Ventriloquism 101: How to Talk Without Moving Your Lips
Part of being a successful ventriloquist is throwing your voice, the other part is talking without moving your lips. Learning how to pronounce words without moving your lips can be tricky, but with the techniques in this guide you will be doing it in no time!
Speaking in Tongues
When speaking normally, your tongue lies flat and your voice passes over it, rushing out of your mouth and nasal cavities. Try speaking a phrase, and notice where your tongue is.
When speaking in the ventriloquist voice, your tongue arches in the back of your mouth, forcing the sound and tones to pass mostly through your nasal cavity and only slightly through your mouth. Experiment with this by gently touching your upper and lower teeth together, parting your lips, and reading this sentence out loud. Notice how your tongue naturally arches when your mouth is closed. Also notice that as you speak in this position, your voice becomes “nasal.” That’s because more sound is being pushed through your nose than through your mouth.
This is the same tongue position you use to make the -ng sound in words like sing, ring, and bring. The back of your tongue contacts the soft palate at the roof of your mouth, which changes your natural voice into something more nasal and different.
Here’s a quick way to begin practicing initial ventriloquist technique:
- Make the AH sound a doctor might ask you for at a routine checkup.
- As you’re droning your AH, change your tongue position from the natural way it is when you speak to the arched tongue position described earlier.
Try this with your teeth gently clenched together: switch back and forth from your natural voice to your ventriloquial voice. The differences in pitch, tone, and clarity is how you will begin to create voices and sounds for your figures.
An Exercise in Creating a New Voice
Now that you know how to create sound and use your breath, let’s really give it a try. Find a quiet spot where you won’t feel self-conscious, and give your first exercise a go:
- Clench your teeth, but don’t bite down so hard that it’s uncomfortable or painful. Part your lips enough so you can breathe in and out.
- Say something in your normal voice. It could be this sentence or a comment on the room you’re in or the weather. Listen to how it sounds and resonates in your head as you speak. Move your lips, and talk normally. Get a feel for your voice.
- Now speak as a ventriloquist would. With your teeth lightly clenched, part your lips just enough to let air in and out. Feel where your tongue is, and put it in vent position—that is, arch the back of your tongue and speak mostly through your nose. You should hear a significant difference!
- After getting used to how this new voice feels, try some different voices by letting small amounts of air out of your lungs as you speak in vent position. Try a variety of things. There is no wrong or right way to do this, so entertain yourself! Use your own voice, arch the back of your tongue, and get a feel for this new way of talking.
How Words Are Pronounced
There are exercises for the tongue, like touching every tooth with the tip of your tongue while your mouth is slightly open, or licking your lips in single revolutions, changing direction every couple times you complete a circle. But as you begin to work in the vent position and make sounds and words, there’s no reason to exercise your tongue. You’re going to be working it like never before, and that will be exercise enough!
As a ventriloquist-in-practice, your tongue replaces your lips in making words and sounds. To be exact, your tongue will be doing the work of your lips to pronounce the letters B, F, M, P, and V, and it will stay out of the way to pronounce W and Y.
Working in Vent Position
For now, let’s consider the way words are pronounced. Put your mouth in vent position. Take a breath and say, “Hello.” Say it a few times in vent position using your normal voice. Then say it normally, using your mouth and lips. Listen to the difference in timbre and quality. Say it slowly, both in vent position and normally. Say it quickly in both positions.
You’re not changing anything about the word itself, its pronunciation, or the way you breathe and talk. You are changing the way sound comes out of your mouth and nasal cavities. The change might not be drastic, but it is significant, especially for the listener.
Try this with other one-syllable words that don’t require the difficult B, F, M, P, V, W, and Y sounds. For example, try did, done, good, joke, tight, sight, and clean. When you say clean, break it down into two syllables: kuh-leen. Say them with your own natural way of speaking and then say them in vent position. Breaking down words like this is a technique you’ll be using again, so follow the directions: say it slowly, say it quickly, and then say it normally.
Taking It a Step Further
In vent position, say the word thought. Gently put a finger in one ear and say it again. Say it again, only this time concentrate on the first sound you make: the soft TH sound. Try making just the soft TH sound, paying attention to your tongue pressing against your teeth to create the soft TH that leads the word. Got it? Good.
To the human ear, that soft TH sound is very similar to the F sound. Try it again, in vent position. Then say it as you would normally say it. In your normal voice, say the word thought. Now say, “I thought I fought, and it’s done.” Say it quickly, as fast as you can: “I-thought-I-fought-and-it’s-done.” You should notice something similar in the words thought and fought. Not only do they rhyme, but the words sound very similar, especially when you say them quickly.
Try it this way, using your normal voice and normal position: say, “I thought I thought and it’s done.” Try saying the same sentence both ways, back to back: “I thought I fought and it’s done,” followed quickly by “I thought I thought and it’s done.” Say it quickly enough, and you can see how the human ear, although it knows what each word is supposed to sound like, might not be able to tell that you’re just repeating the word thought for fought. The way words are pronounced is a gray area the ventriloquist works with.
Keep practicing and soon you’ll be able to say any word without moving your lips! To learn how to throw your voice, be sure to check out our guide, Ventriloquism 101: How to Throw Your Voice. Have fun!
From The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Ventriloquism by Taylor Mason
