As a phonetics enthusiast, Dr. Bernard Tan has been involved in lyric diction coaching since the beginning of his career as a vocal coach. His abilities in identifying and solving diction problems in singing is evident in the feedbacks from the singers he works with. In his works in Italian diction, he has collaborated with Italian coach Matteo Dalle Fratte, who has remarked Bernard's "outstanding ability to understand how correct Italian diction can be combined with musicality and expressiveness".

Bernard believes that because vocal music is composed based on the foundation of texts, the clarity of the words is essential for its performance. However, the study of mere pronunciation of the languages cannot suffice in a vocal performance as it only concerns the spoken form of the languages. Therefore, the best way to approaching lyric diction is having the tools to achieve a balance between the clarity of the phonetics of the language and making beautiful singing (bel canto) using the unique singing voice.