Terribly Titillating Training for the Tongue

Okay, maybe titillating is too strong a word but it is the phrase I'll be using today to practice the English "T" sound with a faculty member here at SFU.  In my search for support material I happened upon my new favourite English pronunciation site:  Rachel's English.  Rachel uses what she calls "Benjamin Franklin exercises", the method I always use with students to break down and examine a sentence.  I'm thrilled that there is a virtual site for them to refer to after our classes have wrapped up.  Plus, Rachel has conversational videos where she displays the dialogue in IPA!  The bonus for me is that they all take place in New York so I get my big city fix while sitting in my little basement cubicle up here in the non-snowy north of Canada.

Give it a browse when you get a chance!

Rachel's English

Keeping Busy

After sixteen years in Canada I'm still not totally accustomed to Thanksgiving falling in mid-October: of being able to eat piping hot Turkey in the warm fall sun.  Yet, I love the break to reconnect with family.  This Thanksgiving we got together with all the cousins, roasted marshmellows, explored treehouses and took long naps.  In between, I found myself, yet again, trying to describe to my extended family what it is that I do.  Well, here's an example of some of the day to day work that happens to come up.

Practicing voice overs is actually a great way to think about your speech.  What are the visuals you are trying to create with your voice?  How does the voice convey these different feelings?  The trick with this one was that I had to do it in about twenty minutes having never seen the text before.  The thoughts in here come pretty quickly so it was tricky to match sense with meaning and clarity..

http://www.sfu.ca/pres/petters-perspective/2012/the-promise-and-potential-of-sfu-public-square.html

Commitment

How can it have been 52 weeks already?  It doesn't feel like it, but it must have been a year ago now that I signed up for Craig Valentine's "Speaking Tip a Week" series.  Every week he has sent a podcast revealing incredibly helpful strategies for creating an effective presentation. 

Now I would be lying if I said that I listened to all 52 podcasts or that I have practiced each technique.  It has been a huge treat, however, to start out each Monday with a steaming cup of hot Market Spice tea (direct from the damp and pungent tea shop that always takes on a little bit of a fishy smell in Seattle's Pike Place Market) and the sound of Craig's warm and thoughtful voice.  I think I've already admitted that some public speakers with their overly prepared, trite and condescending tone can send me into a tizzy and leave me questioning why I am not spending more time on the stage.  Craig, on the other hand, though definitely rehearsed, has the gift of being confident, energetic and commanding and  yet at the same time comes across as humble and likeable.  Post number 52 gives direct and concrete tips on  how to do this that we could all benefit from.

I encourage everyone to sign up for this service or if not to find a way to dedicate a little time each day for whatever practice you would like to develop.  I joined an amazing writing group in early March.  One day a week is all I can eek out between work, children, family, cleaning, etc. but I am already deeply impressed by the two full journals I have completed.  One hot summer night just a few months ago we even concluded our first set of classes with a reading.  This had been a little closet dream of my for probably thirty years and all it took was a few months and an amazingly supportive teacher and group to make it happen.  Malcolm Gladwell in "Outliers" contends that to become truly proficient at something  you need to have invested 10,000 hours.  I think it's important to not undervalue the benefit of 100 or even 30 hours.  The trick is starting and sticking to it.  Thank you Craig for giving me a tool that helped me invest fairly consistently over the past year.    

Singing Warm-Ups

For all of you interested in a quick singing warm-up check out Donya Metzger's website for several links. I met Donya years ago when we were teaching at a musical theatre camp at the Richmond Gateway Theatre and I am so glad that her work is accessible on-line.

http//www.donyametzger.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=92:whats-true-now&catid=1:blog&Itemid=1

Pondering an Echo

You know that saying, "If my first child was like this I never would have had a second." Sometimes, in the wee hours of the night, my husband and I admit this to ourselves. Yet, like every parent, the next words out of our mouths are, "But thank goodness we did because, had we been deterred by the behavior of our first child, we wouldn't have been blessed with our Miss Grace." Gracie is almost three and full of a vibrancy of sound I thought I would enjoy, but I find myself appreciating her freedom of expression and moods mostly in her absence. She is our firecracker with a misleading porcelain doll exterior, and our princess with an affinity for pink and sparkles but with a lion inside. She marches with the confidence of a world leader and I hope she never loses any of it. What astonishes me professionally, however, is how keenly she is aware of her environment.

