You depend on the resonating spaces for the quality of sound you produce.
The resonator cavities are the pharynx (throat), the mouth, the nasal passages and sinus cavities.
Breath excites the vocal cords, and the sound gains resonance in these spaces.
Resonance exercise:
- Stand poised – arms relaxed at your sides.
- Breathe in and out with your own natural breathing rhythm, a few times.
- Inhale swiftly and silently through an open mouth.
- Project your sounds across the room and say aloud ‘one’; inhale, one-two; inhale, one-two-three; and so on, up to ten.
Pitch
Pitch, or tone, is the quality of the sound you make, the timbre of the voice.
Pitch exercise:
- Speak the following line of dialogue with your jaw closed, but with your lips open:
I’ve just met a man with a lemon stuck in his ear!
- The result will be nasal and woolly.
- Now check that your mouth is open and relaxed.
- Say the line again.
- Speak the same line in as deep a voice as you can.
- It will probably be a harsh gravely sound, because you’ve tucked your chin in and stuck your chest out.
- Speak the line again, pinching your nostrils.
- This will produce a comic unrecognisable honk.
Articulation
Articulation is developed by means of vowels and consonants.
The vowels are:
a e i o u
The consonants are the rest of the alphabet.
Exercises for the jaw, lips and tongue
The jaw
- Waggle only your jaw from side to side, up and down, forwards and backwards.
- Stretch your lips wide, and then purse them.
- Push them up as far as possible, then down.
- Repeat six times.
The tongue
- Stick out your tongue, then withdraw it – repeat six times.
- Protrude your tongue as far as possible and rotate it in both directions.
- Try to touch the tip of your nose with the tip of your tongue.
- Try to touch the point of your chin with your tongue.
- With your lips wide open, protrude your tongue and bring up the sides, making it in a tube.
- Repeat six times.
The sounds
Repeat these sounds as often as you can until you can say them clearly and audibly.
- Hah Hoo Hah Hee Ha Hoo Hah Hee
- Mah Nah Moo Noo May Nay Mee Nee
- PahBah BahPah PahBah Bah Pah
- KooGoo GooKoo KooGoo GooKoo
- DayTay DayTay DayTay TayDay
Warming-up:
Warming-up is not only being relaxed and having the body and imagination in good shape, but it also means gaining self confidence and getting to know your fellow learners at the same time.
Warm-up 1: Red, Blue, Yellow
- Place chairs in a circle, leaving a space between each chair, and sit down.
- Your educator will give each of you in the circle a colour – alternating between red and blue.
- The purpose of this exercise is to exercise precise movement, with no fuss and in complete silence.
- On the order
red !, all red must rise and move to another chair.
- On the order
blue !, all the blues have to move to another chair.
- On the order
yellow !,
everyone moves to another chair.
- Vary the movement form slow motion to a fast reaction.
- No contact may be made with other learners.
Activity 2:
To use an african story to develop a drama: the tortoise and the lizard
[lo 1.5]
- Now that you have warmed up and your voice is fit for peak performance, you are going to create and perform your own drama based on an African story.
- Your educator will read a story aloud. Listen carefully and picture what you hear in your mind. Try to imagine what the story will look like if you had to see it happen in front of your eyes.
