Vocal Exercises: Tuesday 23rd September 2014: Vowel Formation, Articulation, Diction and Clarity Development

Tuesday 23rd September 2014: 

Vowel Formation, Articulation, Diction and Clarity Development

The next vocal technique we are exploring is incredibly important when performing and that's articulation and diction. The only way every lyric to the song will be heard is if you're articulation and diction of the words are precise.

Sometimes when we're with our friends our diction will be lost because we're lazy or not-bothered, which is understandable but in a performance those two factors are very important. With the amount of vocal exercises out their to help us and develop our diction there is no excuse for poor diction!

Developing your articulation and diction will then bring clarity into your singing too.

Here we're going to go through the steps to improve you diction: 

Step One: 
Articulating the vowel sounds 'A', 'E', 'I', 'O', 'U'

Practising the articulation of the vowel sounds will increase your muscle memory on how to form the vowels in your mouth with the correct tongue positions. The more you practise the more effective your pronunciation of the vowels will be.

Step Two: 

Tongue Twisters 

Tongue twisters are very popular when improving articulation as there are so many focusing on the pronunciation of so may sounds. Tongue twisters also can be quite difficult at first so the more you practise the more you improve and the better and more precise the sounds become. 

The tongue has to work more rapidly to pronounce the sounds which is great because the more the tongue works hard it will become use to the fast pace movement to articulate the words and sounds needed. 

Examples of Tongue Twisters: 

1. "The lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue, the tip of the tongue, the teeth, the lips." - This tongue twister is great to practise pronouncing the 'th', 'f', 't' and 's' sounds. It's also got a strong rhythm to it which helps when singing it upbeat. 
2. "My mummy makes me mash my mini M&Ms on a Monday morning, ohh ahh." - This tongue twister helps with the pronunciation of the 'mmm' and the movement of the mouth opening and closing. 
3. "Lily likes lollipops, lemonade and lime drops, I like Lily, Lily likes me." This involves the tongue rolling underneath the teeth and focusing on pronouncing the 'l' sound. 

Tongue twisters focus on the pronunciation of the words using diction and articulation for the sentence to make (some) sense. There has to be intense focus for the words to be spoke correctly. By using harder sentences and tongue twisters you're increasing your tolerance of speaking words which may be harder become easy. The audience want to hear the words that the performer is speaking to connect with the performance. Lyrics are written for a reason and should be treated with the upmost respect. 

Step Three: 

Learning Received Pronunciation (RP)

Received Pronunciation is a typical, neutral way of speaking without and characteristics which form an accent. If a performer struggles with clarity or isn't British, RP will help. 

One way we have explored RP in class is singing "The Month Song" by focusing on diction and exploring a more exaggerated posh British accent. 

This week we have really developed our knowledge of vowel formation, articulation, diction and developing clarity. I personally believe that improving diction and articulation is very easy with the right discipline, knowledge and vocal exercises. As they say... "practise makes perfect"! 

Good Luck, 

Somer x