 a local singer and songwriter and vocal coach. Today, we will concentrate on articulation. Articulation is especially important when we're singing. You wanna know or you want people to know what you're singing about or when you're speaking, you want them to understand you clearly. So we're gonna work on some exercises that help you get better at articulating or singing clearly. Before we start, we're going to relax our minds and our bodies a bit so that we can focus on the lesson at hand. All right, so I want you to close your eyes. Take a deep breath. Let it out. Deep breath through your nose. Into your diaphragm. And out. Deep breath. Let it out. Now, you can open your eyes. I want you to pull your shoulders back for me. Now let's roll them forwards. Good. Now let's jiggle them like this, back and forth. Good. Now I want you to move your head to the left or the right. Let's start with this way. Back to the front. Into the right or your left. Back to the front. Now from side to side, like this. Into the other side. Good. Now we're going to go not all the way around but in half circles, like this. And stop, and go all the way back and stop. Okay? So let's try it together. From the side, half circle, stop. And then back the other way around, half circle. All right. And forward. Okay. So again, when singing it's very important to make clear and distinct sounds when communicating, right, or singing. We want to make sure that your beautiful voice is understood and the words that you're saying are understood. All right. So one of the first things that I like to do is to make sure that we're opening our mouths as we're singing, okay? Open your mouths. How big do you have to open your mouth? I think that a good place to start is to have two fingers, take your two fingers like this, make sure they're clean, and you're gonna put them inside your mouth. You wanna make sure that as you put them inside your mouth, there's enough room to put your fingers inside without touching the walls or your lips. Ready? Okay. So that's a pretty good idea of how, why do you wanna open your mouth? Okay? And when we're doing articulation exercises, what we're doing is concentrating on our vowel sounds, excuse me, vowel sounds, A, E, I, O, and U, and also our consonants. I have a list, let's try that again, consonants. All right? So one of the things that I like to do is call the lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue. I'm going to say it first and you're going to say it back, okay? All right, first exercise, here we go. The lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue. The lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue. Now it's your turn. The lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue. Try it again. The lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue. All right, now we're gonna try to do it three times. I'll do it first. The lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue. The lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue. The lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue. Now it's your turn. The lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue. The lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue. The lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue. Very good. Notice that we're using our lips, our teeth, our tongue, and our jaw a lot when trying to make sure that we are articulate and that we are articulating. The next thing that we're gonna do is sing that same exercise. We'll do it in the call and response method where I'll sing it to you and then you'll sing it back. All right, are you ready? Okay. The lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue, the tip of the tongue, the tip of the tongue, the lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue, the tip of the tongue, the tip of the tongue, the lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue, the tip of the tongue, the tip of the tongue, lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue, the tip of the tongue, the tip of the tongue, the lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue, the tip of the tongue, the tip of the tongue, the lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue, the tip of the tongue, the tip of the tongue. Now I'm gonna add a little more at the end. Listen carefully. The lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue, the tip of the tongue, the tip of the tongue. When I go to that last note, I'm actually moving the sound to the back of my throat. Tongue, like that, okay? So I want you to try it. The lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue, the tip of the tongue, the tip of the tongue. Good. Now I'm gonna do it again. The lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue, the tip of the tongue, the tip of the tongue. Your turn. The lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue, the tip of the tongue, the tip of the tongue. Now I'm gonna move it back to my throat when I say tongue. I'm gonna go all the way up and all the way down to stretch out the back of my throat. Tongue, the lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue, tip of the tongue, the tip of the tongue. Now you try it. The lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue, the tip of the tongue, the tip of the tongue. Good job. Let's try it again. The lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue, the tip of the tongue, the tip of the tongue. The lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue, the tip of the tongue, the tip of the tongue. Good job. Now we're We're going to try a little bit more of this. I'm going to call it, and you're going to respond, all right? The lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue, the tip of the tongue, the tip of the tongue, the tip of the tongue. See how your mouth is warmed up and you're speaking articulately when we do this exercise? Let's try it again, the lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue, the tip of the tongue, the tip of the tongue, the tip of the tongue, the tip of the tongue, the tip of the tongue, the tip of the tongue, tip of the tongue. Remember when you're doing that, it's not so much for it to sound beautiful, but I want you to make sure that you're exercising the back of your throat and your palate actually. Okay? The lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue, the tip of the tongue, the tip of the tongue. The lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue, the tip of the tongue, the tip of the tongue, tip of the tongue. Okay, now we're going to try a few articulation or diction exercises. Diction is the way that we say words or sing words. We are going to practice some tongue twisters. Tongue twisters are not easy for me, but they're an awesome way to practice your diction or articulation. All right? The first one is I'm going to read it and then we're going to say it together. She sells seashells by the seashore. Let's try it again. I'm going to say it again or read it again. She sells seashells by the seashore. All right, now I want you to try it with me. She sells seashells by the seashore. I did it. I bet you did it too. Let's try it again. She sells seashells by the seashore. Pretty good. All right. I'm trying. It's not that easy. Let's try another one. I saw Susie sitting in a shoe shine shop. Let's try that again. I'm going to read it. I saw Susie sitting in a shoe shine shop. Now I want you to say it or repeat after me. I saw Susie sitting in a shoe shine shop. Now let's say it together. I saw Susie sitting in a shoe shine shop. Let's try it again. I saw Susie sitting in a shoe shine shop. Now let's try singing that. Throw a little extra fun in there. I saw Susie sitting in a shoe shine shop. You try it. I saw Susie sitting in a shoe shine shop. Pretty good. Let's try another one. We surely shall see the sunshine soon. We surely shall see the sunshine soon. That was hard. I'll say it and you repeat it back. We surely shall see the sun shine soon. We surely shall see the sun shine soon. Now I have a little bit of a list. So it might sound a little funny, but nevertheless we continue to practice. We surely shall see the sun shine soon. You try it. We surely shall see the sun shine soon. Good. We're going to try singing in that same line instead. We surely shall see the sun shine soon. Your turn. We surely shall see the sun shine soon. You know for me it's a little bit easier when I'm singing it. I think it's because I have time to think about what I'm saying and the pauses during the pauses while I'm singing. But let's try it again. I'll sing it and then I'll point to you and have you do it. We surely shall see the sun shine soon. Let me try that again. We surely shall see the sun shine soon. Now your turn. We surely shall see the sun shine soon. One more time. We surely shall see the sun shine soon. Good. Let's try all three together. She sells seashells by the seashore. Then we're going to go to I saw Susie sitting in a shoe shine shop. Then we're going to go to we surely shall see the sun shine soon. I'm going to sing these things to you and then you're going to sing it back. She sells seashells down by the seashore. She sells seashells down by the seashore. Now your turn. She sells seashells down by the seashore. She sells seashells down by the seashore. Good. Next one. I saw Susie sitting in the soomsh. Let me try that again. I saw Susie sitting in the shoe shine store. Again. I saw Susie sitting in the shoe shine store. Your turn. I saw Susie sitting in the shoe shine store. One more time. I saw Susie sitting in the shoe shine store. Wow, these are not as easy as it seems, I bet, right? The last one is, we surely shall see the sunshine soon. I'm gonna do it again. We surely shall see the sunshine soon. Your turn. We surely shall see the sun. We surely shall see the sunshine. Those are three different tongue twisters you can practice. Every day, either talking them, speaking them, or singing them in whichever melody that you choose. This will help you with your articulation and diction. Thank you so much for coming along with me virtually today and learning about proper diction and articulation when singing. Again, my name is Erica Merritt and I appreciate you joining in with me today.