Video transcript
Warm-ups for your choir (primary) - eClass 3 - Vowels and consonants - 2. Focus on consonants

RACHEL KELLY: Exercises which focus on consonants will help warm up the lips and the tongue and the face and will also develop habits of singing with good clarity and diction. These don't have to be sung. They can be rhythmic patterns of sound or spoken tongue twisters.

So, for this warm-up, I want you to copy the consonants that I say. I'm going to do them in a little rhythmic pattern, and you have to copy them. So here's the first pattern. (making consonant sounds) K, k, t, t, t.

STUDENTS: (making consonant sounds) K, k, t, t, t.

RACHEL KELLY: P, p, p, ch, ch, ch.

STUDENTS: P, p, p, ch, ch, ch.

RACHEL KELLY: F, f, t, t, t.

STUDENTS: F, f, t, t, t.

RACHEL KELLY: Ch, ch, ch, chhh.

STUDENTS: Ch, ch, ch, chhh.

RACHEL KELLY: Th, th, ts, ts, ts.

STUDENTS: Th, th, ts, ts, ts.

RACHEL KELLY: P, p, p, p, t, t.

STUDENTS: P, p, p, p, t, t.

RACHEL KELLY: K, ch, k, ch.

STUDENTS: K, ch, k, ch.

RACHEL KELLY: Excellent, well done. That's great.

The consonants are just as important as the vowels, aren't they? Because they help us understand what the words are that we're singing. They help get that clarity. Very important to have nice, clear consonants.

So this is a little sort of a tongue twister. The words go like this: Chester cheetah chewed a chunk of cheap cheddar cheese. Say after me, Chester cheetah chewed a chunk.

STUDENTS: Chester cheetah chewed a chunk.

RACHEL KELLY: Of cheap cheddar cheese.

STUDENTS: Of cheap cheddar cheese.

RACHEL KELLY: Chester cheetah chewed a chunk.

STUDENTS: Chester cheetah chewed a chunk.

RACHEL KELLY: Of cheap cheddar cheese.

STUDENTS: Of cheap cheddar cheese.

RACHEL KELLY: Chester cheetah chewed a chunk of cheap cheddar cheese.

STUDENTS: Chester cheetah chewed a chunk of cheap cheddar cheese.

RACHEL KELLY: Good, and we want the 'ch' to be nice and clear, but we want the other consonants to be clear as well like Chester cheetah. Chester cheetah chewed a chunk of cheap cheddar cheese. So try and get all the other sounds, the 'p' of cheap, the 'k' of chunk, the 't' of cheetah. Let's try it. Chester, ready and--

STUDENTS: Chester cheetah chewed a chunk of cheap cheddar cheese.

RACHEL KELLY: Let's do it a bit faster. Ready, and--

STUDENTS: Chester cheetah chewed a chunk of cheap cheddar cheese.

RACHEL KELLY: Again.

STUDENTS: Chester cheetah chewed a chunk of cheap cheddar cheese.

RACHEL KELLY: One more time.

STUDENTS: Chester cheetah chewed a chunk of cheap cheddar cheese.

RACHEL KELLY: Well done. Now we can also sing that. We can put pitch to it. (singing) So we could start on this note and sing Chester cheetah chewed a chunk of cheap cheddar cheese.

STUDENTS: (singing) Chester cheetah chewed a chunk of cheap cheddar cheese.

RACHEL KELLY: (singing) Da, da.

ALL: (singing) Chester cheetah chewed a chunk of cheap cheddar cheese.

RACHEL KELLY: (singing) Da, da.

ALL: (singing) Chester cheetah chewed a chunk of cheap cheddar cheese.

RACHEL KELLY: Well, we're having lovely harmony. The pattern: (singing) do, re, mi, fa, mi, re, do. (speaking) It goes up, but then it comes back down again. (singing) Let's start on that one. Ready, (speaking) and--

ALL: (singing) Chester cheetah chewed a chunk of cheap cheddar cheese.

RACHEL KELLY: (singing) Da, da.

