practiced my most challenging initials by videos on youtube and hsk 3 list on mandarin mania with audio - saying words that have zh, ch, sh, r, x, q, j syllables in them. I needed practice with two syllables, not just isolated syllables. Also focused on neutral tones from last week - 1+0 and 2+0 are harder for me, the others I do naturally.
This challenge has been really great for waking me up to my need for pronunciation practice, and has really helped me improve, especially in these initials, which i think were my weakest spot. I think about my tones now, am careful of my 2nd tone, and I think about my tongue position. I hope these things will become automatic eventually, and they're getting there. The point - great month!

worked on tone pairs with neutral tone - reading about it a little, and then mimicking from mandarin mania. I tried to mimic words that had my difficult initials in them too (zh, ch, sh, r, j, q, x).
I am trying to finish up this pronunciation challenge and then take a break, I'm tired!

same as last. did sections 4 and 5

Mimicking project. Recorded three sections of myself speaking on my phone and was able to pinpoint a few mistakes.

mimicking project with audacity. I recorded myself on the first section, but for some reason it barely registers my sound.... I tried both of the microphone options too, and got up close to my laptop and spoke loudly, but it still didn't work.

First I said the vocabulary words I was writing - daily Anki review deck. Then I did a few cards in an Anki deck I downloaded that has audio and tests your listening and pronunciation. So I copied the audio. Then I worked on my mimicking project. I worked on the first sentence - it was really fun to try to make my voice sound just like hers!

It wasn't all pronunciation practice, but got a piece of audio into Audacity to mimic, divided it into sections, transcribed it, and learned a few new words from it. I got to mimic a little bit.

practicing initials and finals using an Anki deck w/audio I downloaded. Mimicking

Learning how j, q, x and ch, sh, zh, r are pronounced in your mouth. Then I recorded myself saying all the initials. They sound better already, knowing how they are actually supposed to feel in my mouth.

mimicking various things I found online... not a very productive day :)

Played the 'tone pair game' (detailed in this article on pronunciation https://www.hackingchinese.com/a-smart-method-to-discover-problems-with-tones/ ) with a native speaker. Apparently my tones are good! The only thing I could work on would be making my second tone start higher so it isn't confused with a third tone. I was able to do that while working with her, so I'll just have to practice a little more.
Having a chart with all the tone pairs didn't help actually; the lady I worked with couldn't find the pairs easily on the chart. So she just held up her fingers. Oh well.

I read about initials today, and I practiced slowly speaking. I especially focused on unaspirated vs. aspirated. Then I downloaded an Anki deck that has audio for pinyin syllables, which hopefully will help me practice.

Looking up how to pronounce finals and practicing as I went. I printed a list and circled the ones I need to practice.
I really want to work on initials and finals during this challenge, but I'd also like to try to work on my tones... We'll see what I get to.