Aspiration As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, everything has a beginning, middle and end. In terms of speech, awareness of beginnings and endings is helpful is varying your performance for different settings, from the most intimate on-mic technique, to the most challenging outdoor amphitheatre. Both vowels and consonants deserve some attention with regard to beginnings and endings, but we’ll work with consonants for now. We’ll start this exploration by focusing on Beginnings in this post, and Endings in the next post.

In terms of diction, most people think of consonants as an important weapon in the battle to be heard and understood. Learning to commit strongly to the actions that generate strong consonant sounds is a hurdle that most theatre actors in training must overcome, whether in class or merely in production. Teachers and directors for the theatre invariably must demand of their actors to "spit out the words" and commit to the sounds of the language of the play. Of the consonant sounds, the stop-plosive sounds have the greatest potential for impact in a large space, if they’re given the requisite energy to reach all corners of the playing environment. However, this kind of choice is totally inappropriate for more intimate theatre work, and so one must learn to be sensitive to the context in which you play, and how those demands set up a new series of requirements of your speech. To do that well, it helps to appreciate the options available, or the range of articulations, for a given sound.

Let’s dig further into the stop-plosive sounds, /p b, t d, k g/. Each of these pairs has a voiceless partner ( /p t k/ ) and a voiced partner (/b d g/). In English, the voiceless consonants are aspirated at the beginning of words and stressed syllables pin, tin, kin; appoint, attest, akin; that’s to say that these consonants are articulated with a puff of air. I’ve written quite a lot about this and more recently in the early steps of this series in "Bouncing the Lips," where we explored aspiration of the lip-based (bilabial) consonant /p/. Because we’ve done /p b/ already, we’ll focus on /t d/ and /k g/ in this post.

The release of these plosive consonants are goverened by something linguists call "Voice Onset Time" (VOT for short)—which is the length of time from when the consonant is released, and when voicing begins. Generally, voiceless consonants have voicing begin after the release of the consonant (ie going into the sound that follows), while voiced consonants have voicing begin on the release of the consonant, or slightly before the release. There’s a lot of room for variation, and different languages have different expectations. This is important because we’ll need to be able to do different versions for different accents. Aspirated voiceless consonants have the greatest delay between the release of the consonant and voicing.

To learn how to appreciate this difference, we’re going to compare /d/ with /t/ and /ɡ/ with /k/, working our way through a variety of VOT possibilities, and learning the IPA symbols for these variations as we go. We’ll start with the most “voiced” sounds, and work our way toward the most “voiceless” sounds.

1. Say “dee” [diː] but stick on the voicing of the /d/ so that you make the place of the sound /d/ release the consonant only after you’ve made the sound for as long as possible. I’m going to transcribe this in IPA with a length mark, that looks like a colon made out of little trianɡles, on the /d/ to indicate the length on the voicing: [dːiː]. Repeat that at least 3 times: [dːiː dːiː dːiː]
2. Now, do a “dee” with more voicing time than usual, but less than you just did. I’ll use a half-long diacrictic to indicate this articulation: [dˑiː]. Again, repeast 3 times: [dˑiː dˑiː dˑiː]
3. Next, say “dee” with the usual amount of voicing for English: that is, with the voicing beginning just as consonant releases. I’ll just use a plain ol’ [d] for this, no diacritics at all: [diː]. Repeat 3 times: [diː diː diː]
   You should know that initial /d/ in English is essentially the same as an unaspirated /t/ in many languages.
4. We’re now moving into the territory of voiceless consonants, so we’ll use /t/ from here on out. First we’ll do a /t/ that has no aspiration, and essentially perhaps a slightly longer VOT than we just did. We’ll just use a plain [t] for this, too. [tiː]. Repeat that at least 3 times: [tiː tiː tiː]
   Without aspiration, this will sound a lot like an initial /d/ in English.
5. Now, let’s add a little bit of aspiration. The diacritic mark in the IPA for aspiration is a tiny superscript "h" that follows the symbol: [tʰ]. Think of that little "h" representing the puff of air escaping. Try it with [tʰiː]. Now try it 3 times in a row: [tʰiː tʰiː tʰiː]
6. To do more excessive aspiration, we want to draw out the puff of air, which we’ll indicate with several "h" diacritics. Be extravagant with this sound: [tʰʰiː]. Now repeat 3 times: [tʰʰiː tʰʰiː tʰʰiː]

If we put all 6 steps together into a sequence from most voiced to most aspirated, this is what we get:

[dːiː dˑiː diː tiː tʰiː tʰʰiː]

I find that I’m inclined to get quieter in the middle, as I negotiate my way around the shift from /d/ into /t/.

