To: VOCALIST <vocalist>
From: Karen
Subject: Re: Italian Dental Consonants (Was Intonation and Diction
Problems)
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

>On Wed, 9 Feb, Chris Thomas wrote:
>
>>Another good idea for pronouncing the "t" and "d" in particular is to put
>>your hand in front of your mouth and feel whether or not any air is coming
>>out. Say the word "tan" and feel how the air hits your palm --- now say
>>"Stan" -- no air (because it's preceded by the "S"). Now start "Stan" and
>>stop at the "st"; then say "tan" coming from that same place -- that's the
>>way an Italian "t" should sound. Same feeling for the "d".

Another useful tip: Richard Miller (in the Structure of Singing)
says that the position of the Italian "t" and "d" is the same as our
English tongue position as in the word "ads" (on TV).
Cheers, Karen Jensen,
Professor, Diction, Pedagogy,
University of Manitoba, Canada