Thursday, November 22, 2007

Mouth-playing

Mouth is a powerful instrument. Amazingly powerful. Once I might have discovered I could move its parts at will while making sounds: the tip of the tongue moving from the alveolar area to the palate, or behind upper teeth, between teeth, or even backwards. The very tongue changing shape, stopping air, letting it blow. My lips rounding or spreading, more or less, my mouth opening or closing. Air blowing or not blowing. And the range of possible sounds widened for me in such a sudded and somewhat unconscious way that I couldn't even find out when and how it happened. It was just a hobby. Apparently silly.

And I later discovered that the range could be even wider. Not having enough imagination, it was not enough just to play. Fond of listening to records from don't know how many and how diverse peoples in the world, my joy at mouth-playing turned to be more easily satisfiable. I discovered the larynx and its role in uttering sounds, the way I could just stop the flux or air for a fraction of second to let it then explode violently, the way to make 'clicks' (something I haven't been able to explore in deep). And how easy was to combine vowels just by moving my tongue, opening/closing my mouth, changing the shape of my lips or opening/closing my soft palate, all that while making a noise.
In spite of being an apparently silly hobby, I can't help feeling blessed. Some day, don't know when, but hopefully not so late, I'll be able to pronounce any possible language, any possible language, diggind deeper into its dark secrets.

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