accents

More workshops to come!

    Performance Skills Training, speech, Theatre, Voice   , , , , , , ,
The Expressive Voice Workshop went down a treat last weekend. 8 participants from a great range of work and life experience joined in to fill the back room at 81 Renshaw with joyously wacky soundings, finding vibratory freedom in the Hungry Giant’s castle.

Some feedback:

“Flloyd’s Expressive Voice Workshops offer an informative and professional blend of theory and practice that will benefit performers and public speakers alike. I definitely benefited from attending this workshop”

“I took away a tremendous  amount from your timely workshop (coming as it did, 4 days before my stand up set which was last night). Time went really quickly. My watch is unreliable and I didn’t realise the time had hurtled around to 3.45. I enjoyed all of it. I DID get the small part that I auditioned for so I shall be forgetting about projection and thinking more about the giant and resonance…. he really helped! So all in all. A very useful and enjoyable workshop. I would recommend it to others and come back again.” 

“Thanks again for your expertise and help at the workshop. I really enjoyed it and learned a huge amount. The elements which particularly helped me were the thorough background discussions, particularly of the anatomy involved. When I understand what’s happening on a physical level with any activity, I feel better able to tackle it. I also really liked examples you gave of poor voice control – the contrast of good and bad made it clear what we were aiming for, as well as being playful and amusing!”

“Thanks again for your expertise and help at the workshop. I really enjoyed it and learned a huge amount. The elements which particularly helped me were the thorough background discussions, particularly of the anatomy involved. When I understand what’s happening on a physical level with any activity, I feel better able to tackle it. I also really liked examples you gave of poor voice control – the contrast of good and bad made it clear what we were aiming for, as well as being playful and amusing!”

So now I am thinking of setting up regular weekly sessions, which will be in two parts.  The first hour will be a open drop in class, which will involve a warm up, and then working on whatever those present choose to work on.  The second hour will be limited to 8 participants, and will have a specific focus, e.g.

  • pure voice and vocal power;
  • range and colour (resonance);
  • clear speech;
  • accents;
  • Archetypes
  • textual analysis;
  • public speaking;
  • cold read;
  • audition monologues;
  • Shakespeare;
  • singing for non singers;
  • clown voice;
  • microphone technique etc.

Let me know in the comments if you have a preference for any of these, or other suggestions. Probably beginning in October.

Performance Skills Training, speech, Theatre, Voice

More workshops to come! Read Post »

How to Acquire an Accent

    Performance Skills Training, speech   , ,

Accents – believe it or not – are not easy.  Let’s face it, if you’ve spent 20, 30, 40 years using your head and facial muscles and your tongue to speak words in a particular way, and tuning your voice to go up and down in pitch the way your friends and family do, it is going to take some degree of effort to retrain your ears and those muscles to do it differently on demand.

Dudley Knight and Phil Thompson have been working for many years to study the challenges of “Speaking With Skill” (Dudley’s book is a Goldmine). They devised a training methodology that integrates beautifully and effortlessly with any voice training system you care to name.

Last year I attended the KTS workshops in LA, “Experiencing Speech” and “Experiencing Accents”.  I loved the rigour, the thorough practicality of the approach, the way it incorporates anatomical facts with imaginative play. So this year I went to New York and undertook the three-week teacher certification program.  It was – as I’ve said before – intensely challenging, and utterly stimulating.

Below are the Class of 2014 photos. In the first one, a bunch of charming voice and accent coaches, in the second – we may look as if we are mucking about, but that is a Serious Exercise!

IMG_5853

The KTS Gurn
The KTS Gurn

I am running the first, introductory workshop in Brisbane on 9th November (click for details). You’ll have the opportunity to learn about the principles and philosophy that underpin this approach to speech and accent training, as well as some of the exercises designed to allow you to learn ANY accent.  Once you understand what’s actually involved in learning someone, or somewhere else’s way of using the language, you’ll be in a much stronger position to undertake the specific work you need to do.

Click here to contact me for more details, and to register your interest. And please do spread the word. This workshop is open to everyone who cares about their voice, communication and presentation skills and creative self expression.

 

Performance Skills Training, speech

How to Acquire an Accent Read Post »

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