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CONSONANTS |
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Consonants in choral music can either be voiced or unvoiced. A
voiced consonant is one that pitch. You will know it has pitch
because you can feel the sound vibrations in your throat or it can have
a given pitch. An unvoiced consonant have no pitch. They
are percussive sounds that are produced by explosive mouth
sounds.
Take the letter G for example.
Sing the word "gone" to yourself on any pitch. Can you feel a
vibration in your throat when you sing the 'g'? You should
because 'G' is a voiced consonant.
Now take the letter M for
example. Sing the word "mom" to yourself on any pitch. Can
you feel a vibration in your throat when you sing the 'm'?
No. However, does the 'm' have pitch? Yes! You can
change the pitch of the 'm'. Try singing up and down a scale on
'm'. 'M' is a voiced consonant
Now take the letter K. Sing the
word "king" to yourself on any pitch. Can you feel a vibration in
your throat when you sing the 'k'? You shouldn't because 'K' is
an unvoiced consonant.
The chart below illustrates voiced and unvoiced consonant. The
letter(s) on the left column are voiced consonants. Practice
saying them. Now try and take out your voice when saying these
letters but keep everything else the same. You should now produce
the unvoiced counterpart of the voiced consonant shown in the right
column.
VOICED
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UNVOICED
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B as in
bat
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P as in
pat
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D as in
dog
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T as in
tag
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G as in
give
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K as in
king
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Z as in
zeal
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S as in
seal
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V as in
vine
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F as in
fine
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J as in
jeer
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Ch as in
cheer
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Th as in
thy
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Th as in
thigh
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W as in
will
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Wh as in
why
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N/A
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Sh as in
shake
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M as in mom
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N/A
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N as in noon
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N/A
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L as in Look
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N/A
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