04: Improve Articulation and Clarity of Your Speaking Voice

Crisp lips, save slips… right? But what if you have a lazy mouth and it’s difficult for people to understand what you’re saying. Then it’s time to work on your T, G, K, P, B, D articulators. Elaine A. Clark leads you through this voice improvement series of exercises to help you utilize those rhythmic sounds in your speaking voice.

In Real Talking Tips episode 2 and episode 3, we worked on Improving and Strengthening the Voice so the resonators buzz and the vowels have strong breath support.

Now, It’s time to Articulate!

I’m Elaine Clark, voiceover performer and speech communication coach for over 40 years, author of There’s Money Where Your Mouth Is and Voice-Overs for Podcasting, app creator of Activate Your Voice and Adding Melody To Your Voice, and host of the Real Talking Tips podcast where we explore ways to strengthen the speaking voice and improve the way we interact with people through speech, movement, and body language.

Is Your Speaking Voice Strong or Weak?

Did you list ‘your voice’ in the ‘My Weakness’ column of the Real Taking Tips Episode 1 – Strengths and Weakness List homework assignment? Then, take the 5-minute a day workout challenge by warming the voice with the Elaine Clark app: Activate Your Voice. Watch the YouTube Real Talking Tips videos, listen to the podcasts, and practice along on this elaineclarkvo.com/podcast website.

Tap the Consonants

Are you a lateral speaker so certain sounds are dropped or incomplete? It could be the result of a regionalism, accent, dialect, or medical condition. Poor articulation could be due to lazy talking habits. Articulation takes effort because the tongue has to move to the top and bottom, back and front of the mouth.

If you think of speech like a rubber band, you need to stretch it out and snap it back. The consonant articulators, T, G, K, P, B, D, act like the drum section of speech to set the tempo and pitch of our speaking “tune”. If you voice the T and B, you’ll hear an upward sound with the T, and a downward musical pitch with the letter B.

The third section of ‘The Voice’ section of Real Talking Tips and the Activate Your Voice app builds on Articulation. This time, you’re going to crisply say each of the articulators 13 times in a row in a 1-2-3. 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1 pattern. Get a quick, deep breath between each consonant tap series.

T = ‘Tuh’

G = ‘Guh’

K = ‘Kuh’

P = ‘Puh’

B = ‘Buh’

D = ‘Duh’

If you have trouble tapping your articulators, practice this exercise once or more a day. If you want a guided voice and speech exercise, either follow along with this podcast or the third section of the Activate Your Voice app. Remember to increase your volume as you progress through the sequence of each of the 13 repeated consonants.

“Crisp lips, save slips.” Right?

Tune in to Real Talking Tips Episode 5 for enunciation exercises. And, please take a moment to Share this Episode clicking on the icons below. Let’s improve speech communication together!

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