An Introduction to Diction

Having proper diction is paramount while singing. Without it, we wouldn’t understand the words, thus losing an important connection with the music. A few students have recently had some minor diction issues, so here are a couple of ideas to help you sing your words clearly.

1. Warm-ups: Developing any skill begins with a good warm-up. There are an infinite amount of diction warm-ups; check out YouTube or Google them! One for younger kids that’s a lot of fun is singing “Mommy made me mash my M and M’s” over a 5-note scale, ascending and descending. Try saying “di-guh-duh” per note on a 5-note scale ascending and descending for a real challenge!

2. Positioning your tongue: Your tongue is perhaps the most important part of pronouncing words clearly. This is not true for every word or syllable, but what I find among many students is that most misheard lyrics come from not having the tongue directly right behind the teeth. Again, the tongue will have to positioned differently for different words, but this is just an occurrence I have observed.

3. Shadow vowels: One of the best ways to have your final consonant (last letter of a word that isn’t a vowel) come through clearly is to add a shadow vowel. The final consonant will determine what vowel you use. For example, if your last word in a phrase was “hold”, an appropriate shadow vowel would be “uh” or “ih” depending on your preference. You would end up singing “hold-ih”. It may seem a little weird at first, but when done tastefully it really works well. Just remember not to overdo it otherwise it will sound rather silly!

4. Over-pronounce your words: Many beginners don’t realize that diction in singing is not like diction when speaking. You really have to work hard and over-pronounce your words more than you think for them to come out cleanly.

5. Learn IPA: IPA, or International Phonetic Alphabet is a system of symbols that objectively characterize sounds in any language. This is a useful tool especially when learning a different language; if you know IPA, there is no discrepancy as to how one pronounces something. It takes a little practice to understand, but once you get a few sounds down (especially vowel sounds), it becomes a lot easier. Thanks to the internet, many websites post entire IPA transliterations of composers’ works. Ask your teacher or check out this chart. Again, start with the vowel sounds and work your way to the consonants.