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2026-10-14

My Voice Warm-Up

tags: speaking, routine

I work from home and I barely talk all day. When talking is finally needed, my mouth is cold: I mumble, I can’t talk straight. This is the warm-up I run to start my day.

1. Wake up the voice (1 minute)

  • Hum with lips closed for 20 seconds, until you feel the buzz in your face.
  • Lip trills — blow through loose lips like a motorboat. Slide the pitch low to high and back, 3 times.
  • Siren — on “ng” (as in sing), glide from your lowest note to your highest and back, 2 times.
  • Big yawn-sigh — open wide, sigh out on “haaa”. Relaxes the throat and jaw.

2. Wake up the mouth (tongue twisters)

Slow and clear first, then faster. Clean beats fast. Short ones: say them 3 times in a row.

P / F

  1. Four fine fresh fish for you.
  2. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked.
  3. Fred fed Ted bread, and Ted fed Fred bread.
  4. A proper copper coffee pot.
  5. Friendly fleas and fireflies.
  6. Pad kid poured curd pulled cod.

B / V

  1. Very well, very well, very well.
  2. Vincent vowed vengeance very vehemently.
  3. Black background, brown background.
  4. A big black bug bit a big black bear.
  5. Betty Botter bought some butter, but she said the butter’s bitter. If I put it in my batter, it will make my batter bitter. So she bought some better butter, better than the bitter butter, and she put it in her batter, and her batter was not bitter.

TH

  1. Thirty-three thousand people think that Thursday is their thirtieth birthday.
  2. The thirty-three thieves thought that they thrilled the throne throughout Thursday.
  3. Three free throws.
  4. Thin sticks, thick bricks.
  5. I thought a thought, but the thought I thought wasn’t the thought I thought I thought.
  6. Three grey geese in the green grass grazing.

S / SH

  1. She sells seashells by the seashore.
  2. Sixish.
  3. Sixty-six sick chicks.
  4. Six slippery snails slid slowly seaward.
  5. Swan swam over the sea. Swim, swan, swim! Swan swam back again. Well swum, swan!
  6. Fresh French fried fish.

Short vs long vowels

  1. Ship, sheep.
  2. Full, fool.
  3. Sit, seat.
  4. Fill, feel.
  5. Look, Luke.

R / L

  1. Red lorry, yellow lorry.
  2. Red leather, yellow leather.
  3. Rubber baby buggy bumpers.
  4. Truly rural.
  5. Lesser leather never weathered wetter weather better.
  6. Eleven benevolent elephants.

W / WH

  1. Which witch is which?
  2. How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? He would chuck, he would, as much as he could, and chuck as much wood as a woodchuck would if a woodchuck could chuck wood.
  3. 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.

CH / J

  1. Cheap ship trip.
  2. How can a clam cram in a clean cream can?
  3. Chester Cheetah chews a chunk of cheap cheddar cheese.
  4. Judge Jerry jumbled the jelly jars.

K / G

  1. Greek grapes.
  2. Good blood, bad blood.
  3. Crisp crusts crackle crunchily.
  4. Kitty caught the kitten in the kitchen.

Speed

  1. Unique New York, unique New York, you know you need unique New York.
  2. Toy boat.
  3. Irish wristwatch.
  4. Can you can a can as a canner can can a can?
  5. Brisk brave brigadiers brandished broad bright blades.

3. Say it back (1 minute)

After reading, close the book and explain what I just read out loud, in my own words, for one minute. No stopping. If a word won’t come within 3 seconds, describe it instead and keep going. Reading aloud trains the mouth. This trains finding the words.

The minimum

On a low day: one hum, one twister, one minute of saying it back. That counts.

Talking on the other days

  • Voice comms when you game. If you play Valorant or Dota, talk on comms instead of staying quiet. Fast calls under pressure are very close to real conversation practice.
  • Speak up at work. Use your mic in meetings, and give a spoken update instead of a chat message when you can. Real stakes, real English, already on your schedule.
  • Talk with me by voice, in short sessions. Say “give me a question,” then answer out loud without pausing your dictation. 5 minutes. I’ll tell you whether it made sense.
  • Narrate what you’re building. Record a 1-minute voice memo or video explaining today’s progress on your game. It’s speaking practice, and it’s also making something, which you’ve been wanting to do more of.
  • Language-exchange apps (HelloTalk, Tandem). You voice-chat with real people learning Tagalog or Filipino while you practice English. With your night shift, people in other time zones are awake when you are.
  • Small talk outside the house. The guard, the rider, the vendor, teammates after a game. Thirty seconds each.