Voice Portfolio Entry 1: Voice Personal Assessment

'Developing Voice For The Actor' Personal Voice Assessment Overview:

To begin our voice work as an actor, we all had the task of rating our own vocal ability and talk about the problems we have with our voices and to discuss solutions as to how we can improve that specific problem.  The rating system we had started with 1 being the lowest or labeled 'Strongly Disagree' and 5 being the highest or labeled 'Strongly Agree' and we were all given a few minutes to test and decide what we should rate ourselves honestly.

Question one asked if I have a good, clear voice production.  To this, I answered and rated myself with a 4 out of 5, so I agreed with myself that I have the ability to produce a good, clear voice.

Question two asked if I think I have good articulation.  To this, I answered and rated myself with a 4 out of 5, so I agreed with myself that I can correctly pronounce words.

Question three asked if I think I have a good pace with my voice.  To this, I answered and rated myself with a 5 out of 5, so I strongly agree that I can produce a voice with a fast or slow tempo with control and fluency.

Question four asked if I think I have a good variety of tone and pitch with my voice.  To this, I answered and rated myself with a 5 out of 5, so I strongly agree that I can produce and create a strong, powerful, loud voice with control and I can also create a good tone of voice alongside.

Question five asked if I think I have a good breath control.  To this, I answered and rated myself with a 5 out of 5, so I strongly agree that I can have a large amount of breath control when speaking so that there are no pauses in my dialogue unintentionally.

For all of these questions that I have answered, I gave myself very honest high ratings.  I did this because I have never seen any problems with my voice other than the exception of a sour throat.  I have a very strong, clear and understandable voice, much like my father, and, in my opinion, I think we both have this unique kind of vocal ability because we are both very quiet men that don't speak very much.

Some people may agree that this a bad thing, but in reality it is not.  Because what I think is that me not speaking very often saves my voice for certain situations such as shouting so it becomes a much more effective voice than anyone else's.

Obviously we have all had the experience that if we had spoken for a large period of time then our voice seems to decay and cannot produce to the same standard as before.  For my case of not speaking very often, I consider this a strength in my vocal ability, since I save my voice for more important encounters such as rehearsals for a performance or a meeting of some kind instead of wasting it in a one time conversation with another person.

This may make people instantly think that I'm very shy person that has nothing to talk about because I wouldn't have the same interests as them.  In my case again, this isn't necessarily true.  I have a lot of interests that are similar with a lot of people I gather with but I choose to stay quiet because I'm more inclined to hear their opinions about certain things and I may come out with an agreement after they have presented it.  Having nothing to do with vocal ability at all, this reveals to me that I have the trait of a good listener.

After having this 'Developing Voice For The Actor' session, I have learnt a lot about myself with my personality entirely.  This may not have been the point of the lesson but it makes me think about how I got to where I am today.  I say this because I'm on the Level 3 Acting Extended Diploma course after achieving a Distinction Star grade, with Distinctions in all the criteria, on my BTEC Level 2 Performing Arts course.  When I got this grade, I was obviously very happy with myself and celebrated with my family but I never thought about how I got that grade.  And after this session, it made me realize, perhaps, the reasons why I got that grade overall.  This ties in with the singing I did alongside the Acting course for BTEC Level 2 Performing Arts, I had achieved a Distinction grade overall which is the highest I could achieve in that area.  That whole time I was singing, I thought I was mediocre, I wasn't the best singer in the room in my opinion.  But at the end of the year, I turned out to be one of the best, which left me confused when I got my Distinction Star certificate.  And until now, I now realize why I got that grade, it's because of who I am personally.

I hope with the upcoming sessions for this lesson that I can discover more about myself personally along with improving my voice overall for performance.