Elissa Weinzimmer here I'm a vocal
health educator and the founder of voice
body connection and today in my how
to warm up video series we've gotten to
the point of articulation again now
last time we did articulation we did
something called plosives right they are
the explosive sounds in the English language
and of course many other languages and
today we're going to talk about nasals
now I know that nasal sounds maybe don't
seem like they're as hard or like
they're not important with our
articulation but actually they can be
quite difficult and if we can get really
clear about our nasal sounds it actually
really helps with the clarity of all of
our speech okay. so there are three main
nasal sounds in the English language
that we use and they are mmm "M", nnnn "N"
and nnggg NG it's the "NG" sound like in the word
walking right. So these three sounds that
happen in different parts of our mouth
the M happens up at the lips hmm the N
end happens with the tip of the tongue
coming up to the bumpy gum ridge it's
called the alveolar ridge nnnnn and the "NG"
happens at the back of the mouth between
the back of the tongue and the soft
palate nnnggg okay so we're going to
practice these sound and we're actually
going to really practice being able to
buzz them continuously because nasal
sounds are what are called continuance
they can actually continue for a long
time okay so the "M" sound is really
valuable because if nothing else is
obstructing the flow of our voice as it
flows up and through energetically then
we should feel a buzz on our lips so do
your "M" sound hmm and you can even put
your fingers on your lips if it's
helpful to you see if you can feel the
buzz on your lips mmm you can even do
something like agreeing with someone
imagining the year agreeing with someone
mm-hmm mm-hmm
now if you were squeezing the muscles in
your throat that would be like squeezing
with toothpaste tube remember that guy the
toothpaste tube in the middle and then
that would dampen the vibrations of
meeting your lips so it's a really good
diagnostic that things are more released
in the throat and of course you gives
you a little bit of laryngeal
massage if you needed to you can reference
that video in order to make sure that
you're getting your vibration all the
way to your lips hmm
right now same thing this time we're you
feel the buzz on the hard palate nnnn
with the "N" maybe you disagree with
someone this time nn-nnn nn-nnn so practice that see
if your tongue can be it has to be
someone engaged but if it can be as easy
as possible and then practice the back
of the mouth the ng and you see how I
can actually leave my tongue tip behind
my bottom front teeth and let just the
back of my mouth engage nnngg now don't be
mistaken even though we spell it in
English ng there's no actually release
of the G here there doesn't have to be
you can stay the "NG" sound the whole time
yeah hear that okay so now if we're
going to put this in context I'm
bridging over just a little bit into the
language stuff if we're going to put
this in context then we can put it in a
couple different words that you can
practice and the really cool thing about
nasals as well that I haven't even
mentioned yet that's so important is
that nasals involve our soft palate okay
so nasal sounds go through the nose
which means that the soft palate which
lifts and closes most of the time we're
making sound has to drop to allow the
sound to travel up into our nasal
passages and out okay so when the soft
palate drops it needs to drop fully in
order to make a very clear nasal sound
but then it needs to close fully in
order to articulate with the sound that
is coming out our mouth which is most of
the other sounds all the sounds that are
not nasal okay so if you put a nasal
sound in juxtaposition with a plosive or
we're learn about fricatives or any other
vowel then what's going to happen is
your soft palate has to lift up and
lower and lift up and lower very
dexterously so this is actually not only
exercise for the lips the tip of the
tongue
and the back of the tongue but also the
soft palate okay so the words we're
going to do is word for "M" is hamper
hamper hamper and make sure you're
making a long "M" that you're really
getting a buzz in your "M" while you say
the word hamper hamper and a really clear
"P" okay now try the word handy handy
handy handy feel how your tongue comes
up to the bumpy ridge for the "N" and
then explodes away from there for the "D" handy
handy right you want to say that
really clearly with a strong "D" okay
we practice one of the back it's going
to be hanger hanger and you will now
hear a G sound because of the off bite
hanger hanger hanger got that really
clear so we've got hamper at the front
handy at the middle and hangar at the
back I guess I had a household theme
today okay enjoy practice these words
and next week we'll put our nasals in
context in language