Exploring Our Articulators

In this lesson, we're going to explore our articulators. When we sing words or speak, there's a complex interaction between our teeth, lips, and tongue that shapes the sounds we make. We can often feel this interaction most strongly on consonant sounds, which are obviously not vowels.

Warm-Up Exercise

Let's warm up using some of these sounds. Think about some plosive sounds:

• Pa:
  pa pa pa pa pa pa pa pa
  Have a go: 1, 2, 3 and...
  pa pa pa pa pa pa pa

• Ba: ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba

Good! Now let's try Ti:
t ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti ti
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Five Note Scales

We did some five-note scales earlier in the lesson, and you can apply those here. Try this:

• Pa:
  PA PA PA PA PA PA PA PA PA

Now for Do:
do do do do do do do do do

Taking it up on La:
la la la la la la la la

And back to Me:
me and me.

These consonant exercises can be applied to all of those other exercises; you don't have to limit them to open vowels.

Call and Response Singing

In this next section, we're going to do some call and response singing.

I'll sing it first, and you sing it back to me, focusing on the consonants. Remember, we're clicking on the two and four.

Ready? Here we go:

• Na na na na na na na na na
• do do do do do do do do
• La la la la la la la la la
• Me me me me me me me me me
• and yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.

Practice with New Sounds

This one might be a bit hard:

• Fly: fly, fly, fly, fly fly fly, fly, fly, fly
• Play: play, play, play, play play play, play, play, play.
• Coming down:
  Go, go, go, go go go, go, go go.
• Da: da da da da da da da da da
• Co: na na na na na na na na na
• Gigi: Gee gee gee gee gee gee gee.
• La: la la la la la la la la la
• No: no no no no no no no no no
• You: you you, you you you you you you you

Tongue Twisters

Tongue twisters are excellent for engagement. You might already know quite a few, but remember: it's more important to have an accurate rendition than a fast one. Over time, you'll find that you coordinate more easily and can speed up.

Tongue Warm-Up Exercise

Our tongue is incredibly important in singing, so it's good to get used to moving it. Here's a simple exercise: clean your teeth with your tongue. Move it around your teeth, and you can do this for as long as you want.

Fun Exercise: "Like a Gherkin"

Here's a fun exercise that I like to do using the melody from Madonna's "Like a Virgin," but with a twist: "Like a gherkin."

• The L uses the front of the tongue, while the G and K use the back.

First, just say:
Like a gherkin.
Good! Feel that movement of the tongue. It can be quite subtle, so it might take time to notice.

Call and Response: "Like a Gherkin"

Now, we're going to do a call and response on "Like a Gherkin."

I'll sing it first, and you sing it back to me:

• Like a gherkin
• and like a gherkin

Let me show you the timing:

• Like a gherkin
• and like a gherkin

Repeat with me:

• Like a gherkin
• Like a gherkin
• Coming down:
  Like a gherkin
  Like a gherkin
  Like a gherkin

It's a silly exercise but great for using the tongue!