Vocal Development Programme Updates

This is my monologue from 'The History Boys' and I am the character Irwin. He is a history teacher who pretends to be from Oxford university and has been employed to teach the boys how to get into Oxford. This monologue is near the end of the play where Irwin has recently been in a motorcycle accident and is now in a wheelchair and a presenter of a history TV programme. He is non sympathetic, very cynical, and has a very flippant and glib attitude to education.

Voice Monologue Week:

• Target for this week: To improve on my articulation with the 'TH' sound so I can be fluent and understandable whilst performing my monologue.

Whilst studying this monologue I have found that I have trouble correctly articulating my 'TH' sounds. This line is an example;

'Not monks stumbling down the night stairs at three in the morning to sing the first office of the day'

I had trouble with this line due to the amount of 'TH' sounds in a sentence. It was like a tongue twister and I was muddling them up with my 'F' sounds.

This information lead me to choose an exercise called; The formation of the TH sound. This consists of me practicing the following;

• OOTHOO
• OHTHOH
• AWTHAW
• AHTHAH
• AYTHAY
• EETHEE

These exercises are too improve my unvoiced TH sounds and are getting my tongue used to the correct positioning and the amount of weight I press against the upper teeth. I am repeating these exercises 3 times a day, everyday this week which should help me achieve this weeks target.

To improve my voiced 'TH' sound I chose these words;

• Thither
• weather
• mother
• further
• heather
• therefore

I am saying each word one after the other so I can practice having more than one 'TH' sound in a line. This should improve my articulation and fluency whilst reading the line quoted above which contains many 'TH' sounds in a line, therefore, I see this exercise suitable to address the issues I have in this area of my voice.

Conclusion of Exercise

To conclude, I have been practicing forming my 'TH' sounds so that I can increase fluency when performing and so that I can be clear and well articulated all to ensure I perform my monologue with the correct flare, emotion and characterisation accurately without slurring some of the sounds that I would be unsure about without practicing these exercise above. I believe I have achieved this target above as being the end of the week, I have now been able to correctly form my 'TH' sounds and read some of the lines I was struggling on before clearly, therefore my articulation has improved and successfully carrying out my objective for this monologue.


The Wardrobe Week:

Target for this week: To increase the use of modulation, infliction and tone in a line to portray a change of emotional state.

During the Wardrobe I noticed that I had trouble portraying my changing emotional state due to lack of control when it came to inflection, modulation and tone. I have been working on this line in particular to try and control these factors to improve the way the my line is delivered to the audience.

'If any harm comes to Arthur I swear I will, I swear to God I will'

This line is said to Winifred right after she delivers the line'

'...Arthur's bones will twist and break against his father's stick'

Jaffrey is in dismay that Winifred has just brought up his secret 'lover' and is not only shocked to find out she knows and is willing to blackmail him, but the thought of anything happening to Arthur quickly changes the delivery of the line from the beginning where Jaffrey is angry, with 'rage and alarm' into more of an worried, panicking and frustrated Jaffrey who is quite scared of his friends well being.
In order to be able to achieve this fast change in emotion I practiced with these exercises below:

• Stretch the tongue around the mouth to increase the range of movement and to give me more control over the power of my modulation and inflections I use.
• A type of yog asana called 'Ujjhayani Pranayam' where  close my mouth and breathe through my nose and when I exhale, I hum and use vibrato to create a constant but ever changing, steady pitch to train my tonsils. This strengthens the tonsils which gives me more control over the vibrations used which in turn give me better control over the modulation, tone and inflection in my voice.

Conclusion of Exercise

To conclude, adding this exercise to my vocal development programme has helped me control the way I change my emotional state by strengthening my tonsils and allowing me to modulate and inflect different tones and pitches into a line to change the emotion and breeze a substantial new element to it to vitalise the audience with a fresh and powerful energy. I think further practicing this exercise will lead me to achieve my target and to improve further I could try and modulate with the tongue instead of the tonsils to build up the tongue muscle and strengthen that allowing for even more control and a much more efficient modulation of the voice.

Information from - http://www.voiceartistes.com/article4.html

The Cherry Orchard Week:

Target for this week: To increase my breath control to prevent the voice from being drawn back into the body.

During the Chery Orchard I had feedback from the our teacher that when delivering lines my voice can be drawn back into the throat which means that as I go to talk I have trouble forcing the breath up and out of my mouth giving me amplified, clear voice. Instead my breath can be directed down or die out before exiting the mouth meaning that the power and dynamics are lost and my voice can fall flat.

'Thank God, what time is it?'

This is the opening line to the play and it has to have energy and an instant impact to the audience to draw them into the play, the introduction to the story and so they don't give up on life before they have even seen the potential. To stop this from happening I would need to take a strong, deep breath, control the breath, projecting it out upwards but I believe that my breath was being drawn back into my throat preventing this projection and an exiting, impactful and energised entrance and intro.

To develop my breath control and projection I have chosen to carry out an exercise below:

• Yawn to stretch the mouth and back of the throat allowing me to open my mouth further and giving me more control of breath
• Breathe in through mouth and hold for as long as I can and then breathe out, repeat 5 times. This will increase the capacity of my lungs which will allow me to project more and strengthen the breath giving me more control to prevent it from going back into the throat
• Deep breath in and hum up and outwards for as long as can, repeat 5 times This will allow me to get used to how much breath I will need to project this line out to the audience energetically.

Conclusion of Exercise

To conclude, adding these exercises to my vocal programme has helped me achieve my target of increasing breath control. I have seen an improvement in my breath capacity and have been getting used to the strength the breath needs to be and the direction it needs to flow out of the mouth in order to prevent it from being lost in the throat and instead be projected out to the audience in a successful way.

Greek Theatre Week:

Target for this week: To be able to carry out a strong and realistic accent of a young teenager in a creepy way with good projection and articulation.

In this Greek performance of the Orestia I found that my accent was off slightly and lacked emotion and enthusiasm and was a bit flat. The purpose of using the accent to say our lines in was to give our performance an eerie and creepy feel to it by using school children to portray the violent acts of which occur in the scene. An example of a line where I lost character slightly was:

'Harden yourself Orestes'

To correct my accent and to delve more into the school child persona while projecting out to the audience and keeping good articulation and character I will practice the following exercises:

• The tip of the tongue, the teeth, the lips, the lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue. This exercise educates many areas of my vocal inhibitors. It serves to control breathing so I can repeat the exercise for longer, strengthens the tongue and teaches me the control I need to form the words articulately and by doing this exercise in the school child accent and repeating it over and over again, gradually increasing exaggeration of the accent, articulation of punctuation and words and speed of the lines as well as projecting upwards and outwards all to help me improve my accent and characterise the persona we have chosen to perform as.

Conclusion of Exercise

To conclude, adding these exercises to my vocal development programme has helped me achieve my target of carrying out a strong characterised accent that portrays the emotions and persona that gives our performance a creepy perspective. I have been able to read my lines with the accent easier and at a more energised pace adding impact for the audience and overall believe that my accent for this performance has dramatically improved.

Finished Programme

I have now finished my vocal development programme and have improved on all aspects of performance styles from my very first plays like the Wardrobe, Greek theatre style, naturalism and my monologue. Finding these exercises and creating a plan and carrying this plan out for a period of time has got me into a cycle where I want to carry on improving my voice so I can go onto higher education with a well practiced, dynamic voice to use as a tool to have high standard future performances where I don't make the mistakes I have now corrected.