I’m putting this in GQ, because it’s a “how-to” question, requiring a factual answer.
For an upcoming performance I have to do an Eartha Kitt purr (with my basso profundo voice). Sorry, I don’t have a link; perhaps someone else can provide one. I can do a Spanish rolled-R very well. Is that it, or is the purr more toward the back of the mouth, possibly involving the uvula?
Any help would be aprrrrrreciated.
The times I’ve heard her do it, it sounded like a gutteral back-of-the-throat soft palate growl to me, not a Spanish-rolled-R sound, which is made with the tip of the tongue. I can sit here and do it, pretending there’s a four-year-old in the room who requires a “growl” sound effect to go with a story, and the more I do it, the better I get at it, and the more it sounds like a purr and not like I’ve got something caught in my throat. It’s definitely coming off the soft palate, vibrating. Think “gargling”, then close your mouth partway until the back of your tongue is almost pressing up against your soft palate and it’s vibrating. Works better with a solid air supply, too, and a swig of coffee for lubrication.
Anyway, that might be a starting point for you.
Another starting point might be to aim at the way you discreetly clear your soft palate of something that’s stuck on it (bread?) in company when you don’t wanna hack at it; it involves the soft palate and the back of the tongue the same way, although the noise you produce isn’t nearly as sexy.
That’s all I’ve got, sorry. But if you’ve already got a basso profundo, I’m thinkin’ it’s built-in; just gargle like the tiger in the bedtime story and you oughta be good to go.
ETA: ask around among your rugrat-owning bedtime-story-reading acquaintances, I bet there’s at least one mom or dad who can demonstrate a dynamite purr.
This may not help, but it’s more a German R than a Spanish R. Let’s not get too involved in talk of “rolling one’s Rs,” because then we’d be talking about the way Eartha walks. 