Vocal Development Programme Entry 3: 2nd Table of Comparison

Date of Session: Wednesday 10th February 2016

What Exercises did I perform in this Session?

1. "Red Lolly, Yellow Lolly"
2. The Alexander Technique (with Spinal Role at the end to finish)
3. Rolling the tongue around the mouth in a clockwise and anti-clockwise motion for 8,4,2,1 counts
4. Reading through one of my monologue's using the punctuation included in the text.

Vocal Reflection Post-Exercise

Posture

After having performed these exercises, especially the Alexander Technique, my posture for the day did feel a lot better than before the exercises. I felt like I was really standing quite tall, but I was also relaxed in all areas of the body, which tells me that I had performed the exercise correctly.

Doing this with the spinal role at the end did make me feel a bit light headed at first, but after a couple of moments, I returned to normal, feeling relaxed physically. My voice was also affected by doing the Alexander Technique. I'd made note that my voice seemed to come out of my mouth much lighter than before. What I mean by this is that there is less tension on the throat and I guess the mouth whilst speaking. My voice had also slowed down in speech, I guess because I was relaxed and had zero tension following the exercises. This tells me that I should do this exercise more in order to work on one of my vocal weaknesses being Articulation.

Tension Points

Following the exercises I'd done in my two previous recorded sessions on this Vocal Development Programme, I didn't feel any, if at all, much tension whilst performing these exercises. However, there was a point whilst I was performing the Alexander Technique that my leg started to tense up rapidly, causing me to make my leg straight again. I'm not entirely sure what the cause of this was, but it has happened before. Maybe a way to get rid of this is to perform more stretches throughout the day, especially before performing any exercises.

Breath Capacity and the Control/Delivery of the Voice

After finishing the main exercises, I'd performed my Skin-Lad monologue from the Jim Cartwright play called 'Road'. This was to test whether or not these exercises had worked well mainly with articulation and I guess projection since I'm speaking for this monologue. What I'd discovered is truly fascinating. Whilst reading the monologue from the script, I'd noticed, since my voice had slowed due to having performed the Alexander Technique, that I was including much more punctuation within my speech. It's also good to make note that I'd at one point dropped the script entirely to go through line for line since I've already learned the words off by heart, and since my voice had slowed, I'd noticed clearly that the punctuation was coming out of my mouth, and I'd went back to the script to see if it was correct, in which it was.

This tells me that the Alexander Technique is a good exercise to perform if you're trying to include punctuation in your speech, but the other exercises could come into question as well. The "Red Lolly, Yellow Lolly" exercise for example, could be another cause as to why my voice had slowed down, since it's quite hard to go through these words with fast speech, because when I went through at first with my normal voice, which is quite fast paced, I'd noticed I was saying "Red Lolly, Yellow Lorry" instead. I hope that performing this exercise more will counter this, and hopefully I can speed up the tempo in which I say the line without slurring my voice.

Articulation

As I've stated quite a few times in the headers above, my articulation after having performed these exercises did come across as being quite strong. I started to test this more so by not only reading my monologue, but also a couple of books lying around the house. I went though a page or two after having done the exercises to discover that my voice did sound quite articulate, as it should be. To me personally, because of my weakness in articulation, and the fact I don't really read too many books nowadays, I was very surprised and pleased with the end result. This will definitely influence me to perform these exercises more, to see how far I can bring my skills in articulation, hopefully to the point that I'll be able to make Articulation one of the strengths of my vocal traits.

Projection

Along with my articulation improving post exercise, my projection had somewhat gained a kick also. Alongside analyzing the development of my articulation whilst reading the monologue and the books, I was also keeping an ear out for how my voice was coming across in terms of volume without putting too much stress on the voice (shouting).

I'd had my step mum also witness me perform my monologue in front of her to get an extra set of ears, and also another opinion, especially if it's someone else listening to me. She had told me "Your voice is very clear and comes across in a nice enough tempo that I can understand what you're saying. Your voice also has a very good resonance, so those weird exercises I had to see you do obviously worked!"

