[Text on screen: We recognise the Ongoing Custodians of the lands and waterways where we work and live. We pay respect to Elders past and present as ongoing teachers of knowledge, songlines and stories. We strive to ensure every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learner in NSW achieves their potential through education.]

[Music playing]

Laura Farrell

Hi, I'm Laura. I'm a voice and dialect coach living and working on Gadigal land. I work with actors in theaters, on set, and in acting schools to develop their vocal skills. Now, before we jump into a rehearsal performance, it's important that we always warm up the voice. So let's do it together now.

[Music playing]

Let's take a big stretch, feeling length all the way through the body, from the fingertips to the toes, reaching up in every direction. Reaching, reaching, reaching. Feeling that energy. Reach, reach, reach, reach, reach, reach, and then release. Ah. And now let's shake all the way through the body. Shaking the wrists and the hands and through the torso and shaking the legs. Shake, shake, shake, shake, shake. And this time when we release, we're going to flop all the way over. Shake, shake, shake until I say release. Oh. Good. And now let's slowly roll up through the spine one vertebra at a time, finding that ease and length through the back of the body. Rolling up nice and slow. Keeping the knees soft. Remembering to breathe. And your head will be the last thing to float up. Rolling, rolling, rolling. And once your head is floating at the top of your spine, let's lift the shoulders up. Lifting them, tightening them all the way up to the ears. And then feeling that length when we release in 3, 2, 1. Ah. And one more time. Let's lift them up. Holding. Holding, holding, holding. And releasing in 3, 2, 1. Ah. Good. And now let's just check that our weight is evenly distributed over both feet. So we're going to have a little rock from side to side.

And then coming forward slightly onto the balls of the feet. And then back onto the heels, and forward, and back. And then maybe having a little circle. And the other way. And then coming to rest perfectly balanced in the center, soft through the knees, long through the spine. And now we're set in our physical stance to come into our work on breath.

[Music playing]

Hold your hands out in front of you and imagine that in your hands you're holding your favorite thing to smell in the whole world. So right now I'm holding a chocolate chip cookie that is fresh from the oven, and it smells so good. So I'm going to use my imagination to see that in my hands in front of me. And when I can really see it nice and clearly, I'm going to bring it up to my face. And I'm going to take a nice, deep breath in and enjoy that delicious smell of the chocolate chip cookie. So bringing it up and breathing in.

Good. And let's try that one more time. See it super clearly. Maybe you can change to something else. Maybe it's a flower. See it in front of you and then bring it up to the face.

And release. Ah. And hopefully that unlocked a nice, easy, free inhalation for you. Let's now switch on our muscles of exhalation and wake up the power points. So power point one is just below the joint of the rib cage. So we place our fingertips in there with a bit of pressure. And repeat after me. Psh, psh, psh.

Making sure we're giving enough energy to that sound that we can feel the little muscular bulge under our fingers. One more time. Psh, psh, psh. And let's switch on power point number two. So just below the belly button, fingers in there. Psh, psh, psh. And again. Psh, psh, psh, So one and two are firing. Let's switch on three and four on the side of the ribs. Same sound. Psh, psh, psh. And one more time. Psh, psh, psh.

OK. So we've got our power points firing. Let's work on sustaining that muscular activation now. So we're going to breathe in, imagining that ease of the pleasure smell there, floating the arms up. And then we're going to sustain firstly on an S. So sssss till the end of our breath as we move the hands down across the body. So breathe in with me, float the arms up, and sustain on an S sssss.

All the way until the end of your breath. And then you can let the new breath come in. And again sssss. This time, let's switch on some vibration. So we're going to make the sound a zzz. Breathing in, floating the arms up, zzz. And again, seeing how smooth that can be, zzz. And releasing.

[Music playing]

Let's climb the vowel ladder. Follow me. Zoo. Zoo. Whoa. Whoa. Shaw. Shaw. Guh. Guh. Haa. Haa. Fuh. Fuh. Ma. Ma. Ba. Ba. Da. Da. Pay. Pay. Ki. Ki. Ri. Ri. Let's go back down. Ri. Ki. Pay. Da. Ba. Ma. Fuh. Haa. Guh. Whoa. Shaw. Zoo.

