Now to the consonant L - one of the most beautiful and influential of all speech sounds.

Cecil Harwood in his essay "Eurythmy and the Word" speaks of this consonant in the following way: "in L you live in the world of pure creative force. It as a life giving sound that you can almost taste it in your mouth."

L is a fluid, watery "air" sound which helps create and convey a flowing sound and quality within words.

Take the consonant L in the word "flow". The L is an ideal consonant because it bridges the consonant f and the vowel o in such a way the full potential of the sound of this word can support, brilliantly, nouns like "water" and "people". In phrases "the flowing water" and "the flow of the people coming into the arena" the L within "flow" helps significantly make the whole phrase come alive and live.

In these examples full use of the L enables you to speak so your listeners can both hear and feel the full force of the water flowing down the rapids or sense the stream, mass of people coming into an Olympic Arena.

The very beginning of the sound  is "eh" formed through an open mouth following which the forward part of the tongue rises to the front of the roof of the mouth. A particular feature of the L sound is the ability, with sufficient breath, to keep forming the sound for quite a long time. In very descriptive words like 'languish' this is very helpful to create the fullest meaning. For example, to languish is more likely to be an experience over a period of time rather a second or two. Consequently a long L sound supports this meaning well.

We can have amazing control over the length and depth of the sound of this consonant.

Watch for any tendency to make this sound "heavy". It has the capacity and is often required to be very "light" - that is of little weight, not dense. An example is in the word "lept" in the phrase "the child lept into the air". The context is clearly agile movement. Consequently, to replicate this in speech sound the leading consonantal sound L needs to support forming this type of movement by a child.

To physically support practising this sound put both hands in front of your chest, then open and raise your hands and arms in front of you, as if unfurling a circle above your head, then draw your arms down beside you and back up again to the original starting position. Forming this movement as you practise making this sound helps immeasurably to enter fully into the character and mood of the sound.

Cecil Harwood shows how the poem The Lamb by the English poet William Blake "takes its tone and colour from the sound L". Citing the following selection of lines Cecil Harwood speaks of the poem being written "in the Key of L."

                                                   Little Lamb, who made thee.......
                                                   Little Lamb, I'll tell thee.......
                                                   He is called by thy name,
                                                   For he calls Himself a Lamb.......
                                                   Little Lamb, God bless thee.

He concludes "All this wealth of L's is supported chiefly by the light or breath sounds, S, F, W and the meditative sound of M."

In the attached sound recording I paint, in sounds, the various colours and shades of this beautiful and very influential consonant.

Please tell me your experiences. I am now on Twitter as robinblackmore2