ALL: (singing) Chester cheetah chewed a chunk of cheap cheddar cheese.

RACHEL KELLY: (singing) Da, da.

ALL: (singing) Chester cheetah chewed a chunk of cheap cheddar cheese.

RACHEL KELLY: (singing) Da, da.

ALL: (singing) Chester cheetah chewed a chunk of cheap cheddar cheese.

RACHEL KELLY: Why don't we try it because the sopranos really want to do their little descant. Why don't we try it like that, OK? So, we all start the same. (singing) Chester cheetah chewed a chunk.

(speaking) Altos, you go back down because you all seem to be able to do that very beautifully.

Sopranos, you keep going up and then down.

(singing) Chester cheetah chewed a chunk of cheap cheddar cheese,

(speaking) and it should make some beautiful thirds coming down. We'll see what happens. Ready? (singing) Here we go, (speaking) and--

STUDENTS: (singing) Chester cheetah chewed a chunk of cheap cheddar cheese.

RACHEL KELLY: (singing) Da, da.

STUDENTS: (singing) Chester cheetah chewed a chunk of cheap cheddar cheese.

RACHEL KELLY: I like it. We've just invented our own version of the warm-up. That's very creative.

So this tells a little story about a cat. Maybe it's the one you drew on the roof. It goes like this. Just listen to the words. The cat wore a hat. Say it, and--

STUDENTS: The cat wore a hat.

RACHEL KELLY: The cat wore a hat.

STUDENTS: The cat wore a hat.

RACHEL KELLY: And the bee had a flea.

STUDENTS: And the bee had a flea.

RACHEL KELLY: The cat wore a hat, and the bee had a flea.

STUDENTS: The cat wore a hat, and the bee had a flea.

RACHEL KELLY: And they jumped on a board.

STUDENTS: And they jumped on a board.

RACHEL KELLY: The cat wore a hat, and the bee had a flea, and they jumped on a board.

STUDENTS: The cat wore a hat, and the bee had a flea, and they jumped on board.

RACHEL KELLY: They jumped on a board, and they jumped on a board.

STUDENTS: And they jumped on a board.

RACHEL KELLY: Good, what did the cat do with the hat?

STUDENT: Wore it.

RACHEL KELLY: Wore it. The cat wore a hat. The bee had a flea, and they jumped on a board, oh my Lord.

STUDENTS: Oh my Lord.

RACHEL KELLY: Let's try the whole thing. Go.

ALL: The cat wore a hat, and the bee had a flea, and they jumped on a board, oh my Lord.

RACHEL KELLY: Good. I'm still hearing some people missing the word 'wore'. The cat wore a hat. Let's try it again. This time when we say it, I want to hear the last letter of the words, like cat, hat, board, all of those last letters. Sitting up, here we go. 1, 2.

ALL: The cat wore a hat, and the bee had a flea, and they jumped on a board, oh my Lord.

RACHEL KELLY: Good, it has a melody. The melody goes like this. (humming) Mm, mm, mm. (singing) The cat wore a hat, and the bee had a flea, and they jumped on a board, oh my Lord.

(speaking) Can you sing for me? (singing) Oh my Lord.

STUDENTS: (singing) Oh my Lord.

RACHEL KELLY: Good. (singing) And they jumped on a board, oh my Lord.

STUDENTS: (singing) And they jumped on a board, oh my Lord.

RACHEL KELLY: (singing) The cat wore a hat. The cat wore a hat.

STUDENTS: (singing) The cat wore a hat.

RACHEL KELLY: (singing) And the bee had a flea.

STUDENTS: (singing) And the bee had a flea.

RACHEL KELLY: (singing) The cat wore a hat, and the bee had a flea.

STUDENTS: (singing) The cat wore a hat, and the bee had a flea.

RACHEL KELLY: (singing) And they jumped on a board, oh my Lord.

STUDENTS: (singing) And they jumped on a board, oh my Lord.

RACHEL KELLY: Good, let's try the whole thing. Everybody, eyes on me, focusing. Bright faces, it'll help keep you nicely in tune. (singing) Ready, (speaking) and--

STUDENTS: (singing) The cat wore a hat, and the bee had a flea, and they jumped on a board, oh my Lord.

