Your Vocal Instrument

The actor uses two tools! Body Voice

How the voice works Speech is distinctly a human characteristic Speech - mechanism is composed of various parts of our body which have other uses.

Breathing Diaphragm Lungs Nasal Passage Eating and Swallowing Teeth Various Parts: These uses are actually more important to our physical survival than speech. Breathing Diaphragm Lungs Nasal Passage Eating and Swallowing Teeth Lips Tongue

Speech is called an Overlaid Function: - The use of our lips, teeth, lungs, and so on for speech that is laid over their primary functions.

Four processes of speech There are four steps that are involved in the production of speech: Respiration Phonation Resonation Articulation

Respiration Or breathing that is basically the process by which air is taken into the lungs so that our blood can receive the oxygen we need to survive.

How breathing works Our lungs rest inside our chest cavity or thorax. It is surrounded by our rib cage and bounded at the bottom by the diaphragm. Air is drawn into the lungs by increasing the size of the cavity, which reduces the relative air pressure inside the thorax and cause air from outside to rush in until the pressure is equalized.

There are three ways to increase the chest cavity The clavicles *(collar bone) Can be elevated, which usually causes a corresponding elevation of the shoulders The rib cage * Can be expanded, like a loud yell Diaphragm * Can be contracted, forcing the abdominal organs downward and outward

Actors need a large supply of air for making long speeches Clavicular breathing gives only a minimal amount of air Rid-Cage breathing is more efficient because the rib cage can be expanded more then the clavicles Breathing from your diaphragm draws a large quantity of air deep into the lungs This type of breathing enables an actor to make longer speeches without gasping breathing allows the for breath

Phonation Making a sound. Sound is created by vibrations when air is taken into the lungs and pushed our through the bronchial tubes and trachea. As it passes through the larynx (or voice box) the vocal cords are brought close enough together that the passing stream air causes them to vibrate.

Resonation Sound created needs to be made louder and stronger This function is served by three parts: Pharynx Oral cavity Nasal cavity

Pharynx Is the large opening area at the back of your mouth Oral cavity Is the mouth Nasal cavity Is the air passage from the pharynx to the nose

Articulation Breaking the sound into meaningful units and patterns. There are seven articulators, tools that help us break sound created into syllables and words.

7 articulators Teeth Lips Tongue Lower jaw Hard palate Soft palate Epiglottis

The 7 articulators are used in various combinations. Example, the tongue and the lower jaw are responsible for most of the vowel sounds, such as in words like beet, bet, and bat. The lips form the sound in letters such as b and p. The teeth and the lower lip combine form the letters f and v. The tongue and teeth create the th sound.

The four properties of tone We can change the sound of our voice in four different ways: Strength Pitch Time Quality

Strength The property of voice commonly known as loudness or volume How much sound is produced is controlled by the way the amount of air we push past our vocal cords. Keep in mind that we want strength without strain, relax the muscles in your throat and properly use your diaphragm in order to keep from getting hoarse.

Pitch The pitch of sound is determined by the speed of the vibration. The faster the vibration the higher the pitch. The idea for an actor to work on pitch range is so they have an way to be expressive and not monotone!

Inflection Describes the variation is pitch during speech. A sentence or a word can have a rising inflection, a falling inflection, and a circumflex inflection. Pitch ranges from high to medium to low.

Time Two parts of out speech that are timed, they are the sounds and the silences (which are the spaces between the sounds).

Quality The change in vocal tone. Six Basic Qualities: Normal Nasal Oral Guttural Aspirate Orotund

Accents and Dialects Accent- the way certain words are pronounced. Dialect- is the way a language is spoken, such as the use of slang, lingo, and particular jargon. There can be many different dialects within a language.

Elements of accents and dialects Vowel changes Consonant changes Inflection patterns Stress patterns Word choices