Vowel, when a speech sound is produced by humans when the breath flows out through the mouth without being blocked by the teeth, tongue, or lips. The vowel in English is a sound such as the ones represented in writing by the letters 'a', 'e', 'i', 'o', and 'u', which you pronounce with your mouth open, allowing the air to flow through it.
When speaking or singing, the vowels only sustain for a short period of time, with consonants adding before and/or after the vowel, are pronounced by stopping the air from flowing through the mouth, especially by closing the lips or touching the teeth with the tongue, resulting in a speech in a language. But the example here focuses on English.
By omitting the text, sustaining the vowel, the timbre of the vowels becomes more apparent. The spectrums below demonstrate different tone colour of different vowels. Like in brass instruments, with different mute, different the tone colour.
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| open vowel [a] |
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close-front vowel [i]
 | | Mid-front vowel [e] |
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Mid-back vowel [o]
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| Close-back vowel [u] |
The open [a] and [o] vowel provides a strong low and especially mid-frequency range, a solid timbre of all vowels. [a] provides more even spectra distribution, while [o] peaks at the 4th harmonic. On the contrary, the [i] and [e] provide similar tone quality of overtone singing, the higher spectrum is more raised and isolated, the timbre of the aura. The [i] is slightly muted compared to the [e] full of harmonic. [u] is the most muted sound, the harmonics decay rapidly after the 4th harmonic.
The consonant can be served as the articulation of an instrument. [k] as marcato; [j] as tenuto; [t] as staccato; [m] as muted; [y] as quite creacendo etc.
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