Day 2: Touch of Sound

Time of Day: 3:30 PM

Location: My House

For day two of my voice exploration week, I started off with repeating the exercises I did on day one. I had to do a five minute presentation for SGA and so I used these exercises as a warmup before my presentation. I think the two steps of the first exercise that helped me the most were the arm lifting exercise and rolling down the spine. The arm exercised helped me relax because it reminded me how tension feels in the body versus true relaxation. Rolling down the spine also helped because I felt my posture was better, which gives off the impression of confidence (even if I was slightly nervous). I still struggled with balance, I did notice a slight improvement from yesterday. When I was in the presentation room itself, I was able to do several deep breaths which helped keep me calm before I went.

Overall, I think the presentation went well. It was a group of about 40-50 people, but they were all extremely kind and in the end we got approved! Next time I present, I want to try doing a few of these exercises a little closer to the actual presentation because there was a little bit of a break in between. I think warming up can truly help all presenters- or anyone who has to speak in front of a large group of people- improve tremendously. I have used parts of my warm up before I go into interviews and they make me feel more confident and less nervous going into them.

Basic Summary of this Step: The next step in the progression is touch of sound which is the feeling of vibrations in the body. She references Antonio Damasio's idea of core consciousness. Core consciousness is the idea of being in the moment- or the here and now. Linklater uses this idea, but instead labels it awareness. This step asks one to use their creativity and partake in a lot of imagery work.

Touch of Sound Exercise:

Time of day: 7:00 PM

Location: My House

Brief description of exercise: The first step in the exercise is to stand and become aware of the spine and breathing. It then asks us picture: a deep, calm pool at the same level of our diaphragm; our spine as a tree trunk; and a small image of ourself looking at our reflection in the pool; and the surface of the pool reflecting a large image of our face. After we have the images it ask us to allow a bubble of vibration to break the surface pool, "huh". This is followed by a double bubble of sound, "huh-huh" and then a long fountain of vibrations. The third step focuses on the diaphragm as the center point of connection. It involves you picturing the dome of the diaphragm while working through bubbles and fountains of sound. The next step involves lying on the ground and picturing gravity and a grand Marionettist in the sky lifting various body parts via "string". After this you end up in a diagonal stretch followed by a standing position working with bubbles of sound. Then the exercise has you lie on the floor again and work on shaking out sound.

Reflection: This exercise was a long one. While I had done some physical awareness and breathing work before my presentation, I did do a roll down the spine and some breathing prior to starting the touch of sound work. My balance was still getting better even from earlier in the day with the rolling down my spine. In Voice for the Stage last semester, we started the pool imagery lying down on the floor. It was different doing it standing up because I did not feel as relaxed as I did when it lying on the floor. I also was still uncomfortable with the idea of imagining my reflection taking up the entire pool. The bubble, double bubble, and fountain of sound is what helped me realize what being "on voice" meant last semester. I enjoy doing this part of the exercise because it helps get my voice warmed up after I finish the physical awareness and breathing work. As for the Marionette portion of the exercise, I did have some difficulty imagining this. I was getting in my head a lot and was a little freaked out by the idea of being a puppet. I am a person who likes to be control as much as possible so I was not a fan of being a puppet who was being controlled by someone else. I loved the diagonal stretch because it was extremely relaxing and I was able to better understand where my diaphragm was in my body. The photograph in the book that explained the diaphragm as a dome was extremely helpful as well. It showed how that when breath comes in, the diaphragm goes down and vice versa. I also enjoyed shaking out sound- in class we did it as if we were a dead bug. While it was silly, it allowed us to be messy with our sound and it was one of my favorite days of class.

Challenge Updates:

Number of Apologies: 0

Cups of Coffee: 0 (got a Venti Iced Peach Green Tea Lemonade instead)

I'm looking forward to exploring the next step of the progression: collecting/freeing vibrations and the soft palette.