[I called my late grandmother, Jill Cragg, Granny, never Grandma. She was a wonderful person in every way. ] This week, I’ve been working in my voice class on Shakespeare Sonnets. We’re nearing the end of dune unit, and so …

The Path to Granny’s House Read more »

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When people ask me what the best way to get better with making the sounds of language, whether it be English sounds, or new sounds of the world, my answer is simple: “F*** around with your voice.” I say this …

F***ing Around with your Voice Read more »

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Letting breath “drop” is a common expression amongst a certain kind of voice teacher, including myself. It’s connected to the feeling of letting breath into the lower part of the abdomen, with a contraction of the diaphragm and a release …

Gravity and Breath Read more »

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It’s the start of a new year at my university where I teach voice to the acting students in the Dept. of Theatre. We begin, as you might imagine, with breath. The first day, we do an exercise that I …

Breath in the Belly Read more »

This post puts three previous posts back on the table. In my posts Intoning, Whispering the Text, and Singing A Text,  I laid out three approaches to working with a text (and proved that I am totally inconsistent when it comes …

Text Four Ways Read more »