This is the first of a series of short blogs that will introduce folk to new ideas/ exercises about their voice. 
Good articulation needs strength, flexibility and calm! The fluffing of words or tripping over our sentences when we nervous are a good sign to your articulation needing improvement.
The Soft palette is like the unseen articulator as it is right at the back of your mouth. The palette is the roof of your mouth. Its in divided into two areas. The hard palette which has almost no give and the soft palette which is a fleshy bit of tissue. Improving flexibility in the soft palette will not only improve articulations but it will also help with colour and cadence in the voice. Opera Singers have incredibly flexible soft palettes and Beat boxers can achieve amazing sounds through clicks and tongue placement using their soft palette
If you make a ‘k’ sound you can feel the back of your tongue raising to meet the roof of you mouth, but what you may not feel is that your soft palette is also coming down to form this closure the ‘k’ sound is made when this join comes apart like a tiny explosion. In fact ‘k’ is a sound belonging to a group on consonants called plosives.
So if you repeat a ‘k’ sound your are working the two articulators -your tongue and your soft palette. ‘g’ is made in exactly the same way but this time in stead of the sound being carried out solely on air. The vocal folds come engaged and their is now sound with it.
Try this repeating the following:
k-k
k-k-k
k-k-k-k-k
k-k-k-k-k-k
g-g-g-g-g-g
g-g-g-g-g
g-g-g
g-g
Play around with strength of closure
tempo, volume and rhythm.
k-k-g-g-k-k-g-g-k-k-g-g-k-k-g-g
k-g-k-g-k-g-k-g-k-g-k
k-g-g g-k-k k-g-g g-k-k
g-k-k g-k-k g-k-k g-k-k
So there you have it A is for Articulation!
Goodman 