RACHEL KELLY: Good, a bit faster, and--.

STUDENTS: (singing) The cat wore a hat, and the bee had a flea, and they jumped on a board, oh my Lord.

RACHEL KELLY: Good now the whole point of this warm-up is to get our mouths working and to get our diction nice and clean. So you can't sing it like this: (singing lazily) the cat wore a hat, and the bee had a flea. (speaking) It all has to be nice and crisp. (singing crisply) The cat wore a hat, and the bee had a flea, and they jumped on a board, oh my Lord.

(speaking) Can we try it like that? We'll stand up and try it. (singing) The cat-- (speaking) Here we go.

STUDENTS: (singing) The cat wore a hat, and the bee had a flea, and they jumped on a board, oh my Lord.

RACHEL KELLY: Good, Let's try a little bit higher and a little bit faster. (singing) The cat-- (speaking) Here we go.

STUDENTS: (singing) The cat wore a hat, and the bee had a flea, and they jumped on a board, oh my Lord.

RACHEL KELLY: (singing) A bit higher and a bit faster. The cat-- (speaking) Ready, and--

STUDENTS: (singing) The cat wore a hat, and the bee had a flea, and they jumped on a board, oh my Lord.

RACHEL KELLY: (singing) And let's do it one more time. Here we go.

STUDENTS: (singing) The cat wore a hat, and the bee had a flea, and they jumped on a board, oh my Lord.

RACHEL KELLY: Well done. Have a seat.

New York, who's been to New York? I love it; definitely one of my favourite places. But this is not one of my favourite tongue twisters because it is very, very tricky.

If I do it slowly, no problems. But quickly, it's tricky, and it's only got 3 words in it. Unique New York. Can you say them?

ALL: Unique New York.

RACHEL KELLY: OK, so sounds easy. But when we- shh-- we say those 2 words in a row, it gets tricky. Unique New York. Say it.

STUDENTS: Unique New York.

RACHEL KELLY: Uh-huh. Say it a little bit faster. Unique New York. Go.

STUDENTS: Unique New York.

RACHEL KELLY: So we're going to do this in a little tune, a little warm-up, where we just go up a scale. A different note each time, we sing Unique New York. So it goes like this. (singing) Unique New York, unique New York, unique New York, unique New York, unique New York, unique New York, New Yeek-- ack-- Unique New York, unique New York.

I thought I was going slowly enough. Obviously not. Let's try it at that speed. OK, yes, stand up. Here we go. You've had a rest.

(singing) So it starts with 'u', and then the next one starts with 'new'. Ready, (speaking) and--

ALL: (singing) Unique New York, unique New York, unique New York.

STUDENTS: (singing) Unique New York, unique New York, unique New York, unique New York, unique New York.

RACHEL KELLY: Good, I can hear a lot of people doing very good 'k' sounds, but not everybody. So the word 'unique' has a 'k', made by the 'q', and New York has 'k', made by the 'k'. So I want to hear those, as well as the start of the word being nice and clear as well.

(singing) Let's try it again a tiny bit faster. Ready, (speaking) and--

STUDENTS: (singing) Unique New York, unique New York, unique New York, unique New York, unique New York, unique New York, unique New York, unique New York.

RACHEL KELLY: Can you go faster? Yeah? Let's just go a little bit faster. Here we go, sh, so this will be (singing) unique New York, unique New York. (speaking) Just that speed. Ready, after 2. 1, 2.

STUDENTS: (singing) Unique New York, unique New York, unique New York, unique New York, unique New York, unique New York, unique New York, unique New York.

RACHEL KELLY: Good, just for fun, let's go really fast. (singing) Unique New York, unique New York. (speaking) Ready, here we go, 1, 2, 3, and--

STUDENTS: (singing) Unique New York, unique New York, unique New York, unique New York, unique New York, unique New York, unique New York, unique New York.

RACHEL KELLY: What's You Nork?

[laughter]

Have a seat.