[nabs-l] community choir question

[Ashley Bramlett]

Kelsey,
I think you need to be your own advocate. Its definitely important to  sing 
those vowels out clearly.
Listen critically to classically choir music. Notice how vowels are held out 
or emphasized. For instance the letter A is sung like AH usually.
Try to immitate this. Since I have vision and saw print, I knew the vowels.
My chorus teacher in middle school had us practice vowels too.

If listening doesn't work, talk to the teacher.
Don't feel bad about asking. Its just a gap in knowledge.
Simply ask them to explain how to do it. It’s a certain way of shaping your 
lips and breathing right.
Make sure to stand or sit straight up as this will help in singing out 
clearly.
If you need further guidance, ask them to let you touch their face so you 
are shown what its like.
Also if you wish to know what print vowels look like, you can get several 
types of tactile alphabet sets. Some are plastic magnetic letters and I 
think some are raised letters on cards. Do you have contact with a teacher 
of the visually impaired or rehab teacher? They may know where to get 
tactile letters although you probably can find them at toy stores.

Ashley

-----Original Message----- 
From: Kelsey Nicolay
Sent: Monday, November 11, 2013 10:44 PM
To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Subject: [nabs-l] community choir question

Hello,
I currently sing in a community choir in my city.  I like it a
lot and have really become good friends with people in my
section.  However, I've been in choirs since fourth grade, but I
still have trouble understanding vowel shapes.  I guess it's
because my directors really didn't know how to explain that in a
way that made sense.  Anyway, the director will tell the group
something like: "Oo should look like ah." But if I don't know
what that looks like, how am I supposed conform it? So my
question to you guys is: Since this is a community choir, do I
need to tell someone about this? They put me next to two very
strong singers, one of which is a board member.  I feel
comfortable talking to both of them and they do their best to
help me out, but I just feel very uncomfortable bringing this up
with anyone.  I think this is kind of a silly question to ask
your director considering I've been in choir for this long, but I
also don't want to stick out either.  Should the board know about
this so they can figure out how they can help me understand what
he's talking about? How can my neighbors unobtrusively show me
this during rehearsal? Is there a good tactile clue that I could
establish with them to let me know that the director wants the
vowels to be more round? If it is at all helpful, I'm a tactile
learner as well as an audio learner, so I need someone to
actually show me how to do something.  Someone who has been in
this situation before, please share your thoughts.
Thanks in advance,
Kelsey Nicolay

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