Tongue Twister Warm-ups

Tongue Twister Warm-ups
Prof. Stevenson

Begin with these sounds warm-ups:

Buhduh guhduh. Guhduh Buhduh.
Puhtuhkuh. Kuhtuhpuh.
Mmm buh puh. Duh tuh luh nuh. Ung guh kuh.

Now move on to twisters:

A tutor who tooted the flute, tried to tutor two tooters to toot. Said the two to the tutor, is it harder to toot or, to tutor two tooters to toot.

She stood on the balcony inexplicably mimicking him hiccuping.

You need New York. Unique New York. You know you need unique New York.

Whether the weather is fair. Or whether the weather is not. Whether the weather is cold. Or whether the weather is hot. We'll weather the weather, whatever the weather, whether we like it or not.

My sister Sally has a shop by the seashore, which sells seashells, sandals, swimsuits, stationary, soup, soda, snacks, and other such sundries. At first the shop's name was simply Sally's Seashell Shop. Certainly, seashells of various sizes, numerous shapes and colors were sold by the score. Hence, the name Sally's Seashell Shop.

Zachariah is a zealot for zoological concerns, he studies zoos from Zurich to Brazil. He recent Zoographical endeavors are so zany that Zach's friends think he is very ill. As his conversation zig-zags from Zephras to Zorillas his eyes are glazed. Zachariah seems a zombie.

What a ta-do to die today at a minute or two 'til two. A thing distinctly hard to say, but harder still to do. For they'll beat a tattoo, at twenty to two, with a ra-ta-ta-tat-ta-ta-tat-ta-ta-too. And the dragon will come when it hears the drum, at a minute or two 'til two today, at a minute or two 'til two.

You should over-articulate the ten-line exercise below for maximum benefit:

"One hen.
Two ducks.
Three squawking geese.
Four limerick oysters.
Five corpulent porpoises.
Six pairs of Don Alvero's tweezers.
Seven thousand Macedonians in full battle array.
Eight brass monkeys from the ancient sacred crypts of Egypt.
Nine apathetic, diabetic, sympathetic old men on roller-skates who all have a marked propensity for procrastination and sloth.
Ten lyrical, spherical, diabolic denizens of the deep, who all stalk around the crack in the corner of the quarry at the same time."

Once you have it memorized, practice it until you can say the entire thing in one breath.