The Diction Police

Diction Tip--Russian Series #2

While the podcast is on vacation for the summer, we wanted to bring you something special--a short series of Diction Tips on Russian Lyric Diction! In the second installment, conductor and coach Yury Ilinov explains the concepts of "akanye" and "okanye".

Diction Tip--Russian Series #1

While the podcast is on vacation for the summer, we wanted to bring you something special--a short series of Diction Tips on Russian Lyric Diction! In the first installment, conductor and coach Yury Ilinov compares the 'и' [i] and 'ы' [ɨ] vowels, and gives us some exercises to practice [ɨ]!

Episode 112-SDU Tutorial

This will be our last episode for this season, and we wanted to do something special—so this will be our first Russian episode with a video tutorial! Ekaterina Sapega-Klein leads us through the text to Olga’s aria from Yevgeniy Onegin, talking about devoicing consonants, palatalized consonants, and what happens when a soft sign meets a vowel that starts with a j-glide. 

In the episode I talk about the difference between a palatal consonant and a palatalized consonant--for the Wikipedia entry on this topic, click here.

The Diction Police podcast will start back up again at the end of August!

Episode 112-SDU Tutorial (audio version)

This will be our last episode for this season, and we wanted to do something special—so this will be our first Russian episode with a video tutorial! Ekaterina Sapega-Klein leads us through the text to Olga’s aria from Yevgeniy Onegin, talking about devoicing consonants, palatalized consonants, and what happens when a soft sign meets a vowel that starts with a j-glide. This is the audio version of the video tutorial.

In the episode I talk about the difference between a palatal consonant and a palatalized consonant--for the Wikipedia entry on this topic, click here.

The Diction Police podcast will start back up again at the end of August!

Diction Tip #31

Since the podcast comes out every two weeks, on the off-weeks we post Diction Tips--very short tutorials focusing on a specific topic in Lyric Diction.

In Diction Tip #31, François Germain interviews Ellen Rissinger about the [æ] vowel in English lyric diction.

For more Diction Tips visit the videos section of our Facebook page or you can find all of our Diction Lessons, Diction Tips and Tongue Twisters for Singers at www.dictionpolice.com!

Episode 111-SDU Tutorial

In this episode, baritone Christoph Pohl works through the text to "Ich grolle nicht" with us, talking about Ach- and Ich-lauts, a little bit about glottals, and painting the text by using all of the consonants. We also mention the problematic letter 'L' in German—we recently posted a Diction Lesson on this topic, so if you haven’t seen that yet, make sure to check it out!

 

For more information, go to dictionpolice.com ! 

Episode 111-SDU Tutorial (audio version)

In this episode, baritone Christoph Pohl works through the text to "Ich grolle nicht" with us, talking about Ach- and Ich-lauts, a little bit about glottals, and painting the text by using all of the consonants. We also mention the problematic letter 'L' in German—we recently posted a Diction Lesson on this topic, so if you haven’t seen that yet, make sure to check it out! This is the audio version of the video tutorial.

 

For more information, go to dictionpolice.com ! 

Diction Tip #30

Since the podcast comes out every two weeks, on the off-weeks we post Diction Tips--very short tutorials focusing on a specific topic in Lyric Diction.

In Diction Tip #30, Bernhard Hansky talks about the assimilation of the consonants 't', 'd', and 'z' in German Diction.

For more Diction Tips visit the videos section of our Facebook page or you can find all of our Diction Lessons, Diction Tips and Tongue Twisters for Singers at www.dictionpolice.com!

Episode 110-SDU Tutorial (audio version)

The Diction Police is just starting its 9th year! Thank you for being a part of it!

This week my partner-in-crime, François Germain, talks about Sophie's aria from Werther, "Frère voyez... Du gai soleil", with an emphasis on consonants that should not be pronounced by often are accidentally, the spelling OY, and how to avoid stressing unstressed syllables. This is the audio version of the video tutorial.

For more information, go to dictionpolice.com ! 

Episode 110-SDU Tutorial

The Diction Police is just starting its 9th year! Thank you for being a part of it!

This week my partner-in-crime, François Germain, talks about Sophie's aria from Werther, "Frère voyez... Du gai soleil", with an emphasis on consonants that should not be pronounced by often are accidentally, the spelling OY, and how to avoid stressing unstressed syllables. 

For more information, go to dictionpolice.com !