AAU28D: 20 mins Vocal and Physical Warm-up Routine

AAU28D: Set Reading 5- Besides cultivating good habits of voice and speech production, how can we actively care for and maximise the use of our voices in terms of modifying our lifestyle and environment?

Bunch (2009) mentions that the balancing of muscular activity within the larynx as well as the opposing muscles is vital in maximizing the efficiency of voice production. An example that was brought up was about how singers that perform every single night, working hard to make themselves heard for long hours in a smoke-filled environment will often get their voices affected. The voice of such singers suffers from long-term chronic misuse and being in an environment filled with smoke and alcoholic beverages do little to alleviate the situation.

CityCost (2017, March). Nightclub picture.

The example is brilliant because such places are often known to accommodate drug dealing so anyone who has to be there for a prolonged period of time will inevitably be at higher risk of substance abuse. In order to adequately care for our voice, the most important thing we can do is to isolate ourselves from all factors like smoke, alcohol, drugs, voice misuse and lack of rest to the best of our abilities!

Too much of anything is never a good thing. As such, we can aim to strike a balance by eating a variety of healthy food and trying out different kinds of fruit juice each time instead of sticking solely to what we usually consume. Another important thing is to make sure that we get the medication for respiratory diseases instead of letting the situation drag on to ensure that no permanent damage is done to our voice!

CityCost (2017, March). ‘Smoky Disco’ ups the immersive in a new nightclub experience coming to Tokyo. Retrieved 2018, November 13, from https://www.city-cost.com/blogs/City-Cost/Gya7G-living_tokyo_shibuya-ku

Bunch, M. (2009). Dynamics of the Singing Voice (4^th ed.). Wien: Springer-Verlag, pp. 123–137.

AAU28D: Set Reading 4- When giving a speech, what verbal aspects of delivery must you pay attention to?

Chen (2007) is right in saying that the medium is the message and refers to our voice. Our voice can reflect personality, power, strength, confidence, belief, and most importantly emotions. Giving a speech or a presentation is a method of communication between the presenter and the audience. With clever use of our voice, we are able to surpass the contents of our speech and connect directly with the audience by making a good choice of words, good articulation and placing emphasis on the right words.

However, the method of using words, articulation and emphasis is not to be fixed because there are lots of different situations to consider. Lucas (2007) categorizes the speeches into 4 main types- objects, processes, events and concepts. Information and method of delivery for each type of speech differ greatly and thus, it is vital for us to be able to understand that we have to customise our speech each time.

For example, you would not try to make an educational talk into a stand-up comedy because the content is too heavy, and humour relies on a light and easy content to be successful. Turk (1985) mentions that interest and enthusiasm in listeners are generated by verbal and non-verbal signals given off by the presenters. Listeners also feel more secure when they can see the person who is giving them new information. With that level of trust, you will be able to introduce a more shocking or controversial topic gently to them and let them accept the message which you are trying to get across to them as compared to bluntly presenting them with the topic of which you may receive jeers, insults and an occasional rotten egg thrown at you.

Being fluent and well-articulated helps bring across a feeling that you are passionate about your topic, which will let your readers value your views heavily and not doubt a word that you say. Cleverly using jargon that is known to most of the audience reduces the time you take to bring your message across the audience and they will remember you as an expert on your topic. There are a wide variety of things you can do to verbally deliver a great speech but at the end of the day, careful construction of an effective speech that is easiest for the audience to understand in the limited time available after thoroughly analysing the audience is the most important thing you can do (Turk, 1985).

Chen, Ernest. (2003). Earnestly Speaking: How to Achieve Success in Public Speaking. Singapore: INTERCONEX Management Pte Ltd, pp. 116–130.

Lucas, S. E. (2007). The Art of Public Speaking (9^th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill, pp. 300–312.

Turk, Christopher. (1985). Effective Speaking: Communicating in Speech. London: Spon Press, pp. 129–143.

AAU28D: Set Reading 3- How can we connect to language in dramatic text?

Corrigan (1997) has mentioned that there is the relevance of the teaching of voice with psycho-physical techniques when it comes to speech production. A physical activity can induce a mental correlation in the same way language can bring out the urge to act in you. This is especially evident in class, where we play engaging games that are fun for any age and get everyone excited and running about. The inhibitions that we placed on ourselves are released when we get caught up with having fun and focusing on the game at hand. Similarly, famous speeches inspired feelings of pride, righteous anger, patriotism and more with them and it was for that which the speeches were remembered for.

The dramatic text is written specially so that they could be delivered in a dramatic context, and what helped delivery the drama in the text was by the emotions that are infused into each word. In the poetry recitation of Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll, the words do not make sense. When delivered by someone with a full understanding of the story of the Jabberwock, the gibberish words came to life and became a full story that everyone could understand.

Stobierski (2018, May). Desperation picture.

This relates to how we pick up non-verbal signals in body language; what we picked up instead was the emotions and intent that resides behind the way a word is pronounced. You don’t have to understand a foreign language when someone is shouting at you until their face turns red to know that you have upset them. You will not mistake a face full of helplessness and desperation trying to hold your hand while talking frantically as an over-friendly handshake. You will not mistake language in a dramatic text which, therefore, becomes a universal language just like facial expressions and body language.

Corrigan, M. (1997). ‘Psycho-Physical Techniques and Their Relevance to Voice and Actor Training’, in Hampton, M. & Acker, B. (Eds.), The Vocal Vision: Views on Voice by 24 Leading Teachings, Coaches & Directors. New York: Applause, pp. 93–105.

