Vocal pedagogy

Pronuniciation and Diction in Singing (Music)

When singing it is important to realize you must have unified vowels and precise diction to maximize comprehension and also create a nice tone. As singers we must think of individual syllables in addition to the entire word. This guide will start off discussing the small syllable and eventually move to the whole.

Pure Vowels

When singing you should strive for a nice open tone. A way to achieve this, is to focus on the pure vowels which are: [a], [ε], [i], [o], and [u]. They are taken from the italian vowels which are a universal pronunciation tool used in singing.

Pronuciation of each vowel: the vowels must be arranged from light to dark i,e,a,o,u

[a] as in the English pronunciation of father

[ε] as in the English pronunciation of met, or bet, or set

[i] as in the English pronuciation of me, we, or see (when making this sound round your lips a little so the sound is not spread)

[o] this is a little harder in English so like to compare it to the Spanish pronuciation of no. Try to make it a short sound without adding any [u] to it.

[u] as in the English pronunciation of you or tool

Worksheets