Get A Better Broadcast, Podcast and Voice-Over Voice

2023.03.11 – 0800 – The ‘Puh-Tuh-Kuh Puh-Tuh-Kuh’ Vocal Warm Up   The Puh-Tuh-Kuh exercise ·        Without pushing or forcing, sound “ puh-tuh-kuh ” individually, slowly at first, noticing how the different words are created in different places in your mouth and with different tongue movements, over enunciate with exaggerated lip, jaw, and tongue movem...

2023.03.10 – 0799 – A Trill-iantly Easy Lip Warm-Up   Lip trills These encourage you to relax your mouth and lips, easing the muscles associated with enunciating, warming them up and encourage a consistent air flow ·        Close your mouth and teeth and relax your lips and cheeks ·        Exhale to vibrate your l...

2023.03.09 – 0798 – Giving Your Lips A Work-Pout Lips Give your lips a work-pout with these great exercises. Lip pouts ·        Make an exaggerated extended lip-purse as though moving in for a big kiss. Open and close the lips while in this position, like a fish (a ‘trout pout’?!) ·        Then tuck them in, folding th...

2023.03.08 – 0797 – The ‘Pucker Muscle’ and the ‘Smile Muscle’   The ‘Pucker Muscle’ and the ‘Smile Muscle’   The ‘pucker muscle’ that controls lip movement to shape sounds is the ‘orbicularis oris’ muscle.   The’ zygomaticus major’ runs from your cheekbone to the corners of your mouth to help create smiles and other facial expressions, as well as sounds such as ‘eee’. (Fu...

2023.03.07 – 0796 – Bits About Lips   Bits About Lips Lips are more than just the ‘lipstick bit’, their muscles extend into the cheeks and so affect (and are affected by) the whole of the face and expression. Holding tension in yur lips, or barely using them when speaking (some people rely on their tongue to do a lot of the hard articulatory work), can restrict your understandability, as how...

2023.03.06 – 0795 - The ‘Mouth’s Mystery Muscle’   Tongue Root Tension and the ‘Mouth’s Mystery Muscle’   We all know about the tongue yeah? We can see it in our mouth, we know it is very sensitive to temperature, taste and texture (babies instinctively feel things with their tongue), and its complex fibres and nerves makes an extraordinary range of precise movements possible for speakin...

2023.03.05 – 0794 – Blowing Raspberries Blowing Raspberries ·        Relax your mouth, lips and cheeks and slightly stick out your tongue, resting it on your lower lip. ·        Slowly exhale as you blow a raspberry, vibrating your tongue, lips and cheeks. (Beware of spittle!) ·      &nbsp...

 2023.03.04 – 0793 – The Right Way To Use Tongue Twisters As An Articulation Exercise Tongue Twisters Once you have warmed up the tongue, you can try some tongue twisters to put it through its paces (if you try a tongue twister before you’ve warmed up the tongue and you’ll just end up tongue-tied and demoralised…)   What do I like about a tongue-twister? It’s hard to say (!), but having...

2023.03.03 – 0792 – The ‘Tongue Curl’ Vocal Exercise Curled Tongue ·        Put the tip of your tongue behind your lower front teeth, and arch the middle of your tongue so it touches the roof of your mouth. Repeat five times, like press-ups for the tongue! ·        Now open your mouth and, with a relaxed jaw and the ti...

2023.03.02 – 0791 – A Drumroll For The Tongue Tongue Trills ·        Relax your mouth and tongue and have your lips slightly apart. Purr like a cat (or like a drumroll), relaxing your tongue and letting its tip vibrate on the roof of your mouth just behind the upper teeth, as you breathe out. ·        Try this gently a...

2023.03.01 – 0790 – The ‘Toothpaste Tongue’ Vocal Exercise Toothpaste Tongue ·        Imagine there’s a blob of toothpaste on the tip of your tongue and give each tooth and individual clean with the tip of the tongue. ·        Keep the jaw as relaxed as possible as you run your tongue all around your mouth to ‘clean’ i...

2023.02.28 – 0789 – Getting a ‘Slug Tongue’   Slug Tongue Relax the jaw, drop the tongue out of the mouth and count slowly out loud to 10. Then recite the ‘Happy Birthday’ song or something similar, keeping your tongue relaxed and floppy.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2023.02.27 – 0788 – Tongue Stretches   Tongue Stretches ·        Open and relax your mouth with your lips apart, then stick out your tongue as far as it will stretch. Hold it there for 30 seconds while breathing. Check you are not tightening your neck muscles (use a mirror or put a hand on your neck to feel for tension) ·     &n...

