Vowel Sounds

One element that contributes to good barbershop singing and the 'lock and ring' of chords is the consistent production of vowel sounds by all members of the chorus. In order to help achieve this goal, the music team has selected a set of key words to represent each vowel sound, diphthong and triphthong that we sing.

When we sing a song, these words will be referenced to ensure that we are all creating the same vowel sound. As an example – if we are having trouble singing 'your' consistently, we will be reminded that 'your' is to be sung like 'tour'.

We will also use these keywords in our vocal warm-ups, step one in re-enforcing the vowel sound for key words in our songs.

Click here for the table of vowel sounds and keywords.