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From:  "Caio Rossi" <caiorossi@t...>
Date:  Thu Jan 17, 2002  8:14 pm
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] RE: That darned rolled 'r'

Jennifer:

>Do you speak French, because that's how a French "r"
is produced (in speaking, not singing). Not sure if
there are other languages that do it that way as well.<

We do that in Portuguese when a single 'r' starts a word and with double-r's
in
the middle of words. The American 'r' is our hillbilly here ( now I noticed
that means we have all the rs possible ). People in Rio de Janeiro do the
French 'r' also when they end the syllable, but that's a French influence
through the Portuguese court, which spoke French and escaped from Napoleon
when he invaded Portugal.

But that doesn't mean anything about being able to keep the 'r' rolling on.
Many Americans say they have trouble pronouncing that 'r' but they can
easily do the unstressed 't' as in "water", which is basically the same.

I had the same problem Ingo has about 2 years ago, although I could roll my
'r' when I spoke my native language. My speech therapist used that as an
exercise but I couldn't do it until I started singing along a Portuguese
singer ( they have
longer rolled r's than us in Brazil). I noticed the sound was the same, so I
started singing that song but held on to the 'r' when I got to it. After
some 10 attempts, I
could roll it as long as my breath allowed me without singing that or any
other song.

It might help you do the same with sounds you're familiar with. Use the
melody of a song you're familiar with with new lyrics. For example, if you
use "Daniel", by Elton John:

"ADam was fighTing under the waTer,
buT (h)e coulD've wantEd to eaT all the OooTTeeersss, oh, oh"

hehehe Whatever! After some time, you start skipping the extra consonants
and do only the T/D and their previous and following vowels, making these
vowels longer in order to keep the melody. Then you start using only the
previous vowels with the T/D until you're drop all the vowels. But try to
sing it, not do it as an exercise. Why did I suggest that crazy method?
Because American brains have learned to make that 'r' only when between
voiced sounds, so you have to start working on what your brain already knows
what to do to expand it.

Bye,

Caio

> I can roll a mean 'g' - which is to say, that it's
> at the back of the
> throat and the back of my tongue is what rolls.
snip
> I've also discovered that several other members of
> my family roll their
> 'r's the same way. I wonder if it's an inherited
> technique or
> something?


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