How to develop a clear, strong and interesting voice

Having an expressive voice and using clear speech are not only important for an actor but are also important in most other areas of our lives.

There are three essentials that are needed to help us develop a good voice: 1.Relaxation 2.Proper Breathing 3.Good Posture

The key to a powerful and clear voice is relaxing both our bodies and our emotions. WANT TO HAVE:  An open and relaxed throat and jaw  Flexible lips THINGS THAT WILL HURT YOUR VOICE:  Too much uncontrolled emotion  Sickness

Your breathing helps to control the power and loudness of your voice. REGULAR BREATHING  Breath in and breath out are the same length BREATHING FOR SPEECH  Breath in is short and fast, and breath out is long and controlled

The way that you stand/sit can affect how you speak. GOOD POSTURE ALLOWS:  The air to circulate easier, making it easier to breathe deeper and exhale with more control  Gives support to your head which helps relax the muscles in your throat and jaw  Helps you feel more confident!!

Each of these skills takes time to practice but the end result will significantly help your voice!! Just like your body, daily exercises can help your voice grow into a powerful tool!

There are four characteristics that can be used to help us become an effective speaker. They are: 1.Quality 2.Pitch 3.Volume 4.Pause/Rate

Quality is the “individual sound of your particular voice”  NASAL: run all of the sound through your nose. Try to keep as little air as you can from escaping from your mouth.  STUFFY: run all the sound through your mouth. Try to keep as little air as you can from escaping from your nose.  BREATHY: use more air than normal when speaking each word (think of blowing out a candle when you speak)  WHEEZY: use less air than normal when speaking each word.  CLEAR: try to speak as clear and normally as possible. The quality of your voice can be changed in order to help portray the character that you are playing.

PITCH is the “highness or lowness of the voice.” THIS IS NOT LOUDNESS! Women tend to have higher pitched voices, and men often have lower pitched voices. Children have the highest pitch. If you change the pitch in your voice as you speak, this is called inflection, and can make your voice interesting to listen to. Emotion can also change the pitch of your voice.

VOLUME is the strength or force with which you make the sound. Volume can be loudness but it is also possible to whisper with great intensity. Explosive volume is sudden or sharp sound (ie: a scream, shout, loud laughter) Expulsive volume is when the pressure is held steady. This is needed to give long speeches.

PAUSES are used naturally to help us breath, and should be done at the end of a thought. Too many pauses will cause choppy, unnatural speaking. RATE is the “speed at which words are spoken.” Rate can help to portray not only the emotion of the character, but also the importance of the information that is being given.

PRONUNCIATION is using the correct vowel and consonant sounds that are necessary to say a word correctly. The way that we say words can change based on our accent, or in some cases can actually change the meaning of the word!! Min’-ute: 60 seconds Min-ute’: extremely small

 Mumbling or muttering your words  Dropping letters at the end of a word, or words at the end of a sentence  Not opening your mouth enough to fully form the words  Not following the punctuation  Being extremely artificial or theatrical, especially for an extended period of time

Try to do each of the following in order to help develop the control you have with your voice.

 Rubber baby buggy bumpers.  To make bitter batter better, Betty bought better butter, beating the better butter into the bitter batter to make the bitter batter better.  Many mortals miss mighty moments more from meager minds than major mistakes  Round and round the ragged rock the rugged rascal ran.  Could the creeping cat keep crafty claws clear of kitchen curtains.