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Name of your Vocal Buddy

Link to their own S.W.O.T analysis

Their Voice Goals for the year, and what they would like to have achieved from these sessions.

Feedback on their work in session/projects/shows for you to feedback to them in a constructive way, or positive feedback so they know what they are doing is working well, and how.

Photo of Buddy posture

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Here you will add your video of our Q&A discussion on 'How the Voice Works'

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You will be required to create a 20 min Vocal Programme, to be delivered to the Level 3's.

You should draw from your own research of methods, practitioners, and anatomy to create your exercises in your programme.

You should be able to lead the programme confidently, with the knowledge that all your exercises are going to help with Vocal Progression for students. You should have great knowledge of the voice, and WHY you are doing each exercise... students WILL ASK YOU QUESTIONS!

Part 1:

Relax & Breathing work

Stretch and Posture

Releasing Tension

Lip Trills, Sirens

Part 2:

Projection

Articulation & Diction

Inflection & Intonation

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LEVEL 3 INDEPENDANT STUDY:

Watch all resource videos on Padlet, and make notes in Vocal Anatomy section.

HNC INDEPENDANT STUDY:

In addition to watching the videos already in Vocal Anatomy column, do further research that will help you understand the anatomy of the voice when leading your Vocal Development Programme. Add all your findings and notes to Vocal Anatomy section, and include anything you want to write about in your Vocal Development Programme.

BOTH LEVEL 3 & HNC:

Research The Alexander Technique: Where did it originate? What are the benefits? How will practicing the spinal rest position ‘semi-supine’ help you with your performances?

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Please write a diary blog entry for each of your voice sessions.

Title each entry with the date.

Include;

What you have learnt in the session

Techniques that you will be applying to future acting work

Feedback you are given

What your Strengths and Weaknesses were in the session

Any independant study/research you are tasked to complete

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Any further notes from sessions you may find useful

Ideas you may have to put towards future work in acting with your voice

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Please upload video's/images/voice recordings of your practical work.

Photo's of your own physical posture 'at rest' and then 'aligned' (before/after pics)

Log warm-ups, and exercises you have learnt. This can either be a write-up, or a video recording.

TITLE THE MEDIA WITH THE DATE AND WHAT THE EXERCISE IS. This will help link to your voice diary section.

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All research into techniques and practitioners should be written up here. You can include links that helped you with your research.

Research:

The anatomy of the voice: Vocal Tract and Vocal Folds

Breathing Techniques

The Alexander Technique

Practitioners to research:

Kristin Linklater

Cicely Berry & Shakespearian Acting

Patsy Rodenburg

Other research:

Shakespeare

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How Humans Produce Sound | Sound | Physics | Class 9

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Strengths

I have an accent that is a mix between Irish, English and Australian, making it quite unique.

I have gotten better at conveying different emotions when acting.

I have a wide range but I am particularly good at lower ranges.

Weaknesses:

I do struggle with accents other than my own, such as American or standard English.

Sometimes I talk too quickly or quietly, and so the audience can't understand me.

Opportunities:

Opportunities in voice-over work in advertisements.

Potential to do animation, video games, and audiobooks.

Further vocal training to enhance range and versatility.

Threats:

Risk of vocal cord damage or other health issues affecting the voice.

High competition in the industry leading to less role opportunities.

Risk of being typecast into specific roles based on voice type.

AI in the future could lead to less need for human voice actors.

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This post may contain a small selection of relevant affiliate links. When you purchase a product from an affiliate link, I may receive compensation at no cost to you. See the disclosure page for more info.

Below is an updated list of words students and teachers of drama and theatre can use to describe the qualities of an actor's voice. Responding to reader feedback, this list now includes the meaning of each word in plain English so students can readily see whether a word is appropriate for their needs.

Often as part of their coursework, drama students analyse aspects of a live theatre performance. These written analyses regularly include describing the actor's voice. This is where the list of words in this post and their related synonyms becomes a gold mine for students who wish to get high marks.

Did you think an actor spoke in an ambivalent tone? Well, below you'll know that this could mean the actor spoke with uncertainty, a wavering attitude or a tone that conveyed mixed or contradictory feelings. Perhaps an actor's voice sounded bossy. If so, below you'll know you can be more descriptive and say dictatorial, instead.

At other times theatre students also analyse their own play-making process in Drama class. This involves describing the various qualities of their own performance work or perhaps evaluating the work of classmates. In this instance, if an actor spoke in a high-pitched and ear-piercing tone, you could say she had a shrill voice. Or maybe she spoke in a gravelly, husky voice? All these words and many more are listed below.

If that's not enough, the list of words describing an actor's voice in this post is very helpful for use in written exams and exam preparation in drama and theatre courses.

Words Describing Voice in Performance

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130 Helpful Words To Describe Voice in Acting | The Drama Teacher

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This post may contain a small selection of relevant affiliate links. When you purchase a product from an affiliate link, I may receive compensation at no cost to you. See the disclosure page for more info. Below is an updated list of words students and teachers of drama and theatre can use to describe the qualities of an actor's voice.

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What is the Alexander Technique? | The Definitive Guide to the Alexander Technique

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The Anatomy of Singing: How the Diaphragm, Larynx, and Vocal Folds Work

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Today in our first voice for diary lesson, I got to meet my vocal buddy an get to know them. After that the whole class learned a monologue, and one at a time went up to do the monologue. We had to write feedback for our buddy and talk about each others performance's and how it could be improved. Today I learned that I am quite quiet when speaking and I tend to rush my words a bit. A technique I learned today was called received pronunciation, or RP. It's when you 'have no accent'. You must speak slowly, use proper pronunciations and sound a bit lively. The feedback that I was given, was to emphasize the important words more, and speak louder.

