Pronunciation

Haron

Hi KTVA members,

Although I'm not a native speaker, I can speak English on an advanced level. I've worked on my pronunciation quite a lot over the years and got pretty good at it. Even when some native speakers hear me speak, they assume I'm American.
However, I find singing without a foreign accent a lot harder than speaking.
Do you guys have any advice on how to improve this?

Thanks,
Aron

Klaus_T

hi Aron, what is your normal language?

i think it might have to do with open throat technique, if you did not train, it is likely that the consonants shut down your throat and cut off the airflow, making it sound choppy, and not as pleasant as a trained singer would. if your native language is a hard sounding language like maybe German or Arabic or something, it will probably sound like you have a stronger accent, because the lack in singing technique (the throat closing down) will emphasize the "choppiness". it is my impression anyway (being German)

Haron

Thanks for responding, Klaus.
You might be right. My native language is Hungarian which I guess can be described as hard sounding.

Klaus_T

so you want to reduce consonants, and focus on "contiguous phrase singing" and "open throat technique", which is what we learn in Ken's course. you can also get an idea if you practice with his free videos, but you have to really do it every day (with a rest day or two per week). you can get results from just the free YT videos