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voice and speaking training boston

Articulate: Pucker up

Your lips are great multitaskers. Showing expression, kissing, and helping make language sounds all day long.

I want to dedicate today to those sounds that require both of the lips to press together in order to come into the world. From the plosive /b/ and /p/ sounds, to the nasal /m/, and a few other fun sounds not necessary found in English, there can be a lot of play in bi-labial (two lip) sounds.

Today why don’t you revisit some of the facial stretches from yesterday and have some fun with lips? Note whether you press your lips together a little or a lot when saying /b/, /p/, and /m/, and how these three sounds in particular enter the room. How much air do these sounds use? Notice what types of sensations they cause within the mouth and ask yourself which muscle areas you are feeling.

This type of work can seem a little silly but at the end of the day our articulation comes from a series of actions using specific parts of the anatomy. The more you can understand and isolate these actions, the clearer your speech will become.

Gina Razón is the principal voice specialist at GROW Voice LLC, a full-service voice and speech studio in Boston’s Back Bay.  She has over 16 years of experience both as a teacher of voice and speech, and a voraciously curious voice user.  Gina has worked professionally as a classical singer for over a decade and more recently as a professional public speaker.  For more information on the studio or to book Gina visit www.growvoice.com.

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