There are numerous consonants. The majority of those common in English are described below. There are practise exercises given for strengthening your consonant articulation, which must be clear and very accurate.
Consonants give words their intelligibility, and they give singing its rhythmic element. The way songwriters group and use consonants plays an important part in how songs work. Consonants should be quick and light enough not to break the flow of vowel sound: above all, they must never distort the throat or any other aspect of the adjacent vowel.
While consonants are normally subsumed in the overall sonic flow of the vowels, sometimes they can be written so as to create specifically rhythmic segments.
Vowels and consonants work together in special ways. There is a later article about this.
Formation of Consonants:
Consonants are formed by blocking or restricting the vocal air-stream in particular ways. The effect of a consonant is largely the result of either an explosion of air as a block is released, or the hissing sound of air moving past a restriction. The blockage or restriction made using the back, front or sides of the tongue, the lips and the teeth, and the hard palate.
Many consonants may be either voiced or unvoiced. Here are pairs of consonants that are made in the same way, one with voice and one without:
| Fricatives: Consonants that restrict the flow of air | ||
|---|---|---|
| Unvoiced | Voiced | |
| F | V | Upper teeth gently against slightly pulled-in lower lip |
| S | Z | Tongue flat, tip wide and forward against lower teeth-ridge |
| HL | L | Tongue tip narrow and vertical touching the hard palate just in front of the arch |
| Sh | Jh | Tongue flat with tip raised behind but not touching gap between teeth |
| Th | Th | Tongue tip lightly in gap between teeth |
| Plosives: Consonants in which air is stopped and released | ||
| P | B | Lips |
| T | D | Tongue tip underside touches rear of upper teeth-ridge |
| K | G | Tongue rear touches hard palate |
| Ch | J | Similar to D/T but slightly lower against teeth ridge, allowing slight frictaive effect |
| TL | DL | Tongue blocks like D/T, then narrows to allow L sound before ending. |
| Nasals: Consonants in which air is directed only through the nose | |
|---|---|
| M | Lips lightly together. In the throat, any vowel can be used... a very useful sound. |
| N | Tongue tip raised similar to L, but spread wide to block the air at the sides. |
| Ng | Tongue tip curled right back and pressed to the palate arch |
| Other random weird ones | |
| R | which is usually a vowel but may be rolled or stopped like a consonant. |
| Y | Which is actually the |ì| used as a consonant. Sometimes we use |ö|. Can be a vowel at the end of words, like happ|ììì|. |
Consonants should be formed without tension in the moving parts, and should never have heavy pressure built up behind them. In voicing a P for example, we should never be able to feel a puff of air exiting the mouth.
As we work on the consonants, we work to refine the way we produce them so that they use no extraneous muscle. We don't want the formation of consonants to interfere in any way with the hard-won throat coordination. As we gain sophistication in technique, we learn to form the consonants in flexible ways depending on context. XXX examples.
Lateral plosion - yes we do need it sometimes. Otherwise we end up with a glottal stop, which we really don;t want.