The Final Presentation

This week was the last lesson of voice production and I was honestly quite sad that it was coming to an end. Despite it being a Tuesday 930 class, I always looked forward to attending lessons because it was fun plus I felt that I learnt something new every week.

Some of the last concluding points that Claire imparted to us and kindly summed up at the end of the session:

Made this for myself to look back in the future, as a summary of what I have learnt and the things I could focus on doing more as an individual.

As a whole, I felt myself grow in terms of the way I present and also how I have gotten a lot more comfortable when standing up there, presenting in front of an audience. After 10 weeks of classes, I can feel that I am now more aware on how to take better care of my vocal and also, use the various techniques that have been taught to better vocalize myself.

Really appreciate having Claire as our teacher as I enjoy the way she conducts her lesson – full of humor and expressions, making every session enjoyable. I feel that the way Claire has her classes conducted, allow us to explore many areas of speech (group presentation, over technology, live presentation etc.) and this really help in allowing me to step out of my comfort zone and find which style suit me most.

The past 10 weeks have been very rewarding. Claire was there to correct my mistakes along the way, and receiving feedbacks from the class also aid me in knowing what are my area of weaknesses. On top of the vocal and speech skills that were imparted to us, we also hear about life experiences and learn about soft skills that can aid us in our future presentations. I was honestly a little skeptical at the start on how much I can really approve, and what I can really take away from this module. However, as the weeks progressed, I realized that there were many things for me to learn and change about the way I speak.

It was definitely a great 10 weeks and hopefully with whatever I have learnt, I will be able to become a better and more confident speaker.

-

I was falling ill this week and by the time I attended class, I was coughing and sneezing so badly it actually hurt doing the breathing exercises. Hence for this week researching, I actually went to read up on how I can actively care and maximise the use of our voices in terms of modifying out our lifestyle and environment on top of cultivating good habits of voice and speech production. Thought this was quite relevant especially since I could feel that me being sick took a toll on my voice as well.

In terms of health and nutrition, this area plays a significant role in voice and speech production of an individual. If we do not take good care of ourselves, there could be a tendency to strain our voices. One key point was to have enough hours of refreshing sleep a day. There is also importance in eating habits. Fried food before a performance or presentation may not be such a good idea, and sensible good habits are required. I think another aspect is also the individual’s emotional well being. Preparing oneself emotionally can help in a better performance and this can come in the form of practicing to build up confidence level, talking to others to ask for advice prior to the actual presentation, being in a positive mood on presentation day etc.

I think the emphasis here is that, our voice is crucial when it comes to delivering and presenting our ideas to others and hence, the maintenance and care of the throat is very important. For my own case, this means that when I actually sense a sore throat coming, I should take extra care to maintain my voice by perhaps speaking lesser, and drinking more water or honey lemon. I have the tendency to continue speaking at a loud volume and straining my vocals even when I am already suffering a sore throat, leading to it prolonging for a long period of time. I should also avoid drinking too much cold water and eating fried food as research has shown that these does not aid in soothing the throat but rather damaging it instead. Only as of late and after attending voice production class did I then realize the importance of recovering as soon as possible or it might have permanent damage when the sore throat or cough gets too bad.

Most importantly, for myself, I hope that I learn to take better care of my vocals by straining it less. This includes shouting unnecessarily and raising my volume too much when I get excited. Even if I have to raise my voice, I should constantly remember that it can be done through resonating the voice rather than screaming and straining the throat. I think that the techniques I have learnt in class have taught me how to better utilize my own voice, without damaging my vocal chord.

Presentation Day

The day has arrived for my group’s presentation! Days up to the day of presentation, I was feeling the jitters especially since the group before did so well. Practiced my script to my roomie Cass, my course mates, and even my family and asked them to provide me with feedback that can help me do better. Thank god nobody got tired hearing me speak (or maybe they were, but they did not mention).

My group was presenting on “the pitfalls of online webinar-style presentation” and as a presenter “what can you do to give engaging presentations”. The topic itself was more on the technical side and so one of the difficulty my group faced was coming up with a way to present the topic without boring the audience. We decided to incorporate skits and short stories, to bring across our points.

After our presentation, I was feeling a little disappointed as I thought our group could have done a lot better. Halfway through the presentation, I could honestly feel the energy level in the room dipped, and half of the audience were looking like they were bored of it already.

Some of the advices the others gave our group, which I thought made a lot of sense and could aid in our own future presentations as well.