So as we we can see from my step mum's interesting comment, my voice had definitely improved post exercise. Perhaps for the two weeks that I'll be performing these exercises, I'll make a time to compare a before and after exercise analysis, to see what these exercises really do in terms of affecting my voice's efficiency in both Articulation and Projection.

Areas of Improvement

After completing this first session, I don't think there's really anything that needs much improvement. As I'd stated, I'll do more stretches throughout the day to counter the weird tension I had in my leg during the Alexander Technique so it hopefully doesn't occur again. Something I could also do is to just try and speak much slower whether I've performed the exercises or not throughout the day, to see if it catches on, and also to see if I'll come across as being much more articulate than before.

Date of Session: Wednesday 24th February 2016

Vocal Comparison to Previous Session


Posture

I'd taken the liberty of performing the Alexander Technique after finishing my main physical exercises at the gym, and also before I go to bed in the evening.

For when I finish my gym exercises, performing the Alexander Technique afterwards did make me feel both relaxed and gave me the impression of having a good workout session. I could feel this particularly when I was working on my back muscles on a certain day. Performing the Alexander Technique, and finishing with a spinal role, did make my back feel much straighter than before the Alexander Technique, when I'd finished my gym session. This could only affect my posture from here on out, and walking home from the gym, I could feel like that I was walking quite tall and with a straight back also. I didn't really have the chance to see if this affected my voice in any way, but I would think that it'd have some sort of difference than if I hadn't performed the Alexander Technique that day after my gym session.

Performing this exercise before going to bed obviously made me much more relaxed, thus making me go to sleep quite quickly. I'd noticed that, once it was time for me to wake up, I felt much more energized and ready for the day. This became obvious when it only took me about 10-15 minutes to get myself ready for college, when before, I'd normally take about 30-40 minutes. This has allowed me to have more sleep in the morning before college, so doing this exercise before bed is definitely worth it to have more sleep.


Tension Points

As I had made note from the last recorded session, I did have a certain moment with my leg tensing up during the Alexander Technique. Since then, I have performed much more stretches throughout the day and I've also done some light yoga in order to become a little bit more flexible in my movement. From recent studies of me performing the Alexander Technique, my leg hadn't tensed up at all, in fact, it only happened again for the second time a couple of days ago, but this was after I'd been running that day, so perhaps that was the main cause of why it happened the first time? In any case, I've had these two weeks to perform the Alexander Technique twice a day, once after I was finished at the gym, and again before bed, to see if there's been any sort of improvement, and I feel that I've achieved this.


Breath Capacity and the Control/Delivery of the Voice and Articulation

As I said in my last recorded session, I was going to try and speak at a slower tempo, to see if it catches on, and to also see if I come across as being more articulate than before. Doing this alongside performing the exercises did stir some attention from a couple of people I've had conversations with.

They had noticed that I've done something to affect my own voice, in which I told them what I did, leaving them quite surprised. I do manage to go through more sentences in a much more controlled manner than before, which tells me that this is a good thing for me to keep doing in the future. The people that I spoke with haven't really delved into how to improve their voices, and me telling them what and why I was doing these exercises left them feeling quite uneducated if anything.

One of these people was someone that goes to my gym, and he was wondering why I was doing the Alexander Technique (he didn't know what it was, so he was simply asking me what I was doing). Once I'd told him what it was, he looked quite confused, perhaps because he didn't see the logic behind performing it. So this was when I asked if he'd like to try it, in which he did. I instructed him through what he had to do in order to perform the Alexander Technique correctly, and once finished he said roughly along the lines something like this: "Wow, I do feel a bit light headed from doing that, but I do definitely feel much more relaxed. Before I felt quite tensed up in my arms, but now, they feel quite light. I'm not sure I like the feeling... But I can see why you would choose to do this after your exercises definitely."

So this was definitely an interesting experience to go through, to be able to teach and direct someone about a vocal exercise.

Projection

Through me reading my monologue and a couple of books, I was able to analyze my projection. After two weeks of studies, I've come to the conclusion that my projection wasn't affected too much from doing any of these exercises, but projection is already one of the strongest traits of my voice, so it doesn't really have to be worked on as much as Articulation for example, which is what I've been doing.

What other exercises could possibly improve these areas of the voice? 