Now let's see how quickly we can climb up and back down again. Zoo, whoa, shaw, guh, haa, fuh, ma, ba, da, pay, ki ri, ri, ki, pay, da, ba, ma, fuh, haa, guh, whoa, shaw, zoo.

[Music playing]

Let's scrunch up all the muscles of the face, making our face as tiny and as tight as we can. Scrunch, scrunch, scrunch. And release. And again, scrunch. And release. One more time. Scrunch. Hold it. And release. OK, now let's stretch the face out. Release. And again, stretching. And release. And one more time. Stretching. Release.

And now let's make some ugly faces. Moving all the muscles of the face around. Making it ugly in slow motion. And now making ugly faces really quickly. OK. Moving. And then shake it out. And release.

OK. Now we're going to do something. It's a little bit silly, but it's really good for your articulation. And it's called slug tongue, cause it looks a little bit like a slug. So with our slug tongue, we're going to try and say the months of the year as clearly as we possibly can, keeping that tongue out of the mouth like a slug.

Let's do it together. January. February. March. April. May. June. July. August. September. October. November. December. And now, if we let the tongue come back in and say it, it should feel pretty easy. January. February. March. April. May. June. July. August. September. October. November. December.

[Music playing]

Let's finish our warm up with some tongue twisters. A proper cup of coffee in a proper copper coffee pot. Again. A proper cup of coffee in a proper copper coffee pot. And a bit faster. A proper cup of coffee in a proper copper coffee pot.

Pre-shrunk silk shirts. Pre-shrunk silk shirts. And let's try it three times quickly now. Pre-shrunk silk shirts. Pre-shrunk silk shirts. Pre-shrunk silk shirts.

11 benevolent elephants. And again. 11 benevolent elephants. And three times quick. 11 benevolent elephants. 11 benevolent elephants. 11 benevolent elephants.

Near an ear, a nearer ear, a nearly eerie ear. Again. Near an ear, a nearer ear, a nearly eerie ear. And faster. Near an ear, a nearer ear, a nearly eerie ear.

And last one. Lesser leather never weathered wetter weather better. Lesser leather never weathered wetter weather better. Faster. Lesser leather never weathered wetter weather better.

[Music playing]

[End transcript]

[Text on screen: We recognise the Ongoing Custodians of the lands and waterways where we work and live. We pay respect to Elders past and present as ongoing teachers of knowledge, songlines and stories. We strive to ensure every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learner in NSW achieves their potential through education.]

[Music playing]

Laura Farrell

Vocal dynamics is all about finding variation and change within the voice. A performer needs a voice that has range and responsiveness to adapt to different circumstances and characters, and not a voice that's just stuck in their own vocal patterns. They need a voice that can transition, transform, shift, adapt, increase, decrease, and sustain.

[Music playing]

You might have heard the name Rudolf Laban in your movement class. Well, we can also use his 8 Efforts as a way to unlock different dynamics in the voice.

So one of his efforts is Punch, which is heavy, direct, and quick. So let's physicalize a punch and see if we can match that with our vocal quality. So finding some space, and let's punch. Punch! And throw a few. Punch! Punch! Punch! Punch, punch, punch! See how strong, and quick, and direct the voice can be. Punch! Punch! Punch, punch! Good.

And now let's slow it down but keeping it strong and direct with a (SLOWLY) press, nice and slow in a different direction. (SLOW AND ELONGATED) Press! Really pressing with the voice. (SLOW) Press. Good.

And now let's lighten it up and (SLOW AND AIRILY) float. So we're going to float slow and light. (SLOW AND AIRILY) Float. In any direction. (SLOW AND AIRILY) Float.

And keeping the voice light but making it quick now, can we flick, flick, flick, flick, flick, flick, flick, flick. Indirect. Flick, flick, flick, flick, flick, flick, flick, flick, flick. How quick can we flick? Flick, flick, flick, flick, flick, flick, flick. Flick, flick, flick, flick.

And now let's make it heavy but indirect with a (EXAGGERATEDLY) slash! And a slash! How chaotic and strong can your slashes be? Slash, slash! Slash, slash, slash!

And now let's bind that heaviness into a (SLOWLY) wring. Wringing with the voice. (SLOWLY AND PAINED) Wring. Wring.

And now let's lighten it up and slow it down with a (CHEERILY AND SLOWLY) glide. Glide. Glide.

