From: John Alexander Blyth
Subject: Re: Intonation and Diction Problems
To: VOCALIST <vocalist>
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

Pitch: When I have had pitch problems, it was entirely due to my poor vocal
technique, which can still stab me in the back if a passage hasn't been
sufficiently rehearsed to iron out tech problems.

Italian: Definitely only listen to native speakers (and singers) of a
language if you care about pronouncing it properly. You can still listen to
other singers because they sing well, not because of their language skills!
However it is important to note that most languages have conventions in the
sung form which differ from the spoken form, and also that many speakers of
(for instance) "italian" actually speak a dialect with very different sounds
from the 'high' form of the language.
Even sung English has perhaps three accepted styles of classical pronunciation.

john
At 10:58 09/02/00 -0500, you wrote:
>al,
> i would suggest that you may want to rent a bunch of italian movies and
>get used to hearing them speak and then just try imitating them using the
>text of your aria and a tape recorder. you may want to begin with the most
>outragious imitation of an italian accent and work back from there if it is
>indeed, too much. that would be much easier than trying to creep up from your
>american accent. one other little tip- try sticking the tip of your tongue
>just outside the teeth, rather than just inside them, for N,L,D and T.
> are your intonation problems always the same? flat or sharp? do you have
>these problems when you vocalise or just when you are singing a piece of
>music? can you whistle in tune?
>
>mike
>
John Blyth
Bass/Baritone (as opposed to Bass-Baritone) though I'm really a baritone
Brandon, Manitoba, Canada