Using Madde to formant tune

Donald Miller’s Resonance in Singing begins with a preface by renowned vocal pedagogue Scott McCoy who wonders why more voice instructors haven’t availed themselves of proven technologies.  He says: “I have been puzzled in recent years by the relatively low number of singing teachers who have incorporated this new information in their methodologies, particularly regarding voice acoustics and resonance.”  Miller echoes the sentiment as he works through his book.  Since I first learned about technology, I’ve used it repeatedly, and with glee, yet, I have rather slowly worked it into my private voice instruction practice.  This may be partially true because I have no models to work from, and partially because the process takes some creative thought, knowledge, and patience.  

Recently, however, I’ve had a lot of success using Madde in my personal practice to help me formant tune.
Formant tuning  is  finding the  vocal tract shapes that most easily boost a given pitch, providing stability, clarity, and volume. 

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These singers are each using a different formant tuning (though similar) for different reasons.  Can you hear any mental images as to what sounds they're making?  Can you deduce what their mouth shape is doing to the pitch they're singing?  Can you guess in what pitch range they may be singing?

Basically, I choose a pitch, and begin to create one vowel shape at a time, using Madde as a guide to explore what formant tuning options (i.e. vowel shapes) I have on that pitch and that.  You only really need to know some general formant information to make this happen (see our Harmonics vs. Formants page).  I try out every option I can think of. 

1) I turn on my SYGT voice analyzer
2) Have Madde sing the note
3) Then I sing with Madde
4) Then I turn Madde off while still singing
5) Then I vocal fry (to show my formants)
6) Then I look at the acoustic results in the analyzer, noting where my pattern is similar or different from Madde's

Almost every time, my formants are perfectly in line with the optimum strategies that I create with Madde from the first time I do it.  We have a remarkable capacity to mimic, and when we have a model that perfectly aligns harmonics and formants, it saves a lot of time.  I’ve learned loads about my vocal options in the past few weeks while practicing this way, and it’s translated easily onto the repertoire that I’m singing.  The best part is that Madde is free, and super easy to use.  I’m developing a presentation for PAVA with Madde to help people understand formant tuning for choirs.  It’s a powerful tool, and one that we can use regularly, without much effort, and to significant effect.

~David