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Tips for working with your voice and breathing properly
Why won't my voice carry!? On stage your voice must resonate in the facial mask!. Your voice carries via sound wave resonance, not volume, and you posses natural resonators in the sinus, thorax and chest cavities!. Use these properly and your voice will fill the room!. To exercise your voice get into the daily habit of alternate humming and speaking!. Say mmmm until you feel your lips and nose really buzz!. Then blend the "mmm" into the number one!. MMM-one!. Count to ten, mmm-one, mmm-two, mmm-three, etc!. Now speak and enjoy the difference!

Why has my jaw gone tight and my voice shaking!? When we're nervous, we produce the hormones adrenaline and noradrenalin!. These hormones cause our muscles to contract, causing the famous “fight or flight” response!. Your jaw willache and your voice become shaky because during stress, the diaphragm muscles contract, breathing becomes shallow, the heart beats faster and we can’t get enough breath!.

Find Your Diaphragm : Place one hand on the upper portion of the stomach just a few inches above the navel but below the breast bone!. Sniff in several small inhalations per breath through the nose!. The movement in that area is the diaphragm working at its best!. If you're breathing correctly (diaphragmatically) your stomach should feel as if it is filling up, expanding!. But if your chest is rising you are breathing superficially!.

How To Breathe From The Diaphragm : Place one hand just above your stomach and the other on your upper chest!. Purse lips slightly as if you're going to whistle!. Exhale slowly through pursed lips while slightly contracting the stomach muscles!. Its not necessary to force all the air out!. Inhale slowly through the nose!. Pause slightly to allow for better oxygen exchange in the lungs!. Repeat!. Exhalation should be slightly longer than inhalation!.

The diaphragm should do at least 80% of the work of breathing!. In order for you to get the most out of this magnificent muscle, you should practice regularly several times a day to ensure that you are not breathing superficially from your upper chest!.

Tips for British Accent:
Mind - Body - Voice

Of course, this seems pretty obvious!. (duh!) No great lesson here!. But look closer at the diagram!.

Notice there are arrows connecting the three seperate elements!. This means that the three elements, mind, body, voice, although seperate, interact with each other!. They communicate with each other!. In fact, they depend on each other!. Communication among the mind the body and the voice is critical to the acting process!.

Developing communication, a "conversation" , among the mind, the body and the voice is an essential part of acting!.

The MIND is the element that tends to dominate most!. Have you been in a small group where one person does almost all the talking!? Not a heck of a lot of input from the other members of the conversational group!.

The person doing all the talking might indeed be interesting, entertaining and knowledgeable!. And if all you want to do is to sit back and be entertained, without contributing anything - great, then sit back, nod your head and say "uh-huh" once in a while!.

But - the "conversation" would lack something!. It would lack the depth, insight, color, ideas, personality and surprise that the other members of the group could contribute to the conversation, if they were given a chance!.

Many actresses, especially beginners, let their mind dominate the acting process!. As a result, their performance lacks depth, insight, range, personality and surprise!. It lacks input from the other members of the acting conversation, the body and the voice!.

Actresses who let their mind dominate their acting say, "OK, here's what I 'think' the character is all about, and 'here's how I'll play' the character!." Then the actress goes about playing the character the way she "thought" it should be played!.

It might even be a passable performance!. But it lacks input from the other two important elements in the acting process, so it is sadly deficient!. The actress was too quick to "think"!. She was too busy imposing her preconceived notions about the character to allow herself to hear the contributions her voice and body were willing to give; too preoccupied with her notion of how the character "should" be played to allow herself the chance to explore, discover and develop a character far different from her initial thoughts!.

To explore, discover, and develop a character, an actress must learn to encourage her voice and body to join the conversation, and then listen to what they say!.


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Your Body's Contribution to the Conversation

Everybody knows what it feels like to be hungry!. (If you have never felt hunger, just stop eating for a day, then you will know what mild hunger feels like!.)

This is your body communicating with your mind!. It is saying, "Hey buddy, I need food!. Feed me!"

Your mind did not initiate this communication!. Your mind did not say, "Hmmmmm!. I have not had anything to eat for four or five hours, I think I'll make the stomach grumble and hurt a bit, and get cranky, and maybe I'll even start to think up food thoughts!. OK stomach, start grumbling!.!.!."