While leading a private voice session this morning a faculty member and I were discussing acoustics. She remarked that her young daughter is quick to notice every space that holds the potential for an echo. I was immediately reminded of my Gracie. Not only does she NEED to physically explore every object and surface in a new room she explores the acoustics as well, throwing her voice here and there and waiting for its reaction. She literally plays with the sound in the room.

It leads me to ponder when we stop paying attention to our aural environment. I still vividly remember playing the silence game as a child. My camp councilor asked everyone to be absolutely silent for three minutes. When the time was up we were supposed to name all of the sounds we heard. It was a huge "aha moment" to hear the sounds we often don't pay attention to. Yet, Gracie's attention is even more keen than that, she has the ears of an opera singer attuned to the vibrations of air between matter. When does the excitement of an echo, or the potential of how sound moves through a room leave us? Is it when we begin to define play as something organized, outside of our everyday living. Spurred on by Stuart Brown's book play I'm curious whether we would have the projection issues I so often see if we gave ourselves permission to vocally play in every new space.

Tongue work unveiled

For all of you out there who have been diligently doing your tongue work, you will be pleased to see the exercise in action. A new documentary film about Kristin Linklater's work has been released and on her website there are now a few excerpts. If you click on the final video you will witness the tongue exercise and soft palate work in action.

Go to Media Gallery, Workshop Videos:

http://www.kristinlinklater.com/linklater.htm

Linklater Voices

From my old stomping grounds comes an interview that beautifully articulates the benefits of Linklater training. Kristin Linklater is the author of "Freeing the Natural Voice", one of the first books I recommend to students who are looking at exploring their voices. If you are at all interested, read this interview first, as it gives examples of some of the tangible results Linklater trained actors experience and the underlying reasons behind many vocal issues.

http://newsinfo.iu.edu/web/page/normal/3320.html

From the Heart

Heading into last week I had a sinus infection, a sick child and husband, and a completely full schedule of workshops. The thought of making it through the week in one piece was unfathomable. Then on Tuesday afternoon, in the midst of my racing around like a crazy person, I walked into a beautiful classroom in downtown Vancouver with gorgeous windows looking out on the first sunny days in weeks and met such an extraordinary group of individuals I was literally brought to tears.

Jo Lemay and I had met in a similar classroom about a year ago for a private session and little did we both know that that was the beginning of a new journey for each of us. Hers was that of exploring voice, giving herself permission to command attention and mine was connecting with her inspiring students. The Certificate in Community Capacity Building guides participants in the process of creating a community program that will help make their community stronger. The stories that people shared were heart-breaking testimonials to the strength of the human spirit and the necessity of both community and service in the role of healing. Each participant brought an honesty, passion and vulnerability to their presentations that was truly riveting. Half way through the program it hit me that in voicing their vulnerability I was able to comprehend what incredible strength each person possesses. These individuals were living proof of Emerson's observation that, "Our strengths grow out of our weakness." They were also clear reminders of what Kahil Gilbran noted, "It is better...to have a heart without words than words without a heart." He was referring to prayer but I recognized that it is just as appropriate for communication.

The Certificate in Community Capacity Building is designed specially for individuals "who experience systemic barriers to post-secondary education." Yet, it was here, in this unique space that I heard the most rich sounds I have ever heard in a classroom. As we experimented with different tones, harmonies of exquisite beauty filled the room.

I am a firm advocate of technique, but without the heart it means nothing.

So the question I pose for you is, "How do you add heart to your presentations or your practice?"

Sustained Practice

My husband is passionate about music. Due to the fact that our children go to bed early his ability to practice the piano in the evening is encountering a brief hiatus. Fortunately for all of us, he has rediscovered his love of the guitar and has jumped into his training with his usual zeal and determination. Once he sets his mind on something, his commitment to practicing that skill can only be deterred by births or deaths, and his guitar playing is no exception. Every night he spends at least an hour and a half practicing and then another half-an-hour doing music research. I count myself as being a fairly committed individual but he puts me to shame every time!

A friend once told me that if a person spent five-minutes every day exploring a subject, by the end of the year they would be deemed an expert on that particular topic. I think that is probably a gross overstatement and am more in line with Malcolm Gladwell's ("Outliers") idea that it takes at least 10,000 hours to develop a skill to the point of mastery.

On the other hand, five minutes is better than no time at all, and at the moment it is about all the extra time I have, which is why I am drawn to Craig Valentine's "52 Speaking Tips" audio postcards. If you sign up, each week you will receive a five minute tip that you can spend the week experimenting with. Craig Valentine is Toastmaster's 1999 world champion and after listening to the first session I feel like I have something concrete to focus on this week. The first lesson is on finding a foundational phrase and using it to structure your entire message. His belief in creating this program is that sustained practice leads to real growth. I have seen it in my husband and countless others and look forward to giving these exercises five-minutes of my time each day.

