I was recently coaching a highly skilled actor who has a habit of tensing in their throat when voicing, especially emotionally-laden lines. If you have ever performed, or watched a performance with empathy, you will understand that this is a very common and natural challenge. But have you noticed how common it is in daily life as well?
continue readingYou might be moving your mouth wrong
Are you aiming to speak with power and clarity? If so, you might have discovered that more mouth movement can be a huge component of success. But at the same time, there are ways to add more mouth movement that not only don’t help with clarity or loudness, but might actually make it worse.
continue readingA simple vocal tune-up/warm-up
“I would have warmed my voice up before the call but I didn’t know how!” This was the confession of a friend recently. So let’s make sure that doesn’t happen to anyone else!
continue readingShould you stop using vocal fry?
Vocal fry is a creaky sound that many of us make at the end of a sentence (at least occasionally), and some people use throughout their speech (the Kardashians brought this into the limelight). A lot of people consider it unprofessional and problematic, but is it?
continue readingAre you a Brit wanting to sound American?
I have developed a niche specialty within the world of dialect coaching, and that is helping British actors (or anyone interested) to sound authentically American.
Perhaps I am especially well-suited to this because my native dialect for the first few years of life was, in fact, English. My mom is English and I have a deep understanding of both British and American accents. So here are a few tips specifically for the Brits.
continue readingHow to stop gasping for air when you talk
In the past week this topic has come up in two different contexts for clients. One example is what you might expect, a professional speaker who noticed that he could hear his breaths during a TED talk. The other, perhaps less obvious, is someone who has been doing a lot of job interviews and noticed that she can hear herself gasp for air when answering questions.
Different settings, same problem: tension causing audible inhales.
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