I was surprised by how many people asked this question when I told them about an upcoming vocal coaching gig. So let’s break these concepts down!
continue reading5 everyday words that make a foreign accent more (or less!) pronounced
One of the keys to sounding natural in any language is rhythm. Emphasis and stress are often at least as important as getting the correct speech sounds. The five common words below have special pronunciation rules that affect the whole rhythm of a sentence, and make a huge different in the way a speaker’s accent/speech is perceived. The words are:
continue readingThe 100 most common words in English
Many of my clients work to sound natural when speaking English. This list of the 100 most common words of English (according to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th edition) makes great practice material.
continue readingBusting a myth about vocal injuries
When a pro athlete has a knee injury, fans don’t jump to the conclusion that they must have poor running technique. Yet when a professional singer gets a vocal cord injury, it’s a different matter. Let’s shed a little light about what a vocal injury does and doesn’t mean.
contine readingYep, you have an accent. Embrace it.
Everyone has an accent. Or more specifically, everyone has a dialect. In teaching accents to actors for several decades, I often hear people say they “don’t have an accent”. I think this means they believe they don’t have a dialect that makes them readily identifiable as being from a particular geographic region. But there’s more to a dialect than just geography.
continue reading3 tips for projecting your voice
Being heard over background noise, or in a large or outdoor place, requires specific techniques. Surprisingly, loudness is only one component of projection. A well-placed voice can be heard better than you might think, with a couple extra tweaks.
continue reading