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.