1. More interaction with the audience. Direct them to the slides and then back.

2. Split the parts much more evenly and have a better balance when it came to presentation time. By having a evenly balanced show time, this will not diminish the other presenters value too.

3. When rehearsing, it will be good to be more critical with one another. By giving critical appraisal on how to improve, what to work on, what is good – this can help each other to move forward even better.

4. As a group, we should analyze and tap onto each other energy’s level as well. For those who are more soft spoken and have lower energy level, it will be good to ‘borrow’ the energy of others. This can help in maintaining and keeping the same volume level across all group members.

The class then ranked us in terms of our presentation and I was happy that I got ranked second, slightly behind Nicholas. Here is a summary of the comments which I received from the class on what was good (hence keep for future presentation) and bad (what I can improve) on my own presentation.

Based on the class comments, I was really very happy to hear that there has been an improvement in my presentation (especially when Claire said it!). The point I was most satisfied with was when they mentioned that my voice was well resonated. It felt like all the breathing and humming exercises worked. Previously when we did the reading exercise, my voice shape was of a circle, which did not reach the audience on my sides and it could not travel far too. Hence, it was heartening to hear that there has been an improvement.

I think my other group members did well too. Even though there were times when some of them tripped on their words, I think they bounced back and carried on fine. Claire took some time to address the issue on nervousness during presentation, which I am pretty sure many of us encounter and go through before every major presentation. Some tips which I gathered that I will probably put the good use in the future:

- Talking to the audience prior to the presentation. This can help the presenter get more familiar and comfortable with the situation, and perhaps ease some of the nervousness.

- Start by asking a question. This can help connect with the audience on a more personal level. The acknowledgement from the audience can also serve as a guide on who are the more supportive and friendly faces amongst the crowd.

- When you get nervous during a presentation: 1) think about the purpose and objective of the presentation 2) force a thought in your head 3) use clues; certain actions like squeezing your palm or pinching your thighs can help stop the brain from thinking about how nervous you are.

- When you forget your lines, you can turn to the screen for cues. To do so, remember to move the whole body rather than standing firm on the ground and just turning the upper body to look at the screen. By moving about this allow yourself to relax and remember better as well.

To a Better Presentation

The most memorable thing that happened this session was the group presentation. The group consisting of Sherwin, Michelle, Lynette and Jia En presented on the approaches Donald Trump used to engage an audience. What was memorable about their presentation was that they were so good! Their presentation consisted of good humor, great energy level, smooth transition between one member to another and equal chance for each person to speak. It was a presentation that kept me entertained from the start to the end and to be honest, I was really impressed by this group.

Some things that I feel I could learn and takeaway from this group’s presentation include:

- Good pacing and articulation when speaking, allowing the audience to catch what they were saying. This was executed best by Sherwin in my opinion.

- Emphasizing on the key words in order to bring across their point

- Good humor throughout and what was even better is that the jokes they cracked were linked to their content – making it a good ‘bait’ to their points

- It is okay to forget your lines. When this happen, the presenter should take this chance to pause and relax. Think about what to say before carrying on. Do not say sorry – some audience may not even have realized you tripped on your words.

Given that my group was presenting the week after theirs, it was indeed quite stressful as the bar has been raised pretty high! Claire went through some tips to better our presentation and these are some of the things which I thought will be very useful for my own future presentations.

1) Endings. They are as important as any part of the presentation. For a group presentation, it will definitely be better to end as an ensemble rather than an individual.

2) Slides. Make good use of your slides. If there are important points on the slides that the presenter want to direct the audience to, direct them to it and proceed to give them some time to read through it. Always be aware of the audience as well – move away if some audience seem to be having difficulty viewing the slides from their position. Once they are done and the presenter want the focus to be on him/her, bring oneself up to the front.

3) Q&A. The presentation does not stop at the conclusion. Q&A are also important and hence, presenters should not forget their presentation and vocal techniques at this point in time too. If the presenter requires time to think through the answer, take your time. It is better to think through and have a clear idea on how to answer, than rush to answer and have to end up using too much fillers “er, ok, so” to fill up the gaps in between because you speak faster than your brain process in this case.

4) Taking everyone with your voice. It is important to address every single audience. From the left, to the centre, and then the right of the audience – every listener should feel connected to the speaker. To do so, one tip was to rotate the body to address every one in the audience. Some presenters have the tendency to cut off certain part of the audience, especially the side where their back is facing. This will result in their voice to not be able to reach the audience, which is not ideal.

