Guides | How To Pronounce Words When Singing
Updated: Dec 15, 2021
The way you pronounce words is very important when you are singing a song. No matter what type of song that you are singing, the pronunciation of the words can make a lot of difference in your singing. Be it hitting high notes or sounding better, pronouncing words can create more possibilities with your voice!
In this blog post, I will be giving you tips and tricks on how to pronounce words when you sing.
Let Restricting Consonants Go
When singing high notes with consonants like "r", "k", or "l", you would have to quit enunciating those consonants.
Why?
These consonants makes you close your mouth more and thus you are unable to project your voice better. Due to this, it is harder to sing high notes with these consonants as they narrow your voice cords, allowing little space for air to pass through.
If you don't believe me, try singing the vowel "a" compared to the consonant "r". The vowel "a" is definitely easier to sing out loud compared to the consonant "r".
So when singing words with these "consonants", just ignore their presence and sing the word as it is.
For example, "yours" becomes "you-s", "take" becomes "ta-e" and "pale" becomes "pa-e".
Of course, if the notes aren't that high, you could continue to sing the way as it is.
This is only if the word is associated with a high note.
Modify Your Vowels
Next, you would have to modify your vowels in a way that it sounds wider and broader.
This would allow more space in your mouth and makes it easier to hit higher notes with it.
What do I mean by this?
For the "a" vowel, pronounce it more like "AH" or "EH".
For the "e" vowel, pronounce it more like an "EH" or "EE".
For the "i" vowel, pronounce it more like a "EE" or "AH".
For the "o" vowel, pronounce it like an "OO" or "OH".
For the "u" vowel, pronounce it more like an "AH" or "EH".
Here's a great example of vowel modification by Morisette:
In the chorus, Morisette sang the words like "enough" and "me" with a vowel modifications. If you notice carefully, instead of singing "enough", she sang the "o" like an "AH". And for "me", she sang the "e" like an "EH".
This allows her to hit those ridiculous high notes
Of course, you would have to take note that you can't modify every single vowel in a word since they might come with a different enunciation. In those cases, you would have to sing it as it is.
With these two key things in mind, you should be able to sing more comfortably and easily.
Of course, these are only tips that I'm giving but in the end, it is up to you to actually put it into use.
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