2023.02.26 – 0787 – Tongue Fun The Tongue Your tongue is a major articulator helping form sounds into recognisable words (as well as being used in swallowing and eating). It moves courtesy of eight muscles: four intrinsic muscles run along its length and change and the shape of the tongue (lengthening and shortening it, curling and uncurling its tip and edges as in tongue rolling, and flatten...

2023.02.25 – 0786 – The Exaggeration Vocal Exercise Over Enunciation Silently say a phrase (“ Get A Better Broadcast, Podcast and Voice Over Voice ”) with really exaggerated mouth, lip and jaw movements. Repeat it, with really big, animated and exaggerated articulation. Now put the sound in and keep the performance. Finally, relax and speak the phrase normally with your usual face and you should f...

2023.02.24 – 0785 – Jaw Massage Jaw Massage Let your jaw drop slightly and put the balls of your hands just under your cheekbones. Rub firmly into the hollows of your cheeks as you let the lower jaw drop into a more open position. Temple Massage With the tips of your fingers, massage your temples as you open and close the jaw, circular movements in both directions. As you close your mouth you will...

2023.02.23 – 0784 – The Toffee and Chipmunk Jaw Exercises The Jaw If you experience a popping or clicking in their jaw, it’s a possible sign that you are tensing or clenching it too much. But of course, you need to be able to drop the jaw when you speak, to allow the tongue to move freely and the sound to come out. Some of the muscles that close the jaw fan out towards the temple and skull, the on...

2023.02.22 – 0783 – The ‘Silent Laugh’ Vocal Exercise   The Silent Laugh Imagine you’ve just been told a joke but you’re not allowed to laugh out loud, instead do so silently and gently inside your throat with no sound. If you find this tricky at first, laugh vocally, and sense what is happening inside your mouth and throat and replicate this, silently. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy...

2023.02.21 – 0782 – The ‘Yawn Sigh’ Vocal Exercise     Throat The Yawn Sigh Yawning opens and stretches muscles at the back of your throat. ·        Stand up and inhale as you yawn, a full-bodied one, wide and deep. Get your whole body involved: open your mouth, keep your tongue relaxed and gently touching your lower teeth, soft palate raised, stre...

2023.02.20 – 0781 – The Ubiquitous Panting Exercise   Panting Your vocal folds make a tense and strained sound if they are closing too tightly over the airflow, but a pleasant and easy sound is made when the folds meet and vibrate, stimulated by air passing over them. In this exercise we’ll first work on ‘aspirant consonants’ which are produced with the vocal folds open and not vibrating at a...

2023.02.19 – 0780 – Tarzan and The Wake-Up Hum     Let’s start with the larynx. Larynx Your voice needs to start slow, so we’ll start by awakening the cords with humming, a great go-to for easing-in your instrument. The Wake-up Hum Be sure that your jaw is loose and your teeth are separated to create more room for resonance. Humm from your throat and chest in your usual register. Th...

2023.02.18 – 0779 – Why Warm Up Your Voice?       Warming up The intensity, speed and duration of any voice-over work can cause vocal fatigue. Not warming up will lead to a longer recovery time and possible ongoing injury. These exercises will improve your vocal flexibility and eliminate unnecessary levels of tension in your body and voice.   The Exercises These easy-to-le...

2023.02.17 – 0778 – Vocal Exercise Advise      A quick health warning: ·        Like at the gym, always do a warm-up before you do a work-out ·        The first part of the warm-up (see below) should also include physical and mental work, which in this book you will find in separate chapters · &nbsp...

2023.02.16 – 0777 – Vocal Work-Outs, Warm-Ups and Winding Down      %VOCAL WORK-OUTS, WARM-UPS AND WINDING DOWN A dance or sports person wouldn’t dream of performing without a warm-up, or suddenly stop at the end of a race without a cool-down regime. To do otherwise would risk temporary or permanent injury to their muscles and ligaments, and they would not be working to the best of...

2023.02.15 – 0776 – Help! I’m Getting A Cold!      Help! I’m getting a cold! (Or blocked nose, sneezes and sniffles, itchy mouth, catarrh, sore throat, dry cough, headache, hoarseness and general feeling of being unwell… it’s all literally a pain in the neck.) During this period your voice will sound deeper, rougher and may almost disappear, because swollen vocal cords vibrate more...