Now we want to try the whole shebang again, but this time with /ɡ/ and /k/. I’m going to recommend that you not say “gee” the way you normally do /dʒi/ with a "soft G", but with a "hard G", which is the sound of /ɡ/ [ɡiː], and then that you not say "K" the way we do in English, but as key, [kiː], to rhyme with [ɡiː].

1. Lots of Pre-voicing: [ɡːiː ɡːiː ɡːiː]
2. Some Pre-voicing: [ɡˑiː ɡˑiː ɡˑiː]
3. Voice on the Release: [ɡiː ɡiː ɡiː]
4. No Aspiration: [kiː kiː kiː]
5. Some Aspiration: [kʰiː kʰiː kʰiː]
6. Lots of Aspiration: [kʰʰiː kʰʰiː kʰʰiː]

Finally, we want to string the 6 versions of velar stop-plosives into a single sequence:

[ɡːiː ɡˑiː ɡiː kiː kʰiː kʰʰiː]

Can you do this sequence with the bilabial stop-plosives, /b/ and /p/?

1. Lots of Pre-voicing: [bːiː bːiː bːiː]
2. Some Pre-voicing: [bˑiː bˑiː bˑiː]
3. Voice on the Release: [biː biː biː]
4. No Aspiration: [piː piː piː]
5. Some Aspiration: [pʰiː pʰiː pʰiː]
6. Lots of Aspiration: [pʰʰiː pʰʰiː pʰʰiː]

And the string of bilabials:

[bːiː bˑiː biː piː pʰiː pʰʰiː]

Having a sense of the variations if these beginnings can really help you to make subtle yet important shifts between various accents and dialecs.

Try this tongue twister, focusing on the /t/, first with a lot of aspiration [tʰʰ]. (If you’re a mainstream North American, don’t worry about the second /t/ in "totally".)

Two toads, totally tired.

If you’ve read many of the posts here on the site, you’ll know that I’ll recommend that you try the tongue twister now with less aspiration than normal, then with no aspiration, so it’s almost "Do dodes, dodally dired". This very dry /t/ sound creates a very different sort of beginning than what you may be useful, and that works for dialects and also for mic technique, as we don’t want a lot of aspiration on the mic.

Now for a /k/ sound. This tongue twister involves /k/ and /b/ — focus on the former, and let the latter take care of itself:

Pretty Kitty Creighton had a cotton batten cat.
The cotton batten cat was bitten by a rat.
The kitten that was bitten had a button for an eye,
And biting off the button made the cotton batten fly.

Start by making the very aspirated /kʰʰ/ , then try the other versions, too: less aspirated and unaspirated. Now try doing the same tongue twister but this time focusing on the /b/ sound, trying to enhance its voicing: linger on the "b" — this will slow things down, but emphasize the words.

Finally try the tongue twister, playing the intervocalic /t/ that is, the ones between vowels, as is Pretty Kitty. (Note that many dialects would not aspirate the /t/ in words like "cotton batten", because it would go into the /n/, either with a nasal plosion or with a glottal co-articulation. Put altogether, these changes will emphasize the articulation of the beginnings of most of the syllables in the text. This might be appropriate for an outdoor performance, or perhaps as a character of an actor, "playing" their articulation.

Next: Endings

Vocal Qualities are variations in the way you speak. These could be just about any modifier to your "regular" voice and speech pattern, but here we’re going to focus on changes to your voice "tone," done primarily at the breath and sound (respiration/phonation) level, rather than at the resonation and articulation level, which we played with in the Placement Playtime step of the Speech Warm-up Series.

Breath control has a lot of impact on the quality of your voice. As air passes through your larynx, between your vocal folds, the level of air pressure dictates what sounds are possible. If we have too little air, just the right amount or too much air pressure, the vocal quality changes dramatically. Also, how we adjust that air pressure through our speaking can affect the onset of making sound (phonation), and the end of the sound or phrase.

Fry

The first vocal quality we’ll explore comes from a limited amount of air pressure. Vocal or Glottal Fry is a sound quality that relies on the the way the vocal folds vibrate, different from their standard mode of vibrating. Most people know this sound when they hear it, though many people who use fry on a regular basis are unaware that they are doing so. Used sparingly, Glottal Fry is not bad for the voice, though excessive use can be fatiguing, and learning how to get out of the habit of using it constantly can be a challenge.

