In this video ... a short introduction to the knotty problem of how consonants can sabotage your sound.

Everyone expects to sing vocal exercises on vowels, right? But not many singers will spend time examining how their consonants are formed, and how the articulators play their part. 

For classical (if not all) singers, vocal technique issues around the interaction between vowels and consonants - and the relationship they have when it comes to maintaining the breath and keeping a constant airflow to the source of the sound - continue to be a source of frustration.

Understandably, singers become primarily preoccupied with their sound - thinking mostly in terms of ‘support’ and ‘vocal tone’, underpinned by such considerations as ‘breathing’ ‘onset’ and ‘resonance’, and good use of vowels to carry it along.

Yet, getting to grips with the finer details of say, the articulatory system and perhaps where associated weak links can lurk, can be a bit vague - perhaps rather hit and miss.