Dear American English Classical singers, if you can answer yes to any of the questions below, you, too, may be helped by the power of fruit….
1. Do find it challenging to learn other languages, especially the pure vowel ones?
2. Do you speak with an thick hometown vernacular?
3. Do you find yourself saying the same vowel many different ways?
4. Does trying to neutralize and purely pronounce vowels (despite what your natural language would have you do) give you fits however beautiful when refined?
Fret no more, dear songbirds. I have found an easy remedy to help cure your murky vowel woes.
As I continue to work on establishing idiomatic Italian diction, I stumbled on a greatly helpful handy dandy word.
Say to yourself “banana.”
Did you say boe nae nuh?
I work with a wonderful vocal coach, Giovanni Longo. His native language is Italian. When he pronounces this word, he says: bah nah nah.
Ok, I giggle a bit when he says it.
But this shows in a nutshell, the purity of the Italian language. It is a little window into how American speakers can more easily access an Italian tongue.
Listen to the Italian greats sing musical theater. That is another great insight (albeit somewhat funny) into the world of pure vowels.
And the great news is that the world of pure vowels is the singer’s elixir. Bel canto or bust indeed.
#akintsucrooner
akintsucrooner 