And then keeping it light but direct, can we dab? Dab. Dab. Dab, dab, dab, dab. Dab. Dab. Dab. Dab, dab dab, dab, dab. Dab. Nice and quick. Dab, dab. Dab, dab. Dab, dab. Dab, dab. Dab. Good.

So now we've done all of these 8 Effort actions and we've seen how we can shift the voice, let's start to combo them. Coming back to the punch, do it with me. Punch! Punch! Punch, punch, punch! Punch! Glide! Flick! Flick, flick, flick, flick, flick, flick! Wring. Good.

So that's how we can use Laban's 8 Effort actions as a way to find different dynamics within the voice. So next time you have a character or a line of text, think about which of those actions you might like to play with to change the quality of your voice.

[Music playing]

[End transcript]

[Text on screen: We recognise the Ongoing Custodians of the lands and waterways where we work and live. We pay respect to Elders past and present as ongoing teachers of knowledge, songlines and stories. We strive to ensure every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learner in NSW achieves their potential through education.]

[Music playing]

Laura Farrell

Clarity is about clear communication. When thinking about vocal clarity, we can consider clarity of the individual word, clarity of the thought, or clarity of the meaning that's being conveyed. And we can achieve vocal clarity through a range of different techniques, such as articulation, rhythm, pitch, pace, pause, and projection. Now, that can sound quite technical for actors, but the actor's relationship to clarity can be through discovering and relishing in the individual sounds of speech and patterns of speech.

[Music playing]

[Gibberish]

Now, you probably didn't understand what I was saying. That's because I was speaking in my own made up gibberish language. And it's essentially just a string of nonsense sounds. And we're going to explore clarity through some made-up nonsense words together. Repeat after me. I'm going to be your conductor.

[Gibberish]

Nice and slow. Let's do it again.

[Gibberish]

Now let's make it quick.

[Gibberish]

And one more time.

[Gibberish]

Now let's explore pause with our nonsense words.

[Gibberish]

Your turn. Good. And now let's play with making the voice nice and smooth and legato.

[Gibberish]

Your turn. And choppy or staccato.

[Gibberish]

Your turn. Great. So now you can get creative, making up some of your own gibberish words and conduct your classmates together.

[Music playing]

Let's take the consonant V. And can we imagine that it's not just a consonant sound, but it's actually a musical instrument, like a violin. And can we find the musicality in that vvv, in that V, by playing it a violin? Repeat after me. vvv. Do it with me. vvv. Good. And can we play that violin with a word? vvv-ibration. Let's do it together. vvv-ibration.

OK. And let's take a consonant now that's a little bit more percussive, like a T. But instead of just a T, can we imagine that we're playing the high hat? So I'll play it, and then you do it after me. T, t, t, t. Your turn. T, t, t, t. T, t, t. T, t, t. T, t, t. T, t, t. And let's pop it into a word. Articulation. Your turn. Articulation. Good.

And now let's play with a few other drum beats. I'll say it once, and then you'll join me on the second time. B, b, b, b. Your turn. B, b, b, b. D, d, d, d. D, d, d, d. Now your turn. D, d, d, d. D, d, d, d. And k, k, k, k, k, k, k. Your turn. K, k, k, k, k, k, k. Now can we pop them together? B, b, d, d, d, k. Your turn. B, b, d, d, d, k. Now let's go backwards. K, d, d, d, b. Your turn. K, d, d, d, b.

OK. Now we're going to try and create a band. So if you're standing over this side of the room, your sound that you're going to repeat is t, t, t, t, t. And you're going to keep that going. Good. T, t, t. Then if you're standing here, you are going to make this sound. Ch, ch. Ch, ch. Ch, ch. Ch. While group one is still going t, t, t. Then we've got group two. Ch, ch. Ch, ch. Ch, ch. Good.

And group three, lucky last, is going to go d, d, dum. D, d, dum. D, d, dum. D, d, dum. So we've got group one going t, t, t, t, t. Keep that going. Group two. Ch, ch. Ch, ch. Ch, ch. Ch. Group three. D, d, dum. D, d, dum. D, d, dum. D, d, dum. All together. Good.

And we've just made a band. And you can have fun now playing with adding some of your own instruments, finding some new, different ways that you can play the consonants, play the drumbeats, and find that musicality in your speech sounds.

