What is articulation? As naturally as possible: articulation is how you say your consonants. Is that all there is to it? No. Articulation has to do with how consonants are formed and how clearly and distinctly they are formed. But wait. There's more. There are more variations than you might assume, until we dig a small deeper into the field of articulation and gawk those variations. What makes a country singer sound country? What makes a classical singer sound classical? What makes an R&B singer sound R&B? In a few words: articulation, timing, rhythm, dynamics, emotion, and style are what supply the nuances to arrive at the actual style. But if the articulation is off then everything else will sound bad or even worse, ridiculous.
Good articulation would sway the ability for a listener to understand what is being heard. Inappropriate articulation would be evidenced by a classical singer singing a country song in the style of a classical piece or vice versa. Being intelligible is not the only factor of articulation. Intelligibility literally does sway the perceived level of professionalism of a singer. Singers normally want the listeners to understand the words being sung. Songwriters and/or lyricists by all means; of course want their words to be understood, since they play such a large part of the art and craft of songwriting.
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Bad articulation is a bane of many a studio singer. Often the singer won't notice how bad the articulation is until hearing it on the playback. Good and experienced recording engineers will normally hear the ability of articulation during recordings. A good vocal coach will by all means; of course hear the level of ability of articulation. Not only will a good vocal coach prove to be master in articulation, a good one will help a singer to find the narrow margin of acceptability for the exact style being sung. Some singing lessons deal with this. Some do not.
Over or under articulating are the parameters within which lie "professional" articulation. If every word is enunciated with stylistically excellent clarity, it won't be over or underdone. This is something that I discovered from one of my singing teachers in Las Vegas. I was in a show and everything was working. In lessons while learning diverse styles, I discovered that R&B was way different from standards. Broadway music was different from both, but the subtleties were surprising. I would tend to overdo in one and be insufficient in the other. Remember that the parameters are different for every style. What works for one style would sound sloppy in another. Clarity in some styles sounds stiff and stilted in others. This isn't about what is right or wrong. It is about being thorough and professional. I found that a vocal coach was critical in discovering this level of professionalism. It is nearly impossible to learn this without a "guide".
Look for a vocal coach who understands the variation between phonated and aspirated consonants. You also want one who knows the differences between front vowels and back vowels and how to use that knowledge to help you to enhance your singing. A great vocal coach will know ways to subtly alter consonants and vowel formation to your best advantage. This greatly affects the ease of articulation and of tone production, because the acoustics related to word formation can make the variation between sounding excellent and sounding like an amateur.
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