Improve Your Voice for Public Speaking - Alignment and Physical Awareness
Adults
·
Learning
Does your occupation require the regular use of your voice in some way: training, interviewing, giving speeches, presenting ideas or projects? Well, guess what? This means that you are a "Professional Voice User." The voice is not something we often think about - unless problems with it arise - but effective use of it can be essential to how well we do our jobs. Join Sarah Nichols - actor, singer, and voice, accent, and communication coach - for a four-part interactive series that will address the key elements necessary to achieving fuller, healthier, and more engaging vocal production for public speaking.
Week One: Alignment and Physical Awareness
The voice is, essentially, vibration. Tension kills vibration. The way we sit and stand on a day-to-day basis often involves a lot of tension, which means that our voices cannot function optimally. So, the first step to achieving better vocal production is to let go of extra tension that can get in the voice's way. Along with this comes awareness of our bodies and where we hold tension habitually. This class will lead you through the slow and quiet process of bringing awareness to your body and allowing it to release the tension that it doesn't need.
Week Two: Breathing and Vocal Production
The voice, quite literally, cannot function without the breath. As such, if the breathing apparatus is not working as well as it could, the voice will certainly follow suit. This class will take an in-depth look at breathing and how it carries the voice. In addition, the voice will be introduced intentionally as a means to marry it to the breath and produce it in a healthier, more supported way.
Week Three: Resonance and Pitch
Have you ever been told - or do you fear - that you speak in a monotone, or quiet, or "shrill" voice? This class can solve that. You will be introduced to various resonances - which give our voices different colors or timbres - and you will explore how to open up your vocal range and versatility so that you gain control over the way your voice sounds.
Week Four: Articulation and Text
Our vocal folds produce sound, but our articulators - the lips, the tongue, etc. - shape this sound in order to create what we understand as intelligible speech. In this class, you will gain awareness of your agile articulators and discover ways of warming them up, just as you would warm up other muscle groups for activity. You will also learn how to explore vowels and consonants within a piece of written text, i.e. a speech, in order to gain more clarity and specificity.
Week One: Alignment and Physical Awareness
The voice is, essentially, vibration. Tension kills vibration. The way we sit and stand on a day-to-day basis often involves a lot of tension, which means that our voices cannot function optimally. So, the first step to achieving better vocal production is to let go of extra tension that can get in the voice's way. Along with this comes awareness of our bodies and where we hold tension habitually. This class will lead you through the slow and quiet process of bringing awareness to your body and allowing it to release the tension that it doesn't need.
Week Two: Breathing and Vocal Production
The voice, quite literally, cannot function without the breath. As such, if the breathing apparatus is not working as well as it could, the voice will certainly follow suit. This class will take an in-depth look at breathing and how it carries the voice. In addition, the voice will be introduced intentionally as a means to marry it to the breath and produce it in a healthier, more supported way.
Week Three: Resonance and Pitch
Have you ever been told - or do you fear - that you speak in a monotone, or quiet, or "shrill" voice? This class can solve that. You will be introduced to various resonances - which give our voices different colors or timbres - and you will explore how to open up your vocal range and versatility so that you gain control over the way your voice sounds.
Week Four: Articulation and Text
Our vocal folds produce sound, but our articulators - the lips, the tongue, etc. - shape this sound in order to create what we understand as intelligible speech. In this class, you will gain awareness of your agile articulators and discover ways of warming them up, just as you would warm up other muscle groups for activity. You will also learn how to explore vowels and consonants within a piece of written text, i.e. a speech, in order to gain more clarity and specificity.
Audience: Adults
Meet Our Instructor
Sarah Nichols
A voice, accent, and communication coach and performer from Orlando, Florida. Since receiving a BFA in Musical Theatre from The Boston Conservatory at Berklee in 2014, she has performed on tour in the US with TheatreworksUSA and on Royal Caribbean’s Majesty of the Seas. Last year, Sarah completed an MFA in Voice Studies at The Royal Central School of Speech in Drama in London. She has taught at Virginia Commonwealth University, East 15 Acting School, Rose Bruford College of Theatre & Performance, and the American University in Cairo. Sarah is proud to be a Senior Editor-at-Large for the International Dialects of English Archive (IDEA) and an active member of the Voice and Speech Trainers Association (VASTA), where she serves on the Junior Board, the website team, and as the assistant archivist. Now based in Washington, DC, Sarah teaches voice and accent workshops for Washington Improv Theater, The Little Theatre of Alexandria, and The Actors’ Center. To contact Sarah with any inquiries, visit her website: www.sarahnicholsvoice.com
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