Archive for category advanced
Advanced Warm-up Conclusion
We've made it to the end of the Advanced Warm-up Series, and now you have at least 30 possible steps from the Basic, Intermediate and Advanced series that you can mix to create your own, personalized warm-up. Owning this material comes from experimentation with it on a regular basis, taking the time to use it to develop your self awareness and your voice skills. If you've worked your way through the entire series, good for you! Give yourself a slap on the back.
The plan from here on out is to add voice exercises on a free-fall manner, as they come. We'll be walking our way through a menu plan, similar to the structure of the three warm-up series outlined already, so that you can pick and choose components in a manner similar to making a French dinner with the plan of hors d'oeuvres, fish, meat/poultry, cheese, desert, coffee… More to come!
The next "series" is a warm-up focusing on speech in particular, so that you can prepare for those days when you need greater attention on your articulation skills.
Text: Beginnings and Endings
Peter Brook is known for having championed the idea of "beginning, middle, and end" in everything on stage, including the beginning, middle and end of the play, the scene, the beat, the moment, the speech, the sentence, the phrase, the word, the breath, the thought, the gesture, the action, etc. etc. etc. But many of us are unaware of our beginnings, middles and ends. We make our way through our work as performers, and as people, just doing. An awareness of how we start and end enables us to focus on transitions between parts of greater wholes, and in these transitions lies great interest and excitement for both the performer and the audience.
In this final step in the Advanced Voice Warm-up, we'll use beginnings and endings as a way to explore language. We'll use a poem to explore this idea, but you could apply the ideas of the step to a monologue from a play, a speech from a film, a bit of copy from a print ad in a magazine, or a long bit of narration from a novel.
As is often the case with voice work, we'll use a Shakespeare Sonnet today. They're great for this task as the have very clear beginnings, middles and endings, on many levels. You can use any sonnet you like, of course, but for here I'll use Sonnet 29.
When in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon my self and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least,
Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
(Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven's gate,
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings,
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
Shakespeare's Sonnet 29
This text features many elements that are like a long list. Begin by recognizing that this sonnet is one sentence. Explore this thought by trying to make it through the whole sonnet as a whole, focusing on its beginning, and its ending, which is summed up in the last two lines (or couplet.)
It might be easier to conceive of this great idea as a gathering of many smaller ideas, as a bunch of bullet points and parenthetical phrases:
When
(in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes,)
- I all alone beweep my outcast state,
- And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
- And look upon my self and curse my fate,
- Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
- Featured like him,
- like him with friends possessed,
- Desiring
- this man's art,
- and that man's scope,
Yet…
(in these thoughts my self almost despising,)
…Haply I think on thee,
and then my state…
(Like to the lark at break of day arising From sullen earth)
…sings hymns at heaven's gate,
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings, That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
Read through this text in this new format out loud. I've broken the piece into many small parts, so that they link into larger chunks, and into the whole poem. The three largest chunks begin "WHEN…" and "YET…" and "FOR…" The first major thought marries the first 2 quatrains into an 8 line long chunk.
Beginnings…
To reinforce the beginnings of each of the subthoughts in the text, add a gesture to your reading for each major word that begins a thought, like this:
When
(in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes,)
- I all alone beweep my outcast state,
- And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
- And look upon my self and curse my fate,
- Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
- Featured like him,
- like him with friends possessed,
- Desiring
- this man's art,
- and that man's scope,
Yet…
(in these thoughts my self almost despising,)
…Haply I think on thee,
and then my state…
(Like to the lark at break of day arising From sullen earth)
…sings hymns at heaven's gate,
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings, That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
Of course, this is only one level of the exploration. We could dig deeper and look at the meter of the poetry, focusing on the counterpoint of the ideas in the phrases and the rhythmic flow of the pentameter (or poetic line.) You might explore a similar gesturing on the first word of each line of the sonnet and see where that takes you.
…and Endings
Choosing a single final word to each thought phrase is challenging, because sometime we need to stress more than one word to get the full gist of the line. For instance, in the first line we don't want to just "whallop" the word "eyes," as it is very important that the idea is about "men's eyes," as the character of the sonnet is disgraced in the eyes of men. With that in mind, try to work your way through the sonnet once more, this time explore the idea of that end of thought with a little self-hug: wrap your arms around your chest, and on the end of each thought phrase, give yourself a squeeze through the words. [We'll ignore single word lines for this time around. Try it out:
When
(in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes,)
- I all alone beweep my outcast state,
- And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
- And look upon my self and curse my fate,
- Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
- Featured like him,
- like him with friends possessed,
- Desiring
- this man's art,
- and that man's scope,
Yet…
(in these thoughts my self almost despising,)
…Haply I think on thee,
and then my state…
(Like to the lark at break of day arising From sullen earth)
…sings hymns at heaven's gate,
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings, That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
This squeezing certainly needs to be explored with the ends of the lines as well, as that kind of ending needs to be valued at least as much as the ends of thought.
