Physiology of Singing: Vowel formants 101 and a quick toe-dip into linguistics
Channel: Kim Neely
Date: 2018-03-15

You know how, when you're a voice major, you go to your language courses (Italian, French, German, Russian, etc.) and you learn how to say a thing and then you go to your diction class and/or vocal coaching and they're all "THAT'S NOT HOW TO SAY THE THING!" No? It's just me? Well...I made this video so...please watch it anyway, I guess?

But seriously, first half goes through the basics of vowel formants and how they (indirectly) relate to tongue position in the mouth. Second half, I do a short thing on how syllabic stress patterns in languages can influence the vowel we produce (i.e., stressed vowels are longer, louder, and need to be more clear to a listener than unstressed ones.) If you need a little review on what formants are, go here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1qg78vTdC0&index=15&list=PLwb4Q3HplEjEQ1DkmLofoOD_OHYaRz3kR 

About me: 
I have my Master of Music (MM) in vocal performance, Master of Science in speech-language and hearing sciences, and I am a licensed speech-language pathologist (CCC-SLP) in the United States. I also have recurrent nerve paresis in my left vocal fold. This injury went undiagnosed for several years. Throughout those years, I attributed much of my vocal trouble to technique issues, never imagining the problem really originated at the level of the vocal folds. The process of recovery has now lead me to become a speech-language pathologist and the process of being a slightly crazy person has me currently pursuing a PhD in neuroscience (currently on-hold pending funding) researching the neurophysiology of human facial muscles.

I hope this vlog will be a valuable resource for those who suspect vocal injury, are recovering from injury, professional singers and voice teachers.