5) Reading the audience. I think this is one of the key point that I really took away from the entire module. Given that we present for the audience, looking at the audience faces can give us, as presenter, a sensing on how they are feeling. Are they bored? Are they interested and enjoying the presentation? It is important to read, and think of what to do next. If they seem bored, one way is to get more personal with the audience, and engage with them.

Warm up & Neethling Brain Instrument

We started off the session with a warm up session that differed from the previous few we were doing. Claire had us sit in a circle, and had us imagined that it was an “early morning group meeting” setting. Given that it was indeed very early in the morning, the energy level within the circle was all time low. Claire then had us discuss what are some of the ways in which we can raise the low energy level if we were in that given situation. One of ways that an individual can actually increase their own energy level is through their posture. I think it has been emphasized many times on how important posture is in terms of the energy level and producing of sound. It is good to sit up straight, strong at the spine and hips and have feet planted on the ground, rather than hanging.

If this situation (group meeting) occurred in the working world in future, some things we can do to increase our energy level and be warmed up prior to the meeting are simple mouth warmups (stretching), slight humming to self, walking around to warm up the body and at the same time release the tension through breathing exercises. Even by starting short conversations with our colleagues prior to an important presentation is a good way to warm up the voice, and also find your right pitch.

We were then asked to go on and carry out our own vocal warm ups. Prior to the session, I did look up for some vocal warms up which I think suits me. Given that everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses, I thought that the vocal warm up for each individual should be tailored to their voice. In a situation where there is not much time to warm up the voice (given that it usually takes around 20-25 minutes to completely warm it up), I feel that I should focus more on the parts that I am weaker at.

Breathing – more for the individuals that get nervous easily. Focusing on the breathing exercises can help them regulate their breathing and calm themselves down before a presentation. Breathing exercises can also help those who speak very fast as it allows them to get use to slow breathing, which can then be applied during their speech as well.

Resonance – for those who tend to be more soft spoken and have difficulty projecting their voice. In this case, I felt that resonating my voice was not my biggest concern as I naturally have a loud voice.

Articulation – this is my biggest weakness when it comes to speech and presentation and I focused my warm up more on this area. I feel that opening of jaw and massaging my cheeks help in relaxing my mouth area. Doing tongue twisters also help in warming up my pronunciation of words.

Vocal Variety – something that I hope my warm up can help me in. Given that my tone may start to flat out at the end of my speech, making it monotonous, I think reading short paragraphs and using different tones for warm up will be a good way to warm up the vocal.

Claire also went through with us the Neethling Brain Instrument. This was one of the more interesting takeaway I got from the class as I enjoy reading and learning about things that relate to different personality types and the ways they behave. I think the main aim of Claire sharing this with us was to allow us to have a better idea on how we can better cater to our audience. We have to understand our audience type, know what to present to them in order to pull the heartstrings and capture their attention.

The way to a presentation is:

Drama Mama

For this session, we did not do some of our warm up exercises and instead drove straight into our story telling session after our “Groover-licious” game.

We all sat in a circle and then went one round making stories with one sentence each. Throughout the first round, the story got disconnected quite a few times and it was actually hard for people at the end to keep track of the story flow. Thankfully, Sherwin managed to save the day, and concluded the story with a cliff hanger – “to know what exactly happened, stay tune for next week episode” which I thought was really creative of him.

Claire then had us go a second round, but this time we had to repeat the line of the previous person before adding on to ours. This proved to be a much more effective method given that we were able to keep in mind the storyline better. The story did flow a little better, though it got lost halfway through.

The story was best remembered in the final round, where we had an action accompanying our sentence, compared to the first two rounds of just sentences. Repeating the line and doing the action of the previous person, made it easier to connect from one person to another. Pretty sure the actions that symbolizes the sentence itself made remembering everything so much easier. Sherwin even managed to reenact every action and line at the end, making it quite a comical story! (Sneak peak: Claire going to Zouk to party)

After which, we broke off into groups, mine consisted of Cass, Shafiq and Jian En. We were tasked to act out a story with just sound only. After listening to the story of others and performing our own, I realized that by just solely acting a story based on sound – this allowed everyone to interpret it based on their own imagination. Furthermore, the clarity in the sound differs from individuals and this can result in a little ambiguity, causing everyone to think different.

