Emily C., McKinney, Ch. 9

Emily C., McKinney, Ch. 9

• Rewrite in your own words the 5 identifying characteristics of consonants.
• They’re restricted speech sounds.
• They have more conspicuous noise elements due to restriction.
• Subordinate to vowels in sonority.
• Don’t form the nucleus/center of syllables, but are the borders.
• They stop/interrupt sound and separate vocal tone into recognizable units for meaning. 
• How are consonants divided into two primary groups.
• Voiced (sonants), and unvoiced/voiceless/surds. 
• Describe the 3 movement categories for consonants.
• Continuants: can be sustained as long as breath lasts [m, l, s, v, etc]
• Stops: bright air flow to a complete halt. aka plosive or stop-plosives. [b, p, d, t, g, k]
• Glide: a vowel sound that functions as a consonant. [j, w, wh] 
• Describe the 2 other systems used for classifying consonants.
• The way the sound is produced: 
• Fricative: breath stream passing through narrow space and makes friction sound
• Plosives/stop-plosives 
• Nasals
• Aspirate: breathy consonant. 
• Affricate: Compressed air exploded through narrow aperture of fricative instead of the normal mouth opening used for a plosive (ch and j sound) 
• Place or articulatory position in which it is formed. 
• Bilabials: closing lips. 
• Labiodentals: lower lip touch upper teeth
• Dentals: tip of tongue against upper teeth
• Alveolars: tongue touches alveolar ridge or is approaching it. 
• Velar: back of tongue touching soft palate. 
• Glottals: glottis closed/nearly. 
• Rewrite in your own words the 5 identifying characteristics of vowels.
• Unrestricted speech sounds.
• Can be sustained/continuants. 
• Are usually voiced but can be whispered.
• Basic building material of vocal tone. Vowel carries tone.
• Have definite shape/form that’s molded by articulators. 
• Which articulator is of primary importance in the making of vowel sounds?  Why?
• The tongue because it determines the relationship/shape between the oral and pharyngeal cavity. 
• Describe how vowels are grouped.
• Front/back/central: Highest point of arch of tongue. 
• Tense/lax: texture produced by tension of muscles in mouth/throat. (Like “i” in “bee” and “bit”) 
• Stressed/unstressed: Stress; relative loudness/force/intensity of syllable.  
• Cardinal and Latin/singer’s vowels: Cardinal: made with tongue position that is invariable. Latin/Italian/Singer’s vowels: [i e a o u] aka long vowels. 
• What are the four levels of stress?
• Primary, secondary, tertiary, and weak. 
• What are the 5 Singer’s Vowels?
• [i e a o u]
• What is a phoneme?
• A set of speech sounds that help distinguish one word from another; a family of sounds in a given language. If two sounds cannot be interchanged w/out changing word meaning, it’s a phoneme. 
• What is an allophone?
• Phonetically distinct articulations that can be substituted for each other. 
• Which articulators are under the direct control of the singer.
• lips, lower jaw, and tongue. 
• Which articulators must be trained indirectly?
• Soft palate, glottis, epiglottis, and larynx. 
• What are the 2 basic principles which contribute to the effective use of the articulators?
• All movements of articulators should be quick, precise, and positive, free from tension. 
• In singing, movements must be exaggerated for understandability. 
• What does McKinney suggest imagining as a first step?
• Imagine all articulatory movements are taking place just in front of your mouth, crisp, precise, without tension. 
• What are suggestions that are made for use/position of lips?
• Free from tension. Bounce freely apart after contact. Pleasant, vital expression, about to smile. Don’t pull back lips too far. 
• What suggestions are made for your lower (yikes) jaw?
• Free from tension. Beginning of yawn position. Drops down then swings back. Shouldn’t stay in same place at all times. Increase opening as you sing higher. 
• What suggestions are made for your tongue?
• Free of tension. Have a resting place/a point of reference to return to. Make this a conditioned reflex. Don’t have a sluggish/stiff/lazy tongue. Yawn position of tongue. Arch of tongue will change for vowels, but tip should remain in contact w/ lower gum ridge. 
• Why is tongue considered most important articulator?
• It changes the formation of all vowel sounds and many consonant sounds. 
• Define/describe consonants in general.
• A subordinate sound used with a vowel to form a syllable. Defines borders of sounds. 
• Why does McKinney suggest firm consonants?
• Consonants are subordinate to vowels in sonority and don’t carry as well. Help the singer to establish and maintain good/solid tone production on vowels. Supplies energy for firm phonation. 
• Define vowels.
• Voiced, unrestricted speech sounds that can be sustained and are the building material of vocal tone. 
• What is the function of vowels?
• To carry the tone. 
• What is the function of consonants?
• To break up the tone into distinct, comprehensible units. 
• What is the problem that inexperienced singers have with vowels?
• They are unable to establish/maintain steady states of vowel posture. 
• How are the concepts of vowel purity and phonemic identity different?
• Vowel purity: There is only one true/pure form of a vowel that never varies. 
• Phonemic integrity: A vowel will maintain its basic sound, despite all variations it may undergo. Only when it crosses the border of a neighboring phoneme will it lose its identity/integrity. 
• What are the problems that occur when singers insist on singing “pure” vowels in the upper voice?
• Loss of quality, tight phonation, elevated, larynx, vocal strain. 
• What are the different approaches to vowel migration or vowel modification?
• Recognize that vowels do modify in upper voice and should allow more space (internal/external) while thinking of basic vowel sound. More jaw dropping as pitch rises. 
• Think vowel toward which you are modifying. 
• Vowels migrate toward center, with coloring of “ah” or “uh” in upper voice. 
• What is the critical factor in all systems of vowel migration/modification?
• Retain enough phonemic identity for the word to be recognized. 
• In studying professional female singers, upon what is jaw opening dependent?
• Dependent upon the phonation frequency than on the vowel, particularly at high pitches. Jaw opening is typically wider in highest notes than lowest.