Why Does an Actor Need to do Voice Work?
All of the serious acting conservatories usually require an actor to do two years of voice work. The voice is the instrument of the actor and if the actor is limited by his or her voice, the voice can actually hinder the actor's free expression. The actor also need to be able to portray a wide variety of characters, and he or she needs a flexible vocal instrument that is able to assume another personality. A two year program will usually cover freeing the voice, finding vocal power, increasing resonance, diction, the phonetic alphabet, dialects and sometimes even singing. In Los Angeles, most actor's take acting classes that study specifically acting. Therefore, the actor needs to find a voice teacher on their own to study voicework so that their training is not deficient in any way. Heather Lyle is able to teach all of the vocal techniques taught at the best conservatories today.
A Few Comments on Voicework
I recently attended an interview of Daniel Day Lewis' about his new movie There Will Be Blood, and in the movie Daniel Day Lewis has a very unique voice. Mr. Lewis said that to create his character he had to first create the voice of the character and through delving deeply into this voice, the character emerged. He also spent time listening to recordings of American speakers in the early part of the 20th century to develop a dialect that was more authentic to the period that the movie was set in. We spoke in depth after the interview and Mr. Lewis said that voice work has been an extremely important part of his acting technique. Today he feels that too many actors undervalue its importance, to the detriment of the art form. Very few new actor's emerging on the scene possess a voice that can captivate an audience.
I also attended an interview with Joe Wright, the director of Pride and Prejudice, regarding his latest movie Atonement. Mr. Wright had a voice coach on set for the rehearsals before shooting started and decided to keep him on set for the whole shoot. He started each day of the filming with a vocal warmup for the cast and himself. He said that he found that the actor's performances were deeper and more inspired after a vocal warmup and felt that voice work was invaluable, and a way to spark greater creativity for not just the actor, but himself.
Maximize Your Voice Potential by
Increasing Vocal Resonance, Power and Freedom
Fitzmaurice Voicework
Heather
Lyle is a certified Fitzmaurice voice teacher, the leading voice work
for actors today, taught at Harvard, Juilliard and professional acting
conservatories. There are two phases to the work, destructuring and
restructuring. Catherine Fitzmaurice, the creator of the work, found
that most of us have become disconnected from our breathing and since
the voice can only go where the breath is, a body, with a limited
breathing ability, will have vocal limitations. Fitzmaurice Voice Work
uses a series of modified yoga postures called destructuring, that are
designed to unblock the breath and voice from parts of the body where
it has been braced or blocked due to the emotional and physical
stresses of life. When the body is free to breathe and released from
encumbrances, the actor or public speaker will discover a new depth and
expansion to his or her voice. The second phase, called restructuring,
rebuilds the vocal mechanism and helps the actor connect their voice to
the core power source of the body with techniques from the Classical
School of British Voice Training and the Bel Canto School of Voice. The
result is a voice with more power, resonance, clarity and range.
Uncover the Authentic Voice: Many
actors and professional speakers have never truly used their authentic voices. Unfortunately, the
free uninhibited voice we all possess as toddlers becomes squelched
early in life in response to social conditioning. We learn very early
that loud, wild vocal sounds are not acceptable and by the time we
enter school, most of our creative sounding is gone. As the years go on,
our breath becomes more shallow and we hold back our voice more and
more, disconnecting from it. Through a sequence of breath and voice
exercises the actor can reawaken the voice that roars within and regain
the primal voice connection.
The Breath-Body-Voice Connection:
The vocal cords are the oscillator of the voice but without the flow of
air to excite them they remain quiet. Without air there is no sound. To
attempt to use one's voice without air will only cause vocal tension and
possible throat damage. So, it is paramount that the actor get in touch
with their breathing and learn breath management skills. When
the actor learns to make the breath-body-voice connection the results
are dramatic. Lyle will teach the actor how to breath from the core of
the body and then release the voice freely connected to the breath.
Use the Voice as it was Designed:
Actors and public speakers alike need to understand how to use the
voice correctly to avoid vocal fatigue and abuse. The voice is made of
a series of muscles that can be trained like any other muscle in the
body. With the assistance of a trained voice teacher, the actor or
public speaker can build their voice into a powerful, expressive
healthy instrument.
Optimum Pitch Level: It
is necessary to discover your optimum pitch level for healthy speaking.
Everyone has a certain pitch level that is most optimum for extended
speech. Many of us tend to speak too low in our register or in an unsupported way. Have
you ever met anyone who speaks too high in an unnatural little girl
voice? Have you ever met someone who is obviously lowering their voice
to sound more masculine or mysterious? Speaking for extended periods at
an unnatural pitch level can be harmful, so find out the healthiest
pitch level for your own unique voice.
Vocal Freedom:
Most speakers use only a small part of their voice when they speak. The
throat center is one of the most tense areas in the human body. Many
actors and public speakers feel vocally choked and suffer from throat
pain. Jaw tension and tongue tension are also detriments to vocal freedom.
By learning how to release the voice from the core of the body and
vocal exercises that loosen the different parts of the vocal
instrument, the actor or public speaker can experience the pleasure of
vocal freedom.
Resonance:
Many actors and public speakers use only a small portion of their
resonance potential. Resonance is described as a rich, sonorous sound. Without resonance the voice will sound dull and
lack beauty. The resonators are the mouth, pharynx and nasal passages.
By learning how to combine the resonators efficiently, everyone can
have a beautiful, rich voice.
Widen the Vocal Spectrum:
Through the discovery of all the possible vocal resonances and vocal
freedom from the depths of the body, the actor can possess a wide
palate of vocal colors available for characterization. Most speakers also tend to speak on only a few pitches, rarely extending their voice higher or lower than what is habitual. Most speakers actually possess a much wider range than they realize. It is nor uncommon for an actor to discover that they have two octaves of vocal pitches available for sounding. That means they have 16 possible pitches from high to low that they can shout, scream or whisper on.
Increase Power:
The diaphragm and costal muscles are the power source for the voice.
Most of us breath only in the top portion of our lungs at about the
point of the collarbone. For conversational speech this is adequate,
but for prolonged or heightened speech it is necessary to breath from the
core of the body at the location of the diaphragm. The diaphragm is a
dome shaped muscle that sits in the center of the body and divides the
respiratory cavity from the abdominal cavity. It is attached to the
base of the sternum and the lower ribs and the thoracic spine in the
back. When we inhale the ribcage opens and the diaphragm lowers, giving
the lungs room to expand and thus take in more air. Then the muscles of
exhalation go into action. Another set of costal muscles close the
ribcage and the abdominal muscles move upward, assisting the diaphragm
in returning to it's original domed shape. Singing and theater speech
require us to delay exhalation, managing the voice on the breath. The
minute we allow the exhalation muscles to overtake the inhalation
muscles, we are out of breath and out of sound. In singing and theater
speech the actor strives to achieve a sort of equilibrium between the
muscles of inspiration and exhalation. The early Italian schools of
voice called this equilibrium appoggio, which actually means
leaning. By controlling the release of air and sound the actor
experiences a feeling of voice support in the torso area as the
abdominal muscles lean against the downward action of the diaphragm. By
learning breath support skills the actor can project the voice from
this power source, having tremendous vocal power without fatigue or
stress to the vocal cords.
Contact us at: voice@vocalyoga.com or 310 200-0506
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