The next activity we embarked on was now, using only certain words (galaxy, refrigerator, mee goring, hungry, burger, hot cakes, gang fight), we were to make up a story. It was a little hard to come up with a story line only using these seven words given that there were no adjectives or verbs. With that, many groups made used of sounds to make the connection between words, reflecting how significant the use of sound can be to portray a story across.

After all the drama and story telling, we talked about the more technical stuffs since our class group presentations were starting the next lesson. Similar to the research I did two weeks ago, here are some of the things I have learnt on vocal variety from Claire, that I feel can be applied to my future presentations.

Pitch:

• Look at the word itself can help determine what pitch needed (the word ‘high’: naturally read it with a higher pitch than ‘low’)

• Look for clues in the text that suggest a change in pitch

Pace:

• In terms of theatrics, pacing helps add elements and colors to our speech (fast to describe a panicking individual, or slow to build up suspense)

• It helps engage the audience by changing the dynamic of the speech – this can potentially help bring back the attention of the audience

At this point, Claire mentioned a very important point – we must always focus on the AUDIENCE. We deliver our speech TO them all the time, not for ourselves. Hence, we will make use of every aspect to grab and capture the attention of the audience.

Pronunciation:

• It is important to be clear. People will then be able to understand it at one go. If it is unclear, people will start to questioning or wondering what the word was – causing the presenter to lose their attention.

Pause VERY IMPORTANT:

• This determines a good/bad presentation

• A pause can help tell the audience when there is a change in thought.

• Pause for IMPACT: this allows the audience to better understand what you are saying as well

• As a presenter, you can take this time to breathe, and let your audience process everything you just said

Quote Claire:

“Many a times, we do not pause enough, because we fear silence and hence we rush to fill the silence”. 

And this is sadly, not the right way to do.

Intonation:

• Stressing on the word – emphasizing different words can portray different feelings (I love you, i LOVE you, i love YOU)

• Important to find the words that can “tell the story”.

Tone:

• This is very important too since it portrays the presenter feelings at that point of time

• Tone is critical when it comes to persuading others

Phonetic Transcription

Weekly account of class:

For this week lesson, we focused a lot more on phonetics and our pronunciation of words. We started off with the usual warm up games. During the first warm up game ('whoosh' game), one of the thing that Claire picked out and mentioned was how the way the game is started by one player will affect the atmosphere of the game subsequently. For example, this week, Claire passed the 'whoosh' to Leon, who then passed it on to me, then Cass, followed by Nicholas. Just so happened, all four of us were rather lethargic and hence we did it with minimal energy, evidently filled with tiredness. The whole 'low energy' was passed on to the others. Claire called the game to a pause, and was telling us about how it was an example that solely by the voice, you can affect the response and mood of the other participants. 

I felt that this was something that we could all take note of. Especially when we are doing our presentations alone and we can only rely primarily on our voice to attract, distract, affect the mood of the listeners - we really have to ensure we manage to 'hype' the audience up with our voice, rather than bore them and worst, lose their attention because our voices were not impactful enough. 

For this week breathing exercises, I felt a lot more at ease while doing them and struggled a lot lesser. I can feel that my body was getting more used to the exercises and hence it was relatively easier for me. We were also going on to more developmental exercises, as now we were doing the inhaling and exhaling exercises for a longer duration. We attempted the 6-4-12 (breathe in, hold, breathe out) and this progressive exercise aimed at training the expansion of our lungs. Hopefully by doing these continuously for the next few weeks, I will be able to feel that my lungs capacity has got a little bit larger. 

The main activity for the session was going through the transcription that we have done for a poem prior to the class. I think the class did rather well in transcribing the poem as majority of us managed to do it right. However, while transcribing the poem, I did faced some difficulties. One of the major mistake I made was confusing the 's' and the 'z' in words like becomes, wines etc. I felt that many a times, such mistakes was due to the way I pronounced such words daily. The wrong pronunciation hence led to me transcribing these words wrongly. 

Something that I feel I will be referring to quite often in the next few weeks given that I have difficulties pronouncing my words properly!

We then went on to discuss about the emphasis on certain words. We were introduced to schwa (which refers to reading a word at half a beat), short vowels (one beat) and long vowels (those that have two vowels together or with the ':' - two to two and a half beat). These determined whether the words are to be emphasize on and whether it should be elongated or are they words that require us to just touch and go, reading only the consonants. By mastering such a skill, it will to produce a natural accent as well. 

