English vs. Singlish

ENGLISH VS. SINGLISH

Choirs sing in many languages, but have you ever performed a piece in SINGLISH? I am a barbershopper, and this term was first presented to me by David Calland, director of The Alliance Chorus. I’m not sure he came up with it (the barbershoppers who read this will likely chime in with a source, and I’d be glad of it), but it resonated with me.

By SINGLISH, David meant the following: when we sing, we are presenting a stream of sounds that are each decoded in sequence to the audience’s ears as language. Therefore, S-AW-EE-T(ih) would process to "sight." This is essentially what Fred Waring did with his "tone syllables.” I first remember seeing the strange transcriptions of these syllables in high school, wondering why we needed help pronouncing words IN ENGLISH that we already knew how to pronounce!

It is a common trap that one’s singing is affected by their speech pattern/accent. I find my choirs in Ohio have difficulty singing in English - they produce flat, spread vowels and turn diphthongs too quickly. They chew on R’s. This is why I say “You don’t sing like you talk, and you don’t dance like you walk.”

In order to help break free of the gravity of speaking habits, the mindset of SINGLISH is invaluable. We’re not singing in ENGLISH, folks... we’re singing in SINGLISH. Don’t approach this text as you would read it. Instead, dissect it into parts and then string together the appropriate singing version of those parts. Build, in a linear fashion, a stream of sounds that is beautiful to hear. SINGLISH not only sounds great, it forces the singer to consider what word sounds land where (and have what duration) in the rhythmic grid of time.

Choir Bites Interactive Slides can enhance online/hybrid lesson plans or be used as supplemental assignments. Your singers’ awareness will rise as they engage with these simple, “sticky” concepts! Click here to learn more! 

We’re not singing in ENGLISH, we’re singing in SINGLISH. SINGLISH is like the meticulously-planned, black-tie, super-polished, top-shelf version of English.