Performance Skills Training – Page 24

Adventures in Voice

Flloyd Kennedy 11 September 2013 4 Comments Performance Skills Training

Today is my last day in the US. It’s been quite a trip, and though I will miss my family, and my friends over here, I’ll be glad to get back to Brisbane and settle down for a few months.

The Knight-Thompson Speech and Accent training was so rich and full, I need time to process it, and practise at integrating it into my own work, both teaching and performing. I’m very keen to try it out with colleagues, so if you would like to join me for a few hours on a Sunday afternoon sometime soon, I’d be delighted to share my progress with you. Don’t be put off by the technical looking diagram at the side here, it’s just the Cardinal Vowel chart, and the Knight-Thompson approach is to demystify it, and convert it into a visual tool for making some cool noises in a very entertaining way. I long to create an app that would allow the user to slide the symbols around, creating the visual representation of different oral postures on demand! It would make a great complementary app for the Being in Voice Warmup App.

This work is all about clear, intelligible speech, in whatever accent you happen to use, and a clear understanding of the physical actions you are using to create that clear speech. Once you understand that, somatically, from inside your mouth, you are in a very powerful position to be able to shift the focus, and discover and create new accents. Of course, there is work involved. You need a lively, inquisitive attitude as well as an attentive ear and flexible, adaptable muscles, and that takes practice. So what doesn’t?

If you are interested to find out more, but can’t make it to Brisbane to join me, why not check out their website, or get a copy of Dudley Knight’s book, “Speaking With Skill”. It is a wonderful resource, and you will enjoy working your way through it, however if you are new to this kind of work you will enjoy it even more working with a skilled teacher.

Owen models a Being in Voice baseball cap

This trip has enriched my life in so many ways, and provided many opportunities to grow my own voice. I met some wonderful teachers and actors on the Knight-Thompson workshops, all keen to learn more, advance their skills, and share their experiences. Playing with Outlandish, Omnish and Somenish is just the best fun since waterslides were invented. Playing with funny voices with my grandkids was a hoot. I got to read some pretty wild characters, and together we discovered a magic spot on the path to Owen’s school where our voices suddenly turned very funny indeed. Fortunately, there is another spot where they turn back to normal again. Phew!

So let me know in the comments section below how you find Accent and Dialects, and if you would like to take part in a free experimental workshop in Brisbane, sometime in the next couple of months.

Performance Skills Training

Adventures in Voice Read Post »

To Pic or to Stick, that is the question.

Here is the latest review to pop on iTunes for the Being in Voice warmup app:

Fantastic, well explained, fun to use ★★★★ by superhevs – Version 1.03 – Jul 27, 2013

My partner and I went through the mini vocal warm up together while making breakfast. It certainly relaxed us both, noticeably improved our voices and made us laugh. If there is one thing I would suggest to improve the app, it would be visual references. Having an illustration or photo to check against as you complete the exercises would be helpful especially if the user is new to these sort of exercises.The Capital Yoga apps I feel have achieved this well and maybe a useful reference.

I love it when I get suggestions from people who have used the app. Version 1 inspired one of its users to suggest I should include a “How to use this app” page, so I did. I also added an extra, bonus warmup, the Humming Warmup, which is one of my all time favourites. I learnt it at a workshop in Scotland in 1990, from a Hungarian theatre director whose name escapes me now, but in the best Eastern European tradition, he was deeply committed to the all-in-one approach to actor training and preparation for performance.

As for including some visual references, I can see how these would be useful for the Stand Easy and Breathe Easy sections. I looked at the Capital Yoga apps suggested in the review, and their visuals are indeed very clear and helpful.

This is not something I could organise at short notice, but I could very quickly and easily produce some stick figure images, such as these below, demonstrating the stretches that I include in my Mega Full-On Warmup (not yet in the app!)

I can see that the Humming Warmup would also benefit from the inclusions of some visuals, even a video demonstration. The problem with this is that is makes the App a very large file to download, and I’d rather keep it smaller and easier to work with for the moment, until I can afford to get some whizz-bang developer/designer to figure out how to keep the audio and video files small and easily accessible. So I am thinking of putting a video demo of the warmup on the website, here, and just adding in a link inside the app.

What do you think? Stick figures? Or photos? Video in the app? – which would definitely cost more, and make the price go up, or link to video on the website? Give me your thoughts here, in the comments. Let’s work together to make this the coolest, most fun, most do-able warmup app ever.