In terms of Articulation, any exercise that requires me to go through a piece of text that is kind of difficult to say quickly over and over is the perfect choice. A line like "Through the tip of the tongue, and the teeth and the lips" is a good choice, but I'd already done this phrase in the past so I thought it'd be good to do "Red Lolly, Yellow Lolly" instead.

How are these exercises suitable for improvement of the vocal technique?

They're mainly suitable because it affects how your voice works in everyday life, as I've recorded down in this entry. People do indeed pick up if you've changed something about yourself, whether it be physical or even vocally. They're also suitable because, like with physical exercises, doing vocal exercises can only mean you'll get better progressively over time, thus making your voice stronger and stand out over others.

Why should I keep doing these Exercises? 

Like I said before, if I keep doing these exercises, my voice is only going to get better, which is an essential thing to process when it comes to being a professional actor in the performing arts industry.

Vocal Development Programme Entry 2: 1st Table of Comparison

Date of Session: Wednesday 19th January 2016

What Exercises did I perform in this Session?

1. Holding my breath for 8,4,2,1 counts and breathing out in the same counts.
2. Humming High, Low, and Normal Tones
3. Rubber Chicken

Vocal Reflection Post-Exercise, Including Feedback Received from Session

Before talking about my reflection upon my voice, it's key to take note that I wasn't particularly well during this session, which had a dramatic affect on my performance of the exercises overall. But still giving them to the best of my ability, this is what I picked up from performing the exercises:

Posture

My posture hadn't really changed too much from before, it's still quite straight, but it's not as relaxed, possibly because of the exercises performed, particularly the Rubber Chicken exercise.

Tension Points

Whilst doing the Rubber Chicken exercise, I had discovered that there is tension within my body, particularly in the shoulder, lower neck region.

Breath Capacity and the Control/Delivery of the Voice

My overall breath capacity had made a significant improvement post exercise, allowing me to perform some lines from the radio play we're performing with ease. I had made a note that my overall control of speaking these lines was not much different from when I had spoken them before, but my delivery came across with a heightened tone and, in my teachers ears, sounded "enthusiastic".


Articulation

Although I hadn't performed any articulation exercises, my voice did come across as pronouncing some words, words that have the letter 'T' in particular, with efficiency. Some people in my group had made a comment asking whether I had done some articulation exercises before the radio session, to which my reply was "no".

Projection

Although I don't really shout too often in my radio play, in normal everyday language, my voice did sound louder and also clearer when speaking. As soon as I spoke, I had all eyes on me, which tells me that my voice must of over-empowered most other people's during the conversations we had that day. This could've been because of me performing the humming exercise along with a few others in the group that day.

Areas of Improvement

One area which definitely needs improving is where I hold the tension in my body, which I have evaluated being in my shoulder/lower neck region. To do this, I was thinking of doing some stretches, perhaps yoga, to focus on this area in particular to hopefully release the tension which in turn should have a good outcome on my vocal delivery.

Although my articulation was good for this session, I still feel that I could do with some more work on it, since this area of the voice is, in my own opinion, my weakest trait when it come to evaluating my voice overall.

Date of session: Wednesday 3rd February 2016

Since the last session I had recorded in this blog, I had been performing the 3 sets of exercises 4 times a week for the 2 weeks I had not recorded anything down, to see if there was any, if at all, improvements to my voice after performing these exercises for the 2 weeks.


Vocal Comparison to Previous Session

Unlike last session, I am no longer ill, meaning that I can perform these same exercises with an improved effort.


Posture

Again, my posture hadn't really made any significant changes from post exercises, but these exercises don't work on that particular area.


Tension Points

I had made a note from the previous session that I'd do some more stretches and/or Yoga to help ease the tension in my shoulder/lower neck region. Within the two weeks I've had between recorded sessions, I've been doing quite a bit of yoga alongside my exercises at the gym, and I've noticed a significant improvement in my shoulder/lower neck area overall. When performing the Rubber Chicken, unlike in the last session, I hadn't received any tension at all and felt quite energized after performing the exercise.


