How do you figure out what vowels work for you?

[hanalei]

For the sound I want, I was advised to use closed vowels and "relaxed phonation."  I'm not entirely sure what either of those mean, or how to tell when I'm doing it right.  

 

If it would help, here's a clip of me.  I have no idea what kind of vowels or phonation I use or how to change it, so I'd appreciate any help.

 

https://soundcloud.com/user7915197/bon-jovi-cover-living-on-a

[Crqc]

Sometimes Y works best for me, like in 867-5309 (Jenny)

"Jennsometimes y, Jennsometimes y who can I turn to?"

[hanalei]

Yeah, but... how do I figure out what works for me and what I'm doing now?

[cwehden]

This is really good, loads of really good things here. 

As a girl perhaps not right now but as you get better you will be able to sing this song in a much high key easily and freely. At the moment it's sitting a bit low but I can hear on the top notes it's pulling a bit. 

How much are you working on your head voice? I'd recommend working on it consistently it's the only way to find easy higher notes. If you want to make those tops notes easier then also become aware that the 'wo--- wo--' is around the middle of your voice not the top, if it feels like the top then that will be because it's not quite coordinating in the right spot and it's pushed out and not quite coordinated right.

Think of 'wo' as 'ooo oh' and make sure as you open up the mouth for those notes you keep it 'oh' the more it moves towards 'aaaa aaaw' the more it will pull up and feel like hitting a ceiling. Until you feel you have a better understanding of how to hold the wider brighter vowel together you'll serve yourself well to become aware that darker narrow vowels will tend to keep you in a safe spot and wide bright vowels can lead you into to trouble if you aren't careful with them, especially around just below and middle C for girls that is where most women start to yell and push.

The good stuff I mentioned is you are keeping allot of other things consistent like airflow and compression which takes many people including myself a long time to figure out!

 

http://www.youtube.com/user/SingingSuccess

 

[hanalei]

I've actually taken somewhere around 10 voice lessons in the past few months (not a lot, I know) but I've definitely improved. When I first started, my range was G3 to D5. Now it's more like C3 to D5 in chest voice. Some days I can hit a B2 - it's usually quiet and somewhat gravelly, but it's getting better and it depends on the day, really. My coach said the bridge in my voice is at C5/D5 (D5 is pretty hard for me to hit nicely.) I really haven't worked on my head voice much. I don't like it because it sounds too "pretty" and breathy, but that's probably becuase I haven't worked on it.

 

One thing I do struggle with - which you can hear in the clip I posted - is going from a high note to a low note. My coach told me it's becuase I switch voice types, but even when I focus on keeping the breath and everything the same, it still usually comes out shaky, even though I can hit the lower notes fine otherwise.

 

It might help if I did that song more often. ;-) The one thing I want is for the Bon Jovi influence in my voice to come through... I don't think it really does yet. It does with my guitar.

 

But it's good to hear I'm unintentionally doing stuff right! That's always good. :-)