Check them out and let me know if you give them a try:

http://www.52speakingtips.com/

Lost and Found

How fortunate I am to have had a vacation and better yet an opportunity for a working vacation where the work was as stimulating and as uplifting as a journey to a tropical island. (Well, maybe that is a slight exaggeration). I spent my holiday this year on Vancouver Island, on a bluff overlooking the most stunning vista: ocean, island and mountains for as far as the eye can see; deer practically eating out of my hands and hummingbirds resting just inches from my nose.

Now several years ago, while shopping for a present my son's second birthday, I met a woman who is a poet, facilitator, social worker and much much more. Upon meeting we found we shared a mutual interest in and passion for the concept of "Women's Voices". For years we had contemplated merging our two specialties, writing and voice work, into a workshop designed to explore these two areas simultaneously. Thus was "Lost and Found" born two weeks ago on Vancouver Island. While I warmed us all up vocally and physically, the wonderful JS Nahani guided us through a series of thought provoking writing exercises. I was impressed by the amount of clarity that was gained, the quickness by which we were able to open up and reveal unvoiced truths and the confidence I left with, having made contact with these truths. The combination of opening the physical voice and the written voice was indeed as profound as we had expected and at every turn in the facilitation I could visualize further methods of integrating the work. It makes me question how I can integrate more written work into my sessions and how the use of the physical body and voice can enhance and deepen written material for many.

The workshop was help in a wonderful gallery of which I have included the link.

Mariner's Lookout
http://www.flipkey.com/comox-vacation-rentals/p164733/

Thank you Henry of Mariner's Lookout for the perfect space and beautiful art and to all of the amazing participants I look forward to hooking up in the future. If you have further ideas on the connection between writing and voice send them my way. I will keep you update as "Lost and Found" continues to grow... Next workshop will be held in Vancouver this fall.

Camp Fire Songs

One of my favourite parts of teaching is when a participant starts to really enjoy creating sound and they say something like, "Oh, I remember when I was a kid I made up these great songs." or "I love singing in the shower." Memories of a freedom they may not have felt for a very long time bubble to the surface. Usually, the next class they will arrive with stories about how they sang in the car for the first time in a very long time. For me summer brings these memories to the surface.

In the living room of our house that was build in 1907 are three built- in bookshelves, two of which hug the entry way to the front foyer. In one of those, on the second shelf up, was where my mother kept her dog-eared Girl Scout Guide Song Book. Whenever we went on a camping trip my mother would not only pack the most exquisite gourmet meals to be prepared over an open fire she would also bring her little guitar and if there was time after the tent preparation, exploration, cooking and cleaning, she would sing songs from her Guide days: Barges, Kookabura, This Land is my Land and many more filled our heads and hearts connecting us to each other and our mother's previous life as we munched on S'mores.

CBC currently has an article posted inviting you to send in your favourite camp song:

http://www.cbc.ca/radio2/general2/2011/07/12/campfire-music-the-best-songs-to-sing-around-the-wonderful-glow/

What I have decided that I will do for my children (maybe more myself, if truth be told) is to print out the lyrics of my favourite songs and put together a little book that we can take with us on our next outing. Better yet, I can teach them to the kids in the car on our way to our holiday.

I found a very extensive repository that included so many songs I hadn't thought about in years. Here it is for those of you who might want to keep that voice in shape in a slightly different way this summer:

http://webspace.webring.com/people/rn/nice_dragon/songbook_index.htm

May your songs be lively, your S'mores be messy and your summer nights breathtaking!

P.S. In case you have been deprived S'mores here is the basic recipe.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/smores/detail.aspx

Summer Reading

Ah, summer. Finally we have some gorgeous weather and as I have a little bit of time to build on and refine our Presentation Skills sessions for the Fall I have found a great resource. Scott Burkun's Confessions of a Public Speaker is refreshingly honest and simple. The disclaimer at the beginning sets just the right tone, "This book is highly opinionated, personal, and full of behind-the-scenes stories. You may not like this. Some people like seeing how sausage is made, but many do not."

Regardless of whether or not you enjoy seeing sausage being made, if you have ever had to appear in front of an audience and had any feelings of confusion or unease this is a very humorous but helpful way to look at some of the issues and practicalities in presenting. His website has lots of examples of his work, so enjoy the summer and get readin'!

Actor training and Presenting

What makes me qualified to teach Presentation Skills?

