What do we mean by ‘articulation’?
Articulation is how we describe the movement of your oral structures during speech (e.g. lips, tongue, jaw, teeth, palate, and throat).
Changing and shaping the resonance of your voice also happens through articulation. Changing the position of your tongue or lips when you are speaking can alter the overall sound of your voice.
To demonstrate this, say ‘eeeee’ then ‘aaaaa’ at your normal speaking pitch. Tune in to where your tongue is placed in your mouth for each sound. Which one sounds higher to you? Which one sounds lower?
This activity has been designed to help you tune-in to your natural articulation patterns, and explore how small changes to your articulation can change how your voice sounds.
Activity to explore your resonance
You may wish to use the reading passage below for this activity, or select your own paragraph to practice with.
1. Read the passage aloud. As you read, think about what your tongue and lips are doing. How do they move as you read each word? How does this affect the sound?
2. Then, play around with where you place your tongue and how you move your lips – explore how this changes the sound and the tone of your voice. Some suggestions for changes your can make include:
- Bring your tongue further forward (like with the ‘ee’ sound)
(this reduces the amount of space in your mouth, and reduces the amount of echo and vibration. This may result in your voice sounding lighter or brighter.) - Flatten and lower your tongue (like with the ‘ah’ sound (lowering your tongue can lower your voice-box and create a deeper sounding voice).
- Smile (this shortens the space between the voice-box and the lips which can add a brightness to your voice.)
- Round your lips (this lengthens the space between your voice-box and the lips which can add a darkness to your voice.)
Rainbow Passage:
When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colours. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it.
How did this feel?
How did it feel moving your usual tongue position? How did it affect the sound? Did you like what you heard? How did it feel speaking with a smile? Did you like what you heard? Do you want to incorporate any of these changes into your practice?
