2.
MODIFY AN
ACCENT, IMPROVE POOR DICTION
If you speak with an accent
that you wish to modify or just have poor diction that you wish to improve, the
quickest way to purifying the sound of your voice is to speak on a whisper.
Start by choosing a passage
from a book, magazine or newspaper and read it out loud on a stage whisper,
gradually increasing the volume of your voice.
Once you have practised this
for about ten minutes, try taping your voice and then playing it back to
yourself to see your progress.
Keep repeating this exercise
until your sound is purified. It DOES work but some people will need to
practise more than others if their accent is well established or their diction
is particularly poor.
The same principal can be
applied to singing words. Take a passage and sing the words getting louder and
softer.
3.
PROJECT
YOUR VOICE (Good for modifying Northern accents or quiet voice)
If you have difficulty being
heard, have a quiet voice or a nasal quality to the tone of your voice (
particularly present in Northern accents such as Liverpudlian, Mancunian), you
can bring your voice forward by speaking with a pencil in your mouth.
Place a pencil or straw between
your lips and then read out loud holding the pencil between your lips. Keep
practising this and then remove the pencil and attempt to read the same passage
again without it. Keep repeating the exercise until your voice moves forward.
4.
CURE A
STAMMER OR SPEECH DIFFICULTY
Stammers and speech impediments
are often caused by lack of confidence. Therefore it is important to work on
your self-esteem and remember that stammers and other speech impediments have
often become habits. Just like giving up smoking or any other bad habit,
stammers are some speech problems (not physical like cleft palate) are often
just habits that we have established to cover shyness or lack of confidence.
First work on self-esteem
techniques.
Give yourself permission now
to lose the stammer or difficulty – Sounds ridiculous, but does work.
Say to yourself, ‘ I don’t
need this habit any more, I can speak without it and BELIEVE you can do it.
It is much harder to speak
badly when focusing your attention on keeping the pencil there.
A speech impediment can
become so ingrained into our persona and sense of identity that we are almost
afraid sub-consciously to lose it. It has become part of who we are and how we
see ourselves. Positive affirmations that you speak with a strong, clear voice,
can help for some people – visualizing that you no longer need the problem or
speech defect and seeing yourself without it can also help. You need to make
the picture in your mind clear and vibrant and see yourself speaking
beautifully in different contexts and how that would feel.
