Learn to Chewbacca: The art of human mouth noises
Chewbacca sounds have tremendous expressive power and versatility. In modern society, they’re frequently used to express disappointment, happiness, defiance, and danger. Some parents even gently Chewbacca to help their babies sleep at night. So let’s take this as an opportunity to tap into that little Chewbacca that lives inside all of us and learn to coax that little guy out.
I can help you on this journey. I’ve made Chewbacca noises all over the world, from spooking strangers in bathrooms and inspiring outdoorsmen in locations of breathtaking natural beauty to entertaining friends at local pubs. I’m not one to gloat, but an ear/nose/throat specialist once complimented me on my thicker-than-average uvula. They’re the source of my deep soulful Chewbacca sounds.
You might be feeling sad now because you can’t Chewbacca yourself. Maybe you’ve even embarrassed yourself in the past when the moment to unleash one arose and a weird yawn came out instead. Or wondering if you have sufficient uvular girth for a satisfying sound. Have no fear. By the end of this article, you’ll have the information you need to Chewbacca with the best of them with the anatomy you have. I’ll start with the foundations of human mouth noises, followed by a brief explanation of trills, and finally, a step-by-step progression to achieve the highly sought-after Chewbacca roar.
Human mouth noises
The Chewbacca roar is but one of many incredible human mouth noises. The experts in human mouth noises, more commonly known as linguists, have gone to painstaking lengths to catalog all the possible sounds and how they’re made, at least to the extent that they’re used in human language. Just about every sound you can imagine is represented in the catalog of human mouth noises called the International Phonetic Alphabet.
Behold the beautiful IPA alphabet. Seriously, take a look: https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/sites/default/files/IPA_Kiel_2015.pdf
If you know how this chart works, you should be able to recreate any of these sounds. For today’s lesson in Chewbacca noises, we’re only concerned with the trills, represented by three symbols: ʙ, r, and ʀ.
What are trills?
In my experience, folks have trouble with trills because they have trouble visualizing what they’re trying to accomplish or they’re trying to do something impossible. For example, it is impossible to produce a trill by trying to flex and un-flex a mouth muscle or your tongue fast enough to cause a vibration.
Trills happen when you blow air while tensing things in just the right configuration that vibration is produced. It’s similar to finding just that right angle to blow across the top of a bottle to get that deep note to ring out. Play around and eventually, you’ll stumble across the mouth configuration to enable each of the below trills.
The progression
We’re going to start with trills at the very front of the mouth and move backward until we reach the Chewbacca trill, the uvular trill.
Step 1: Bilabial trill (ʙ)
Have you ever placed your lips together and blown to make a sound for a motorboat, machine gun, or perhaps a horse? Congratulations! You’ve performed a bilabial trill. The trill originates in the lips which means that the lips are vibrating. Play around with lip tension and pressing the lips together while blowing. Eventually, you’ll get it. Sometimes you’ll spray a bunch of spit when you do a bilabial trill. So for the safety of yourself and others, please aim your face away from others or at a distance of at least 5 feet. Take a look at this animation to get a feel for it.
Step 2: Alveolar trill (r)
Guess what else is a trill? A Spanish R. Many other languages have trilled Rs too. As we learned earlier, a trill means we’ve created the right balance to create vibration somewhere. This trill occurs by placing the tip of your tongue close but not quite touching the ridge on the roof of your mouth behind your teeth. Get the distance just right, blow, and you’ll have the alveolar trill. Take a look at this animation.
Step 3: Uvular trill (ʀ)
Finally, we’ve made it to the trill that is fundamental to the production of a Chewbacca noise. Don’t worry about sounding super authentic quite yet; we’ll tweak things in the final step. Just try to get the trill right. For this trill, you keep your tongue flat at the bottom of your mouth and move it backward slightly. Here you’re adjusting the distance between the back of your tongue and your uvula, those dangling things in the back of your mouth. When you have the distance just right and blow, your uvula will vibrate. If you do this without engaging your vocal cords, it sounds like a purring cat or a gargling sound. Take a look at this animation.
You may not have uvula. Occasionally they’re removed as a part of getting your tonsils out or to treat sleep apnea. If that’s the case with you, have no fear, I’ve heard some impressive Chewbacca sounds with alveolar trills as well. Make sure you get those down and move on to step 4.
Step 4: Chewbacca (ʀ + arrgghhh)
The Chewbacca sound is a voiced uvular trill. Perform your uvular trill but at the same time lower your jaw. You’ll want to engage your vocal cords and make a sad loud sighing sound. Eventually, you’ll get it. It’s important not to hold anything back. Any self-consciousness you experience will directly interfere with your ability to authentically create the sound. For this reason, the art of Chewbacca noises is often referred to as a spiritual practice. Unleash fully and without regret and you’ll hear a magnificent Wookie noise drift effortlessly out of your mouth.
Once you have the basic sound down, try communicating different emotions. Experiment with getting louder or softer. Try varying pitch. Heck, give your newly found Chewbacca pipes a workout with Ave Maria or Swing Low Sweet Chariot. It’s downright beautiful. Spook strangers in public bathrooms by letting one rip before closing the door behind you. You’re only limited by your imagination.
I hope you all take advantage of the isolation time and learn this critical life skill and spiritual practice.