The Singer's IPA Guide
Like Duolingo, but for The Singer's IPA Guide. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
For the part of you with thirty open tabs that never became anything.
24 levels across 4 sections, about 48 minutes end to end, roughly 10 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Finding Pure Vowels and Acoustic Ring, Consonants that Project Without Breaking Legato, Foreign Vowel Colors in Repertoire, and Singing from an IPA Score. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in The Singer's IPA Guide
- English spelling uses many different letter combinations for the exact same physical vowel sound
- An IPA symbol directly indicates one fixed tongue and mouth position regardless of spelling
- Singing from standard letters often tricks the mouth into unnecessary shape changes
- The five anchor vowels of classical singing are [i], [e], [a], [o], and [u]
- Each IPA symbol represents a pure, unmoving vowel quality rooted in Italian diction
- These five pure vowels provide the cleanest resonant foundation for voice projection
- English speakers naturally glide pure vowels into diphthongs by moving the tongue or lips at the end of a word
- Sustaining tone requires freezing the articulators in the single target vowel shape
- Singing a pure IPA vowel means holding one acoustic posture without wandering
- Front vowels /i/ and /e/ arch the tongue forward toward the roof of the mouth
- Elevating the tongue forward boosts bright acoustic ring naturally
- Back vowels /o/ and /u/ require purposeful lip rounding to elongate the vocal tract
- Back vowels need open acoustic space in the back of the mouth and throat
- Spreading the lips wide bleeds the warm depth out of /o/ and /u/
- Closed /e/ raises the tongue higher and narrows the pharynx
- Open /ɛ/ drops the jaw slightly and creates more pharyngeal space to relieve strain
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives The Singer's IPA Guide the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
What does a single International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) vowel symbol tell a singer?
Get it right to open this lesson and 23 more in the app.
Where The Singer's IPA Guide takes you
Unlock accurate pronunciation, pure vocal resonance, and effortless lyric diction across multiple languages using the International Phonetic Alphabet.
- 1
Finding Pure Vowels and Acoustic Ring
- The Five Cardinal Vowels
- Contrasting Open and Closed Vowels
- 2
Consonants that Project Without Breaking Legato
- Crisp Plosives and Resonant Fricatives
- Flowing Through Liquids and Nasals
- 3
Foreign Vowel Colors in Repertoire
- Shaping Mixed Vowels and Umlauts
- Singing French Nasal Vowels on Pitch
- 4
Singing from an IPA Score
- Liaison, Elision, and Legato Connection
- Transcribing and Troubleshooting Repertoire
4 sections · 8 units · 24 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
You pick the voice
The Singer's IPA Guide is taught in the The Professor style: clear, structured, thorough. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start The Singer's IPA Guide today.
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