Vocal Development From Other Performances

Contemporary:
In our first production, the Wardrobe, I played my character of Elizabeth originally in a posh accent compared to my own. However I change it to my natural voice s it sound more real for the character. I felt that I was clear with pronunciation and projection in my voice which allowed me to show inflections in my voice and a connection between the other character. However I did have a tendency to use quite high pitch in my voice through out the performance.

Naturalism:
In my performance of the cherry orchard I still had problems in using a high pitched voice which further effected my portrayal of my character Lyuba. She was meant to be an older woman who has had some hard life experiences however my high tones made my character seem younger and therefore hindered some of my vocal characteristics.

Chorus:
In our adaptation of Greek chorus we used a school setting which forced my group to use chavy accents to portray our characters in the text. I felt that my voice had lots of energy and portrayed my character we'll both individually and as an ensemble due to the fact that we all shared the same force tour voices and we were all committed to the character of peer pressure school kids.

Solo Monologue:
For my monologue I played a Russian refugee. This meant that I had use a Russian accent which I felt I was effectively able to portray the accent so that it was clear and emotionally connected to the piece. It also helped me to use lower tones in my voice as the Russian accent is quite slow and low in pitch. I was also able to show the characters maturity as the accent brought an older intensity to the character.

Vocal Practicing part 3

18/04/2016 - eighth week of practicing
During this week I had more work done to my teeth so I defiantly believe that this has set back my voice. I have had rubber bands fitted so my mouth is very painful and there is a lot of pressure in my mouth at the moment. I am  finding it quite hard to open my mouth at the moment as the bands are still very stiff so I am not able to used my voice as I usually would. And therefore I will not be practicing my voiceless development plan as much as I usually would as my mouth is very sore.

25/04/2016 - ninth week of practicing
My mouth has become more settled to the bands however it is still difficult to move my mouth to all shapes. For example I can not open my mouth as loudly when I sing as the bands don't stretch that far. So I feel I am still not at my best voice. I have also noticed that I am more prominent when I say my S's but I believe that I will stop that once I am used to the bands. However I am able to keep up the vocal development programme and everything is slowly settling back to normal.

02/05/2016 - tenth week of practicing
I now feel that I have adopted to the bands and I am now focusing on projecting my voice so that it is clear with the accents that I have to use in Earthquakes in London. I have found that sometimes my accents are to heavy and so I forget to pronounce all of the sound in certain words so I have decided to move my mouth and lips before I start an accent so that everything is loose and I am able to use more diction in my voice.

Monologue Vocal Analysis

The Table Laid: Galina's Monologue

"Serb. Croat. What is that? What difference have you found? What is your shit problem? Maybe you know? But how can I explain to my son. His grandmother still wore a veil. Had both her arms covered down to her wrists even on the hottest of days. She understood no Russian. In her house there was no water. She brought it from the stream. Day by day. The buckets were heavy. But then the men came. And girls in light blouses. They laughed loudly on the dust track. Shoes stained grey. The men and the girls. They called meetings in the village square. Made speeches. Said. Moscow is ruled by the working class. It is a revolution! But Moscow was distant. My grandmother hadn't even noticed the revolution. Still. Everyone there knew that in dark kitchens. They would bring water and electricity. Women called one girl. Are like men. Have the same rights and same duties. Women can't flee from the new age. No longer shall you wrap in veils to inhibit and bind you. The veils fell into the dust. From now on laughed grandmother. Men must give birth to great pain. Must bleed and be alone. Have their stillborns ripped from their guts."

Behind The Monologue:
the monologue show the story of a Russian refugee who has just had an argument with a man named Vedran. She doesn't support war and so she has made Vedran leave because of her argument. she then goes on to talk by her self about what her old life was like and starts to reflect about her families opinions on the revolution as well. this is only the first chunk of the monologue as it then goes on to talk about what Galina's life is like now she is a refugee. I felt that the first part of the monologue was a good part to use as she changes her emotions quite frequently through out the monologue. she starts of with being angry at Vedran but then she goes to a reflective state about the family and then into a state of pride about the revolution. I therefore feel that using this chunk will allow me to portray a range of different emotions vocally and physically.

Vocal Challenge:
As the character Galina is a Russian refugee it means that the actress playing her would have to use a Russian accent. This would defiantly effect my performance vocally as it means I will need to be able to do a Russian accent and I would also be able to pronounce my words clearly with accent so that the audience will understand what I am saying. when I researched how to do a Russian accent the main vocal tricks I found were:

• All of the W's are usually pronounced as a V sound e.g. weasel would sound like veasal 
• They use a rolled R sound
• They often talk lower, slower and louder then I usually would
• Use a starting word that will get you in the mood of Russian. One of the most commonly used words is Vodka as it already sounds Russian. It will help to get into the accent.

Voice practicing part 2

29/02/2016 - forth week of practicing
After practicing this week I have found that by changing the tongue twister to 'red lolly, yellow lolly' I have seen some improvements to my diction as I am able to pronounce the L's clearer then I used to.  I do still find the tongue twister hard to repeat quickly but since I have only just started trying out the new exercise, I think that in the next few weeks this should improve as long as I keep practicing it.