When my son was born, I had taken a break from acting for about a year and was working almost entirely with very novice actors, business people and educators on voice and presentation skills. For the first time in my life I was not immersed in the world of the actor and had very little contact with that community. At that time my brother-in-law was performing in a show so I went to see the show to support him (and because it was a great excuse to do one of the things I enjoy most). The show was an exceptional piece (which isn’t always the case) but mostly I was struck by the elegance, the power, the stature and ease of the actors. Having spent time away from this world, I had forgotten how the years and years of training added up to create master communicators as well as actors. These particular actors all had master’s degrees from very fine internationally recognized institutions as well as long lists of professional experience with some of the finest theatre companies in the country. It is no surprise that so many actors go on to be Public Speakers, Leaders of Organizations and Politicians. One of my students once told me that Ronald Reagan had been quoted as saying he didn’t know how any politician could succeed without training as an actor.

Now Actor training is always a bit of a mystery to the general public. What happens between those closed doors and why would it help me? I spent my childhood in three different places outside the home, one was in acting classes (my love) and the other was at political rally’s (my father’s choice) and the final was at church (my mother’s choice) and I think that it was in these three arenas that I was able to develop and assess different modes of communicating with people. In the arena of politics and church there was very definitely some politicians who were great communicators and some who were very poor. On the other hand, almost every actor was an extremely strong communicator and that made perfect sense to me. In the case of politicians so much of their training and interest could lie in other areas and although the ministers might have loved the liturgy and had a great spiritual connection their technical skills might not have been developed.

So I ask the question again, “What does actor training look like?” Contrary to what other people might believe, actor training looks at some very simple concepts in a very complex, deep, and layered way. It asks how can a person:

1) comfortably be in their body as other people watch them, without any of the physical ticks or patterning that may have developed throughout one’s life?

2) move in a way that expresses their thoughts fully, making use of their entire body?

3) speak fully from a point of deep connection to their soul and move another human being with their sound?

4) listen fully and respond instinctively and honestly?

5) Weave and create an intricate and vibrant story from their imagination?

The means by which these goals are attained are varied and creative but underneath them all is the development of the person to overcome those negative thoughts that might shut him/her down; stop them from expressing fully. Actor training is never ending, it begins at the moment one is born, learning from watching others, and continues every time an actor steps both onstage and offstage. I believe it is the same for every good presenter. Life is the teacher and we learn when we have the confidence to step bravely forward and present ourselves and our stories to an empty room or an audience of 500.

Live Longer

It is with great sadness that I read today of Arthur Lessac's death. Now who is Arthur Lessac you might wisely ask?

Arthur Lessac has been one of the most influential North American voice teachers of the last century and it was reading his seminal work, "The Use and Training of the Human Voice" that first piqued my interest in teaching voice work. He believed that the sounds in our language are like instruments in an orchestra and that one can develop both the body and the voice until it operates like a Stradivarius. Not only has he coached some of the most prominent actors of our time, he was a singer who performed with the likes of Paul Robeson and Burl Ives.

Now how does this relate to living longer? Lessac firmly believed that developing and using the human voice would, in fact, allow you to live longer. He died on April 7th at 101 years of age and roughly a month before that he was teaching at university in Croatia where he danced with his students in the streets!

I deeply regret that I never had a chance to witness this master teacher at his craft and am thankful that he has left behind a wealth of ideas that we can still access.

If you would like further information, check out the Lessac Training and Research Institute:

http://www.lessacinstitute.com/index2.html

Questions

What do we fear when we get up in front of large or even small groups of people? Is it that they will throw rotten fruits and vegetables at us, tie us to a stake and roast us over a hot fire or simply think less of us? Since the first two are fairly rare, I am assuming for most of us the answer is the latter. I have spent too many hours in my lifetime worrying about what people think of me, but if I remind myself what I am doing when I present it simplifies things.
"What are you doing?" you may ask yourself.
"I'm exchanging information." I respond.
"But you are the only one talking?" you query.
Ah, I may be the only one talking out loud, but every single person listening is having a thought as I speak and hopefully I am responding to those thoughts.

I recently worked with a presenter who wanted to become more comfortable with his material. We found that whenever he turned his material into a question and answer all of the technical elements fell into place. When he verbalized, "What are our objectives for today's session?" he began to breathe and add vocal variety and relax his body and connect visually with his listeners.

"So you actually want me to try this?" you ask incredulously.
"Why not? What do you have to lose? At least use it as a practice technique to see whether or not it changes your relationship to your material or the listener. I've found it even helps answer questions people have around structuring their content." I respond confidently.

