Between “i” and “e”

Weekly Teaching Tip – Mar. 16, 2015
by Dominika Plonka

Sometimes people ask me how do I use polish consonants or vowels in teaching singing.
I love to use one polish vowel: “Y”

I it very often when I try to go from “i” to “e” – this is a sound in between, which gives more chord closure than e, but it’s more open than i.

So my sequence of exercices often looks like:
mi-my-me / bi-by-be / gi-gy-ge, etc.

We can easily sing it with different position of the larynx which gives slihgtly different sound, (but it’s connected with porper prononciation in different regions of Poland). Using different position of larynx is very useful in different tendencies of our students and this vowel helps almost everyone.

Polish people pronounce it in different ways, depending on region –
– you can hear it in IPA vowel chart with audio, at the bottom of the website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vowel – listen to the the vowels I and Y.

Here is an example fo this vowel in a polish song in a brighter version, more “forward” – the singer sings it at the end of 2 first phrases:
“Swiat moj pewnie najmniejszy, Swiat moj pewnie najwiekszy”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rNi9szZmU8

Have fun in finding your own way to use the “Y” vowel with your students!