Takeaway from this session/Research findings: 

I was reading up about phonetics and chanced upon some anatomy with regards to the vocal tract which interest me (since I am a sports science student). Picture below show where exactly the different sounds can be produced. Inside the larynx are two tiny but very important membranes, commonly called vocal cords, but usually referred to as vocal folds by phoneticians. These membranes are set into vibration by the passing air, producing sound. They are controlled by a set of muscles and cartilage which allows them to change their shape, and consequently the quality of sound they produce, including changes in pitch. Once the vibrating column of air had passed through the larynx, its shape can be moulded into different sounds as it passes through the vocal tract.

Speech sounds are also said to be of two major types - vowels and consonants:

Vowels are speech sounds produced with no obstruction to the air flow coming from the lungs. They can take on their different sound qualities by subtle changes of shape in the vocal tract as they are being produced. Consonants, on the other hand, are speech sounds that involve a momentary interruption or obstruction of the air flow. They can be described and differentiated from each other by using three main classifications: voice, place, and manner of articulation. 

Peccei, J. (n.d.). Phonetics for Beginners. Retrieved February 15, 2017, from http://jcarreras.homestead.com/rrphonetics1.html

Acoustics of the Vocal Tract

Weekly account of class: 

This week class started off with the usual warm up games followed by the breathing exercises. This time, we took it up a notch and instead of the 8-4-8, we did the 5-2-10 breathing exercise. At the start it was quite a struggle for me as I was not used to exhaling for so long but on the third try, I felt that I could exhale the entire duration slightly better (struggling a little less!). Hopefully in the weeks to come, I will be able to carry out the breathing exercises a little better. 

On top of the usual breathing exercises, Claire added elements that were a little more challenging such as breathing in push up positions (which definitely required an extra intake of breath). Personally, as compared to doing normal push ups, bridges during my softball trainings, I felt that I could control my breathing better and this aided in me being able to sustain the position for a longer time (without feeling too tired). Given that this session was going to be focused on phonation, phonetic alphabets, Claire also had us practice our vowels pronunciation whilst doing the breathing exercises (a, e, i, o, u). 

We then proceeded to doing more breathing/mouthing exercises while standing up. First we got into pairs and positioned ourselves facing each other, palms to palms. While breathing and mouthing the vowels, we were to channeled our breathing and energy and pushed against one another, forcing the breath out till the very bit. For this exercise, my partner, Cass, managed to exhale longer than when she was lying on the ground. Personally, I managed to exhale the longest when we were pulling apart from each other while back facing. In this case, I feel like there were more breath coming out and it was much easier to channel them forward as well. It made me realised that different individuals can better control their breath in different positions, which I thought was very interesting. 

This session was very focused on the phonetic alphabets and articulations. Claire had all of us reading a tongue twister. While observing each of my course mates attempt the tongue twister, I managed to jot down a few pointers/Claire's comments that can aid in my journey to improving my articulation:

- Do not rush. Having a good rhythm while reading (anything) will naturally result in everything coming out cleanly and smoothly. Consistency is key! Everything can be solve by taking time to articulate. 

- Ending 'd's should always be emphasized i.e. toad, toed, ground

- Those with accents will tend to stretch their 'i', producing elongated sound (and this should be avoided) 

For my own performance, the main thing that I should take note and keep in mind was the 'd' sound in words like toad. In my case, I am unable to produce the clear 'd' sound when the vowel is much more in front as compared to words like ground. In the case of 'toad', my 'd' sound will tend to come out as a 't' at the end. Claire said that it was all about the mentality and habit and some changes will take some time given that I am very used at pronouncing it this way. Shall aim to pay more attention to such words and hopefully work on them. 

Takeaway from this session/Research findings:

Through this session, I came to understand that being in different positions expands our lungs differently and each of us have a certain position which we would be able to inhale and exhale a lot better. I went to further read up some of the other ways which we could help in building stronger and healthier lungs.

There are more poses which can be found on http://www.yogajournal.com/category/poses/anatomy/lungs/ and these different positions can help stimulate the lungs and at the same time, help strengthen certain parts of the body (shoulders, lower back) and I feel this can also help in our body postures. 

In terms of pronunciation/articulation, I managed to find some practices that I can inculcate which hopefully can help me in improving my pronunciation when I speak.

