The Vowel Translator

The Vowel Translator

Welcome to Bohemian Vocal Studio’s Vowel Translator, the world’s first interactive vowel and consonant translator for singing. If you’ve been wondering which vowel to use in a vocal line or you’re having trouble singing a particular word or phrase, then this tool is designed for you! This translator is intended for use as a companion tool to coaching with Kegan at BVS – this translator isn’t designed to show you how to sing, but it will make it an easier and smoother process to put everything you’ve learned into practice with actual songs and vocal lines.

Practice has never been so effective!

The Vowel Translator is available to premium subscribers.

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The best way to use the Vowel Translator is to first attempt a song yourself while making note of any difficult words or phrases, then to use the translator to help you apply your vowels properly to these words or phrases.

Legend

– A dash separates each character, such as a vowel and then a consonant sound like b-EH-t for the word “Bet”

< Angled parenthesis indicate a potentially aspirated consonant such as H or F like <h-EH-oo/l-AH/OO for the word “Hello”

AH/OO and EH/OO has now been replaced by ER for any new words added from October 1st 2019 – these indicate a dipthong, and can be sung as the ER vowel (tongue up and forward) similar to the American pronunciation of “Look” or “Book” – like a lazy “Lerk” or “Berk”. Instead of using the OO vowel for a word like “Look”, it would instead be replaced by an ER vowel similar to “Lerk” to keep space in the vocal tract.

AH(AA) identifies a word that commonly has two options of pronunciation such as n-EE(AH-EE)-th-EH-oo/r for the word “Neither” which either starts with the sounds “Nigh” or “Nee” depending on the style you sing. You can choose to sing the initial vowel and ignore the brackets, or you can ignore the initial vowel and sing the bracketed vowel instead.

EH is an AY sounding vowel which is an extension of the EE tongue shape. Book a session with me if you’re having trouble shaping your vowels.

oo/r is the most generalised way for all accents and voice types to sing closed resonant consonant sounds such as R, L, Y and W. The “oo” is figurative and more a way to attain placement on your consonant so that it doesn’t occur in your throat like in speech.

n/th is a generalised way to sing a “TH” without choking off your throat – the “n” is figurative.

k indicates the presence of a glottal consonant such as G or K and is performed in singing by a click at the back of the tongue instead of a glottal stop.

dt indicates a d consonant and should be performed at the teeth without a glottal stop, similar to a “T”

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I really have to sing all of that?

The translator is Bohemian Vocal Studio’s approach to vowels in it’s purest form without consideration to accent or stylistic delivery – if you are singing in a particular style such as Rock, or you’re opting for a specific tonal delivery then you may find the Translator is overly detailed and ending consonants or dipthongs may not be necessary. This is a companion tool, not a comprehensive singing approach on its own – you’re welcome to ask any questions pertaining to the Vowel Translator in the “leave a reply” box below.

There’s a word missing?

The Vowel Translator is currently in Beta form, so you may find the occasional word that hasn’t yet been added to the translator – leave the missing word in the “leave a reply” box below and I’ll add it as soon as possible. Please note, the Translator doesn’t accept hyphenated words such as “self-chosen”, so you need to write this phrase as “self chosen” instead.

I’m finding it complicated

Don’t translate full songs or verses just yet – you’re basically learning a new language, so don’t run before you’ve learned how to walk. To learn proper use of the translator, I suggest translating a simple word or vocal phrase that you already know how to sing properly and compare how you are singing to the way it appears in the translator first until you start to understand the format of the translation – remember, you can ask me a question at any time using the “Leave a reply” box below the translator.

65 Comments

  1. hi buddy
    I recently bouthg your course and I can feel the resonance/placement into my head and it’s super cool , thank u 😀

    I’m from Chile, bye

  3. Awesome tool!
    Really helps with resonance and placement!

    Brain start to work in new – much better way – in aspect of vowels

  4. chasing
    cyclone
    tricky
    pieces
    hurts ( probably because “s” at the end of a words)
    tough
    fantasy
    landslide
    aching
    spine
    sympathy

  5. coughing
    nauseous
    health
    troubled
    sailing

    Kegan I do love you!
    It’s magic placement and resonance builder
    Practice has never been so effective!

  6. Its helpful for you – to write missing words?
    If so – I will write

    For myself – I clearly get missing part of context

  7. People also should strongly know – that right shaped vowels much better for tune.
    This trainer very helps with high notes too…

  14. Murderer
    bend
    pretending
    living
    saint
    higher

    Its realy HELPS to APPLY what you told me on lessons!

    Before work with translator I didn’t recognize how much throaty my voice was.
    and how easy sing with right placement (and legato and right consonants approach (struggle now only on k and g )

    I feel huge improvement!

    I just read read read and start to sing automatically in very different way))

  18. Hi Kegan

    It seems most struggles in learning to sing are related to translating concepts and exercises into actual songs. I’ve had the idea for a while that it would be great if a coach put together a ‘song pack’ for purchase. It would be very similar to your excellent youngstown video, but more in depth. What I mean is it would start with the full performance, then break it down line by line explaining every concept used (e.g. this bit requires more support/this bit the placement is here/this bit has tricky consonants to negotiate/watch out for this pitfall here) until the end of the song. It would also include a marked lyric sheet with vowel translations. It would be the perfect teaching by detailed example. Is that something you’d consider? Seasons by Chris Cornell would be an excellent example…

    • Hi Jake!

      That’s partially where the idea for the Translator and Consonant guide came from. It’s a great idea you have there, but each element is subjecting to the person and the voice – for example, you may support more/less depending on your voice type, and use your resonant space differently, be at a different balancing point in your voice at any given point. So it would be very general (as most “how to sing like” singing videos are) as it would be tailored to my voice specifically, not yours.

      The translator really works in this same way with the general vowel shape you use, along with the translated consonant sound. If you follow the Foundation 101 course, or the booster courses that will take care of the registers/resonant space/resonance/range etc – so while it’s multiple guides rather than a song pack as you’ve described, the premise is the same but you can tailor the results to each song/different songs.

      All the best!

      K

  23. Hey, Kegan! Would you mind to add these words?

    Cling
    Veiled
    Bride
    Groom
    Kindly
    clever
    entertaining
    triumph
    swap
    unhappy
    waltz
    pamphlet
    literature
    waitress
    miserable
    Mystery
    flashing
    amber
    questionnaire
    change

  27. religion
    superstition
    hypocrisy
    expose
    contradictions
    crumbling
    mythology
    awakening
    demon
    musings
    reject
    irrationality
    theology
    heroes
    breach
    Peter
    Paul
    nonsense
    evidence
    subversive
    shatter
    pretense
    countenance
    superstitious
    tyranny
    divine
    forgiveness 🙂

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