Boredom can mean the death of the commitment to do your vocal practice. You have to keep it fresh and interesting.
I’ve had several clients ask me lately for some new articulation warm-ups. These clients are dutifully doing articulation exercises before tracking or anchoring, but they’ve gotten bored with the same old warm-up phrases day after day.
Before I list some new phrases to practice, let’s do a quick review of their benefits.
The vocal mechanism is almost all 
muscle, especially the articulators, which include the lips, the tongue, the jaw, and the teeth (okay, the teeth aren’t muscle). In the same way we stretch and warm up our leg muscles before running, we should warm up our vocal muscles before voicing.
Some of the best sounds to use to warm up are called “plosives” or “stops” because they each require a burst of air for their production. Plosives in our language are /t/ /d/ /p/ /b/ and /k/ /g/.
If you hold your hand in front of your mouth, you should feel a puff of air as you say any of these sounds. Try it. Hold your hand about three inches from your lips and make a “p” sound several times. Do you feel the air hitting your hand?
Here are some new phrases to use to warm up. Begin by exaggerating the plosive sounds. Really blast the air out on the plosives. That will warm up your articulators the quickest. Use these warm-up phrases every day before voicing.
- Pat sat flat.
- Heat the meat.
- Ted had lead.
- Bed spread
- Pop the top.
- Deep sleep
- Rob will sob.
- Grab a crab.
- Kink the link.
- Took a look.
- Snug as a bug.
- Big pig.