07/03/2016 - fifth week of practicing
This week I continued the routine as usual however I did miss a couple of my exercises out as I wanted to experiment how effect the exercise of relaxation helped me in any way. So for the whole week I didn't use the incense sticks at all. I found out that it didn't necessarily change my voice however I didn't feel as calm as I usually do during the week. Even though the exercise doesn't improve my voice, I think I still want to use the incense sticks  as they did keep me calm in the week which I feel is good to keep control over my well being.

14/03/2016 - six week of practicing
During this week I didn't stick to the routine for the programme as I only did it once this week. The main reason for my laziness with the routine was that I didn't feel that there was any changes to my voice for a few days. Plus I have been doing some college work which has made me want to occupy myself with more exciting things then my vocal development programme. Next week I will defiantly need to carry on with the routine.

21/03/2016 - seventh week of practicing
So far this week I have done a class speaking presentation which I defiantly had wished that I did more practicing last week as I was not perfect vocally. I was very rushed with my speaking during the presentation probably because I was not taking enough breath and I was very nervous. Therefore I needed to practice the breathing exercise and used some of the incense sticks as I defiantly felt I was not breathing well enough in the presentation.  

Vocal practicing

03/02/2016
I first set up what exercises I wanted to do for my own vocal developement programme:
- stretching intercostal muscles and neck
- opening resonators by tapping head, nose and chest
- humming in lower voices
- relaxation e.g. Meditation and insence sticks
- holding and exhale line breath over long periods of time
- putting in pauses in my texts
- tounge twisters

08/02/2016 - first week of practice
I decided to practice my vocal developement programme three times a week so that I was constantly using my voice equally during the week. Personally I felt that I didn't notice much change to my voice as I had only being doing it for a few days so therefore no much would have changed. However I did find the excersise of inhaling, holding and exhaling breathe sometime quite challenging when I got to longer durations of time. To me this showed that this was an element. In my voice that defiantly needed to work on breathe more to make it stronger. I also found the tounge twister "red lorry, yellow lorry" quite easy so I have decided to change the tounge twister to "red lolly, yellow lolly" as I know I have struggled with it before. I hope that changing this will enable me to become better at articulating the L's more in my speech.

15/02/2016 - second week of practicing
On this week I was performing in a show so I felt that I needed to use my vocal programme every day of the week in order for my voice to be prepared for the show. I felt this defiantly helped my voice especially with opening lower resinators as I was playing a character who was meant to have quite a low voice. So I defiantly found the excersise of tapping my head, nose and chest resinators helpful as well as humming in lower tones as it got my voice to the lower register of my voice. I also felt that using the programme more frequently helped to see a bigger change in my voice so I think that I will increase to the times of practicing the vocal programme to five times a week.

22/02/2016 - third week of practicing
In this week we had a collage show however we didn't do much talking in the show so I was not as focused on the resinator excersise said or the humming excersise. Although I did do more of the stretching excersise as we used our body a lot more in this week. The stretches defiantly warmed up my body during the week so I defiantly feel that this excersise works for my body and vocal development programme. However when I was going through some of my monologue for my voice class I tried using the excersise of pausing at all punctuation marks and I found that this techniques wasn't helping me in any way. I felt it actually made it worse for me as I was then unable to rejoin the speech back together so that it would flow like natural dialogue. So I have decided to remove this excersise from the programme as it didn't work for my breathing and my other excersise of exhaling, holding and inhaling for long periods of time does work so there is no real reason for it to be in my vocal programme.

Vocal excersies

Here is my structure plan in which I will do to strengthen my voice.

1. First I will do some stretches by reaching for the sky and using alternate hands to do so. This move will start to open up the intercostal muscles in my rib cage. The intercostal muscles support our lungs and diaphragm so that we can talk and breath correctly. I will also do some neck stretches by looking up to the ceiling and down to the floor. This will stretch my neck muscles and help to start warm up my voice box.

2. Next I am going to tap at my chest, nose and head resonators so that they start to open up. As I do this I will make a low, Nasal and high noise so that it truly stimulates these individual areas.

3A. Then I am going to start humming in a very low register. This will hopefully in time help me from talking so high when I am on stage. Using lower tones in these exercises will hopefully stay in my muscle memory so that the next time I go on stage I should sound lower.
B. I have also found relaxing the body does help me to lower my voice as I am not as nervous when I speak so I have purchased some incense sticks that I can use on show days in order to calm me down. I could do this on the morning of the show so I am already relaxed before I even arrive for the performance.

4A. I would next try some controlled breathing exercises. I would start of by breathing in for 2 beats, holding for 2 and letting out for 2. Then would try breathing in, holding and breathing out for 5 and then 8 and finally 10. Each time I would make sure that I fill up my lungs till their full and then release every breath completely. I hope this will help me with breathing as I often run out of breath when I speak for long periods of time.
B. I also could go through some of my scripts, texts or monologues and try taking a pause to breath after every punctuation mark. I know this exercises would take a long time to do but it hopefully will get stuck in my muscle memory and I will eventually remember to breath when I am talking for a long time.

