TONGUE RELAXATION EXERCISES 3 of 6 Vocal Exercises American English Pronunciation
In this American English Pronunciation video, we’re
going to go over tongue relaxation exercises.
From the L to the R to the T,
the tongue is very important when it comes
to articulation of all kinds of sounds.
So having a relaxed tongue that can move
quickly and efficiently is a very good thing.
Let’s learn how to relax
this very strong muscle.
Just how strong is the tongue?
Very!
It’s considered the strongest muscle
in the body in relation to it’s size.
One way to see how strong it is is to put
your pinky finger to the roof of your mouth,
and then pin the pinky finger to the
roof of the mouth with the tongue.
Like that. Now, have a tongue vs.
pinky war.
If you’re like me, your tongue wins
every time, and your pinky hurts.
So let’s relax this mega-muscle.
First, stick out your tongue (make sure you have
clean hands for this), and massage your tongue.
Now this may feel weird, but it’s a good way to get
to know this muscle that works so hard for us.
I’ve never done that before.
It’s strange. It’s a strange feeling.
But actually, kind of feels good.
Now, stick your tongue out again, and this
time, see if you can go from relaxed,
to pointed, to relaxed, and back and forth,
without tensing the rest of the face. So.
Oh, ok.
It’s hard to do it without
tensing your lips. » Yeah.
You can get there eventually. But just to
start, just begin exploring that ability.
Maybe give them a
side-angle of that. » Sure.
Alright. At first, you may feel like you need
to tense the lips and jaw to tense the tongue,
but eventually, you’ll be able to isolate
the tension to the tongue alone.
Then, keeping the tip of the tongue behind the front
teeth, where it stays for almost all vowel sounds,
do some tongue push ups, or
push outs, to be more accurate.
Oh. I’ve never seen
that before either.
So you’ll stick out the middle of the
tongue, giving the tongue a good stretch.
Wow, you’re really good at that.
Did you learn this in acting school?
I did. » Ok.
I spent a lot of time doing these exercises in school.
Let me try. It’s hard if you’re not used to it.
Yeah. It’s a little bit
of a strange movement.
But again, doing this will help you have a great
relationship with all of what’s happening in your mouth,
so that when you’re working with a teacher,
or when you’re working with yourself,
and you learn about where the tongue is supposed to
be, it may become easier to do that new movement,
or action with your tongue, because
you’ve been able to have these exercises.
Yeah.
Now, one way to help yourself is to put your hand in
front of your tongue and reach towards your hand.
Give yourself a bit
of a challenge.
Oh wow.
Now, I’ll never reach my hand, but
it’s something to reach for.
Now, my least favorite exercise,
but a great one for the tongue.
We’re going to circle the tongue
around the mouth in both directions.
Now, imagine that you’ve got
peanut butter stuck on your gums,
and you’re going to circle the tongue
around trying to get the peanut butter out.
I kind of like that one.
Yeah?
Yeah. Why is that
your least favorite?
Because when you do it 10 times
one way and 10 times the other way,
you, your tongue starts to really get sore.
So work up to ten times one way,
and then switch to ten times the other way.
But you can start with 5.
Now, drop your head, relax the
tongue out of the mouth, and shake.
Oh boy. Do I have to try that?
Give it a shot.
Ok. I better hold my hair. » Perfect.
Such relaxation.
Now, you should feel the tongue release
all the way in the back of the mouth.
And as you do this, some saliva may fly around. And
if so, congratulations. You’re doing it perfectly.
Now, let’s practice some articulation
with this newly relaxed tongue.
So, that’s using the unvoiced T sound.
Now let’s try the voiced D sound.
And you can just feel the very tip of your tongue
on the gum ridge there for that nice, light touch.
Efficient T and D. Let’s try.
And then, some fun practice. Trumpet
players call this “double tonguing”.
It’s to articulate the tongue in the front,
with the tip of the tongue for the T,
and then a K sound
with the back.
Oh wow. When you do that you just
feel your tongue going back and forth.
Yeah, it’s really fun.
That’s kind of cool.
Alright, nice job.
Remember, this is a great way
to get to know your tongue,
and may be really helpful when it comes to
dealing with complicated consonant clusters
that involve the tongue in words like: strike,
plurals, and twelfth. Those are tough ones.
Some of my students have a hard time moving
their tongue without moving their jaw.
So, as you do some of these exercises, make
sure you do some holding the jaw firm,
so that the tongue is moving
independently, like this.
You should be able to do it
without moving the jaw at all.
If you’re having a hard time, try holding on to the jaw
lightly to really focus your effort on the tongue.
This video is part of a series
on relaxation and placement.
If you liked this video, check out the previous one
on jaw relaxation, or the next one on lip relaxation.
If you have any questions, put them
below in the comments section.
That’s it, and thanks so much
for using Rachel’s English.