Breath Capacity and the Control/Delivery of the Voice

Much like in the last session I'd recorded in this blog, my breath capacity had a significant improvement when comparing both before and after doing the exercises. But what I had noticed is that my voice had slowed down a little bit during normal dialogue to include proper punctuation during my speech, which at first was a bit weird for me as I normally speak quite fast, but I feel that this is a very good thing to achieve from doing these exercises and from doing this assignment.

Articulation

When comparing to the last session I'd recorded, there's not much different about my articulation, mainly because I hadn't done any articulation exercises, but this is an area that I will move onto for the next table of comparison as it definitely need improving.

Projection

Again, much like last sessions evaluation, my projection did sound louder and also clearer whilst I was speaking.

What other exercises could possibly improve these areas of the voice? 

One exercise which Brandon taught me is kind of the same as holding the breath for a certain number of counts, but instead of breathing out in those same counts, you instead blow the breath out in rapid pattern (blow, pause, blow, pause, blow, pause) until you run out of breath. When doing the exercise in this way, I could feel this working more with my diaphragm, which is a key muscle to work on when it comes to improving the voice. This is an exercise which I will definitely keep doing in the future, so I thank Brandon for teaching me this variation of the exercise.

How are these exercises suitable for improvement of the vocal technique?

As I've clearly put in my comparison of the two recorded sessions, we can see that there's been some improvements in some certain areas of my voice, but not all. Perhaps it would've been better if I'd performed an exercise for each area of the voice instead for the most dramatic results.

Why should I keep doing these Exercises?

Overall, these exercises which I'd performed for the last nearly 3 weeks have indeed made a positive outcome on my voice in certain areas, and these are exercises which I'll definitely keep performing to see if there will be more improvements. 

Vocal Development Programme Entry 1: Identifying my Vocal Characteristics

Identifying my Vocal Characteristics

Some of the information that I'll be posting in this entry would be carried over from my Voice and the Actor Assignment 1 - Entry 1: Analysis of the Voice (https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=931375328338557687#editor/target=post;postID=7688149128442167901;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=3;src=link)

I think that I'm very well spoken, I portray a typical British accent. I'm very precise in my wording, I have the ability to enhance my voice with emotion. I have a good command of the English language. My tone is good and my diction is clear. I am quite articulate. I have good posture - which contributes towards my breathing, which originates mainly from my fitness level. My vocal 'colour' is focused. My weakness is articulating the tones of sadness, and upset etc.

I have a habit of, when being chastised, muttering under my own breath comebacks towards what the other person is saying. I speak at a medium pace, but, when placed in a scenario where I'm upset or angry, my pace is accelerated. I think I vary my rhythm, I speak at the same pace as my peers, depending on the situation, circumstance, and topic of conversation. My pitch is strong and precise because of how well I hold myself - due to the fact of my fitness levels, which ensures correct posture. My fitness levels also enables me to breathe correctly, which in turn, ensures me to complete my sentences without sounding rushed and/or short of breath. Where required, I can display dramatic pauses - an example for me, was when I performed the monologue by Skin-Lad in our performance of Jim Cartwright's play named 'Road'.

Unless I'm 100% dedicated to I'm saying, my confidence can falter, leaving my voice quieter and unsure in tone. In articulation, I have a weakness sounding the letter 'r'. I am able to project my own voice depending on the environment of the performance taking place. At times, I can sound monotonous. Because of my current home environment, I have been exposed to a larger vocabulary, more adult interactions, which, in turn, has increased my confidence in front of any audience. Although both of my biological parents are from the north of the UK, I don't in fact possess any of the vocal mannerisms that they would use. I do have a weakness with some accents, a strong example would be the Northern accent in-particular.

Reflecting upon my Voice (Vocal Strengths and Weaknesses)

Posture

Going to the gym and exercising has now become a prominent reason as to why my voice has improved over the course of 2015 to now. One of the things that has definitely improved from doing this is my posture and overall balance of myself. I now hold myself quite upright because of both the strength in my core muscles and my back. This has a positive affect on my voice also, as it allows me to project my voice with ease and efficiency.

