In singing, diction is very important. “What is diction?” you might ask. Diction is how we pronounce the words that we’re singing and pronouncing them clearly so we can be understood. When we are speaking, we have to enunciate to be understood but even more so when we sing. Most of our singing is done on vowel sounds and there are short notes and long notes in the rhythm that make it harder to enunciate. So we have to exaggerate our pronunciations a bit more and sometimes modify the way we pronounce something so it can be understood more clearly when we sing.
We do a lot of vocal exercises that help us practice our pronunciation, both for vowels and consonants. But when I had a couple students who had a particularly difficult time with their diction, I decided to try something different. I used a series of common tongue twister sayings and limericks and put them to a simple melody. Such as, “she sells seashells by the seashore” or “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers”. Say that five times fast! Okay, now try to sing it and enunciate!
Have fun! Which is your favorite? Which is the hardest?
Miss Donna 4 Music 