Subject: Italian Dental Consonants (Was Intonation and Diction Problems)
From: "jjh"
To: Vocalist <vocalist>
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

On Wed, 9 Feb, Chris Thomas wrote:

>Another good idea for pronouncing the "t" and "d" in particular is to put
>your hand in front of your mouth and feel whether or not any air is coming
>out. Say the word "tan" and feel how the air hits your palm --- now say
>"Stan" -- no air (because it's preceded by the "S"). Now start "Stan" and
>stop at the "st"; then say "tan" coming from that same place -- that's the
>way an Italian "t" should sound. Same feeling for the "d".

Thank you Chris! That's a nifty tip, I loved it. Hope you don't mind if I
steal it for my Diction class! The Italian diction teacher at Indiana Univ.
(Gianna D'Angelo, at that time) used to say "pretend like you have peanut
butter on the roof of your mouth, and that sticky peanut butter prevents the
puff of air from escaping." I've used that tip a lot, too.

Jana
--
Jana Holzmeier
Dept. of Music
Nebraska Wesleyan University
5000 Saint Paul Ave.
Lincoln, NE 68504
jjh-at-nebrwesleyan.edu
402-465-2284