Articulation Flexibility

Thoroughly warmup before you do this. The point of this breath control exercise is to be able to say the entire piece below in 1 breath. Work up to it by doing 1 breath per stanza, then 1 breath for 2 stanzas, etc. When you’ve mastered it, move on to “The Modern Major General”. You can speak only as well as you breathe. Control your breath, and you begin to control your speaking voice.

Shakespeare

Fear no more the heat o’ the sun,
Nor the furious winter’s rages;
Thou thy worldly task hast done,
Home art gone, and ta’en thy wages:
Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.

Fear no more the frown o’ the great,
Thou art past the tyrant’s stroke;
Care no more to clothe, and eat;
To thee the reed is as the oak:
The sceptre, learning, physic, must
All follow this, and come to dust.

Fear no more the lightning flash
Nor the all-dreaded thunder-stone;
Fear not slander, censure rash;
Thou hast finished joy and moan:
All lovers young, all lovers must,
Consign to thee, and come to dust.

“The Modern Major General”, from Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance

I am the very model of a modern Major-General, I’ve information vegetable, animal, and mineral, I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical; I’m very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical, I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical, About binomial theorem I’m teeming with a lot o’ news, With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse.: I’m very good at integral and differential calculus; I know the scientific names of beings animalculous: In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral, I am the very model of a modern Major-General.

I know our mythic history, King Arthur’s and Sir Caradoc’s; I answer hard acrostics, I’ve a pretty taste for paradox, I quote in elegiacs all the crimes of Heliogabalus, In conics I can floor peculiarities parabolous; I can tell undoubted Raphaels from Gerard Dows and Zoffanies, I know the croaking chorus from the Frogs of Aristophanes! Then I can hum a fugue of which I’ve heard the music’s din afore, And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore. Then I can write a washing bill in Babylonic cuneiform, And tell you ev’ry detail of Caractacus’s uniform: In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral, I am the very model of a modern Major-General.

In fact, when I know what is meant by “mamelon” and “ravelin”, When I can tell at sight a Mauser rifle from a javelin, When such affairs as sorties and surprises I’m more wary at, And when I know precisely what is meant by “commissariat”, When I have learnt what progress has been made in modern gunnery, When I know more of tactics than a novice in a nunnery- – In short, when I’ve a smattering of elemental strategy, You’ll say a better Major-General has never sat a gee. For my military knowledge, though I’m plucky and adventury, Has only been brought down to the beginning of the century; But still, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral, I am the very model of a modern Major-General.