1. Paying attention to my tongue when speaking, some examples include:
- “L” sound: tongue should touch the back of your front teeth and the top of your mouth, just behind your teeth.
- “R” sound, tongue should not touch the top of your mouth. Pull your tongue back to the middle of your mouth, near where it naturally rests if you weren’t saying anything. As you say the sound, your lips should be a little rounded.
- “TH” sound. Put tongue between your top and bottom teeth. Your tongue should stick out a little between your teeth, and as you push air out of your mouth, let some air escape between your tongue and teeth—that’s what makes the sound.

2. Breaking words down into sounds (by syllables). This can help in the articulation by reading each part slowly, and pausing after each syllable.

3. Adding stress to sounds and words. This will allow me to pay more attention to each word instead of rushing through them, leading to slurring of words in between.

-

For this week research, I also went to read up on what modulation is and how it plays a part in voice production. Modulation is a change in stress, pitch, loudness, or tone of the voice and an inflection of the voice and this is what gives the voice mood meaning and sounds attractive. Some of the few components of voice modulation included:

Pace or Speech speed (Pace): It must always be at a speed that the listener can understand. Put the pace at that speed where the listener can understand you properly. 

Pitch or Depth of voice: Keep it at a level that is comfortable for you and don’t strain your vocal cords. 

Pause: Pauses should be given at required intervals like where there is punctuation. It is given to let the listener absorb your information. It is given for emphasis and dramatic effect.

Power: In order to create power in your voice you should not speak from your mouth but from inside from the abdomen, make it commanding by generating intensity in your voice. 

Volume: Try and match your listener’s speech volume, unless they are shouting. Try dropping your volume so that they have to drop their volume to hear you. Maintain your volume according to the listener decrease or increase (do not shout to increase it be loud) 

Emphasis: Put emphasis by putting some pressure or focus on the key words or syllables in order to provide contrast to your words bring out their desired meaning. 

Inflection: Inflection means ups and downs of words. In combination inflection links meaning and feeling with your words.

Thought it would be quite useful to keep these few key points in mind, especially when we are preparing for our upcoming group presentation. Given that these key words are short and to the point, remembering it should not be a problem, but executing it will be a challenge!

Voice Modulation. (n.d.). Retrieved February 20, 2017, from http://speakingenglishlanguage.blogspot.sg/p/voice-modulation.html
Yoga Poses for Lungs & Breathing. (n.d.). Retrieved February 20, 2017, from http://www.yogajournal.com/category/poses/anatomy/lungs/
How to Greatly Improve Your English Pronunciation in 8 Steps. (n.d.). Retrieved February 20, 2017, from http://www.fluentu.com/english/blog/how-to-improve-english-pronunciation/

Resonance

Weekly account of class: 

For this session, we started off with a new game – “whoosh” game and this game focused on how we can make an impact with our voice. The game was carried out in a circle, and we had to pass on the “whoosh” to the person beside us, or change the direction with a “wow”. Through the activity, I observed that there were a few individuals we had very loud and impactful voice and this was due to a few reasons.

1. Body Physique: One good example was Leon. Many of us had a good impression of Leon’s performance during the game and one of the contributing factor was due to his height. Given that he was tall in size, whenever he turned towards the person next to him and “whoosh” her, it had a lot more impact as compared to when someone smaller eg. Ben did it. Furthermore, with his height, it allowed him to feel more authoritative, much more ‘powerful’ and this captured the attention of everyone else.

2. Making use of body actions: When Claire demonstrated the game, she made use of her arms (opened them wide towards the person she was ‘whoosh’ing to) and she took a step forward towards them as well. Her loud voice accompanied with the hands actions really did gave off a very strong and impactful feeling.

3. Overtime excitement. One example was Wani, who got louder over the course of the game and started raising her voice at the end and at times where the people between her kept going back and forth. There was quite an evident difference in her tone and the impact it had as well. She started off speaking quite softly and hence it went unnoticed at times. However, when she raised her voice in the midst of excitement/ annoyance, it did catch my attention which I thought was a good example of how some people may come off as quiet and reserved, but when the situation calls for it, they are able to speak up and be loud and impactful as well.

After the usual warm up games, we then went on to the breathing exercises. For this session, I could feel that I was doing better at the exercises than the previous session. I was able to inhale and exhale for 8 seconds which lesser difficulty. This may be due to the fact that I did not have a blocked nose this session. Furthermore, I felt more accustomed to breathing through my nose and hence it may the entire exercise much more relaxing. This time, on top of the usual breathing exercises we did, Claire introduced to us breathing and humming techniques that worked our different body parts resonance – chest, abdomen, top of the head, cheeks, lips. We were to feel the vibration coming from these parts as we hummed and breathed out at the same time. At the start, it was a little hard to get used to given that many a times we rely on our chest to produce the sound and hence using the other parts was a little challenging. For me, I thought that feeling the vibration at the top of the head was the hardest. Hopefully in the weeks to come, I will be able to feel a stronger vibration at the top of my head.

