Why L consonant?

smpzpirate

Hi,
This should be simple enough to fathom but I don't recall any of the videos explaining why we use the L consonant and it's significance. Are we supposed to be holding on to that same feeling when creating the vowel sounds with and open throat? Is that the key?

Maybe someone can help.

Thanks

smpz

Same but this is my paid member sign in, doh!

highmtn

L is a soft consonant. KTVA only starts the first note with a soft consonant, and from there on it's purely vowels. You want to rehearse singing on vowels, not consonants. Methods that launch all exercises with consonants on every note are teaching you to sing with a crutch. It doesn't work so well when you need to sing a song.

Mum, mum, mum. Nay, nay, nay. Buh, buh, buh. Goog, goog, goog. Those exercises make you too reliant upon exploding each note by launching them with consonants, rather than learning to make good vowel sounds.

Bob

twelvedesign

Found this older thread. I still wonder why L, or really any other consonant sound? Can't we just start with pure vowel?

highmtn

You can, but the L is very gentle. It makes for a controlled onset to the sound. Think of it as a beveled edge. You don't want hard onsets, but at the same time you don't want your initial onset to always be mush like a straight AH at the beginning.

Some methods teach Gug, Mum, Nay, etc... this becomes a crutch and forces air to blast the cords apart. Not good. Lah (just on the initial onset) is far healthier than Gug, gug, gug, or nay, nay, nay, or mum, mum, mum. You could call those other methods "closed throat singing" because the vocal tract repeatedly closes down and has to be reopened. Consonants should not be injected into every note of a scale. This is totally inconsistent with good singing.

Starting a scale with one "L" is healthy and makes for consistent onsets.

twelvedesign

@highmtn, I am guessing M could be used just as well (just to start the scale), but I can see how L does the trick and somewhat sets this program apart.

BTW, thank you for taking time and answering all my questions