The Happy Musician

Here’s the big question: Why can’t we pronounce Rs at the end of a word in choir class? The answer: It doesn’t blend and can cause vocal strain. When you sing an R how you would pronounce the letter itself in choir class, it will be noticeable, especially if everyone else is doing something different. In order to make the word with the R in it sound cleaner, make your mouth taller and try to think “AH” instead of “AR”.

A few examples of words with R that are commonly messed up

1. Earth (As in, “For the Beauty of the Earth”): On this word you can think “EH”, and pronounce the word like “EHth” instead of “EARth”. Keep your mouth taller and shape it to the E (EH) vowel. See my post on vowels for more information.
2. For (As in, “For He both Heaven and Earth…”): This is an example of R at the end of a word. It is safer in this case to just leave the R off or touch it lightly at the end (i.e. “Fo” instead of “For”). “Darkening” the vowel can help with this. Darkening the vowel means to make the vowel sound more clear and, for lack of a better word, round.
3. Royal (As in, “Yes that old Royal Hudson…”): Touch the R lightly and try not to over-accentuate it. In this case, though, it should still be somewhat audible.

Thanks for reading! Hopefully you understand why you shouldn’t pronounce the letter R in a word in choir! See you this coming week for more posts!

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Cover photo by Cottonbro Studio