2023.03.31 – 0820 – Windmill Arms Windmill arms · Stretch your arms out from the side (not the front or back) of your body · Now draw a ‘figure of eight’ in the air alongside you, gradually increasing the size of the digit · This helps work out any shoulder and neck tension. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Mar 30, 2023•2 min•Season 3Ep. 820
2023.03.30 – 0819 – Be A Crawler Be a crawler · Do some big ‘front crawl’ swimming movements with your arms, slowly and gently for 20 seconds in a full circle. This will loosen your back, chest and ribcage muscles to help better breathing · Now repeat the exercise with the arms rotating backwards · Watch out for the ceiling fan! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Mar 29, 2023•2 min•Season 3Ep. 819
2023.03.29 – 0818 – Hum and Drum Hum and drum · Stand and breath in deeply – remember from your diaphragm! · Breathe out slowly and as you do so hummmmmmm a constant note · And as you hum, wake up your chest, sides and back by firmly patting them with a gently closed fist Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Mar 28, 2023•1 min•Season 3Ep. 818
2023.03.28 – 0817– Make A Stand! First, make a stand! Many presenters and voice-over artists prefer to stand at the mic anyway. It enables alertness and better breath control: · Feet firmly on the ground shoulder-width apart and with three points of contact with the floor: underneath the big and little toe and the centre of your heel · Have your knees soft, the pelvis balanced, your stomach loose and free · Drop your arms loose and heavy, with your shoulder blades ‘dripping down the back’ with n...
Mar 27, 2023•5 min•Season 3Ep. 817
2023.03.27 – 0816 – Whole Body Warm Up Exercises Whole Body Warm Up Exercises [1] (Some of these exercises incorporate ‘sound’ as well as ‘structure’, that is you may use your voice while you are physically moving, and in that way, there is naturally some cross over with the previous chapter. This again shows how all elements of the body are interlinked.) We have seen already how nerves and stress creates tension. In this ‘anti-tension section’ we’ll look at the three Rs of relaxation, release a...
Mar 26, 2023•2 min•Season 3Ep. 816
2023.03.26 – 0815 – Relaxation From Tension The flip side of tension is relaxation. Hopefully you will have seen by now how so many parts of the body are involved in creating the sound we call voice: your spine, various ligaments and muscles – some as small as the vocal folds in your throat, some large and powerful such as your diaphragm. And ‘relaxation of the mechanism’ is the key to have these work to support your voice, its construction and projection. Better relaxation leads to better prese...
Mar 26, 2023•2 min•Season 3Ep. 815
2023.03.25 – 0814 – Ten Tell-Tale Signs of Tension Some physical tension creeps up on us. We don’t notice small changes to the body until it’s ‘too late’. So here are Ten Tell-Tale Signs of Tension : 1. Your voice sounds crackly and raspy 2. It sounds thin or strained 3. Your voice sounds weak 4. You find yourself short of breath while speaking 5. You sound irritated or bored 6. You have trouble projecting your voice 7. You sound an octave higher than you normally do 8. You have ‘dry-mouth’ synd...
Mar 25, 2023•1 min•Season 3Ep. 814
2023.03.24 – 0813 – Your Studio Desk Set Up Your Studio Desk Set Up Are the screens in your studio laid out so you can see them without twisting and turning, actions which will causes spinal stresses and strains? If you talk with a twisted neck, you are pulling the larynx out of alignment causing other muscles to compensate, which will affect your vocal sound, health and stamina. If you can, move the screen or the mic or your chair so everything is ‘square on’. If this is not possible, make sure...
Mar 24, 2023•3 min•Season 3Ep. 813
2023.03.23 – 0812 – Nine Lines On the Spine (7-9) 7. Similarly wearing high heels can also throw your body out of alignment, you may have to stick your bum out to counterbalance your weight, causing other stresses on the ‘wrong’ part of the skeleton and muscle groups, and the resulting tension causing a less effective and free voice. 8. The ribs are joined to the spine and they need to be free to move as the lungs fill with air. 9. A good posture, one that is soft, and which we are not gripping ...
Mar 23, 2023•2 min•Season 3Ep. 812
2023.03.22 – 0811 – Nine Lines On the Spine (4-6) 4. The larynx is at the top of the trachea which runs along the same line as your spine. What you do with your head and neck alignment has a knock-on effect on your larynx, and therefore your voice. 5. The average human head weighs around 5kg or 11lbs, that's more than most new-born babies, and is balanced on just seven vertebrae in your neck and supported by around 20 muscles that move your head and keep that weight in place. If you force your h...
Mar 22, 2023•2 min•Season 3Ep. 811
2023.03.21 – 0810 – Nine Lines On the Spine (1-3) Nine Lines On the Spine 1. Why is this important? Well, your voice is affected by your postural alignment, and you will have better breathing and resonance if your ‘spine is fine’. That means using minimal effort for maximum effect: an efficient, effective and effortlessly good voice without the work of holding and tensing muscles to create it. 2. That means when standing, lining up the heaviest parts of your body so the centre of gravity goes do...
