Beating Voice Guilt

 'The worst guilt is to accept an unearned guilt' - Ayn Rand

 

Some might see performance as a kind of religion. We have the discipline, the theatre of it all, the regalia, the customs and, of course, the gods.

One thing we should not have is the guilt.

Over the years I have discovered you folk like to beat yourself up over the things that do happen, don’t happen, won’t happen, are going to happen, might happen, have no chance of happening and happen when you least expect.

Seattle's Bubble Gum Wall

Worrying and creating guilt within yourself for not addressing voice time is about as 'effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum' (if you listen to Baz)....and in my opinion, simply not worth it.

Let’s face it: feeling guilty is only going to create a sense of repulsion to the task at hand. We’re going to procrastinate....and whilst the house may get tidy and the emails answered, our voice technique is not going to improve. Sometimes, you may even lie to your voice coach....and trust me we can tell........

I’m not using busy-ness as an excuse, but lets examine some of the ways in which we might alleviate the guilt by allowing voice time into our everyday activities and lessening the burden of 'practice time'**:

1. Set your phone alarm 5 times a day and when it goes off check your jaw is not locked, do a spinal roll, lift your soft palate......hell, anything that you’re challenged by. It will help your exercises become technique.

2. Blu-tac some exercise sheets on the outside of your glass shower screen facing in and have some time in the shower. As well as giving yourself voice space, you’ll also benefit from the steam. Great for resonance work too.

3. What can you do silently on the tram in the morning? Tongue work with the mouth closed, soft palate work, silent breath work..........and in the car, you don't even have to worry about noise.....

4. Read the morning paper out loud at the breakfast table. As well as creating conversation, you can really give your voice a great start to the day by waking up your pitches, articulators and connecting to your breath.

5. Got 20 minutes - reset your body with a good dose of semi-supine....a great silent one if you’re on set or working in an office......

6. Have time to watch TV? Do some silent breath work whilst watching or get up and do one exercise in every add break. Even better - turn that thing off and give yourself some real space!

7. Do you exercise in the morning? Stretch out those inter-costals as part of your stretches.....by increasing your capacity first thing, you’ll also get more out of your exercise session.

8. Employ your voice time into your everyday speech...we cannot have a voice for inside the performance space and one for outside. Don’t try to fool yourself by employing an “acting voice” during your voice sessions! We can see straight through this.

9. If all else fails and you’re just too exhausted, look up a good voice article online by Patsy Rodenberg or at www.theatrevoice.com - at least you can get some new ideas and inspiration to drive you forward tomorrow......

There are plenty more things I could advise you to do. Use your imagination and see what you can come up with.

Most of all, if it doesn’t happen in one day, or two or three even, DON’T FEEL GUILTY! Just try one of these things tomorrow and see how easy it can be to get back on track. 

**Ultimately, a dedicated time is going to provide you with the focus your artistry requires (see my blog on Space) ...... most of these suggestions will apply to creating excellent muscular habits.

Miss Pronunciation X

Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend.......

...........and Miss Pronunciation is very fond of flashy bijoux, especially the kind that comes from a plastic egg. She much prefers that over Mummy’s boring pearls.....

So I’m focusing on the often mispronounced word ‘JEWELRY’ (U.S) or ‘JEWELLERY’ (B).

Don’t skip straight to the the L making the pronunciation ‘JOOLRY’ - it’s pure laziness and you’re not giving this wonderful, meaty word the weight it deserves.

It can be pronounced properly either of the following ways:

dʒuː ͜  əlrɪ  or (as in British English) dʒuː ͜  ələrɪ. The move from the 'OO' sound to the shwa gives you a lovely little hint of 'w' - almost feels like you're kissing the sound.......

If you want it to remain your best friend, don’t be lazy and give it the respect it deserves......

Miss Pronunciation IX

Miss Pronunciation is a Goody Two Choux **

 It was the choice between the potato salad and the.........what? The WHAT? Did you really say that?

Dare I?

The coldslaw.......

I couldn’t work out if I was choosing between a form of herpes or a side dish.

It’s coleslaw - it originally comes from the Dutch “Koolsla” or “Koolsalade” meaning cabbage salad. Taking this into account, one can see how cold might be thrown into the mix.

However, it remains that the correct pronunciation stands without a ‘d’: kɒɫsɫɔː .

**Incidentally, my good and very clever friend Elinor has a theory about the phrase "Goody Two Shoes": in French it is popular to call someone dear to you "Chou Chou" (ʃuː ʃuː)  as in "cabbage" (aaaah, my little cabbage). It's far sexier in a French accent. So someone always dear to or held in favour by another might be labelled a Goody two Choux. I like this explanation.