Tips on how to do a good western accent?

Question:For a play at my school, that i am trying out for, we are doing "annie get your gun" and we have to do a western accent for auditioning. i know this is a kind of hard thing to explain to me on the internet. but i NEED help. please and thanks.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: For a play at my school, that i am trying out for, we are doing "annie get your gun" and we have to do a western accent for auditioning. i know this is a kind of hard thing to explain to me on the internet. but i NEED help. please and thanks.

In addition to renting and watching westerns, record yourself mimicking the speech and listen. Recordings are very helpful when attempting to nail a performance and needing feedback on your work.

my best advice is try to find some sort of western movie, and watch them a bunch til u get it down.

just watch western movies and listen to western songs and practice and keep repeating how they pronounce words and etc.

Try not pronouncing everything fully. For example

Darling would be Darlin'
sitting would be sit-in'

and put a slight twang to the words

ooh...I hope this helps
It's really hard to describe

If you are not good at mimicry, try David Allen Stern's Acting with an Accent CD Series.

Try this webpage http://accent.gmu.edu/