5. Finally I would repeat the tongue twister "red lolly, yellow lolly" and "red lorry, yellow lorry". I would do this because I always find this specific tongue twister difficult and it will also help me with diction for on the stage.

Using the Voice in a Monologue

I decided to do a monologue from the movie "Gravity". The monologue is based around a woman who is trapped in space who is talking to a man about her daughter who is on earth. 

Ryan Stone: "Hey, Matt? Since I had to listen to endless hours of your storytelling this week, I need you to do me a favour. You're gonna see a little girl with brown hair. Very messy, lots of knots. She doesn't like to brush it. But that's okay. Her name is Sarah. Can you please tell her that mama found her red shoe? She was so worried about that shoe, Matt. But it was just right under the bed. Give her a big hug and a big kiss from me and tell her that mama misses her. Tell her that she is my angel. And she makes me so proud. So, so proud. And you tell her that I'm not quitting. I promise. You tell her that I love her, Matt. You tell her that I love her so much. Can you do that for me? Roger that."

Originally I thought that the monologue was about her talking to a man who can't understand what she is saying but when I looked at the movie script I noticed the directions said:

"Ryan opens her eyes, the alarm in the cabin is sounding she turns her head and sees the seat next to her is empty, she realizes that it was a hallucination and she’s still alone, she reactivates the air flow to the cabin and as the oxygen levels rise she begins to recover"

This now make me realise that the monologue is about her loneliness and wanting to be with her child so much more. since it is an hallucination it shows how the character maybe slightly out-with-it. But her main purpose is to convince herself that it is not goodbye and that she should try to fight to get home. After reviewing my voice, I realised that there was some positive aspects to the speech but there was also a few areas of improvements that would make my delivery of the monologue better.

Positive:

1. I was able to convey emotion into the voice depending on the way I said word like I started to make my voice quiver where I was talking about how much I loved my daughter. And therefore it made me seem as if I was really in that characters situation.
2. I used a lower tone in my voice which helped convey a more depressive atmosphere for the monologue. I felt that this was good to use as I usually talk on stage with a high pitch due to nerves and excitement.
3. I have a good rhythm, which allowed the speech to be interesting and not boring

Areas to improve:

1. When I originally went through the monologue, I used the same tones for when I repeated words. So I need to work on variation in my tone of voice so that the monologue doesn't sound as if it's repeating itself.
2. Because the speech was written for a movie, the delivery on lines doesn't have to be as loud on stage so I think I will need to work on projection in order to make it suitable for the stage.
3. I also feel that I didn't have a full enough background to the monologue so I think I want to do a little more research into the character so I know exactly what happens to her and how she feels.
4. I also think I need to annotate my monologue in order to know what my characters purpose is in each line. I feel this will help me understand the character better and I will also help me to learn my lines as I know which emotion I go to next.

My Vocal Development Programme - Analysis

Analysing my voice

Characteristics:

My voice is very animated and quite excited. I naturally have a fast paced voice and I have a fairly loud voice. It is very clear and clipped as I try to pronounce every letter in each word. I have quite good articulation but I can sometimes drop the ends off of words if I am not concentrating and I naturally emphasise on certain words. I have a fairly high pitch and because of this, my voice can become quite nasal. My voice is fairly suited to my age because of the vocabulary I use in every day life, however I may sound a little more well spoken then the stereotypes of teenagers. I seem to have a very high pitch when I am acting and I sometimes forget to project whilst I am on stage. 

Benefits to my Voice:

Because I have such an animated voice, due to my varied range, it means I would have an excited voice to an  audience and therefore it shouldn't become boring to the audience. As I am fairly loud, it means that the audience should be able to hear me on the stage. Also I have a clear voice which means the audience should be able to understand everything I say as I articulate. I also can change my voice to convey characters for example I can manipulate it when I do different accents. This means I will be able to portray many different characters.

Disadvantages to my Voice:

When I act, I naturally speak in a higher pitch which could be because of a state of nerves or over excitement. this means my voice doesn't vary and it can become boring or annoying to an audience as it can limit the amount of expression shown in my voice. In the higher pitch my voice can also become quite nasal as I am not using my lower resonators. I also speak quite fast as I sometimes forget to pause. This can become difficult to understand for an audience as they may lose what I am trying to say and I may forget to pronounce the ends of my words.

Exercises for my Voice:

Since I have a problem with controlling my pitch of my voice as I naturally talk higher on stage, I could try humming in a lower pitch in order to open up my chest resonator and therefore it would make my chest voice stronger.on the other hand my higher pitch could be because of excitement or nerves so I could try some relaxation techniques which may make me more relaxed when I am on stage. for example I could try some yoga or massage as it will loosen any tensions in my body that have been built up by stress. 

I also have a problem with pausing in my speech so I could try going through my lines and pausing at every punctuation mark in order to get familiar to pausing. Another solution for pausing could be to try some breathing exercises like holding and exhaling my breath for long periods of time.  This exercises would develop my control of my breathing and overall the rhythm to my voice.