Day 5: Resonators and Range & Articulation
For day five of my voice exploration week, I was focused on the resonators as well as range and articulation. I had an interview at 4:00 PM so it was really helpful doing this work before hand (as well as repeating some of the physical awareness/ breathing work I had learned at the beginning of the week. I felt more calm heading into the interview than I had on Wednesday and I think it improved my voice throughout.
Time of Day: 1:30 PM
Location: Forbes Center Upstairs Hallway (near prop storage)
Basic Summary of this Step: The resonators are a series of cavities starting large and broad and then get smaller and narrow at the top. Each part of the of the voice has its own run of the resonating ladder. The rungs of the ladder include the following: chest, mouth, teeth, sinus, nasal, and skull. This step involves directing the voice to move up and down the resonating ladder until every single part of the ladder is available. Each rung on the resonating ladder has many different exercises. I will briefly highlight the key exercise for each rung below.
Exercise 1: Resonators
Brief description of exercise:
Chest and mouth: The first step is to lengthen the front of your neck so your head is back as in the throat-freeing exercise. Then one is to drop your head forward without letting your mouth close and then bringing the top seven vertebrae of the neck back into alignment. The primary action is shifting all responsibility for head movement into the top seven vertebrae of the neck. Step two is adding a warm pool of vibrations with the neck and head back. Place your hand onto your chest and register the vibrations of the sound in your chest. Continue this work while focusing on the different vibrations such as front teeth, mouth, and chest while moving the neck forward/backward/ and straight and on different pitches. Step three is to go through the whole sequence of resonator awareness without sound, whispering. Step four is to do the same sequence again while adding the throat as a chimney with a fire. Step five is to do the same sequence with image of painting the ceiling with each touch of sound. The next step in this exercise is work with ascending and descending pitches. The final step is to work on blending these resonators with a "he-e-e-y"
Sinus: This part of the resonating ladder falls into the middle register. Sinus means a recess or cavity. The first step is get to know the topography of your face with your fingers. Then one is to try and isolate these muscles. The next step is relax the tongue and moving the sinus muscles up and down to condition awareness to this area of the sinus. This includes sighing out a "heee". After this, explore doing this on different pitches. Step four involves most of the above work, just incorporated into floor work. The next step involves making a pouty face and then pulling it into a grin. Then one add sounds, vibrations flying into a "wey". It then takes it a step further by working on the phrase "will you wait for Willie and Winnie Williams the well know welterweights?".
Nasal: The first step is to press the right side of your nose to close off the right nostril. Wrinkle the left side of the nostril and breathe in short sniffs. Then release the breath out the mouth on "ffff". Repeat of the opposite side. Step two is to do the same thing, but to hum out on different pitches. Eventually, hum our "meeeee". Step three is to send this me pinging into your nose. Step four is to redirect the vibrations from your nose into your mouth. Step five is to alternate the me's from nose into the "meys" in the upper sinuses. Step six is to imagine you are on top of a mountain calling out a "hi" to the other mountain peak.
Skull: The first step is to drop down the spine, moving through range on a "hey". Allow a new breath, and while upside release a high, falsetto "keee". Build back up the spine and release the "keee" sound again. Step two is to have the impulse of this high pitch "keee", but instead to whisper it. Do this several times and allow the body to react to the thought with energy. Repeat on ascending pitches alternating whispered and voiced "keee-eees". Step three is to drop voice down to the bottom of our range and with your mind relaxed resonate a "hey". Step four is to experiment with calling on "hey" as high as you can without going into falsetto.
Reflection: Overall, I was not the biggest fan of the resonating activities found in the text. While, we did most of these at some capacity throughout last semester, they were structured in a way that clicked more for me.We started with an exercise where we moved up and down through the entire resonating ladder. I liked that exercise because I was able to move through the entire ladder in an efficient manner. However, I did try these exercises given in the book to try them out. The most effective portion of the chest/mouth exercise was placing my hand where the vibrations were coming from. This helped me become more aware of the different parts of the voice. I also felt the shape of my channel shift as the relationship between my skull and jaw changed. I had a hard time distinguishing between the sinus and nasal resonator. The most helpful portion of the sinus resonator exercise was working with the tongue twister phrase because it reminded me of something Mickey Mouse would say. The most useful part of the nasal resonator was alternating between the right and left side of the nostril while humming out different pitches. The skull exercise was the most similar to work we did in class with the "keee" coming out of the top of the head.
Exercise 2: Range and Articulation
Brief description of exercise:
Range: Step one is to stand easily while maintaining an awareness of the skeletal support of your body. Imagine the body as a house- the foundation is below the rib cage, the basement is the chest, the lobby is the mouth, first floor is from the mouth to the eyes, second floor from eyebrows to hairline, and attic as the top of the skull. Picture the voice as an elevator and using a long he-e-ey travel through all of the resonating floor. Next roll up and down the spine- go up in range as you drop down and vice versa. Step three is lie on your back on the floor and travel slowly through range exploring and living in all the rung of the resonating ladder. Step four is to repeat steps on and two with the awareness of step 3. Step five is to go through your range with "he-ey-ey-ey" followed by bouncing your knees and shoulder blades, blowing through the lips, shaking the jaw, and loosening the tongue.
Articulation: The most used articulators are the front/blade of the tongue, the middle of the tongue, the back of the tongue, and the surface the tongue normally touches. This exercise is focused on consonants. Step one is to focus on the lips by moving it to a sneering position and then letting it drop. Repeat with the bottom lip. Step two is stretching your lips into a pout back and forth a few times. Step three is sigh out a hum and move the lips while humming. Step four is to let the lips touch each other and to think of the sound "b". After thinking it, lightly voice the "b" and then explore "buh", "bee", "bah", and "bey". Next is to work with the front of the tongue. You first let the tongue slide forward until the tip lies on the lower lip. Lift the tongue up and down touching the top and lower lip. Move the tongue from side to side Then explore adding sound- its should sound like "luh". Follow this with exploring all of the vowel shapes ("lee", lah") and then explore using "d" as well. The next portion explores working with the back of the tongue. First, keep the tip of the tongue firmly in contact with the back of teeth. While yawning, one is to interrupt the yawn to say "ng". Repeat the yawn, lengthen the "ng" and remove the tongue away from the back of the teeth. The sound should turn into an "aah". Repeat and try with the same pattern of sounds mentioned before. Step seven is to put the sequence of exercises together going from one to the other. Step eight is to repeat the tongue exercise with a combination of nasal consonants (m, n, ng, n). Step nine is to follow the same patterns while whispering, "p", "t", and "k". The final step is to work on some tongue twisters.
Reflection: I think picturing range as an elevator was extremely helpful because it gave me a visual of starting low and working up to high. It was a little confusing at first going up the spine, but down in range. However, once I got the hang of it was useful. I also think the final step of the range exercise was useful because anytime I bounce or shake the sound out it feels truthful as opposed to something I'm forcing out artificially to "do it right". These articulation exercises I enjoyed more than the main ones we did in class last semester. In class we did a lot of work only saying the consonants or only saying the vowels of our monologue we were working on for the end of the semester. I would be worried about remembering my lines let alone just the vowels or consonants of my lines. This exercise broke down the articulation into much more detail and I plan on using it a lot more going forward. Articulation is extremely important for stage managers, especially when calling the show.
Challenge Updates:
Number of Apologies: 2
Cups of Coffee: 1 8 oz Half Caff Carmel Machiatto
Tomorrow I begin my five day exploration of Cicely Berry's voice training technique.
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