Diction Exercises for Vocalists
In this episode, Kadi shows you a few different singing warmups and exercises to help improve your clarity while singing.
Diction Exercises for Singers
- contributed by Kadi
(00:12): Hi, I'm Kadi Helms and I am an vocal instructor here at the Louisiana Academy of Performing Arts. Today, I wanted to give you a short lesson on the importance of diction in singing. Diction is something we use to help enunciate our words. So we typically sing to give a message to the audience, but what good is that message if the audience can't make out what we're saying? That's where diction comes in. Consonants like P's, T's, C's are so important. It's what makes the difference between cat and cat, right? Clear, kind of clear. So now I want to show you a couple of exercises with diction that you can try at home.
(00:56): So before we even start singing, maybe we can do a little bit of speaking just some consonants. So I'm going to use P, T, and C, and it's going to go like this. [Singing 00:01:08]. You can go at any speed that you feel comfortable. You can go [singing 00:01:15]. Just really hitting those hard consonants. We're less worried about the vowels and more about emphasizing the consonants. So now, let's go to the piano and let's do a little bit of singing. Tongue twisters are really good for diction because they require you to focus on what you're doing in that moment and really think about the consonants and the letters that you're singing.
(01:41): So I'm going to use the example. [Singing 00:01:44]. So here we go. [Singing 00:01:50]. A little bit faster. [Singing 00:02:02]. Even faster. [Singing 00:02:12]. Last time. [Singing 00:00:02:16]. And you can really do that as high or as low as you feel comfortable doing. Now, let's do one of my favorites called Double Bubble Gum, and it goes like this. [Singing 00:02:30]. A little bit faster. [Singing 00:02:52]. Last time. [Singing 00:03:00]. And again, with that one, you can go as high as your heart desires or as low as you like. Thank you so much for tuning in to today's Lagniappe Lesson on diction. I hope you enjoyed it and we'll see you next time.