Total Voice
Express Your Truest Self
by Kate DeVore
Filed Under: Accent Modification, Being Heard, Dialects for Stage, Myth Busters, Owning the Room, Professional Speaking, Singing, Voice for Stage, Voice Therapy
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” (Aristotle)
The way we speak is habitual. The concept of habit runs deeply through the work of voice and speech training. This is especially true in theatre, where the idea moves beyond speech into other elements affecting actors’ performance.
In this post, we are simply dipping a toe into the basics of habits: what they are, why we need them, and how to change them if we wish.
continue readingby Kate DeVore
Filed Under: Accent Modification, Dialects for Stage, Myth Busters, Professional Speaking
I have been surprised lately to hear so many people insisting they do not have an accent. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Everyone has an accent!
continue readingby Kate DeVore
Filed Under: Accent Modification, Being Heard, Breath Support, Dialects for Stage, Myth Busters, Owning the Room, Powerful Speaking, Professional Speaking, Singing, Stage Fright, Vocal health, Vocal Injury, Voice for Stage, Voice Therapy, Voiceover
I just learned that I have made 50 posts on this page over the past few years. These posts cover everything from “diaphragmatic” breathing to allergies to vocal health/injuries to projection to learning accents to hoarseness to owning a room. In case you missed any, here’s a complete list:
continue readingby Kate DeVore
Filed Under: Accent Modification, Being Heard, Myth Busters, Powerful Speaking, Professional Speaking
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 readingby Kate DeVore
Filed Under: Accent Modification, Being Heard, Dialects for Stage, Professional Speaking
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 readingby Kate DeVore
Filed Under: Accent Modification, Dialects for Stage, Myth Busters, Powerful Speaking, Professional Speaking
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.
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