Diction for Singers, 2nd Edition (textbook)

So many languages, so little time...

To support the challenge of teaching diction in multiple languages in one-semester undergraduate courses, we created an integrated multimedia platform that allows you to manage it all efficiently and flexibly – and the textbook Diction for Singers is at the center of it all.

Click here to view the Table of Contents for Diction for Singers.

As the subtitle suggests – A concise reference for pronouncing English, Italian, Latin, German, French, and Spanish – all relevant languages are covered in one book, with one low price.

The material is optimized to function both as a text and a reference so that you and your students can get what you need instantly, which helps foster a sense of accessibility. The layout allows you and your students to literally flip through the pages to get right to any issue – one of the many positive features cited by professors in an independent doctoral dissertation on diction texts.

Each language follows the same structure, which makes your teaching each successive language that much easier and familiar – a structure that applies to the diction section of Russian Songs and Arias as well.

The structure begins with a concise overview of studying the language – a bird’s eye view that helps orient your student to what to expect when studying the language.

It then offers a Chart of Sounds, which is organized by alphabet letters and letter combinations, allowing you and your student quick access to easily forgotten details, particularly when transliterating a song into IPA.

Next, it is the section called Special Features, which includes such features as triphthongs in Italian or the multi-letter combinations for a single sound in French.

The final two sections of each language are Vowels in Detail and Consonants in Detail. Diction specifics are presented for each letter of the alphabet (and its subset combinations) and the guidelines for pronouncing them in a variety of contexts.

Throughout the textbook, each guideline / pronunciation rule provides example words, spelled out in IPA.

Each language chapter has an accompanying online Listening Lab, which includes all the example words in the chapter being pronounced by an expert coach. After listening to the word, the student can record themselves saying the same word and play it back in real time for comparison.

This interactive audio benefit deepens everything you teach in class with aural sounds and interactive software, freeing you in myriad ways, especially that you can listen in and comment on the student’s recordings.

Click here for an instructional video to learn how the Listening Labs work.

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To learn more about how the Diction for Singers textbook fits within the overall diction multimedia platform, consider clicking on the following link.

In particular, look for the independent doctoral dissertation written specifically to compile many professor's evaluations of the strengths and weaknesses of various published works for helping teach diction.

Multimedia Learning Platform