Some Introductory Thoughts on Voice and Speech Part 1

This post is mainly aimed at my new acting students that began their ‘Introduction to Acting’ course this evening. However, it could and should be of benefit to anyone studying acting or theatre, and interested in some basic thoughts on voice and speech. So here we go:

Voice and Speech are often taught separately in the USA whereas in the UK, they’re taught as one thing. Personally, I find it difficult to conceive of why one function of the same mouth would be separated from another function of the same mouth and all of its components. One feeds the other, one accompanies the other, and both rely on each other to work effectively. So, at present, as part of my classes, I teach a combination of Voice and Speech as part of the warm up for the class. I place a high value on warm up, it’s an important grounding time, it’s personal time and it’s a way of coming together as a class. To me a slightly less ‘arty’ way of ‘crossing the creative threshold’, but if you prefer that way more power to you.

You can’t escape it, the voice and speech are truly essential to the actor. Whether you are focused mainly on voice like a radio actor or commercial voice over talent, whether you’re working in the theatre where you need to fill a huge room with an individual, powerful, but subtle voice or a television or film actor who has the boom floating above their head: your voice and speech are the tools of your trade.

For this reason, you need to take excellent care of your voice. Voice is distinctively yours – no one has a voice like you, not even close family members. Our voice often reveals a huge amount about us. But your speech style, as I am often ribbed for, is entirely habitual. You learn it, and you can change it through habitual practice. Speech also reveals a great deal about us and people often can get very emotional during investigations into their voice and speech. That’s why voice and speech teachers should be particularly sensitive to this. Not all are, in my experience and opinion.

You may tell the story of the play through your body, but the central method of communicating the playwright’s ideas is through their words coupled with your ‘actions’. Since this is such a primary skill requirement, then voice and speech plays a central part in actor training. The actor simply must have voice and speech within their control and under their command.

Let’s look at the voice some more. The word ‘voice’ in this context usually refers to the sound is makes, the tone of the sound. To grasp the voice, you need to understand it. The voice has 3 distinct sections:

  • The Excitor

  • The Vibrator

  • Reasonator

The excitor is what causes the sound, it is the power behind it, in this case, it is the breath. The power comes through the nose or mouth as breath, down into the lungs and out as the EXCITOR.

The vibrator is whatever resistance the EXCITOR meets on the way to the RESONATOR (in this case, it’s the vocal chords).

The resonator in the human body comes in three different forms: the pharynx, the mouth and the nose – the cavities help to create the sound resonation.

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Getting into Character is Being in “Flow”

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Two Bad Habits of Actors