How to learn music
USE ALL AVAILABLE RESOURCES
TEXT - prima le parole!
What am I singing about? - If the text is in your native language, hooray! If not, start by translating the text.
Online dictionaries and Google Translate can be helpful, as well as existing word-for-word translations.
NOTE: If your score has another language AND English in it, best to translate for yourself - it may be a not-accurate "singing translation", which will not help you know exactly what you're singing about...
The LiederNet Archive is the single most complete repository of song translations available.
Another NOTE: if you use another person's translation work for your program notes in recital or elsewhere, you MUST ask for permission to do so, AND you must attribute the translation to that person.
It's not in my native language! Help!
The International Phonetic Alphabet is your friend. It is a system of symbols that represent discrete sounds.
IPAChart is a site where you can familiarize yourself with the symbols/sounds.
IPA source is an excellent (though not free) resource with many IPA transliterations of songs.
University of North Texas' Diction Resources for Singers is a wealth of other resources - from the very basic to detailed books-by-language.
Otherwise, listen to recordings of your song (preferably with a "native" singer of that language when possible), speak with your teacher to help you clarify, and start to incorporate IPA into your scores to help you remember the sounds you need to make!
Practice difficult sounds by themselves for mastery (the "ich" and "ach"-lauts, mixed vowels, etc...), and then practice SPEAKING YOUR TEXTS. If you cannot speak your texts, you cannot sing them. (Bonus: you'll remember the text better if you can both speak and sing it).
Back to the resource list
TEXT - prima le parole!
What am I singing about? - If the text is in your native language, hooray! If not, start by translating the text.
Online dictionaries and Google Translate can be helpful, as well as existing word-for-word translations.
NOTE: If your score has another language AND English in it, best to translate for yourself - it may be a not-accurate "singing translation", which will not help you know exactly what you're singing about...
The LiederNet Archive is the single most complete repository of song translations available.
Another NOTE: if you use another person's translation work for your program notes in recital or elsewhere, you MUST ask for permission to do so, AND you must attribute the translation to that person.
It's not in my native language! Help!
The International Phonetic Alphabet is your friend. It is a system of symbols that represent discrete sounds.
IPAChart is a site where you can familiarize yourself with the symbols/sounds.
IPA source is an excellent (though not free) resource with many IPA transliterations of songs.
University of North Texas' Diction Resources for Singers is a wealth of other resources - from the very basic to detailed books-by-language.
Otherwise, listen to recordings of your song (preferably with a "native" singer of that language when possible), speak with your teacher to help you clarify, and start to incorporate IPA into your scores to help you remember the sounds you need to make!
Practice difficult sounds by themselves for mastery (the "ich" and "ach"-lauts, mixed vowels, etc...), and then practice SPEAKING YOUR TEXTS. If you cannot speak your texts, you cannot sing them. (Bonus: you'll remember the text better if you can both speak and sing it).
Back to the resource list