A strength of mine during our lesson, was that I used pauses well and spoke at a good pace throughout the monologue. I did this because I was trying to do RP which meant I was more conscious of the speed I was talking and how I was saying the words. I did struggle with my voice actually sounding the RP, and it didn't really come out well, but I will make sure to practice the accent weekly until it becomes natural.

My tasks for this week, are to add photos of my feedback and the monologue we did, to the practical skills section, and to finish my SWOT analysis and goals for this term.

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In our voice for the actor lesson today, we learned about breathing techniques and how this can be used to create a realistic performance. A technique that we learned today was called semi-supine. This is when you control your breathing and use your diaphragm to make louder and stronger sounds. I was given the feedback today that I should practise this diaphragmic breathing technique and that I should practise tongue twisters, so that I can get used to both of these things and becomes easier over time.

A strength of mine from today was that I was very good at controlling my breath and breathing out for a extended period of time. This means my speech will be more fluid and less breathy. Something I struggled with today was the tongue twisters, espe3cially the ones where your tongue touches the back of your throat a lot. This is something I will get better at with practise over time.

This week, we have been set the tasks of researching the Alexander and semi-supine techniques.

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My vocal Buddy is Jordan. He is in Level 3 actor and in his second year in the course.

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The Alexander technique, is a way to improve posture and helps reduce stress on your body. It allows you to be more relaxed and move in a more comfortable way. This technique is useful to those who suffer from injuries, carpal tunnel syndrome, backache, sniff neck or shoulders, those who sit down for long periods of time or athletes or performers who feel they aren’t at there potential. The main aim when implementing the Alexander technique, is to ‘unlearn’ bad posture habits and make your body more aligned.

People usually attend 1-1 lessons with someone who can guide you and help to align your body better. You usually have around 20 lessons, one a week.

F.M Alexander developed this movement technique in the early 20th century. He combined vocal clarity and body movement. Author Kelly McEvenue wrote a book called ‘In the actor and the Alexander Technique’ in which she explains how actors can use this technique to be more natural on stage. She includes warm ups and exercises, such as balancing, spacial awareness and ‘centre’ exercises. Productions that have included this technique, include the musical version of ‘The Lion King’.

Semi-supine is a position where you lie on your back with your knees bent and hand on your stomach. You have to consciously think about breathing in and out through your diaphragm. Breath in for 4 and out for 8, in for 5 and out for 10, in for 6 and out for 12 ect. While doing this, you must clear your mind and feeling your surroundings and notice all that is around you. This technique is very grounding, and helps to clear the mind. It is helpful for actors because doing just 15 minutes can help to get into character and change your mindset.

I will use this technique when acting, by researching and thinking about how my character would stand, walk and sit. I will think about each part of my body and how to align it in the right way to make my character believable.

The Complete Guide to the alexander technique (no date) The Complete Guide to the Alexander Technique. Available at: https://alexandertechnique.com/ (Accessed: 26 September 2024).

(No date) NHS choices. Available at: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/alexander-technique/ (Accessed: 26 September 2024).

(No date a) Google books. Available at: https://books.google.com/ (Accessed: 26 September 2024).

Semi-supine (no date) Semi-Supine | The Definitive Guide to the Alexander Technique. Available at: https://alexandertechnique.co.uk/learning-it/semi-supine (Accessed: 26 September 2024).

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Today in our voice for the actor lesson, we learned about fricative sounds and came up with tongue twisters with our vocal buddies. I learned about how sounds are either voiced or unvoiced, meaning you use the vocal cords or not. Practising tongue twisters involving these sounds, will help to improve my mouth movements and to make sounds I don’t normally make.

I had some peer feedback today and was told that my tongue twisters were very creative and tricky to do, but with practice they can improve fricative sounds.

Strengths

A strength of mine from today was that I have discovered I am better at ‘th’ sounds. I can do those sounds easily compared to others.

A weakness of mine from today was that I struggled quickly moving between the ‘ss’ and ‘sh’ sound. I’m not sure if it’s because of my accent, but I plan on practicing all the tongue twisters that I have learned so far.

I will practise the tongue twisters and diaphragmatic breathing again this following week, which will help to improve my voices capabilities.

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Today in our voice for the actor lesson we learned about pulsive sounds. This is when sounds ae more explosive, like 'p' and 'b'. There are three different types including bilabial (lips smack together), alveolar (tongue touches the alveolar ridge and velar (back of the tongue touches the velum).

During our lesson we went through a vocal warmup, then did semi-supine, to relax our bodies and regulate breathing. We then did some tongue twisters and worked through poems. Some feedback I was given today, was to make sure that I pronounce every word and consonant properly. I also need to make sure that I slow down when saying difficult tongue twisters, so that I don't mess up the words and phrasings.

A strength of mine from today was that I made sur to warm up my voice at the start of the lesson. This meant that I didn't strain my voice while talking, and then it had a full range of motion. A weakness of mine today, was that I struggled with pronouncing words in RP. I will work on my RP this week, and hopefully will improve on it by next lesson.

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Today we started off with a warmup which included stretches, breathing techniques, tongue twisters and more to get our voices warm and ready to perform later in the lesson. We learned about intonation and inflections today, which is a way of emphasising parts of a word or phrase to mean different things. At the end of the lesson, we created scenes in pairs to work on these techniques.

One of these techniques was the use of rising or falling at the end of a sentence, which could either make it a question or a statement. I got some peer feedback that I tend to perform to myself and I need to make the audience feel more involved.

A strength of mine from today was that I had good breath control and I had a good pace. I knew when to speed up or slow down my words to suit that moment in the scene. Something I need to work on is my focus and projection. I was looking at the floor a lot, which ment I forgot to project my voice. To work on this, I plan on finding a spot in the room before i perform, and making sure I look at it when appropriate.