To make a fry sound you need to limit the air passing over your folds. Very gently sigh as you drop down in pitch. As you get to the bottom of your range, try to relax. Continue the sound as long as you can, barely exhaling at all. The sound will switch it a different quality, that sounds perhaps like a very quiet chainsaw idling, or perhaps the sound of popcorn being made (at the start when only a few kernals are popping.) Experiment with this sound by sustaining a sort of "ah" [ɑ] vowel. How loud can you go? Can you go up in pitch? How slow can you make the fry — the rate at which that popping occurs? As the fry slows down, it becomes even more irregular sounding. How fast can you make it go without it changing into regular vibration? As you speed up the fry, the pitch of it is likely to rise: that’s ok. With the limited use of breath energy to make this sound, you may need to take a breath, sigh and let go of the tension that creeps in to your body. (Try a Roll-Down, why doncha?)

Now try speaking on fry; you might try reading this paragraph out loud. Generally, I find that people who speak in fry tend to speak on a monotone, or very close to one. Try to speak on your fry now, and have as much melody as possible. This is quite tricky. As you go higher in pitch, more tension is required in the larynx to counteract the increased air pressure used to raise the pitch. Now, "how low can you go?" This vocal limbo dance may remind you of trying to do a Barry White impersonation; as most of us don’t have the ability to mimic Mr. White’s basso profundo, we switch to fry to notes lower.

It’s quite common today to hear people use glottal fry as part of their everyday speech pattern. Not all the time, but as part of most sentences. The speaker will start out on regular voice and then switch as they get near the end of the phrase or sentence. Try reading along here and when I switch to italics, let your voice switch to glottal fry. You’ll probably find that it works best if you don’t have much air. So don’t breathe in too much to start, so you run out of air early and have to finish with very little support. For longer thoughts, you might run out of air at the end of each phrase, (breathe) so you would have several bits going to fry, each starting on voice and running out of steam.

Falsetto

Falsetto, like glottal fry, is another "different" mode of vocal fold vibration. It’s another vocal quality mode, and it sounds rather strange when applied to the regular speaking voice. For women, the closest to this is head voice, which seems to be part of some women’s natural speaking voices, though not generally in North America. Often used as part of a man’s upper range, especially in certain styles of singing, falsetto in speaking tends to be reserved for character voice, and in animation. Mickey Mouse is a famous example of just such a characterization. In real life, people occasionally pop up into falsetto when they are very emotionally distressed. On falsetto, the vocal folds are only vibrating along the front edge of the folds, and there’s typically a gap or "chink" at the back of the folds, which tends to make the tone somewhat breathy.

To get to that place, start by sirening down on pitch from head tone/falsetto to find the place where your voice breaks and switches into chest voice (regular tone). Then try again, going even slower trying to find the lowest pitch you can make, without flipping into chest. You might try counting and you move down to that lowest pitch, "1, 2, 3, 4, 5…" so you’re speaking in falsetto, into that range. Once there, try speaking a sentence or two (you can read this paragraph again, if you’d like). It’s certainly an odd sound.

Pressed & Breathy Phonation

Pressing on your voice, which happens when you push a lot of air through very tightly held vocal folds, is very hard on the voice. It probably is the opposite of fry, in that fry takes very little air pressure, while press takes a lot. We won’t be practising this, but it’s good to know what it is. Many people press vocally in order to be loud, but it’s very harmful in the long run. You often hear it when power lifters grunt as they do the effort lifting a very heavy weight. Think of holding your breath and then pushing sound out—that’s the action.

Perhaps slightly less harmful is breathiness. Caused by only partially bring the vocal folds together, breathiness is very drying, and can make an injured voice worse. When you whisper, you’re doing breathy sound, and even if you don’t partially phonate, your folds are still closed tight. But in small doses, when your in good vocal health, a little quiet whispering is ok, especially if you only do it for a short time.

Estill Voice and Quality

One style of voice training stands out in terms of vocal quality: Estill. No other contemporary voice technique specializes in exploring the ways of making a large range of vocal qualities as Estill. Unfortunately, Estill training is something that I’ve only been introduced to in a very fleeting way, and so I wouldn’t presume to try to explain it. I’m hoping to take a workshop in Estill in the coming year, but until then I can only point you toward resources where you might be find out about a workshop for you to explore. When I’ve had more training, you can be sure that I’ll be keen to explain what I’ve learned here!

Next: Beginnings