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 exercise can be used as an early step in a vocal warm-up, to help get on voice and to encourage resonance, or as a text exploration. For now, let’s focus on the voice side of things. Intoning is a …

Intoning Read more »

Lip Isolations [An earlier, more basic version of this exercise is available.] Waking up the muscles of the face is a great task that helps prepare an actor for the work ahead, whether it be a rehearsal at home, in …

Further Lip Isolations Read more »

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Encouraging breath in the lower part of body is something that I like to do in all of my classes. The best way to get started with this is with the squat. Squatting is one of the exercises that many …

Squat Breath Read more »

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