The main activity we did for this session was having each person to go up and read a passage, and then having to see how our voice projection was like. In this activity, Claire had us describe the voice projection of each speaker in a shape. This shape was a description of how far and wide our voice could travel. According to my classmates, mine was an inverted triangle which stretched slightly above my head. I presume that this meant that my voice was slightly louder (as compared to those whose voice was trapped in a small circle at their mouth). However, my voice could not reach the audience at the side much – not wide enough.

Takeaway from this session/Research findings: 

I have learnt that the human body is fully of hollow, air-filled cavities that resonate when we speak and the main resonating chambers are – chest cavity, throat and the nasal cavities. While researching, I found out that if an individual’s voice is projected via the sinuses, this will result in a brighter, higher pitched and more nasal sound. On the other hand, voice produced from the chest cavity will be much deeper, rounded and resonant simply because the chest cavity is bigger. However, the tone of an individual is not fixed as it can be vary by simply changing the resonating chamber they are focusing on. This is where the breathing and humming exercises Claire had us do come in useful! 

Meikle, G. (2016, April 25). Developing an awareness and flexibility as to where in your body your project your voice from can help you develop a more interesting and powerful voice. Retrieved February 01, 2017, from https://www.inter-activ.co.uk/presentation-skills/voice/

Speech & Exercising Control

Weekly account of class work:

For this week lesson, we started off the session with the “name game” again (where we had to call out another person’s name and walked towards them). Given that it was only the second session, we were still a little unfamiliar with one another but I think we managed to open up faster. For those who were a little more familiar with the faces and names, I could tell that they were opening up and speaking more confidently. I guess when we become more confident, we naturally open up our mouth more and speak a little brighter, bolder. This week, we played a new game – “Hunter, Fire, Earthquake” game which got us moving and running about. Through this game, not only did it got us running about and warming up our body, it also allowed us to know more about one another through observing each other playing style. Some individuals were quieter and played everything more safe while others got more aggressive as the game progressed.

After our warm up games, we proceeded to do some breathing exercises which included clenching our fists – then releasing it, taking in deep breath, holding it, and then releasing it (8-4-8), learning how to breathe from other parts of the body, rather than just solely from the chest.

How I felt while during the breathing exercises:

Given that this was one of the first few times we were doing the breathing exercises, I felt that it was quite a challenge given that I have never really carried out breathing exercises on my own. Furthermore, I have realised that I am someone that constantly breathe through my mouth, rather than nose. I feel that this is because I tend to suffer from block nose and sinus, which results in me having slight difficulty breathing through my nose. However through this breathing exercises, I felt that it forces me to breathe through my nose and helped me get used to it.

After this activity, we did an activity on walking posture and presentation. Claire had each of us to walk down the aisle that was made of our course mates standing on both side, before walking back and introducing ourselves at the end of the lane. The comment I got from Claire about my walking and standing posture was that I was quite comfortable with myself (that was really nice to know) but my left hand was stiffer compared to my right hand and hence it stuck closer to my body while I walked. This was probably due to the fact that I played softball and relied a lot on my right hand and hence it was a little more relaxed than my left. Another common comment the class received from Claire was that many people were not strong at their hip area. Hence this resulted in many of them to ‘collapse’ slightly to one side, or reflect signs of weakness in the lower back.

Takeaway from this class/Research findings:

The first takeaway was definitely knowing more about breathing and how significant it was in producing a good voice. Having good breathing techniques can definitely help in developing a good voice as it is important for our body, focus and concentration. Furthermore, good and deep breathing can help relieve nervous energy which will in turn help in the development of a stronger, more stable voice. This was witnessed in some of my course mates who were asked to present and then got a little nervous.

On top of that, I have learnt online that what many people do – “chest breathing” (which involves us breathing with our shoulders. We’re shallow “chest breathers”- stomach goes in and shoulders go up) was not the healthy way of breathing.

For the breathing exercise, I kept this few steps in mind (so that I can refer to in the future or to share it with others as well):

1) Exhale completely through the mouth first

2) Close the mouth and inhale quietly through your nose (mental count of 8).

3) Hold breath for a count of 4.

