Tongue twisters are a fantastic tool that you can use to establish good articulation (so the audience can clearly hear your lyrics) to help warm up your tongue, lips and mouth before you sing.
They assist with the development of tongue muscle memory for particular vowel sounds. For example, if you speak English as a second language and some English consonants are left out of your native vocabulary then tongue twisters can help you. Japanese singers often have problems saying R and L because these sounds are left out of the Japanese vocabulary. Therefore focusing on tongue twisters using these consonants will assist greatly in developing your ability to use these sounds more easily.
Here are five super effective tongue twisters that you can add to your singing practice.
Mae sure you can pronounce each tongue twister properly first, ten repeat it over and over and speed up as you improve.
1, Assists with R and L vowels.
‘Red letter, yellow letter, red letter, yellow letter, red letter yellow letter”
2. Assists with moving from the front lips to the soft plate and back again.
“A proper cup of coffee from a proper copper coffee pot”
3. Makes you move your lips from an Ooh shape and really get your mouth moving.
“Wayde went to Wales to watch wrens riot”
4. This one is for forward tongue placement.
“I am not a pheasant plucker,
I’m a pheasant plucker’s son
but I’ll are plucking pheasants
When the pheasant plucker’s gone”
5. This exercise works the soft palate and back of the mouth.
“Six sick hicks nick six slicks bricks with picks and sticks”
There you have it. Five super effective tongue twisters for singers. I recommend including tongue twisters into your vocal practice every so often just to ensure that your articulation is clear.
Did you have to go at these? If so, which one dod you find most useful.