[Music playing]

[End transcript]

[Text on screen: We recognise the Ongoing Custodians of the lands and waterways where we work and live. We pay respect to Elders past and present as ongoing teachers of knowledge, songlines and stories. We strive to ensure every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learner in NSW achieves their potential through education.]

[Music playing]

Laura Farrell

Vocal energy is all about resonance and projection. A performer's voice needs to be able to adapt to different styles, different characters, and to the acoustic needs of the performance space. We can alter the energy of our voice, making it quiet, loud, gentle, and powerful.

Now, energy and volume doesn't come from the throat. It comes from air in the lungs and then using the muscles below the lungs to help support and power that air as it turns into voice and fills the space around us. The voice is made up of sound waves, and they're a form of energy. To create that energy, we need a power source, which is the air in the lungs. We need a resonator, which is the vocal folds coming together, and then a filter, which is the tube above the vocal folds.

So when we want to think about creating more energy or more volume, we need to start with the breath.

[Music playing]

Let's place our hands on the side of the rib cage. And we're going to release all the air from the lungs on an S-H. And we'll do it together, breathing in and letting it out. Shh.

And when you fully run out of air, then you can let the breath come in. [INHALES] And again. Shh. Squeezing it all the way out so your ribs are getting smaller-- and then letting the new breath come in [INHALES] and feeling that expansion of the rib cage as the lungs fill with air and you take in that nice, deep inhalation.

[Music playing]

Let's find the muscles that we need to help support our exhalation. So the first point, the first power point is just below the joint of your ribs. So if I place my fingertips in there and I put a little bit of pressure, just to check that I can feel that muscle and repeat after me. Psh, psh, psh. Your turn. Psh, psh, psh. And hopefully, you feel a little bit of a bulging happening under your fingers, which means power point number 1 is firing.

Let's check power point number 2. So this one's just below your belly button. And you can pop your fingers in there. And the sound is the same. Psh, psh, psh. Your turn. Psh, psh. Hopefully, we're feeling that muscle kick in. And then we can do power points 3 and 4 at the same time on the sides of our waist. So a little bit of pressure with the fingertips and psh, psh, psh. Now your turn. Psh, psh, psh. Great.

But of course, we don't just want to switch those muscles on and then switch them off again. (SPEAKING CHOPPILY) Because then we'd talk like this, which is a little crazy (SPEAKING REGULARLY) and not very efficient. So now we want to work on sustaining that muscle engagement now we know that our power points are firing. So we're going to sustain those muscles on a vvv, on a V sound, working on finding a deep inhalation and then a controlled exhalation.

So join me breathing in. We're going to float the arms up and feel that deep breath coming in. And then as we make some sound, we're going to bring the hands down on a V. vvv. And I'm working on switching these muscles on as I'm sounding until I get to the end of my breath. I can let the new breath come in, remembering what it felt like to let the tank just fill up. And again, vvv.

Keep that going, engaging the muscles of support all the way to the end of your breath. And one more time, breathing in and sounding on a V-- vvv. Nice and smooth, nice and steady-- vvv. And release. You should feel that your abdominals are working now.

[Music playing]

OK. Now we've sustained the muscles of support. Let's level up and see if we can play with dynamics at the same time. So I'm going to take a lip trill.

[Lip trill]

And if you have trouble with the lip trill, you can place your fingers just into your cheeks.

[Lip trill]

And that makes it a little easier for you. And we're going to start with a really soft lip trill. And we're going to gradually increase into a loud lip trill together. So breathing in--

[Lip trill]

--until I'm as loud as I can be and I've run out of breath. Let's do that one more time, soft to loud.

[Lip trill]

Ooh, that's quite tricky. Now let's get loud to soft. So breathing in together.

[Lip trill]

See how soft you can get before the lip trill falls away? One more time, loud to soft, breathing in.

[Lip trill]

Let's get fancy just for the last one. Let's go from soft to loud and then back to soft again, all on the one breath. Breathing in.

[Lip trill]

Whew. Good job.

[Music playing]

Now, when we're speaking a phrase or a line of text, we want to make sure we are sustaining the voice all the way to the end of the line. So we're going to chant, using our muscles of support, the days of the week all the way from Monday to Sunday without dropping off at the end. So sometimes it can be tempting to use all our air at the start. And we go Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And then we die at the end. And so really, what we want to work on is keeping it consistent and smooth and energized all the way to the very last sound. So I'll demonstrate it first, and then you can do it with me.