Your body initiated this communication!. Perhaps, you got a bit irritable, then your stomach might have started to pain you a bit, then you might have started thinking about food, then after receiving all these hunger messages from your body, gradually, your mind became aware of what was going on and you became conscious of the fact that you were hungry!. "Gee, I'm hungry!. Maybe I'll have lunch!."

Your body initiates communication with your mind all the time:

- Your nose smells smoke, then you decide to look for fire!.
- You see a a big dog, hear him growl, you stop, then you decide it is wiser to walk the other direction-fast!.
- You feel the warmth of the sun on your back at the beach, you relax and feel happy!.

Of course, once the mind is aware of something, it communicates back to the body to take a course of action:

- Prepare a balogna sandwich for lunch!.
- Sniff the air and slowly seek out the source of the smoke!.
- Move to the other side of the street and keep an eye on the dog!.
- Roll onto your back because your back is hot and you don't want to get sunburned!.

This is a conversation between your body and your mind!. This kind of conversation happens so quickly and so often, we hardly think about it!. But it happens whether we think about it or not and it propels us through each day of our lives!.

The actress' job, is to encourage this conversation between her body and her mind and to become as consciously aware of it as she can!.

Encouraging Your Body to Enter the Conversation

As I said earlier, the mind tends to dominate the acting process, especially in the beginning!. There is a lot of thinking that goes on!. Script analysis, character analysis, interpretation of relationships, blocking, all sorts of thinking!. The conscious mind gets a real workout!.

Rehearsal is the place where an actress can do her best work at getting her body involved in the conversation!. Your body can't get very involved sitting in a chair reading and thinking about a script!. You have to move!.



This link will lead you to a play which we will use for the rest of this lesson!. You might want to print a copy!.


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(NOTE: For the rest of this lesson, you will be following links back and forth between the text of the play and the text of the lesson!. If you have a browser which can open multiple windows, you might want to have two windows open, one to the play text and one to the lesson text!. You can then read the play text while you are also viewing the corresponding lesson text!. Does that make sense to you!? Well, if it does, give it a try!.)
Take a look at the first stage direction!. (When you are done looking, press your browser's "Back" button to return here!. You will use your "Back" button this way several times throughout the lesson!.)

"Rachel enters!."

Seems simple enough, right!? Well, not exactly!. HOW is Rachel going to enter!? Will she enter slowly!? Quickly!? Will she open the door slowly!? Will she fall against it!? Will she close the door behind her!? Will she be smiling!? Frowning!? Flat expression!? Crying!? Wailing!?

Hmmmmmmm!. Not so simple any more!.

Take a look at Rachel's first line and subsequent stage business!.!.

Is Rachel sad!? Happy!? Crying!? Emotionless!? Weeping!? Matter-of-fact!? Preoccupied!?

Does she look at the note with great interest!? Does she study the note!? Just give it a quick look!? Does she put it down!? Toss it aside!? Let it flutter out of her hands!? Does she carry it around for awhile!? Does she put it in her pocket!? How long does it take her to remove her hat and coat!? Does she place the hat and coat on the chair carefully!? Do they slide out of her grasp and fall to the table!? Does she toss them!?

Hmmmmmmm!. Lots of decisions to make, and the play has only just started!.

Let's start by noting that Rachel and Jacob are returning from Daniel's funeral!. By the text, it seems that Rachel loved Daniel, her husband!. So the initial choice we might make is to play a sad Rachel!.

Of course, on the other hand, Daniel's death has freed Rachel to pursue a long held dream!.

So maybe Rachel is happy that Daniel is dead!. Perhaps we should play Rachel happy!?

Oh me, Oh my!. We have a dilema!. Do we play Rachel happy or do we play Rachel sad!? Well, since this is rehearsals, and a time to experiment a bWww@QuestionHome@Com

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You can either do it or you cannot!. As Yoda said, "there is no try"!. Do you want to vary your voice!? Go ahead and do it!.

But, for Pete's sake, DO NOT try to put on a "character voice"!. It never works, and it is just cringe-worthy!. Embarrassing!.

Your character has a voice!. Use it!. The secret is in the character!.

YouTube will not help!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

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