The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #19295   Message #197772
Posted By: Alice
19-Mar-00 - 03:44 PM
Thread Name: St Pat's Day in the Mudcat Tavern
Subject: RE: St Pat's Day in the Mudcat Tavern
Andrés, regarding singing in English, I am sure you know the difficulty is that the language is one of the worst for keeping an open sound (and the best is Italian, of course). I am sure you know this from your training, as well as the sound of all the languages you have learned. When I was 8 years old, my family had two Cuban refugees come to live with us for a year and half, a brother and sister. I remember the sound of the language as they spoke it, and I studied it in school, as well as travelling in Mexico and Central America. It has been too long since I have spoken Spanish, so I've lost any fluency I had. What I did keep, which helped me in learning to sing, was the open vowels of Spanish. It helps even in singing English, because so many English speakers stop the sound on the roof of their mouth, sing through their nose, or hang onto the consonants instead of the vowels. The English words sound like so much hissing and spitting (sounds of s, t, th, k, ch) compared to Italian or Spanish.

To be able to sing the English songs will, I am sure, bring much attention to your skill.

Alice