Voice through the mouth with the lips rolled inward
Roll both lips inward over your teeth and produce three voice types, controlling your throat and lips independently.
▶ First, watch the movement in the video
Check the technique, then move on to the explanation and audio examples.
Why practice this?
This time we will add slightly more complex movements, such as protruding and rolling in the lips.
Exercises and key points
How to practice protruding and rolling in the lips
Protruding your lips was probably easy to picture. Could you also picture what “rolling them in” means?
No, I cannot picture it at all…
Here, “rolling in” means folding both lips inward over the teeth as shown below. The lips should not touch each other while you make sound.
I understand the shape, but I cannot move my lips that well…
If rolling in your lips is difficult, first use your fingers to push both lips into your mouth, then make sound in that position.
Once you are used to the shape with your fingers, gradually release them. Practice until you can maintain it without using your hands.
I see… But it is still difficult…
There is no need to rush.
The difficulty comes from having used the muscles that return your lips to their original shape to stabilize—or rather, fix—your voice. Your throat should be able to make the sound on its own, but the lips have developed an interfering habit, as if saying, “The throat cannot manage alone; I must help!” This also held back the vocal folds’ development.
With repeated practice, you will learn to control your throat and lips independently, so take your time. The throat’s own abilities, weakened by this interference, will gradually return. With your lips rolled in, practice distinguishing a thick Goo voice, a thin Paa voice and an intermediate Choki voice.
Listen to the examples and try
Keep the volume low and play the examples one at a time to hear the differences between the voices.