4) Exhale completely through the mouth for a count of 8.

5) This is considered one breath. Repeat the cycle for about 3-4 times.

Another takeaway I got from the class was how important good walking and standing posture was. Went online and managed to find out some simple directions to help me remember how to keep a good posture:

I think this is a good summary of how a good posture should be like. I intend on using this to help my younger sister correct her standing posture given that she tend to slouch and have very rounded shoulders. Hopefully I am able to impart some of the knowledge I have learnt to her and aid her in improving her standing posture. 

Introduction to Voice Production

Weekly account of class work:

Attended the first session of AAU28D Voice Studies and Production this week and prior to the class, I was excited and looking forward to what we were going to do as I have heard many positive reviews about this module.

To kickstart the class, our class lecturer, Claire, had us play a warm up game by firstly introducing ourselves and then having us call someone else name while moving towards them. In the midst of introduction, Claire stopped a few of us and had us introduce ourselves again stating that the way we introduced ourselves were “not impactful enough, not enough energy”. It was then did I realised how the way we introduced ourselves, solely with our voice, could set the impression of what others had of us. For example, Sherwin and Ben, introduced themselves with very clear and bright voices which caused everyone to actually turn their attention to them and listen to their introduction. While introducing ourselves, one of the issues I faced was the pronunciation of my own name. Given that my name, Vernetta, is a very uncommon and what people say “long” name, many people tend to call me Vern and that was what I grew to respond to. Hence when I had to introduce myself as Vernetta on the first day of class, it sounded a little funny and I could not pronounce it very smoothly and to quote Claire, it was “Ver-neh-ter!”, choppy and very gangster like, rather than – Vernetta as a whole.

Proceeding on to the warm up game, the purpose of the game was to call out the other party name, and with our voice, make an impact through the way we addressed them. Initially when the first few people started, Claire commented that many of us were calling out the names with “no energy” and it did not make the other party feel “wanted” which I thought was a very funny, but true way to put in. I could sense the difference when we started looking into each other eyes and really call the other person with more enthusiasm, energy.

After warming up, we then got into pairs, where we were instructed to talk to each other at the same time. Throughout the few minutes when we were talking, I felt that it was very hard for both me and Leon (my partner) to keep up the talking without being distracted and wanting to stop and listen to what the other person had to say. Through this activity, did Claire got us to realise how the way one person project his or her voice, can have an impact on the listener. If the voice is well projected, and full of enthusiasm, it would be much easier to capture the attention of the listener and ‘force’ them to listen to you. A good, impactful and well projected voice will ensure that your own voice will not be lost and blended into the background.

After which, we then had to talk to one another, this time not simultaneously, and get to know more about each other before presenting about the other party to the rest of the class. After I presented to the class, the comments I received from Claire was – “confident, balls-y voice but my mind processed slower than my mouth” and in order words, I was speaking a little too fast resulting in my tongue and lips to not be able to keep up with my mind, dropping important vowels and consonants, causing listeners to miss my meaning or resulting in myself tripping over words at the end especially when I find that I am running out of content resulting in me to start using fillers at the end. In this case, one way which I can improve is to plan pauses after each section instead of viewing my whole speech as a chunk. This will give me time to take a breather and process the content in my head prior to continuing my speech.

Takeaway from this lesson/Research findings:

“The manner of your speaking is full as important as the matter, as more people have ears to be tickled than understanding to judge.” — Lord Chesterfield

After listening to all my classmates present and hearing the feedback from Claire, I realised that generally, everyone had a very unique voice. Some people were relatively more soft spoken and the way they presented were surprisingly different from what I would have expected them to sound like based on first impression (looks). On top of that, through this first lesson, I felt that Sherwin stood out the most through the “introduce your partner” activity. The primary reason why many of us felt he stood out was because of the way he presented. It was different from everyone else given that he did it in a story form – making it very engaging and unique. On top of that, he had clarity in his voice and did the entire presentation very confidently. Hence, within the short time presentation, he managed to capture the attention of almost the entire class and left an impression solely based on his voice and presentation style.

I managed to better understand my own voice as well as Claire gave us very constructive feedback after each activity. It has came to my own knowledge that given the environment that I have been in (playing sports outdoor) and the way I have been projecting my own voice during conversations (shouting a lot), I may have slightly damaged vocal chords resulting in me to strain my voice a little when I talk normally. Hence through the period of this module, I hope to find ways to help myself improve the way I speak and put less stress on my vocal chord.