The International Phonetic Alphabet is the lingua franca of vocal pedagogy. Not only does it help you teach diction, but also vocal pedagogy, especially advanced pedagogy. The IPA serves singers well because in addition to marking single phonemes and allophones with a single symbol—giving teachers and students a common reference for distinctions in sound—it marks a system of coordinating the articulators.

For instance, it describes the forward part of the tongue to produce the forward vowels, a series of phonemes that arise when moving the arch of the tongue from nearest the teeth toward the soft palate—the kind of movement your students must master for such matters as vowel modification, formant tuning, and allophonic variations required by different languages.

Like oil in an engine, it makes running the concepts of diction and vocal pedagogy hum along smoothly. In this way, it helps you meet multiple purposes with your students:

• learn the linqua franca of diction and vocal pedagogy

• learn the movements of the articulators for fine allophonic variations in diction

• learn the movements of the articulators for optimum resonance

• set up the basis for Diction for Singers

• set up the basis for English diction