Mar 21, 2023•4 min•Season 3Ep. 810
2023.03.20 – 0809 – Vocal Tension From Sitting and Standing Physical tension can come from sitting down and standing up It is very easy to stay still in a studio and only at the end of a programme realise that you have been in the same seat for three or four hours. Sitting still has your body relaxed into a sedentary position, your breathing slows into shallow breaths as the lungs struggle to fully open. You begin to sound dull and lifeless because of a lack of oxygen to power your voice, and yo...
Mar 20, 2023•3 min•Season 3Ep. 809
2023.03.19 – 0808 – The Causes of Vocal Tension What Causes Tension Nerves. Overwhelm. Anxiety. Excitement. The unknown. Panic. Being underprepared. Being worried about how you sound. Concerns about your message and the audience’s reception to it. Any physical niggle can affect your voice. That’s anything from a paper cut to menstrual cramps, discomfort anywhere will cause ‘compensatory muscular tension’ and so mental distraction. Even if just a small part of your brain is dealing with the pain,...
Mar 19, 2023•3 min•Season 3Ep. 808
2023.03.18 – 0807 – Tension and Relaxation We looked at releasing tension in the mouth, jaw, tongue and lips in the previous chapter, but as the Voice Box above shows, physical tension that can affect your voice can be in many other places. “ Tension murders vibration (and) vibrations thrive in relaxation ” Kristin Linklater, “Freeing the Natural Voice: Imagery and Art in the Practice of Language” And it’s important to remember that physical tension can come from mental tension: nerves or excite...
Mar 18, 2023•3 min•Season 3Ep. 807
2023.03.17 – 0806 – Stretching and Strengthening Your Laryngeal Muscle There are around 27 muscles in and around the larynx, 15 of these are outside the larynx and hold it in position in the neck, 12 are essential, with a direct action on the vocal folds in their lengthening and shortening, tension and relaxation, thinning and thickening. These laryngeal muscles are intimately connected to the muscles of the neck, shoulders and upper chest and back. The tension of all these muscles is influenced...
Mar 17, 2023•3 min•Season 3Ep. 806
2023.03.16 – 0805 – Your Physical Health In the previous chapter we looked at your vocal zones and how looking after them affects the way you sound. Earlier in the course we discussed the ‘art of breathing’ and how sitting and standing ‘properly’, affects how you sound. Now, we’ll take a look at the wider body and its effect on your voice, including the physical tensions you need – and the ones you don’t! Each of our voices sound different partly because of how we produce our own sound: our phys...
Mar 16, 2023•2 min•Season 3Ep. 805
2023.03.15 – 0804 – The Cool-Down Low-Down % The cool down low-down There is a need to ease yourself back to normality after extensive vocalising, resetting to ‘neutral’ rather than just stopping suddenly. You have used your voice lots, perhaps been a bit stressed and had adrenaline, you might have projected a bit more, put on a character voice (perhaps been speaking to other delegates in a crowded conference hall, teaching and preaching), maybe your bright and happy or stern tone has been ‘fals...
Mar 15, 2023•5 min•Season 3Ep. 804
2023.03.14 – 0803 – Green Kings Singing Green Kings Singing · Slowly and carefully say the phrase “ green kings sing-ging ” . Note how I’ve written the last word, split in two, that’s because I want you to say it that way, “ sing ” and then “ ging ” stressing the ‘ ng ’ and hard ‘ g ’ sounds, so you can be conscious of where the sounds are being made. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Mar 14, 2023•4 min•Season 3Ep. 803
2023.03.13 – 0802 – The ‘siNG soNG’ Vocal Warm Up Nasal It’s important to be comfortable in diverting sounded air from your nasal cavity to the mouth and vice-versa. The Nasal Siren · Say the word “ song ” and take that ‘ ng ’ sound that is sent through your nasal cavity and keep it going. Then carefully glide up the register (sometimes called ‘tonal sweeping’), and down to your original starting point, and then down. Repeat this swooping glide several times. Keep it light and fun and don’t forc...
Mar 13, 2023•7 min•Season 3Ep. 802
2023.03.12 – 0801 – The ‘This & That’ Vocal Warm Up This & That Say the word “ this ” and “ that ” and you’ll notice that to make the “ th ” you put the tip of your tongue between your teeth. · Say ‘ th ’ again and make it a long, buzzing sound ‘ ththththththth ’, feel your larynx vibrate by resting a couple of fingers on it · Stick your tongue out a bit further, again while vibrating a ‘ ththththththth ’ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Mar 12, 2023•2 min•Season 3Ep. 801
2023.03.11 – 0800 – The ‘Puh-Tuh-Kuh Puh-Tuh-Kuh’ Vocal Warm Up The Puh-Tuh-Kuh exercise · Without pushing or forcing, sound “ puh-tuh-kuh ” individually, slowly at first, noticing how the different words are created in different places in your mouth and with different tongue movements, over enunciate with exaggerated lip, jaw, and tongue movements · Repeat several times, gradually building up speed. · Then switch from “ puh-tuh-kuh” to the opposite “kuh-tuh-puh” and gradually speed up · Repeat ...
