Fourth day at Westminster Kingsway Thursday 13th September 2018.

Practical work on voice.

Today we did lots of vocal work as it helps performers with projection,intonation, pitch and clarity. We started of by standing in a circle, in a neutral position to get rid of basic habits of let go any tension in parts of our bodies. Rob then taught us basic breathing skills to perfect our breathing and taught us how to use it to our advantage when using a voices in different ways.

when Breathing in through your nose your stomach should expand while you breathe out through your mouth , then your stomach should flatten as the air is being let out. For me this was relaxing as i had tension in my neck and shoulders so it help to ease that away. We were then told to to find a space on the floor and imagine ourselves on a beach and still practise the basic breathing skills.

 At first we all looked at each other and giggled as it was weird. Most people had created a bond with other students while others where still slowly coming out there comfort zones. After a lot of movement we finally were all on the floor and imaging what it would feel like, to the point where no one really wanted to get up anymore. You realise how much tension you really have in yourself when you actually go out your way to just breathe and relax which is what we did and honestly it helped so much to clear the mind, right after everyone felt light and more than ready to continue.

Practising vowels was my next task:( oo oh ore) was what we went over many times in different ways and tones which helped to make us open our mouth while saying them, while pacing it out in 8,12 and 16 beats till we could finally breathe, showing me how long i could keep the vowel sounds in my mouth for. Moving forward we started to sound out words with the tip of our tongues to exercise it and also use a range of voice with different words. we all did this is corral speaking and everyone sounded unique. Rob then told us that we should keep practising and it would be much better after. It was very hard for me as my mouth kept closing as it was meant to be open wide, so i knew that was something i had to work on.

Last but not least we all got given poem by famous poets to practise and read to the class while in collaboration with everything we had learnt today. While everyone read we were told to read in our normal voices but use are breathing skills and pace, which i did which a lot of clarity so the whole class could hear me. Each line i read with meaning and understanding so i didn't sound bothered. When everyone read they read with  understandings and contrasting interpretations as most of us got given different poems. we then got told to look up some famous voice gurus and look at the way they use their voices to there advantage. One important thing i learnt today was VOICE IS KEY.