An actor must be clear and understood by the audience when she/he is speaking onstage.
To be clear, an actor must not only project with a higher than normal volume, but also have clear diction.
Before we go onstage we must warm up our tongues to improve enunciation.
Below are some common tongue twisters in English that are actor favorites to you to do this. It might actually come in handy in general life as well!
Instruction:
You may be tempted to try to see how fast you can speak the phrases, but that is not actually the point of the tongue twister in this specific exercise.
Start slowly at first to learn the words correctly and make sure you articulate each and every syllable.
After you have the lines memorized, try to exaggerate and over pronunciate the words to use your tongue for all possible sounds. It really helps stretch and get your tongue and lips ready for clear speaking.
Once you have done this you can see how fast you can go, but always make sure that every word can be understood.
You might also try different tempos, tonal quality as well.
It is also fun to try to speak these tongue twisters in a Character Voice.
Think of a character and recite the twister with this for some fun and variety.
Some Character Voice ideas could be:
Alien
Auctioneer
Giant
Queen / King
Mad Scientist
News Presenter
Robot
Wizard / Witch
very old person
Good luck and have fun with the words and warming up your tongue and lips!
#1:
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.
#2:
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,
How many pickles did Peter Piper pick?
#3:
She sells seashells by the seashore.
The shells she sells are surely seashells.
So if she sells shells on the seashore,
I am sure she sells seashore shells.
#4:
Smelly shoes and socks shock sisters.
#5:
Which wrist watches are Swiss wrist watches?
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