So many things to think about

Jeff Carter unleashed a great stream of ideas while teaching a voice lesson a few days ago:

As I was waxing dramatic about important words and syllables in singing texts, this one just spewed forth:

 

Think of objects and subjects , action verbs, and unexpected adverbs and adjectives as having more RPM than linking verbs, articles, prepositions, and other parts of speech.

 

I realized years ago that I’m also a teacher of grammar. And my student got the illustration, quickly putting it to work. So much of what I do is just getting singers to land on important syllables, rather than sing an all-purpose moan, however lovely that moan may be.

 

On that same day I threw these ideas up on the board as we were discussing all the different elements that effect how we approach any particular syllable. Each of these things may or may not cause us to have to make a choice about what we do with that vowel, and where that vowel lands in the long continuum of IPA possibilities and realities.