A Proper Cup of Coffee

December 10th, 2001

Ok, so you’ve learned your ‘guddah-buddahs’, you’ve done them in twos and threes, forward and back. You can do them full speed, full voice, and use up all your breath in three repetitions. Good. You are making progress.

As we escalate the complexity of the articulation exercises we are doing as part of our daily practice, it’s time to move from the sound ‘molecules’ of GUDDAH-BUDDAH and FEH-SMAH, to bigger sound ‘compounds’. These longer fragments are different than the previous articulation exercises in a number of ways.

First, in the little articulation exercises, each part of the sound gets exactly the same amount of emphasis, the same amount of ‘loudness’. Each little molecule has the same weight, the same volume and the same force to fill the space.

With these next phrases, there are a number of difficult sound combinations. Now for the first time, however, the phrases will have differing volumes, differing loudness combinations, and breath patterns. As you practice these phrases, exagerate the highs and lows, speak them in a variety of voices, stretch the sounds and try to find all the dimensions of the phrases; hit all the sounds!

Have fun.

1. A proper cup of coffee in a copper coffee pot.

2. You need unique New York.

3. A big black bug bit a big black bear and the big black bear bled blood.

4. The sixth sick sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick.

5. A box of bisquits, a box of mixed bisquits, and a bisquit mixer.

Don’t do these slow! Do them full speed, full voice, full volume, and slowly but surely, get smoother and better at doing them.

Keep breathing.