Our final step is to work our way through the entire sonnet, trying to feel both beginning and endings of thoughts at once. I'll ask you to jump back up to the top, and read it in standard format again, this time trying to feel both the beginnings and ends of the thoughts as they appear to you. In this way, you can begin to notice the pattern that your reading of my division of the text may have had an impact on your work, or not. For what is most important is that you not copy some "right way" but that you greet the text afresh, letting your mind investigate the beginnings and endings of thoughts (and ultimately lines as well) with vigour, curiosity and relish.
Next Step: Advanced Warm-up Conclusion
Articulation of L and N on the Gum Ridge
- This post is available for download as an audio file.
One of the things we work on a lot in my voice and speech classes is isolating the tongue from the jaw. Put simply, the goal is to train the tongue to do its work on its own, without the jaw helping out. Especially when your jaw is dropped, we want the tongue to be "reaching up" to articulate, rather than the jaw giving it a boost. The hope is that the action of the tongue can be quicker and more deft than the action of the tongue and jaw combined. Generally this is true, though there are some sounds that don't work quite as well at this as others. But generally getting the tongue to be more active while the jaw is more static is a good thing.
To begin, start by dropping your jaw with your lips apart, with your tongue resting behind your lower front teeth. Now, without moving your jaw, lift the front edge of your tongue to behind your upper front teeth, in preparation to make an /n/ sound. Make an /n/ with the jaw relaxed, and then drop the tongue back to its starting place on an "uh" sound. The action should feel "flap-like," with the front of your tongue (the so-called "blade") rising and dropping independently of your jaw. Now try doing three "nuh"s in a row: "nuh-nuh-nuh," being sure that your tongue doesn't linger on the /n/ sound, and that your jaw doesn't move at all.
Okay, so far so good. Now we move onto /l/. Similar to the action of /n/, the main difference is that the /l/ tongue action is more narrow, so that the sound can escape around the edges. The classic singing exercise where people go up and down the scale on "la-la-la-la-lah" is very much like this. Again, start with your jaw dropped, and bring your tongue tip up to the gum ridge, and then drop it down into the bottom of your mouth, /la/. Now string 3 of them together: "luh-luh-luh". Remember: no jaw action.
Now, try doing the two sounds in alteration: "nuh-luh-nuh-luh-nuh-luh". Keep your jaw relaxed, and your tongue is energized. Focus on the flap action, slapping your tongue down into the bottom of your mouth, and don't sustain the /n/ or /l/.
Finally, try adding in the the other two stop plosives that articulate in this same place: /t/ and /d/. [Note that the first, /t/, is rather tricky with your jaw completely dropped—expect the sound of the /t/ to be a little weaker than you might normally expect it to sound.] Try this sequence (each sound 5X): "tuh-tuh-tuh-tuh-tuh," "duh-duh-duh-duh-duh," "tuh-tuh-tuh-tuh-tuh," "duh-duh-duh-duh-duh…" Then try alternating them "tuh-duh-tuh-duh-tuh-duh-tuh-duh-tuh-duh." The last step to this sequence is to insert the /n/ and /l/ sounds into the mix with "tuh-duh-nuh-luh." I'll say it again: drop your jaw, and keep it from moving while you focus on the flap-like action of your tongue!
Next Step: Text: Beginnings and Endings
Facial Resonance and Twang Part 2
In Part 1of Facial Resonance and Twang, we enhanced resonance awareness by focusing on vibrations in the nose. In this step, we'll focus our awareness in our mouths, and feel the sensations in the bones of the face and skull.
To begin, take the vibrant, buzzy quality of the /m/ consonant, and open it up into an "uh" vowel (IPA [ʌ]). Do this repeatedly, lingering on an /m/ to begin with, and then popping from /m/ into uh with a series of "muh-muh-muh-muh-muh"s (5 in a row works wonderfully). [mmmmmmmmʌ-mʌ-mʌ-mʌ-mʌː] Work your way up by semitones, feeling how the buzziness from your nose translates into a different kind of buzziness that goes through your mouth.
