The Beauty of Music (for Practice)

Finding ways of practicing pronunciation can be difficult. Simply speaking and listening again and again, while effective, is sometimes boring; also, it is hard to do while traveling or on the go. 

A good way of practicing pronunciation is to do something you are probably doing already: listen to music. Find some music (in English) that you like listening to, and listen to it. That simple.

Well, not quite that simple. Here are a few rules to help your music listening be much more helpful.

1. Listen to music that is slower than faster. Very fast hip-hop, rap, or rock will not help you as much as slower music. Some rap or hip-hop is nice and slow, and the words are easy to follow. The same goes for rock. Pick music that is easy to listen to, and easy to follow.

2. Download and print off the lyrics. Keep them with you, and use them to help you sing along. Memorize the lyrics, so that when each song starts you can sing along using the correct words.

3. Sing along, all the time. Try to match the tone, rhythm, and prosody of the singer. Record yourself singing, and listen to yourself to see how well you got it.

4. Sing lots of different songs, and different genres of music. Sing soft songs, hard songs, fast songs, and slow songs. Sing happy songs, and sad songs. Every song you memorize and can sing well will help your pronunciation. 

If you make a regular practice of this, you will notice that your listening ability and pronunciation will become much better, as well as your prosody. You will begin to feel more confident, and seem much more fluent, to the people around you. Here is a list of song that might be good ones to start with:

Folk Songs
1. Blowin’ in the Wind - Bob Dylan
2. Sounds of Silence - Simon & Garfunkel
3. The Water is Wide - Traditional

Rock Songs
1. Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin
2. Walk This Way - Run-D.M.C.
3. American Pie - Don McLean

Modern Rock Songs
1. With Arms Wide Open - Creed
2. Radioactive - Imagine Dragons
3. Handlebars - Flobots

Cheers!

Lesson Three: The Basics of the Symbol /b/

The lesson will be about the sound /b/. It is next to /p/, in the "Bilabial" column, and the "Plosive" row.

Again, a quick reminder that the letter 'b' is not the same as the symbol /b/.

Like the symbol /p/, /b/ is a bilabial plosive. It is made by putting both lips together, and then releasing a small puff of air.

That is a very important thing to remember: /b/ and /p/ are very similar. To master /b/ and /p/, you have to realize how they are similar, and how they are different.

Say the following minimal pairs:

1. bat     pat
2. pit     bit
3. bin    pin

Say them very slow. Do you notice how your mouth moves in almost the same way for both sounds?
There are several differences in these sounds, however the largest difference is in their voicing.

/p/ is a unvoiced sound. /b/ is a voiced sound.

To feel the difference, put your hand on your throat, and very slowly say the following words:

1. pot     pot     pot
2. bot     bot     bot

If you are saying the /p/ correctly, your throat should not vibrate until after you open your mouth.
If you are saying the /b/ correctly, your throat should vibrate before you open your mouth. 

If you do not feel a significant difference between these sounds, you probably found something you need to work on. Many languages do not distinguish between these sounds, or have significant differences from English. Some examples are Hindi, Urdu, and Arabic. However, it is likely that no matter your native language, you will have some minor differences with English, and you should still practice the distinction.

Voice Onset Time: Differences between /b/ and /p/

To have a complete understanding of the primary difference between these sounds, we need to review voice onset time. Remember that VOT is when your throat starts vibrating in regard to when you open your mouth.

With /p/, you start vibrating your throat after you open your mouth:

pot   pot   pot   pot

With /b/, you start vibrating your throat before you open your mouth:

bot   bot   bot   bot

To practice the difference, try to exaggerate the difference.

1. p.........ot
2. mmmbot

Conclusion

The symbol /b/ is a voiced, bilabial plosive. The voicing starts before you mouth opens, and continues. This is unlike /p/, where the voicing starts after you open your mouth.

Practice

Try to pay particular attention to when the voicing starts. Listen to me say it, and record yourself saying it as well. Compare the two.

1. bite     bite     bite     bite     bite
2. boat    boat    boat    boat    boat
3. about     about     about     about
4. bring     bring     bring     bring

I'll post a more extensive worksheet soon. Practice, practice, practice!