[Humming] Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Saturday, Sunday.

[Speaking] Join me.

[Humming] Monday, Tuesday. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Sunday.

[Speaking] And now we can try just speaking it but making sure that we're not de-energizing at the end of it.

So I'll go first, and then you'll join me. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Join me. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

[Music playing]

[End transcript]

[Text on screen: We recognise the Ongoing Custodians of the lands and waterways where we work and live. We pay respect to Elders past and present as ongoing teachers of knowledge, songlines and stories. We strive to ensure every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learner in NSW achieves their potential through education.]

[Music playing]

Laura Farrell

Vocal expression relates to the communication of images, ideas, and emotions. As a performer, we want to make vocal choices that align with the character's intentions and emotional qualities. Now, of course, we always want the audience to hear and understand us, but more than that, we want them to connect with the story, the characters, and the subtext.

[Music playing]

Can you imitate the sound of a creaky door? Uhh. This is called creaky tone, (VOCAL STRAINING) and this can happen in our voice (SPEAKING REGULARLY) if we are not using enough airflow and enough energy in the vocal folds. (VOCAL STRAINING) So repeat after me, creaky tone. (VOCAL STRAINING) Creaky tone.

Good. OK. Now, what happens if we have a lot of breath in the voice, then we start to get breathy tone. Can you repeat after me? (BREATHY) Breathy tone. Your turn. (BREATHY) Breathy tone. And we get breathy tone in the voice when we have a lot of air coming through, but still not enough energy of the vocal folds. And now what we really want is modal voice. Or we can it "good vocal tone," so where we have enough airflow and then enough energy of the vocal folds coming together for (ENTHUSIASTICALLY) modal tone. Try it with me, (ENTHUSIASTICALLY) modal tone.

[Music playing]

Now let's wake up some vibration in the different areas of the body that we can resonate in. So join me with some knocking on the chest, nice and gentle. And we're going to come into a hum, imagining that that vibration is coming from the chest. (HUMMING) And once we feel like we've woken up that vibration there, let's turn that hum into an "ah." So join me. Hum into an "ah." (HUMMING) ah! And again, (HUMMING) ah! And one more time, (HUMMING) ah!

So we've woken up some resonance in our chest. Now let's find some oral resonance, some resonance inside the mouth. Take a big yawn. Ooh, ah! And hopefully, you felt your soft palate lifting up and stretching inside your mouth. Now can we close our mouths but still have a yawn? Mm, mm.

And let's turn that into a hum where we keep the lips closed, but we're thinking about having the space of the yawn (YAWNING) inside mouth. Mm, mm.

And let's open it to an "e" vowel together. So we'll hum into an "e." Mm, me. And again, mm, me. And one more time, mm, me. Good. So we've got some chest resonance. We've got some oral resonance. Let's wake up some resonance in the nasal cavity. So you can place your fingers on either side of your nose and scrunch it up a little. Nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah. Make a little witchy sound, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah. And let's see if we can hold that in a hum now, that twangy witchy sound. Mm, mm. And now, imagining that sound's coming out of the cheeks, we're going to open it into an eh, so hum into an eh. Mm, meh! And again. Mm, meh! And one more time, nice and witchy, mm, meh.

[Music playing]

Now, subtext is all about what we don't say. So if I give you a phrase like, how are you today, let's try saying it first, like we really mean it. How are you today? Now it's your turn. OK. And what happens now if we say it, but we don't mean it? We don't care. We don't want to know. How are you today? Your turn.

OK. Now let's try saying it, but we're kind of scared to ask. We don't know how the person's going to react. How are you today? Now you try it. And now let's say it like someone's forcing you to ask it. How are you today? Now your turn.

OK. So we totally changed our voice to convey the different subtext in each of those scenarios. So let's try it with another phrase. What about, that looks good on you? Let's say it like we mean it. I'll go first. That looks good on you. Now your turn. OK. Now let's try like we don't mean it. That looks good on you. Your turn. OK. And now, again, like we're scared. That looks good on you. Your turn. And then lastly, like we're being forced to say it. Uh, that looks good on you. Your turn.

And now you can have a play with taking simple phrases and seeing how many different ways you can change the way you use your voice by changing the subtext.

[Music playing]

[End transcript]