At this stage, it's very possible that you're making a nasal vowel, that is the sound of the "uh" [ʌ] vowel is going through your nose and mouth. Though ideally we want the sound to travel more through your mouth than your nose, for this exercise it isn't that important. If you can think of the sound popping out your mouth, rather than honking out your nose, you're likely to be able to get the sound/feeling you want.
Warming Your Hands, Warming Your Face
Now, I'd like you to cup your hands in front of your face, palms facing your face as if your have covered your face with your hands and then pulled your hands away from your face about 4 to 6 inches. Your hands are now a reflector for the vibrations that will come from your voice through your face. Starting at a comfortable mid-range pitch, sustain an /m/ for a 2 or 3 seconds, and then open up to "uh" [ʌ] for 5 seconds or so. Again, work your way up in pitch through your voice range, focusing on the sensation of vibrations in your face and the feeling of buzziness that you're catching in your hands. Move your hands around slowly, as if you were reflecting the buzz onto the surface of your face; bask in the glow of your voice. See if you can lift your soft palate gently as you open onto "uh" [ʌ] so that you enhance the mouth quality of the sound (rather than it being stuck in your nose).
Finally, focus on breath in your belly and release little touches of sound on "huh" [hʌ], letting the sound me more like a sigh than a sustained pitch. Be sure to focus the sound in the middle of your voice, so it vibrates your face and neck, rather than your chest. Think of making little question inflections on your "huh" and then answer your questions with a statement of face "huh". Keep trying to find a sense of ease while trying to maintain the sensation of vibration that you've discovered up to this point.
Next Step: Articulation of L and N on the Gum Ridge
Facial Resonance and Twang
One of the most important skills an actor, or any public speaker, can learn is to enhance the sensation of vibration in their face. When you feel vibrations in the bones of your face, then you're using your voice in an effective way that creates loud sound with little effort, and less risk of damage to your vocal folds. We want to turn the energy of your breath into sound energy with as little muscle effort as possible, which should turn your head into a sound box that amplifies the sound of your folds so you can be heard by lots of people in a large space.
Singers have called this "resonating the mask" for centuries, and if you have some classical singing experience, what we do here today will help you cross that singing experience over to speaking. Probably the most important elements of getting effective resonance in your voice are in getting your breath to help you, and to "listen" to the sensations of your body to make subtle adjustments in order to tune how your articulators, that's your tongue, jaw, lips and soft palate, shape the sound coming from your larynx.
We've done a little exploration of resonance on The VoiceGuy, in particular in the posts Resonance Basics and Chest Resonance. This step in the Advanced Warm-up Series could be considered the second part of what began in Chest Resonance, again, modeled after the Linklater exercise "Freeing the Channel." We'll do this one in several parts, spread over several days. Today we'll begin with feeling the buzz.
Step One: Enhancing the Sensation through your Nose
We'll begin by trying to get as much sensation in the face as possible. Nasal sounds are probably the easiest sounds to make that generate a lot of sensation in the bones and tissues of the face. Start by making an "ng" sound (IPA [ŋ]) and see what you can feel. You will probably feel vibrations where the back of your tongue meets your soft palate. Perhaps you will also feel vibration in the bones of your face and in your hard palate. Now try the other two nasal consonants, "m" and "n." Do you feel the vibration in different places? By comparing the three sounds, you should notice that the contact places for each sound is different (back of tongue, tongue tip and your two lips), so you'll feel more in those contact places. But also, the bones of your face will respond differently. Which one is buzziest for you?
Now try using your fingertips to feel the vibrations. Keep the note or pitch the same all the way through and alternate slowly between the three nasal consonants: [ŋ n m n ŋ n m n ŋ n m n ŋ n m n...] Can you feel the vibrations in your nose? In the bones of your face? Next, try opening up your mouth and make a nasal vowel sound. I would recommend the sound in "cat"(IPA [æ̃]). Try combining it with an [ n ] or [ ŋ]. Some people find the "ee" vowel, as in "feet" (IPA [i]) to be even more open to feeling vibration, especially when it is a nasal sound.
In our next post, we'll move out of the nasal sounds and into oral sounds.
Next Step: Facial Resonance and Twang Part 2
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Eric Armstrong is an Associate Professor of Voice and Speech at the Dept. of Theatre, Faculty of Fine Arts, York University.
Eric Armstrong is a Full Member of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists, the national organization of professional performers and coaches working in the English-language recorded media.
The VoiceGuy is a proud member of the Voice and Speech Trainers Association.
The VoiceGuy is an Associate Editor of the International Dialects of English Archive.
