If you’re like me and you haven’t yet got your “warm up” routine nailed yet then fear not, I did some research to help us both.
The warm ups in this article will help you improve your diction & enunciation. If you practice them a bit every day, you’ll have an easier time reading scripts and you might even end up doing less takes.
But before you start, you should know that in this other article that I wrote, the first 8 exercises will help you physically warm up your vocal cords, lips, tongue and facial muscles. Check it out first, if you haven’t already. (You’ll have an easier time nailing these lines afterwards.)
Also, before practicing these lines, make sure you’re well-hydrated. The water you drink can take up to 4 hours to get through your digestive system and to your vocal cords. So having water near-by is handy but staying hydrated, in general is even more important.
This one’s first because it’s not “just another tongue twister”. It’s unique and it’s stood the test of time. This was used at Radio Central New York (NBC) in the 1940s to test prospective radio talent.
It had to be performed perfectly and the reader was being judged based on clarity, enunciation, diction, tonality and expressiveness.
The prospective talent had to read it perfectly, with feeling and meaning.
Try reading it each day.
One hen
One hen
Two ducksOne hen
Two ducks
Three squawking geeseOne hen
Two ducks
Three squawking geese
Four limerick oystersOne hen
Two ducks
Three squawking geese
Four limerick oysters
Five corpulent porpoisesOne hen
Two ducks
Three squawking geese
Four limerick oysters
Five corpulent porpoises
Six pairs of Don Alvarso’s tweezersOne hen
Two ducks
Three squawking geese
Four limerick oysters
Five corpulent porpoises
Six pairs of Don Alvarso’s tweezers
Seven thousand Macedonians in full battle arrayOne hen
Two ducks
Three squawking geese
Four limerick oysters
Five corpulent porpoises
Six pairs of Don Alvarso’s tweezers
Seven thousand Macedonians in full battle array
Eight brass monkeys from the ancient sacred crypts of EgyptOne hen
Two ducks
Three squawking geese
Four limerick oysters
Five corpulent porpoises
Six pairs of Don Alvarso’s tweezers
Seven thousand Macedonians in full battle array
Eight brass monkeys from the ancient sacred crypts of Egypt
Nine apathetic sympathetic diabetic old men on roller skates with a marked propensity toward procrastination and slothOne hen
Two ducks
Three squawking geese
Four limerick oysters
Five corpulent porpoises
Six pairs of Don Alvarso’s tweezers
Seven thousand Macedonians in full battle array
Eight brass monkeys from the ancient sacred crypts of Egypt
Nine apathetic sympathetic diabetic old men on roller skates with a marked propensity toward procrastination and sloth
Ten lyrical, spherical, diabolical denizens of the deep who haul stall around the corner of the quo of the quay of the quivery, all at the same time!
Whew! That’s a tough one. Don’t worry, the rest of this article is full of much shorter (but not necessarily easier!) warm up lines. Enjoy!
Once you find a few that you struggle with, copy and paste them into a file so you can focus on those. Each tongue twister works on different parts of talking.
Tip: Tongue twisters help with diction. Try to say each of these in a single breath. Go only as fast as you can while keeping each word clear.
To sit in solemn silence in a dull dark dock
In a pestilential prison with a life long lock
Awaiting the sensation of a short sharp shock
From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block
Amidst the mists and fiercest frosts,
With barest wrists and stoutest boasts,
He thrusts his fists against the post,
And still insists he sees the ghosts.
She is a thistle sifter
and she has a sieve of sifted thistles,
and a sieve of unsifted thistles,
and the sieve of unsifted thistles
she sieves into the sieve of sifted thistles,
because she is a thistle sifter.
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked.
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
Where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?
A tutor who tooted the flute,
Tried to tutor two tooters to toot.
Said the two to the tutor,
“Is it easier to toot,
Or to tutor two tooters to toot?”
Bobby Bibbit bought a bat.
Bobby Bibbit bought a ball.
With the bat, Bob banged the ball,
Banged the ball against the wall.
Amidst the mists and fiercest frosts,
With barest wrists and stoutest boasts,
He thrusts his fists against the post,
And still insists he sees the ghosts.
Mable had a maple tree.
Mable’s maple tree didn’t
make maple syrup for Mable.
Is Mable’s maple unable?
Sure, Sally sold sixty shells at the sea’s shore,
but Sue sold seventy seven!
Sally, surprised at Sue’s success, screamed
and shouted seventeen times;
“Sue’s shells are shabby! Sally’s shells are chic!”
Sue said to Sally, “Say what?”
Then Sue shouted, “Sally sold sixty six shells,
so she’s upset. Sorry for shouting!”
Swan swam over the pond,
Swim swan swim!
Swan swam back again—
Well swum swan!
My dame hath a lame tame crane.
My dame hath a crane that is lame.
Oh gentle Jane, doth my dame’s lame tame crane
leave and come home again?
What a to-do to die today, at a minute or two to two;
A thing distinctly hard to say, but harder still to do.
For they’ll beat a tattoo, at twenty to two,
A rat-tat-tat- tat-tat-tat- tat-tat-tattoo.
And a dragon will come when he hears the drum,
At a minute or two to two today, at a minute or two to two.
A skunk sat on a stump.
The skunk thought the stump stunk.
The stump thought the skunk stunk.
Sister Suzy’s sewing shirts for soldiers.
Such skill at sewing shirts
my shy young sister Suzy shows.
Some soldiers send epistles
Saying they’d sooner sleep on thistles
Than the short serge shirts for soldiers
shy young sister Suzy sews.
Better Botter bought some butter
But she said this butter’s bitter
If I put it in my batter
It will make my batter bitter
So she bought some better butter
Put it in her bitter batter
And it made her bitter batter better
Denise sees the fleece,
Denise sees the fleas.
At least Denise could sneeze
and feed and freeze the fleas.
One-one was a race horse.
Two-two was one too.
One-one won one race.
Two-two won one too.
That’s it for the warm-ups. Let’s mix it up a bit now.
This one will help you to open your mouth, speak clearly and articulate fully. Try get it down to 25 seconds (without losing clarity).
Give me the gift of a grip-top sock,
A clip drape shipshape tip top sock.
Not your spinslick slapstick slipshod stock,
But a plastic, elastic grip-top sock.
None of your fantastic slack swap slop
From a slap dash flash cash haberdash shop.
Not a knick knack knitlock knockneed knickerbocker sock
With a mock-shot blob-mottled trick-ticker top clock.
Not a supersheet seersucker ruck sack sock,
Not a spot-speckled frog-freckled cheap sheik’s sock
Off a hodge-podge moss-blotched scotch-botched block.
Nothing slipshod drip drop flip flop or glip glop
Tip me to a tip top grip top sock.
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