Voice Logbook

Week 1

In today’s session we started off with an introduction to why voice work is important to an actor and a couple of warm ups on how to improve on our voice works such as the buddiga’s and puttika’s “b,d,g and p,t,k” I found it really difficult to pronounce the K in this lesson as all I could hear was release of air.

I found this session to be troubling in the beginning as I wasn’t able to keep up with the speed of the vocal warm up.

Week 2
In today’s session we begun with the warm ups again which then the Diamond was introduced as I found this one to be more helpful for when we placed our hands onto ours waists as it helped me with projecting even louder as well for feeling whether I was pushing hard enough or not, applied this to my afternoons once I got home so I was able to improve on my projection for my voice work.

Week 3
In the third week we once again repeated the same warm ups however this time we was encouraged to start doing recordings of it throughout our day off or within the weekend so we can bring it back in for feedback as well peer assessing on what did we think about it and how well did it go? I found this to be rather enjoyable as well strange as it felt different doing it privately at home then in front of my other classmates however it helped with pronouncing more clearly with better diction in my other class sessions.

Week 4
Today we started with doing our letter pronunciations again which then we did a garage/noise exercise for where we would act like some vehicle with different noises whilst walking around as our partners would wait for us to stop back in once we ran out of breath as we’d do this with the letter E or other noises, this was used to help with our breath reduction during voice work, I found this exercise to be slightly strange as I didn’t consider it to be very enjoyable yet it helped with expanding my lung capacity so I could perform speeches or use it for any of my performances that I had at the time.

Week 5
Today our voice recordings was due in as we sat in a circle after doing an exercise as well warm up, we’d have our notepads out to log down any kind of feedback as one of them being for me to slow down on the tempo with my buddiga’s as well puttika’s since I rushed them on my recording, I found this to be helpful as it explained why I was finding the pronunciation of the letter K was difficult in the vocal warm up as I needed to slow it down to repeat it more clearly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7PmbiMGmWo&app=desktop

Week 6
We got in early today as we started with doing more warm ups for our vocal exercises which we had James early in the morning where we did Mango, Raspberry, Cucumber, Melon and Little Prune which helped with multiple things at once such as Projection, diction, as well grounding the voice, I found this helpful as it helped me speak more clearly and louder.

I continued to do breath reduction exercises such as the semi supine position with breathing in for 3 then out for 20 and I gradually increase this to help with being able to perform bigger speeches without breaking or needing breathers; as this was useful since I didn’t have to push myself.

Week 7
For today’s lesson I was given a sonnet for which we was to perform in our own space whilst standing up as well towards the wall and whilst sitting down, this was for grounding our voices which helped with pronouncing from the stomach other than the neck, I found this challenging since my sonnet had olden English involved which kept catching me out as I didn’t know the meaning or context of it.

I continued to do some facial warm ups such as rubbing around the face steadily and then rubbing under the chin gently but firmly as this would help to warm up the face for scripts and speeches; as I also repeated to do my b,d,g and p,t,k which helped me with pronouncing words properly.

Week 8
In today’s lesson of voice we did a couple of warm ups from buddiga’s to Puttika’s again which then we moved straight onto doing our sonnet work which then we sat down on the floor holding a chair above us causing weight to strain on the voice as we would have to speak our sonnet with the pressure of holding the chair.

As I was doing this it made it harder for me to hold onto my breath control as I would run out of air quicker as it felt like so much effort to read off the paper in front of us which then we moved onto trying to do long paragraphs of a story or performance whilst walking around and every time we came to a full stop or semi colon we would stop as well take a breather, we would then continue it with the same repeating action.

It was important to do vocal warm ups daily as this helped with relaxing the jaw when doing scripts or practices, It was important to do this to avoid straining of the voice or muscles.

Week 9
In today’s lesson we started with practicing our line rehearsing’s for our sonnets which we started to do research into translating the sonnets contexts and meanings of the words as we would be looking into each of the words for important definitions or reasoning’s behind it for why they’re saying these? I found this to be easy as we would break it down into sentences of 10 counts.

In the next lesson I would like to improve on my grounding of the voice as I don’t project to my surrounding enough as it’s still directed in one direction.

I did more vocal and breath reduction warm ups to help with extending the use of my scripts and performances as it also helps with not straining and holding

Week 10
In today’s session we continued rehearsing our sonnets which I finally got my lines down however we have to sit back to back after doing a peer performance, we’d say our sonnets trying to feel our vibrations from our partners, I found this to be quite different as the words felt more important as well powerful as I felt the difference in the vibrations and changes.

Week 11
For today’s session we continued with performing our sonnets in front of our peers for feedback as well to provide something for feedback on whether we’ve improved on past feedback which mind was to ground my voice more as well to emphasize and to try and give words more in depth meanings as well giving my characters more vitality. I was still in progress of applying the vitality to my Knot of the heart performance, I would like to be able to provide more creative vitality to my characters movement as well sonnet by next week.

Week 12
In the twelfth week I was able to accomplish my goal for giving my character more creative vitality however I need to improve on my conversation speed therefore I need to improve on my queuing as well contextual understanding still so I can apply this to my performance as well Crucible, in today’s lesson we did some basic warm ups as well recapping on what we did before with voice with my partners in the class, I found this lesson rather relaxing since we’ve been practicing them for quite a long while now which then we have finished our sonnets.

Week 13
In our final week we did some vocal warm ups which then we moved straight onto sitting against the wall with projecting towards the other side to help with limiting our voice to the waist/stomach this was the most annoying exercise as it felt incredibly uncomfortable due to the straining on the legs however it helped with making my voice louder without forcing it out.