Conclusion to the Intermediate Warm-Up Series
So we've worked our way through another series of warm-up steps. What have we gained? Perhaps a little better understanding of breath, sound, and the body parts (anatomy) that shape your voice, in particular the tongue, jaw and soft palate. For these steps to work, you need to practice this stuff regularly and with care.
The next series will tackle an "Advanced" Warm-up, which will probably be the last series of this kind for some time. I mean it to be the next step beyond this intermediate warm-up, and the three series, basic, intermediate and advanced, should serve as a starting place to working on your voice on a regular, daily basis. These warm-ups are meant to be mix-n-match, so you can play around with any of the exercises as you see fit, as long as you cover all the food groups in your warm-up.
Once I've worked my way through the Advanced series, I plan to do a series on speech, and then I expect the blog to take on a rather different schedule, working each day of the week on a different topic, including speech, text, dialect, accents, presentation, and related skills (like practising or memorization). There's a lot ahead for the voiceguy and for you, so I hope you'll keep coming back to visit.
Eric Armstrong is the voiceguy. Eric is a dialect, voice, speech and text coach based in Toronto, Canada, where he normally teaches full-time at York University’s Dept. of Theatre. Eric has been teaching voice for the actor full-time since 1994, and has taught in Canada and the US, at the University of Windsor, Brandeis University, Roosevelt University, Canada's National Voice Intensive and York University. He has worked for nationally and internationally recognized companies such as Crow’s Theatre, Volcano, SoulPepper, & Canadian Stage in Toronto, and The Court Theatre and Steppenwolf in Chicago. Eric holds a BFA from Concordia University (Montreal) in Theatre Performance, and an MFA from York University (Toronto) in Acting. His mentors were David Smukler (York, Canada’s National Voice Intensive) and Andrew Wade (Royal Shakespeare Company). He has also studied at the Drama Studio, London, and Il Stage Internazzionale di Commedia dell’Arte in Reggio Emilia, Italy. He’s a long time member of the Voice and Speech Trainers Association, where he has served on the board, as a conference planner, photo editor for the Voice and Speech Review, Founding Director of Technology and Internet Services, and has written numerous peer-reviewed articles, essays and reviews for the VASTA Newsletter, the VASTA Voice, and The Voice and Speech Review.