[Menvi-discuss] ipa notation

[Kaiti Shelton]

Hi, Paula,

Julie brings up a great point.  Although I am not majoring in voice,
my voice teacher at school uses IPA with her students to teach proper
pronunciations.  For me, she thought it would just be more practical
to learn the sounds, like one would learn syllables and sounds for
another language.  Perhaps this is different, for example if he's
vocal performance, but if he's in something like music ed where
knowledge of how to teach the sounds will be more important than
knowing how to use the braille IPA code, then maybe that approach will
work.  And, if Julie was able to go through a vocal performance degree
without learning IPA, perhaps it still wouldn't be very practical even
if he is performance as well.

Another alternative might be to have him write out the sounds for
diction.  I've done this when I've had to sing in languages like
Russian and Portuguese, and although it's not IPA or the language
itself, it helps me sing in the language properly because the phonetic
sounds make sense to me.  For example, in a song I sang in Russian
about a year ago, there was a word that sounded like vwee.  It was not
spelled that way in Russian at all, but spelling it V, W, E, E helped
me get the pronunciation correct as I was singing.  The advantage of
this system is that you can also use the spelling to make other notes
for you.  E.G, if the director wants a harder T sound, I might use two
Ts in my word instead of just one.  Again, it might not be as
practical if he's vocal performance, but it has been useful to me.

On 9/6/14, Julie McGinnity <kaybaycar at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Paula,
>
> Yes, IPA is the international phonetic alphabet.  I have been studying
> voice in college for over 5 years now, but I do not know IPA.  There
> is a guide to Braille IPA that you can emboss off the NLS site.  This
> can teach him the code.  But honestly, he may want to discuss with his
> advisor and other instructors how they use IPA because it may not be
> practical.  The main thing I needed it for was diction class, and the
> process of me writing out the IPA for instructors to grade assignments
> wasn't going to work out.  But if this is for his personal study of
> diction in his solo repertoire, then by all means, it could be a great
> learning tool.  In the right setting, I think he could use it
> successfully in a diction class too, but like I said, for me it just
> wasn't practical.
>
> It sounds like he is doing well reading the music...  I know there are
> Braille music tutors available who could help him out as well.
>
>
> On 9/6/14, taeschr at ix.netcom.com <taeschr at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>>
>> Paula,
>>
>>
>>
>> I'm sure that you'll be hearing from our members, as many know and use
>> IPA.
>>
>>
>>
>> Meanwhile, although I know very little about it, I can offer that it is
>> the
>> international phonetic system, and has become quite important as a
>> standard
>> for vocal majors. I believe that there are several documents that have
>> passed through our list, and some very reliable and knowledgeable members
>> should be weighing in very soon.
>>
>>
>>
>> I hope that is helpful in the interim.
>>
>>
>>
>> Yours,
>>
>> Richard Taesch
>>
>> MENVI HQ - www.menvi.org
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Paul and Paula Jordan
>>> Sent: Sep 6, 2014 9:51 AM
>>> To: This is for discussing music and braille literacy
>>> Subject: [Menvi-discuss] ipa notation
>>>
>>> Hi, all.  A former client who is a Braille reader is entering college as
>>> a
>>> vocal major.  He's been told that he needs to brush up on his Braille
>>> music skills which he is doing.  I've encouraged him to contact Hadley
>>> as
>>> an addendum to what he's already doing with music Braille. He's also
>>> been
>>> told that he needs something called I P A for his vocal classes.  Has
>>> anyone heard of this?  Is there a special Braille code I've never heard
>>> of?  I'm completely unfamiliar with it.  Any advice I can pass on to
>>> this
>>> young man  would be most appreciated. Thanks in advance.
>>>
>>> Paula Jordan, MT-BC
>
>
> --
> Julie McG
> National Association of Guide dog Users board member,  National
> Federation of the Blind performing arts division secretary,
> Missouri Association of Guide dog Users President,
> and Guiding Eyes for the Blind graduate 2008
> "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that
> everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal
> life."
> John 3:16
>
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-- 
Kaiti