Sing with a rhotacism

[AcidShred]

I'm got a speech impediment so I pronounce my r's as w's kinda like Jonathon Woss or Roy Jenkins.
I've been told I'm a good singer though and have sang in school choir and musicals before. Do you think he could do serious gigs as a singer without getting laughed at if I choose the right songs?
p.s I'm 14 and have a vocal range of low e to high a.

[Phalex]

Mel Tillis has a really bad stutter, and he sings just fine. And look at all those English, Irish and Australian singers that sing like good ol Americans! They all talk funny, but they sing real nice!

Seriously, give it a shot. My vocal coach always told me to avoid hard R's at all costs anyway.

[ric1312]

Originally Posted by AcidShred

I'm got a speech impediment so I pronounce my r's as w's kinda like Jonathon Woss or Roy Jenkins.
I've been told I'm a good singer though and have sang in school choir and musicals before. Do you think he could do serious gigs as a singer without getting laughed at if I choose the right songs?
p.s I'm 14 and have a vocal range of low e to high a.

The thing with singing, even if you don't have a speech impediment, often times vowel/consonant sounds get changed or stretched to something else to make the song easier to sing or just flow better.

I don't think it will be a problem. Most singers you can't make out all the words they sing anyway.

Just when you get to a problem word de emphasize it and or change it to a vowel/consonant easier to sing that is similar sounding.

I havn't heard you sing, but I think changing an R to a W in a vocal line wouldn't be all that noticeable, as long as it didn't happen a huge amount of time in one vocal line.

You can also practice finding words that are supposed to start with an R and substituting other sounds.

Right. to iiight if you sing that the r can be inferred and can even sound like the r was really there.

Around to ound, or Ah- ound. ect.

That's if you feel you really need to and feel the impediment is too noticeable and you don't like the sound.

You might even want to play around with impediment. It might actually ad your own unique accent to your singing and make you standout in a good way.

[Joey3313]

"Woe, woe, woe, your boat, gently down the stweam. Meawily, meawily, meawily, meawily, life is but a dweam."

Avoid this song, and you will be fine.


Seriously, when singers are unique in their delivery, it gives them more character. Hell, (and this may or may not be a good example, I don't know) Tim Armstrong has been singing like he's had a stroke for like the past 10 years, and that hasn't stopped him. I still think he sounds cool.

Good luck man.

[punkbassistfc]

lol, Tims the man. Great point

[BillMason]

At first I thought this thread was a censor-proof way to say "sing with eroticism," until I started reading the thread. You had me at a rhotacism...

Some self-effacing humour is always a good idea too, IMHO - "Bwing out Wodewick! Bwing out Wupert!" "Be vewwy vewwy quiet...I'm hunting wabbits", etc. That tells people you don't give a rat's you know what, and any a-holes who planned on saying rude stuff immediately have nothing to say.

[Deacon_Blues]

This thread got me thinking about how many bands there are from other than English-speaking countries that sing primarily in English. How do those bands sound to you? This is to me a very interesting question, as I'm not a native English speaker but I sing mostly in English. I've always wanted an answer to this question.

I don't know how much this relates to having a speech impediment, but if you think non-English speaking singers sound funny or strange when they sing in English, then that would likely be a worse impediment, don't you think?

[doctorjazz]

+1 for "sing with eroticism."

[markjazzbassist]

Originally Posted by BillMason

Some self-effacing humour is always a good idea too, IMHO - "Bwing out Wodewick! Bwing out Wupert!" "Be vewwy vewwy quiet...I'm hunting wabbits", etc. That tells people you don't give a rat's you know what, and any a-holes who planned on saying rude stuff immediately have nothing to say.

+1

great point. Just be CONFIDENT and you'll be fine. If you think it sounds great and the band does, then everyone else'll go along too.

[Phalex]

Originally Posted by Deacon_Blues

This thread got me thinking about how many bands there are from other than English-speaking countries that sing primarily in English. How do those bands sound to you? This is to me a very interesting question, as I'm not a native English speaker but I sing mostly in English. I've always wanted an answer to this question.

I don't know how much this relates to having a speech impediment, but if you think non-English speaking singers sound funny or strange when they sing in English, then that would likely be a worse impediment, don't you think?

I think everyone pretty much sings the same as far as singing in English goes. The Scorpions sound just about as American as the Guess Who. OK Bad example, but maybe we should try to do a tune in Finnish?? I wonder if it works the other way around?

[Deacon_Blues]

Originally Posted by Phalex

I think everyone pretty much sings the same as far as singing in English goes. The Scorpions sound just about as American as the Guess Who. OK Bad example, but maybe we should try to do a tune in Finnish?? I wonder if it works the other way around?

It wouldn't work that way around. I'm sure of it.

I'm actually Swedish speaking, but I speak pretty fluent Finnish too. I have sung in Finnish on gigs, but I don't feel comfortable doing it since the pronunciation isn't 100% right, only 90-95% i guess. I'm pretty sure my English pronunciation isn't 100% correct either, but on the other hand I haven't had too many English people listening to me on gigs that could comment on this. (I doubt they would anyway...)

Swedish and English are in fact pretty closely related, whereas Finnish is a completely different language. So I guess that is another reason why I feel more comfortable singing in English than Finnish. A third reason is of course the fact that English is by far the most commonly used language in popular western music.

[mattofash]

listen to suicide and rock n roll by electric eel shock.
aki cant say his Rs for s**t bless him and thats the only line in that song so its kinda funny but it just sounds great

[AcidShred]

Anymore advice?

[Bass Mule]

Meh, could be worse. You could go see Clapton in Japan, where the audience is chanting, "Pray Rayra!"

[AcidShred]

Good point.