Stobierski, Tim (2018, May). Student Loan Desperation: My Crazy Student Loan Repayment Story. Retrieved 2018, November 13, from http://studentdebtwarriors.com/students/student-loan-desperation/

AAU28D: Set Reading 2- How does the larynx work to produce voice?

Crannell (2000) mentions that a voice is produced by the means of a vibrating agent. In the production of sound, we found that sound is in fact made by the combination of air passing through the vocal folds within the larynx. The vocal folds vibrate from the moving air and create sound waves that reverberate through the larynx and up towards the pharynx, nose and mouth.

We all know that sound travels the fastest through a solid because neighbouring atoms are closely packed in an orderly manner and form what we call a crystal lattice structure. A larynx is made of cartilage surrounded by fibrous tissue like the thickening and stretching muscles and contains the posterior cricoarytenoid, the transverse and oblique arytenoids, the thyroarytenoids and vocalis, and lastly the cricothyroid. Being physically linked side by side to each other, all these parts will thus receive the vibrations from the vocal folds, manipulate the vibrations and produce a variety of sounds.

Miller-Keane Encyclopedia and Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing, and Allied Health, Seventh Edition. (2003). Larynx photo.

How do these parts manipulate sound? The posterior cricoarytenoid that widens during inhalation and narrows during exhalation gives us the ability to whisper. The transverse and oblique arytenoids open and close the vocal folds so that we may produce phonation. The thyroarytenoids and vocalis will loosen the vocal folds and allow us to talk at a lower pitch during exhalation. The cricothyroid does the reverse by stretching out the vocal folds with help from the stretching muscles and increase the pitch of our voice. The thickening muscles shorten and thicken the vocal folds so that the vibrations are suppressed, allowing us to produce low notes. Altogether, the larynx acts as a sum of all the different parts and is adequately known as the voice box.

Crannell, K.C. (2000). Voice and Articulation (4^th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, pp. 35–42.

Larynx. (n.d.) Miller-Keane Encyclopedia and Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing, and Allied Health, Seventh Edition. (2003). Retrieved 2018, November 13 from https://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/larynx

AAU28D: Set Reading 1- What does it mean to support the voice?

McCallion (1998) mentions that an actor must be able to fill up the entire theatre with the voice and that the voice reflects what is physically and mentally going on with the speaker. Therefore, to produce any sort of voice and speech, it is important that we prepare ourselves physically and mentally.

Physically, all muscles in the body are linked together so any physical injury will gradually produce strain on the voice even if we do not notice. This much is verified by McCallion, as the first part of his book claims that 'Most of the things which go wrong with the voice do not begin with the vocal organs' and 'most people actively interfere with the way their voices should work, and that interference begins the way they use the body as a whole.'. Therefore, it makes sense that the first step to supporting our voice should start with protecting our body.

It is widely known that to prevent injuries, one should always take warm-ups and stretches seriously before any form of physical activity. Conducting proper warm-ups would also improve the blood circulation of our body, thus making it easier for us to move away from any potentially dangerous situation. A good warm-up begins with breathing properly, which also helps to directly protect our voice. To breathe properly, our ribs should be free to move upwards and outwards without any pain in the process of breathing in. From this action alone, we already see that having upper torso injuries and back injuries will certainly impede the movement of the rib cage and indirectly create a problem for breathing. Going by the same reasoning, even having an injured toe can lead to a short gasp each time the toe gets simulated. Multiple short gasps will cause us to take in cold, unfiltered air through our mouth, causing our throat to dry up and that affects our voice!

McCallion also describes how a baby can cry, wail and scream for hours without losing their voice, while enthusiastic football fans may just lose their voices just after a few matches. A baby uses its voice as a response to anything it perceives as a danger while a football fan cheers in response to each scored goal. Since when a goal will be scored is relatively unpredictable and the football fan may be distracted by other activities that went on before the goal is scored, the body is not prepared to give a long and loud cheer abruptly. This is thus the difference between being mentally prepared and not mentally prepared to produce a voice.

In short, we must get ourselves warmed up and practice more before a speech so that our bodies will be in the optimal condition to support our voice for the speech.

  

McCallion, M. (1998). The Voice Book: For Everyone Who Wants to Make the Most of Their Voice. London: Faber and Faber Limited, pp. 3–35, 39–50. 

AAU28D: Appendix- Breathing Techniques

Breathing Technique:

Fitzsimmons, A (2014, October) Breathing picture.

Proper breathing techniques to protect our voice.

•        Breathe through the nose. Our nose hair will filter out unwanted air particles and warm up the air that we take in because there is friction produced by air current flowing through our nose hair, which is good for us.
•        Breathe using our diaphragm. We should not do clavicle breathing as the intake of air is too much.
•       Breathing should be slow and relaxed to prevent hyperventilation.
•        Breathing should be silent and peaceful.

As we inhale, the external Intercostal muscles contract and the internal Intercostal muscles relax. This causes the ribs to move upwards and outwards, thus increasing the chest cavity to allow the lungs to inflate. At the same time, the central tendon will contract, the diaphragm will move downwards, and the lungs will be able to expand downwards as it inflates.

When the lungs inflate, the air will be sucked in through the nose where it is filtered and warmed by our nose hair. The air will then travel down the windpipe to reach the alveoli through the bronchial tubes where oxygen in the air will be absorbed by the red blood cells flowing through the alveolar capillaries. The red blood cells will discharge carbon dioxide to the alveoli.

As we exhale, the external Intercostal muscles relax and the internal Intercostal muscles contract. This causes the ribs to move downwards and inwards, reducing the chest cavity and helping the lungs to deflate. At the same time, the central tendon will relax, and the diaphragm move upwards again.

When the lungs deflate, the waste products and carbon dioxide that accumulated in the alveoli will be released back into the air.