Go on-- give it a try!

Santa

Last week, with my one-year old daughter strapped on my back and my four–year old son in tow, we spontaneously made our way into Santa’s workshop on Granville Island. After a rousing rendition of Jingle Bells, accompanied by maracas and bells jangled in a most rhythmically challenged way, my son had the opportunity of a life-time: to sit on Santa’s lap for a full ten minutes. Despite the fact that he has been writing his Christmas wish-list since April 28th, the day after his birthday, he was stunned into silence by the gigantic realness of this mythical being. When Santa came to that perfect of all questions, “What would you like for Christmas?” my son said nothing!!! Santa suggested board games to which Griffin blithely nodded his head in a euphoric stupor, despite the fact that he already has Candy Land and Snakes and Ladders, the two board games Santa proposed bringing.

Now, I don’t know about you, but in the event that I, too, lose my brain the next time I see Santa; I thought I should get down in writing what I would really like. Last year, he brought me the perfect present, a DVD collection of Playing Shakespeare (John Barton’s master class with Royal Shakespeare Company actors bringing life to the Bard’s sonnets, scenes and monologues).
This year I am dying for Patsy Rodenburg’s latest book, The Second Circle. I haven’t read it yet, but take a look at this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ub27yeXKUTY

For those of you confused by the concept of “presentation/performance energy” this is the book for you. I’ll fill you in further in the New Year, if Santa is good to me. I know that what my son really wants is the Playmobil Red Dragon. Think I might have to track Santa down myself and fill him in.

The Pacific Voice Clinic

Dr. Linda Rammage, a speech-language pathologist, wrote a wonderful little book on vocal health called "Vocalizing with Ease." Here is a link to more information about the book, as well as some important “Do’s and Don’ts” for getting the most from your voice.

If you ever fear that you may have a vocal health issue in need of consultation, use this site as a reference.

http://pvcrp.com/about_pvcrp.php

The Voice and Speech Trainers' Association (VASTA)

The Voice and Speech Trainers' Association (VASTA) is a worldwide organization designed to link voice and speech trainers and to provide a space where lay people can access a trainer. Part of their mandate is to spread the message of vocal health, and this site provides a thorough list of online resources that cover basic anatomy, vocal disorders, and much more.

http://www.vasta.org/

VoiceGuy

Eric Armstrong, a professor with the Department of Theatre at York University, has created an outstanding web-based resource. His website is easy to read with podcasts that take you from relaxing the body, breathing and simple sound, into more intermediate voice practices.

Download all of them onto your iPod and you can have a voice workout wherever you go.

http://voiceguy.ca/

Fillers and Mosquitos

With the heat each summer arrives a bevy of insidious mosquitoes that buzz in our ears and leave big welts on our skin. So each night, my husband has a whole routine that he follows to the letter: all windows and doors are shut at dusk, citronella essential oil is positioned near all drains and then the fly swatter comes out and any remaining mosquitoes are "taken care of". It works beautifully, but only if he performs his nightly routine.

I have had a few requests to discuss the idea of fillers; those "likes", "ers", "ummms" that creep unknowingly and sometimes all too frequently into our lectures, casual conversations and other important interchanges. Linguists disagree as to whether this is a negative or positive aspect of speech but most listeners would agree that by the tenth "ummm" in a two minute time period, we are paying more attention to the "ummm" than the content.

So what can we do to reduce these fillers if we find that they are running amok in our speech?

1. Assess what fillers you use. We each have our own and a good friend, partner or respected student will usually be able to help you out with this (in a respectful manner). Another choice is to record yourself speaking spontaneously on a set topic.

2. Don't be afraid to pause when you sense a filler approach. Sometimes verbalizing the "ummm" is our way to buy time as we develop the perfect wording for our communication.

3. Practice in manageable chunks. Concentrating on fillers all the time may become overwhelming. Choose a brief interchange, a five minute section in your lecture or short presentation where your focus for that moment can be on reducing fillers.

4. Expand your vocabulary. Learn a new word each day and soon the joy of finding just the right word will allow you to resist the general "umm" as you toss "penultimate" at your now intrigued listener.

5. Take time to practice a little bit each day and ask for feedback from others regarding your use of fillers.

Now, we still get a few mosquitoes from time to time, despite my husband's efforts and you will probably find that the fillers will appear occasionally even after all this work. What matters most is that you feel more confident and less held back and restricted in your communication.

Go ahead-- get out that fly swatter and reduce those fillers!