Variance: Tongue Action

I don’t need to be in your home office to know that your tongue is probably tighter than it should be.

No judgment, it seems that our tongue tries to hold for dear life in the best of times. And, these are not the best of times. So, I offer a few exercises instead.

The first is a short video featuring an exercise called sticky peanut butter.

The next is a series of tongue twisters. Contrary to popular belief, the goal is not speedy delivery but precision in the articulation of each sound. Slow, steady, and clear.

• To sit in solemn silence in a pestilential prison, And awaiting the sensation From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block!
• A flea and a fly flew up in a flue.
  Said the flea, “Let us fly!”
  Said the fly, “Let us flee!”So they flew through a flaw in the flue.
• Garlic Gargle
• Masked Stranger

Finally, enjoy your food. The tongue has a wonderful function in giving us the sensation and taste of food. Make something you really like, slow down, and truly enjoy it. Chew more than you think you must. Pause between bites. Let the tongue indulge in pleasure. That should set you right.

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On Fridays at 12 pm EDT, for the foreseeable future, Gina will host an office hour over Zoom and also go live on FB. This will be a short voice alignment session aimed at voice skills building. Come for the session and/or to ask any questions you have about voice function or practice. Register here or watch it live on the GROW Voice FB page. I hope to see you there.

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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.