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I know nothing about vocal training.  Yet I've heard oriental bands playing classic rock music.  The asian vocalist (who supposedly can't speak a word of english) is singing english lyrics with about as noticeable an asian accent as Edgar Winter.

  Whether european, australian, asian, or in the case of many here in the US with a strong accent to many.   Why do so many Rock and popular vocalists lose their native accents when singing english lyrics ?

   I never understood how this works.

yah!

like Keith Urban...... The dude's from Australia and definately HAS and australian accent when he speaks, but when he sings.... he's got a WHOLE TON of twang... not a speck of the aussie flavor...

I guess it's cuz they're imitating who they listened to growing up....

I know, I find myself adding a bit of twang to some songs that I don't naturally have.... but that's just cuz I'm a "Southern Belle Wannabe!" ! I smell a title change......

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Crystal,  I was wondering if it's an aspect of sensitively listening, and something about the way singing projects.  Yet if it's how they hear,  why doesn't this apply to their speaking voices ?  or is this a conscious choice they make ?

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well people have told me that exact thing....that i have an accent when i talk but it goes away when i sing.....i have no clue why....but thats the way it is...

YOU HAVE AN ACCENT?? so how come YOU didn't post your talky voice back in the day when we all were..... HUH? huh?? I'm so dissapointed in you Jose.....

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Hmm, bigcol, is a singer that used to post acoustic submissions here. He has a VERY strong accent when he speaks.. but, i can't notice one at all when he sings. Scared the heck out of me, the first time I heard him talk... Mind ya, he SPEAKS english! SO not quite the same thing...

But, I do know what you mean, I have noticed it even on submissions in here. Have mentioned it a few times to my husband, who also found it odd, the first time he heard col speak. People usually THINK i have an accent, but, i don't at all.


babble babble

but, with what Crystal said- that they are immitating the voices they heard growing up... kinda makes sense.. anyways, bye bye

Yeah.. that surprised me the first time I heard Keith Urban speak... huba huba! I love his accent! I have been told I have a twang in my speaking voice but I'm a born and raised Californian.. not sure I have an accent heheh!

I dunno either ......... I have no worthy contribution here.... g'morning!

What amazed me was one particular Phillipino band that was touring the states. The vocalist was amazing. I caught the last set. He really nailed Boz Scaggs "You can have me anytime" which is a slow love ballad.  A girl went up to talk to this guy after the set..  He barely could say "thank you" and "hello" in english. The few words he spoke had that very noticeable difficulty pronouncing "L",  "R" and various other consonant sounds of the english language. Yet when he sang.....NO noticeable probs.

I (at least) never would've known based upon listening to him sing.  He wasn't raised in New Jersey.

I guess ya'll don't hear my accent when I sing? Hell Jose,I wouldn't have known you were hispanic if It wasn't for your name
Anyways, I know what you mean,Steven. My dad has a super heavy mexican accent when he speaks in English but when he sings in English it just dissapears! I am like HUH? Like Crystal said, I also think its that they are immitating the singer. Than again they could have a vocal coach who helps them with it. My phillipino voice instructor when I was in college, I could not understand a word she said in english but she could sing so beautifully in any language and sound like she was from that country.Her phonetics were just perfect. God I miss her * sniff sniff*
Jess = )

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~Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent. - Victor Hugo

~When God finished the creation of Adam, He stepped back, scratched his head, and said, "I can do better than that!"
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Yet it's interesting how these people have the ability to phonetically duplicate quiet words found in slow ballads,  Yet as you stated,  the inability to do so when speaking that same language.



<Maybe Shotgun CC would know this   since she has a knowledge of speech pathology>

I wasn't much of a follower, but Julio Iglesias always had abit of an accent didn't he ?  He might've been abit of an exception to this.

Then there is Mel Tillis...... he stutters terribly but sings perfectly!

I think an accent adds something unique and different to a song... I know someone in our showcase who has a beautiful accent ... Tonmay! I always enjoy hearing it!

The best example i can think of is Regine Velasquez (best female vocalist ive heard in a while)....shes from the phillipines too...on her website there lots of mariah songs...and one of the best renditions to I don wanna miss a thing....she sings perfectly in english...and after a concert with Brian Mcknight, they interviewed her, and she barely spoke any english....at all....that was really odd...

by the way crystal i still have an accent, its just that the talky bits youve heard from me have been easy words.....put some interesting words and sentences...and the accent comes right out...the accent isnt heavy but its there...aghhhh...watch ill post something another day of me talking...maybe when im bored....

[font=georgia]When we make it a point to study diction whether it be through a class that teaches you by rote, rules, and repetition, or you are very observant and copy what you hear, you can "fake" a language as if you speak it.  That's what a lot of classical singers do.  We don't necessarily know how to speak Italian, German, French, and whatever other languages we sing in, but we take diction classes to be able to sing in these languages and sound competent singing in them.  I could sing an italian song with good diction, or I could sing in italian as someone with a southern american accent.  These people who do a good "american" accent when they sing even if they don't know a lick of english, have decided to copy our diction whether by instruction or imitation.

People like Julio Iglesias have not made it a point to dicern the differences in diction, and just choose to sing in English with their own accents coming through..  It's no surprise to me that these Asian singers are able to sing with such good diction.  It's like when I'm going to sing italian, I have to get my mind in italian mode and remember things like T's are pronounced like D's and how you roll the "R's" and so forth.  It comes naturally now when it is a language that I have sung in before several times.  If I want to learn something new, like I've worked on portuguese before, I sit with the words in front of me, and listen OVER and OVER again to the song making note of how things are pronounced.  You just have to be willing to really listen and imitate....[/font]

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Jazzy,  Do you think these same people have the ability to also impersonate us while talking ?  IE.   We all know how many asians really have a difficult time with certain english phonetic sounds.  Do you think they just effort more while singing ?
To do this with every word while speaking would just be too difficult ?

The "R" sound for instance seems to be VERY tough for asian people to pronounce.  Have they found a way to get around this difficulty when singing ?  or is this something they likely work at for years ?  Word by word.

I think Carly Simon had a problem with Stuttering as well,  yet nothing that impeded her singing ability

I can barely say r's.... and find it just as hard when I am singing... maybe harder, because I don't get the time to concentrate on how to pronouce it properly... There have been many times, I have had to go back and re-record, because of saying something funny:)

Stevie,

I sing with an accent, and speak with an even thicker accent. And to ans your question, yes, its not that diff. to sing english like the native speaker and talk like you guys. Most of us can do those with a little practice. When I speak to my boss I speak as close to the Brit accent as possible. But amoung us Asian I will revert back to the normal way we speak english. Infact my american big boss say, its easier to understand me in english than those from Down Under.

Yes ther are words thats esp. diff to pronounce. For me any words that have, 'th' is 'd' , 'sh' as in 'she'is 'see' or 'sea' 'plate' is plat to me, 'good' is 'gud'. many more expl.

Good Asian singers singing in english are common in Asia. Like you said you cant tell they are asian by hearing them. We have a few in the pub that I go karaokeing.
But then here, most people sing in more than one languge. Many sing in four diff. languges. I sing four diff languge.

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I can neither confirm nor deny ever having or knowing anything about nothing.... mrscott

BadSinger, I don't know how the difficulty in pronouncing some of our sounds varies from country to country in asia,    Yet chinese people have a VERY tough time with some of our sounds.   The degree of difficulty they have with a few consonant sounds, would make me think they would have a brutally difficult time with R,  L  sounds talking.  Whether or not there are ways to cheat around this when singing,  not sure.