Dexter Flanders

Voice Awareness Written Assessment

Patsy Rodenburg Said 1'''your head,shoulders, pelvis and spine contribute toward a strong voice,'' which is why the body is the most important factor for voice before you get started on anything else. So lets started with tension. Body tension is caused when opposing muscle groups are contracted simultaneously & tensions in our bodys from day to day life affect the actor if we dont become aware and train our bodys to develop new habits. The alignment of my body in my day to day use if fine but when acting this does not serve me so well. This is because tensions in my muscles have been organically created through lifes strains & stresses. So my tendency was to have my head tilted upward out of alignment and my knees locked which created unwanted tension around my shoulders and jaw which in turn made my words come out all on one tone. 2''This position is what is known as the Bluff stance''. Also without a balanced alignment of my body, I will not be able to have an open breath channel which shall shorten my breath intake and the produce an under energised flat sound due to the lack of oxygen I have inhaled. To support the breath economically has been a revelation for me in terms of quality and for the last few years I had been doing my breathing exercise with a vague understand of what was actually going on. I have recently learned that breath and more importantly the quality of breath opens a wide range of possibilities when preparing to produce sound. Patsy Rodenburg Said 3''when you deliberately place oxygen under a word it begins to live in and with you,''which is how the breath carries emotion. So When I allow my breath to come from my support muscles as far down as my groin, the ribs expand as I inhale to create space for the lungs and my body supplies oxygen to my abdominal muscles to support my voice. Patsy Rodenburg said' 4 ''the more access you have to range of resonators,the greater the choices you have to speak.'' So by just humming and feeling my head,lips,chest and nose I can feel the resonators working in different areas depending on the pitch I choose. The quality of my resonance simply means what the quality of my voice will sound like and doing such exercises as going from a well supported breath into humming then an open vowel sound will improve this, along with checking in which vowel sounds resonate in which area.

Speech is made from the lungs, the vocal folds within the larynx, and the articulators. So when the lungs create the air pressure for the vocal folds to chop up, the larynx adjusts the length and tension of the vocal folds to fine tune the pitch and tone. Then the vocal tract above the larynx consisting of tongue, palate, cheek and lips articulates the filter and creates speech. Therefore since we use vocal folds for talking, singing, laughing, crying and screaming & whether it be the soft pallet, hard pallet, the alveolar ridge or lips, the appropriate placement is essential to support the clarity of what Im saying otherwise the speech could sound lazy or unclear and may not reach the audience during a performance. This is can be due to the bad habits,region your from or the sounds your have grown up & been exposed to. To summarise: the release of tension, economic breath,ecomomic support, and precise placement are what give you a solid foundation to start to explore the full range of the text your are working with. (Page5) The Actor Speaks: Voice and the Performer By Patsy Rodenburg, Judi Dench (Page18) Speaking Shakespeare By Patsy Rodenburg (Page39) Speaking Shakespeare By Patsy Rodenburg (Page55) Speaking Shakespeare By Patsy Rodenburg 437 words