Mar 11, 2023•2 min•Season 3Ep. 800
2023.03.10 – 0799 – A Trill-iantly Easy Lip Warm-Up Lip trills These encourage you to relax your mouth and lips, easing the muscles associated with enunciating, warming them up and encourage a consistent air flow · Close your mouth and teeth and relax your lips and cheeks · Exhale to vibrate your lips until you use up all your breath (if this is tricky, put an index finger on each cheek at the end of each lip, and press lightly) · Repeat with short bursts of ‘trills’, gliding from a low tone up ...
Mar 10, 2023•3 min•Season 3Ep. 799
2023.03.09 – 0798 – Giving Your Lips A Work-Pout Lips Give your lips a work-pout with these great exercises. Lip pouts · Make an exaggerated extended lip-purse as though moving in for a big kiss. Open and close the lips while in this position, like a fish (a ‘trout pout’?!) · Then tuck them in, folding them against each other inside your mouth · Add a big wide grin into the mix · Work though these three movements (out, in, grin), but don’t clench your jaw or let your neck muscles become tight. ·...
Mar 09, 2023•3 min•Season 3Ep. 798
2023.03.08 – 0797 – The ‘Pucker Muscle’ and the ‘Smile Muscle’ The ‘Pucker Muscle’ and the ‘Smile Muscle’ The ‘pucker muscle’ that controls lip movement to shape sounds is the ‘orbicularis oris’ muscle. The’ zygomaticus major’ runs from your cheekbone to the corners of your mouth to help create smiles and other facial expressions, as well as sounds such as ‘eee’. (Fun fact: This muscle can contract with a force of 200 g. [1] ) [1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0268003309...
Mar 08, 2023•2 min•Season 3Ep. 797
2023.03.07 – 0796 – Bits About Lips Bits About Lips Lips are more than just the ‘lipstick bit’, their muscles extend into the cheeks and so affect (and are affected by) the whole of the face and expression. Holding tension in yur lips, or barely using them when speaking (some people rely on their tongue to do a lot of the hard articulatory work), can restrict your understandability, as how you hold your lips helps create word-sound groups. Stiff lips may be a result of the perceived danger of sh...
Mar 07, 2023•6 min•Season 3Ep. 796
2023.03.06 – 0795 - The ‘Mouth’s Mystery Muscle’ Tongue Root Tension and the ‘Mouth’s Mystery Muscle’ We all know about the tongue yeah? We can see it in our mouth, we know it is very sensitive to temperature, taste and texture (babies instinctively feel things with their tongue), and its complex fibres and nerves makes an extraordinary range of precise movements possible for speaking [1] (Episode 76 “ Your Multi-Function Mouth Muscle ” has the full list of the tongue’s eight great attributes). ...
Mar 06, 2023•2 min•Season 3Ep. 795
2023.03.05 – 0794 – Blowing Raspberries Blowing Raspberries · Relax your mouth, lips and cheeks and slightly stick out your tongue, resting it on your lower lip. · Slowly exhale as you blow a raspberry, vibrating your tongue, lips and cheeks. (Beware of spittle!) · Now gently vocalise that airflow creating a slow deep vibration · Next, keeping a consistent, controlled airflow, move up and down the tonal scale. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Mar 05, 2023•1 min•Season 3Ep. 794
2023.03.04 – 0793 – The Right Way To Use Tongue Twisters As An Articulation Exercise Tongue Twisters Once you have warmed up the tongue, you can try some tongue twisters to put it through its paces (if you try a tongue twister before you’ve warmed up the tongue and you’ll just end up tongue-tied and demoralised…) What do I like about a tongue-twister? It’s hard to say (!), but having said that, their name is a bit of misnomer because they not only help stretch and strengthen several of those ton...
Mar 04, 2023•7 min•Season 3Ep. 793
2023.03.03 – 0792 – The ‘Tongue Curl’ Vocal Exercise Curled Tongue · Put the tip of your tongue behind your lower front teeth, and arch the middle of your tongue so it touches the roof of your mouth. Repeat five times, like press-ups for the tongue! · Now open your mouth and, with a relaxed jaw and the tip of your tongue still behind your lower front teeth, push the middle of your tongue forward towards your open mouth. Repeat five times, increasing speed each time. · Now with the tongue lying o...
Mar 03, 2023•4 min•Season 3Ep. 792
2023.03.02 – 0791 – A Drumroll For The Tongue Tongue Trills · Relax your mouth and tongue and have your lips slightly apart. Purr like a cat (or like a drumroll), relaxing your tongue and letting its tip vibrate on the roof of your mouth just behind the upper teeth, as you breathe out. · Try this gently at first before you make the vibration faster and stronger. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Mar 02, 2023•2 min•Season 3Ep. 791