Along side this point, I always try to follow what my teachers say when it comes to vocal ability, and also following along with the research I have previously done for the subject. Having good posture is an important thing to have when it comes to improving the voice, it allows you to hold much more air to project your lines/sentences with ease, it gives you much more stage presence as you hold yourself upright with confidence and could also make you more noticeable on stage, and it also puts less restriction on your bodily movements when performing, you don't want to be hunched over when moving your arms for example because it would just look silly, it's much more worthwhile to make the effort of standing up straight and performing to the best of your ability.

Tension Points

The place where I definitely hold tension the most is in the shoulder and/or lower neck area. There are multiple reasons I can come up with as to why this is:

1. Sleeping at a certain angle: When I go to sleep at night, I do have a tendency to position myself in an almost awkward position which just feels comfortable to me to make me eventually drift off. I have been trying recently to sleep with a straight back, but I always shift around during the night to wake up in a random position. For example, just last week I tried this method, to then realizing I woke up in the fetus position. Admittedly, this is a position which I do find quite comfortable, so I'm not entirely surprised of waking up to be like this. Other than how I position myself when sleeping, it could just be me placing my head at a certain angle which causes it to become a bit stiff in the morning afterwards.
2. Lifting heavy weights when exercising: Although this may benefit me in most areas of my vocal, and also physical ability, it does have its drawbacks. I do lift some moderately heavy weights when working out my shoulders. It may be to do with the position I have to place my arms in order to do the exercise that might be bothering my shoulder/lower neck area, hence causing the tension that I get.

Breath Capacity and Control

Here's me using my fitness levels excuse again, but it has really improved my overall air capacity from previous performing experiences/social interactions. I can control the flow of my breath when speaking lines with a decent effort, I say this because of my moderate ability in articulation and pace, I can sometimes speak too fast and mispronounce words. Another reason as to knowing that my breath capacity has improved is because I can hold my breath underwater for a much more extended period of time when compared to a few years ago. It could also be because I have been performing vocal exercises in this area of the voice that may have improved this.

Resonance and Projection

I feel that my voice does have a sense of resonance, since, because it's quite deep, it does come across as vibrating to audience members. I feel that this also compliments my ability in projection. People have told me that my voice can come across as quite soothing when placed in the correct scenario, hence improving my confidence in performance areas.

Diction and Articulation

My diction and articulation does tend to fail me quite a bit when it comes to my vocal ability. I do and know that I mispronounce words, but I feel that it's mainly because of the pace of my voice that does this. If I was to work on vocal exercises to do with the pace of the voice, it may actually come to some benefit for obviously pace, but also in terms of my ability in diction and articulation.

Delivery of a range of different texts or styles/Feedback from peers and/or teachers

Recently, I had performed a monologue in my voice lesson to an audience. The monologue is called 'Life is Hard'. It's just a random monologue which I found on the internet, but I had used this monologue because of its relativity towards my own personal experiences throughout the past 2 years of my life. This is a monologue I hadn't yet learned off by heart, so I had to read it off of my phone, which I felt hindered my ability in performing the monologue. But, regardless of this, I had performed it to the best of my ability as I always do when it comes to doing something like this. My voice teacher had complimented my efforts saying that I had performed it very well, but there were a few problems which needed to be fixed.

1. Am I speaking in the 1st or 3rd person? One of the main things which needed to be pointed out for the delivery of this monologue is whether or not it should be performed in the 1st or 3rd person, or to simply put it, is the character talking to himself or to another person. When I had performed it a second time, this time with me talking to someone, some of the lines where delivered in a different way, but it also had much more meaning behind it when compared to me just talking to the audience, or what might appear as me talking to myself.
2. Pronouncing the letter 'r': One of the main problems which my voice teacher had picked up from my performance was that words with the letter 'r' wasn't being pronounced correctly, the letter was completely overlooked from the word when I had said it.

How will I develop my Voice?

Over the next couple of entry's for this Vocal Development Programme, I shall be exploring these 3 statements in the form of a table of comparison. What I mean by this is that I shall be comparing how my voice performs one week to another doing the same set of exercises to see if I've had any, if at all, significant improvements. Here are the 3 statements:

What other exercises could possibly improve these areas of the voice?

How are these exercises suitable for improvement of the vocal technique?

Why should I keep doing these Exercises?