Developing Your Voice

1. DevelopingYour Voice Relaxation

2. Vocabulary • Relaxation: freedom from all bodily tensions • Posture: how you sit and stand

3. Why Posture? • To achieve maximum performance in the way you breathe, you need to create as much space as possible in your lungs for air. More on this later!

4. Why Relaxation? • Gives you physical and mental control and focus on stage • Improves posture (essential for controlled breathing) • Improves the sound of your voice • Makes your movements smoother on stage

5. Let’s Relax! • Facial Massage • Massage your face, and completely relax your facial muscles • Sleepy Time! • Yawn several times to relax the jaw. • Smile/Frown • Smile in an exaggerated manner several times to stretch and relax your facial muscles. Repeat, using a frown instead of a smile.

6. Let’s Relax Even More! • Body Parts in Motion: • Shoulder shrugs • Shoulder rolls forward/backward • Head rolls forward/backward • Arm swings forward/backward • Waist stretches left/right • Massage neck and shoulders • Leg swings forward/backward • Foot stretches up/down • Massage feet and hands

7. Hit the Floor! • Lay on the floor and listen to music • Away With Tension – Tighten/Relax • Musical Relaxation – Relax head to toe

8. DevelopingYour Voice Breathing

9. Vocabulary • Breathing: the necessary process of inhaling and exhaling air to live • Diaphragm: the muscle located between the abdomen and the rib cage • Breath control: the amount of force you use in inhaling and exhaling

10. Don’t I Already KnowHow to Breathe? • Onstage you need to inhale more deeply than you do in regular breathing. Why? • Build volume (be louder)! • Vary your vocal sounds • Don’t run out of breath • Don’t strain your voice

11. Why Controlled Breathing? • In the beginning…. • you feel awkward and unnatural on stage • you find yourself running out of breath after a few lines • After you learn controlled breathing… • You will have developed an effective voice on stage • You will have the support you need to get you through performances • You will have more natural body movements • You will have more energy on stage

12. Breathing With Your Diaphragm • Babies are born using their diaphragms • As you get older, your diaphragm gets lazy!

13. Breathing With Your Diaphragm

14. Work That Diaphragm! • Book Rest • Air Release – Breathe deeply and inhale slowly. Hold your breath and release air slowly, counting 1-10. Repeat, and see how well you can control your breathing as you say the numbers. • Ha, Ha, Ha! – Inhale, hold breath for 10 counts, exhale to the sound of “ha.” • Ah! – Inhale, hold for 10 counts, exhale on the sound of “Ah...”

15. Work That Diaphragm! • Snake – inhale as if you were about to speak, exhale and make the sound of a snake. • Pucker Up – pucker your lips, hold your finger in front of your lips. Quickly inhale, blow out air. Concentrate on producing a steady, smooth stream of air each time you do it. Feel the difference on your finger when there is a change in the stream of air.

16. Work That Diaphragm! • Phrases – Slowly inhale. Practice phrases: • Good morning • Good luck • Break a leg • Nice day • Good show • Thank you • Poetry Reading – see how far you can get without taking a breath (see next slide)

17. Life’s Not Been theSame in My Family 1) Life’s not been the same in my family Since the day that the new baby came, My parents completely ignore me, They scarcely remember my name. 2) The baby gets all their attention, “Oh, isn’t she precious!” they croon, They think she looks like an angel, I think she resembles a prune. 3) They’re thrilled when she giggles and gurgles, “She burped!” they exclaimed with delight, They don’t even mind when she wakes us With deafening screams in the night. 4) They seem to believe she’s a treasure, There’s simply no way I agree, I wish she’d stop being a baby And start being older than me.

18. DevelopingYour Voice How You Speak

19. Vocabulary • Articulation: the shaping and molding of sounds into syllables. • Pronunciation: the way sounds or syllables that represent a word are said and stressed according to the proper notation found in the dictionary. • Diction: a person’s pronunciation of words, choice of words, and manner in which the person expresses himself or herself.

20. Articulation Practice • Rubber baby buggy bumpers (repeat). • She sat upon the balcony mimicking him hiccupping and welcoming him in. • Red leather, yellow leather (repeat) • He thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts. • Unique New York (repeat).

21. Vocal Warm-Up(articulate!) What a tadoo to die today at a minute or two til two. A thing distinctly hard to say, but harder still to do. We’ll beat a tattoo at twenty til two and a rat-a-tat-tat-a-tat two. And the dragon will come when he hears the drum At a minute or two til two today, At a minute or two til two.

22. Pronunciation Quiz • How do you say…? • Antarctic • Ask • Cavalry • Candidate • Clothes • Escape • Espresso • Especially • Jewelry • Library • Mayonnaise • Miniature • Nuclear • Probably • Sherbet • Supposedly

23. Pronunciation Practice • Go through the handout and make sure we pronounce everything correctly.

24. Diction • Your diction is simply your choice of words. There is no single, correct diction in the English language; instead, you choose different words or phrases for different contexts: • To a friend: “I screwed up.” • To a child:“I made a boo-boo.” • To your boss:“I made an error.”

25. DevelopingYour Voice How You Sound

26. Vocabulary • Volume: how loudly or softly a person speaks. • Rate: the speed at which someone speaks. • Projection: the placement and delivery of voice elements used effectively in communicating to an audience.

27. Vocal Warm-Up(vary your volume and rate!) What a tadoo to die today at a minute or two til two. A thing distinctly hard to say, but harder still to do. We’ll beat a tattoo at twenty til two and a rat-a-tat-tat-a-tat two. And the dragon will come when he hears the drum At a minute or two til two today, At a minute or two til two.

28. More Vocabulary • Pitch: the musical tone of the voice • Inflection: the rising and falling of pitch; adds meaning, color and rhythm to spoken words • Flexibility: the process of varying inflections of the voice • Quality: the voice element that makes one person sound different from everyone else

29. Vocal Warm-Up(vary your pitch and inflection!) What a tadoo to die today at a minute or two til two. A thing distinctly hard to say, but harder still to do. We’ll beat a tattoo at twenty til two and a rat-a-tat-tat-a-tat two. And the dragon will come when he hears the drum At a minute or two til two today, At a minute or two til two.

30. Vocal Cords in Action

31. Last of the Vocabulary! • Dialect: a pronunciation of words from different languages blended together to form a distinct language for a group of people. • Accent: the manner in which people speak and the way words are pronounced in different parts of the world.

32. Learn Vocal Warm-Up #2(from The Mikado by W. S. Gilbert) To sit in solemn silence on a dull, dark dock In a pestilential prison with a life long lock Awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp shock From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big, black block. A big black block, a short, sharp shock From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big, black block.

33. Learn Vocal Warm-Up #3 Bobby Bibbit Bought a Bat Bobby Bibbit Bought a Ball With that Bat Bob Banged the Ball Banged the Ball against the Wall

34. Group Vocal Assignment • Choose one of the warm-ups to perform for the class to perform in a creative way. You will be graded as a group on your: • Pronunciation (5pts) • Rate (5pts) • Articulation (10pts) • Projection (10pts) • Inflection (5pts) • Performance Creativity (10pts) • Memorization (5pts)