. The ah vowel (as in father), for instance, could be imagined as a typical rectangular square that is formed in the back of the throat; it contains within it both the depth of the oo and the width of the ee vowels as its cross-shaped muscular backbone; but to transform the oo/ee cross into a true ah vowel, the four empty areas of the cross must be pushed out, so to speak, to create the four sharp corners of the ah vowel rectangle (visual). With the pharyngeal cavity in this expanded four-cornered shape, the ah vowel is firmly established. The eh vowel (as it set) is similar to the ah vowel in structure except that the height of the rectangle is reduced to about half (the width is still the same), which creates a squashed rectangle in the back of the throat (visual). As you can see, as with the ah vowel, the eh vowel possesses within it, as its essence, the cross-shaped divine couplet. The oh vowel (as in ought) resembles a rounded-off rectangle: the four corners of the cross are not pushed out, but instead form a slightly elongated oval that is formed at the back of the throat—imagine the shape of a vertical avocado (visual). As always, the oh vowel is organized by the oo/ee cross-like couplet.

Although it’s usually unwise to use abstract imagery when discussing the technical principles of singing voice, at certain points metaphor can be very illuminating. With the divine couplet of singing as configured in a muscular cross, we have before our mind’s eyes a guiding principle both for building exceptional voices as well as an ideal toward which devoted singers should aspire. By working with this principle in mind, the internal nature of beautiful singing could be explored, understood—and built. With modern singing instructors’ placing so much emphasis on projecting the voice upward and forward into the so-called mask (which actually undermines the formation and actions of the divine couplet), it’s easy to miss the essential point that not only does singing take acoustical form within the singer’s body but: its emotional/artistic dimension is a wholly inward experience. Are not the vocal cords and the pharyngeal (throat) cavity—the two principal areas responsible for voice production—located within the body? And what are “singing from the heart,” “singing with soul,” and “singing with passion” but imaginative ways of pointing to the interior dimension of artistic singing! (Taken from my book  A Revolution in Singing ch.9 p. 156).

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