Just something Ive wondered about now and again, then a friend brought it up today because she has a heavy Portuguese accent and lets me listen to samples of her singing voice usually followed by the a question is my accent still obvious, or less obvious. In her case it may be more of a conscious effort, with others its not.
Why is it that two singers can have a thick accent of some kind that becomes less prominent or non existent with one while not the other when they sing? Relative yes I think so, but maybe there is some kind of tangible reason for it a professional could enlighten us with.
Why is it that two singers can have a thick accent of some kind that becomes less prominent or non existent with one while not the other when they sing? Relative yes I think so, but maybe there is some kind of tangible reason for it a professional could enlighten us with.
I cannot give you the technical reason why for this phenomenon, but it extends beyond accents into speech impediments like stuttering as well. Case in point is singer Mel Tillis who does not stutter when he sings. It may be as simple as singing is a separate learned and practiced language of it's own.
Hiding an accent on everything a person speaks is a HUGE effort; learning a song by heart, which is only a few words, and practicing it 10 or 100 times until it comes out perfect is a way more focused effort, and easily more successful.
That said, most people can imitate English accent very well, because it´s arguably the most popular Song language in the World, but doing that the other way often fails.
I´m a native Spanish speaker, and any "gringo" singing in Spanish is , plainly said, *terrible* .
Only people who actually lived here, specially when young, can have an acceptable local accent.
One example is actor Viggo Mortensen, who not only lived here when young, also went to a regular Argentine School (instead of the typical "American School").
That said, most people can imitate English accent very well, because it´s arguably the most popular Song language in the World, but doing that the other way often fails.
I´m a native Spanish speaker, and any "gringo" singing in Spanish is , plainly said, *terrible* .
Only people who actually lived here, specially when young, can have an acceptable local accent.
One example is actor Viggo Mortensen, who not only lived here when young, also went to a regular Argentine School (instead of the typical "American School").
The same is true for artists who sing Bossa Nova songs in the original Portuguese language. No matter how hard they try, they never pronounce words containing "ã" correctly. To make matters worse, since they don't know the language, the interpretation suffers with the emphasis often falling on the wrong words.
🙁
When talking, your accent is made up not just by the way you prenounciate each word but also rythm, speed, and tonation throughout each sentence. When singing all you are left with is prenounciation, everyhing else is controlled by the music itself. Even though someone have a thick accent, their word for word prenounciation could be quite good, making the accent go away when they sing.
May be accent is part of the singing. I don't know how Portugese this lady sounds Sonia Shirsat .
OR
may be the need teaches everything. Ravi.
Regards
OR
may be the need teaches everything. Ravi.
Regards
When I sing or sing along I replicate sounds rather than speak words, which makes my accent disappear and pick up manners/nuances of whoever I'm replicating with tiny bit of my own character in it (i.e I cannot sound female no matter how hard I try haha).
Im inclined to believe each holds some truth to it but not in all cases.
Practice can make "perfect" like most anything else and Im positive those that do practice succeed on varying degrees, actors take speech classes so why wouldnt vocalists, thats makes perfect sense, but I doubt each singer that sings with "neutral" speech practices sounding "natural".
Which begs another question, would everyone agree on what English sounds "neutral", everyone seems to be familiar with this phenomenon from different parts of the world but are they perceiving things the same?
I wonder if a Spaniards idea of neutrality is similar to a German Italian Canadian or Englishman?
Could use some more practice (what a great song) ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9jbdgZidu8
Practice can make "perfect" like most anything else and Im positive those that do practice succeed on varying degrees, actors take speech classes so why wouldnt vocalists, thats makes perfect sense, but I doubt each singer that sings with "neutral" speech practices sounding "natural".
Which begs another question, would everyone agree on what English sounds "neutral", everyone seems to be familiar with this phenomenon from different parts of the world but are they perceiving things the same?
I wonder if a Spaniards idea of neutrality is similar to a German Italian Canadian or Englishman?
Could use some more practice (what a great song) ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9jbdgZidu8
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Or Eliane Elias - lovely voice and all, but no trouble for my Anglo only ears to detect a difference.
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