Voice Or Breath
Music Therapy speech videos & songs for special needs individuals.
Goal: Clients will verbally produce voiced and voiceless consonant pairs.
Domain: Speech
Vowel sounds are produced by changes in tongue and lip placement. Consonant sounds differ in that they are produced by some sort of vocal tract constriction. Whereas all vowel sounds are voiced, some consonant sounds are voiceless – meaning the vocal cords are not used. Numerous pairs of sounds exist in which the articulators (the vocal tract constrictors) are the same and the only difference is the vibration (or not) of the vocal cords. These are called voiced and voiceless consonant pairs. The sounds targeted with this project consist of stops and fricatives. Stops are produced by a complete obstruction of air by the articulators, followed by the build-up of air pressure, concluding with the release of air. Fricatives are produced by forcing the breath through a narrow channel formed by the articulators.
B & P are both bilabial stops
bilabial = upper and lower lips
B is voiced (bet)
P is voiceless (pet)
D & T are both alveolar stops
alveolar = tongue tip and front roof of mouth
D is voiced (do)
T is voiceless (to)
G & K are both velar stops
velar = back of tongue and back roof of mouth
G is voiced (gill)
K is voiceless (kill)
V & F are both labiodental fricatives
labiodental = lower lip and upper teeth
V is voiced (van)
F is voiceless (fan)
Z & S are both alveolar fricatives
alveolar = tongue tip and front roof of mouth
Z is voiced (zip)
S is voiceless (sip)
So why is all of this important? Because clients with speech difficulties often make substitution errors (replacing one sound with another sound) and some of the most common substitution errors are these voiced / voiceless pairs.
The video demonstrates the difference between voiced and voiceless consonant sounds using two different SymbolStix icons and the (easier to understand) words voice and breath. The song consists of four parts:
1. An instrumental section
2. A warm-up – of the voice “ah” – and the breath (blow)
3. An introduction of the targeted sounds
4. A return to the music of the second part, now with the verbal cues voice and breath to produce the targeted sounds
These four parts repeat three times:
First, each sound is sung three times.
Second, each sound is sung twice, with the client producing the third sound.
Third, the client sings each sound three times.
In addition to the 5 videos, 6 songs are included. These may be beneficial if the therapist or teacher needs to give additional visual or tactile cues: showing the articulators used, placing a hand on the larynx to demonstrate the voice, or holding a hand in front of the mouth to demonstrate the breath. A fill-in-the-blank song may be used if no visual or verbal cues are needed, to practice three sound pairs in the span of one song, or to address more difficult voiced / voiceless pairs.
Download includes:
- 5 Voice Or Breath videos [mp4 video files]
- B & P
- D & T
- G & K
- V & F
- Z & S
- 6 Voice Or Breath songs [mp3 audio files]
- B & P
- D & T
- G & K
- V & F
- Z & S
- fill-in-the-blank
- 5 Voice Or Breath lyrics [PDF]
- B & P
- D & T
- G & K
- V & F
- Z & S
- 5 Voice Or Breath lyrics & chords [PDF]
- B & P
- D & T
- G & K
- V & F
- Z & S
- 5 Voice Or Breath sets of printable visuals [jpg]
- B & P
- D & T
- G & K
- V & F
- Z & S
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