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Find Your Voice: Build your Voice

All right so who is going to be my first victim? I just I'm feeling rich you could kind of okay so actually I think I'd like you to continue to stand would you do that okay so take center stage center stage and you feel it feel light on your face pretty good so you're going to play the game excellent so you are going to stand in front of this gorgeous audience and you're going to put your arms up and out open and you're going to keep them there the whole time whole time said I could work out here and you're going to take a deep breath and you're going to say today now you put trump's audience your job is to encourage him to go farther if you think he has mawr in him if he has a bigger today dot in him if you think he can fill this room in a bigger way you ask him for more and you don't let him off the hook because the audiences want everything you have give it a go teo teo so she lost it there right so you see what happened we need it again it came out of his throat so he went to tokyo...

came out of here as opposed to that of his body that time right before it came out of your body and have the breath so let's do it again. I want you to keep going, okay? Until I until I saw you pass out and I said all right, tio, wait have you sing no more horrific really? Yeah okay, you have a naturally open voice so it naturally resonates in your body. I've often told him a loud talker yes tell me tone it down like little is too loud they're rich I I get that a lot. Yes, it is a great to notice that because sometimes ah big sound is not what the situation called for so that's great to know the thing is when you have that kind of sound and you train you now can manipulate you know how to use it to create experiences in the room and if you do that I think your voice will get bigger and bigger and bigger but you'll know when two units that exactly so what the voice work does is it allows you to control your breathing because you may need a lot of breath to say something that's going to go for very long and it's one long thing and you got to keep moving you need to get going but you have the breath and you can keep going and I haven't breathed since I took that breath but it doesn't seem like I'm forcing too much at some point I will I need to take another breath and keep going, but if you know how to control the way that you breathe, then you have control of yourself, which then allows you to control the room. I also noticed it was really hard for me to do the nasal and the skull like the higher pitched sure I have the deep voice I do diaphragm and but that higher stuff win actually hurt a little bit back, so it'll be it'll be you. Actually, I you may find that people stop telling you that you speak too loudly when you start to use your other parts of you, arrange your your mask and you also will then find more range because even a big deep voice khun sometimes put you to sleep because it can be monitored just like a very high pitched sound. We'll start to get on edge if it stays like that the whole time. Okay, good. Night's work. Yeah, I really like that on. People are doing this at home as well. And it's, great to have everybody doing this in to go in the chat room says the voice exercising is fun. I appreciate using this, but I think my dog is getting a little concerned about so you know, they have their own audience at home with the dog, you know, you know, what's interesting when amy and I first started teaching this to non actors I was concerned that people would be bored with this so well it's just actors and singers and those types who get this and really want to do this and I was shocked at how much value people said that they were taking away from this kind of work and they love doing it it was something they've never done before are you experiencing that for yourself right now say yes if you are good okay so now you're going to do the same thing right you ready? I am could I get just a sip of my water that's right no alright alright, fine get us some water good like everybody else in room teo ten jumping jacks well she's doing a one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight nine alright thank you ah so wei don't need to hold the note all right? What what we're trying to do is take one big deep breath and then we say two dogs a big expressive today and when it's done it's done okay uh teo teo years you're yes you're starting to take small chest and pay breaths so I don't know if you can see what happens is she thinks about it and then she goes and takes a breath that's up here just just fills her chest and then forces it and then it comes out of the throat as opposed to a big breath that fills all of your lungs you've heard of diaphragmatic breathing the concept is sound there you have this die friend that lifts you know but that's not actually where you breathe so when you when you first start breathing a lie down on the ground here when you when you first started breathing in a voice class I've got to move my mike when you first start breathing invoice class they have you breathed down into the belly so you breathe down in the belly and try to fill it up you know to try to soften the muscles there because you if you're too tight if you're all about the six pack you're gonna have a hard time uh breathing or using your you know uh this part of your body but and then eventually you start to move on to your feet kind of stuff that we're doing now but when you transfer up into your feet you don't continue to breathe like this and then try to speak is if all of your air goes here your air doesn't go hear your air goes here your lungs are here so you're feeling the front of your body your filling your side ribs and you're filling your back body they're dive from supports all of this activity but the breath fills back here it fills in the rib cage here it fills in the chest here and everything expands so when you see a singer when you see a performer on stage breathing you don't see their stomach go like this that's not what and everything you see you see it in hell there goes the funny thing is at home they don't know why you're laughing because they can hear there's a little noise that is behind the wall somewhere that sounds funny especially if it's on a breath like that so what you want to do is you want to just naturally allow the because it's a vacuum so when you allow the vacuum toe work it naturally brings the area so you just allow the air to come in here's what you do you have a thought that allows that encourage you to take a breath because you have something to say so here the thing is what you are thinking right now is that you are fabulous. You are saying I have such a gift to share with these people I want you to see that honestly know it take a big breath because you want to share it and then let it out. Okay, give a round of applause uh take a big breath right into here a taken after breath right into here and just let it out uh good again just like that I breathe in your natural voice ton ah good to hear a difference but what's different about it deeper more residents feeling it doesn't feel I like to you it felt a little higher actually to me um it felt easier. Yes, yeah good so one of the things that you're going to want to work on is dropping your voice because getting mohr on your voice you have a little wispy nous in your voice and when you are performing, I saw your little video clip when you're performing, you tend to add a little extra whisk penis to a cz if this is the storytelling voice and if you drop the voice into a more grounded place and you don't try to make it sound a particular way, it'll be more natural because what you're trying to do here I's free the natural voice that's linkletter right is linkletter's charms idea, freeing the natural voice not trying to make up a voice that you think is the right voice to use but to free the natural voice and you're gonna hear each person has a different type of voice. My voice is naturally raspy it's always been my whole life amy's voice is a naturally more resonant voice. My voice on voiceovers kills my voice is the voice over voice because when you put it up next to a microphone, you can do that like I used to do the brawn commercials and it just was this broad on the way we got more got more sophisticated it went into this broad smart thinking try spending eight hours in the booth doing that with fifteen different people wondering could I have a little bit more rinus wait okay, here we go brought martin think I mean you know but anyhow so your voice um lend itself to different mediums okay, so that wispy nous on a stage may start to float over people so draw doing this kind of voice work dropping it down is going to give you more gravitas that resonate yeah that's great you're with me on that cool thank you blow it up weii you know, get a massage agent I weigh usedto like voice class because you don't get massaged on then once once a semester each person would get a full body massage from the whole group so I think there were fifteen of us and you'd lie down and fourteen people would give you a massage so people didn't like that it was just too overwhelmed I loved it. All right, so you ready, big guy? Okay, all right, arms up, embrace your audience and say to die teo that are more way straight up to depress right into my hands good, good you're gonna breathe in really deeply and you're not going to express your voice not gonna put sound in your voice until I say go gonna breathe as much as you can and then you just let whatever sound wants to come out when I say go you don't even think about it okay breathe in arms up breathe, breathe, breathe and let it go good without forcing just let it out good arms up, arms up and go oh, good. Okay, so do you feel what's happening? What's happening? You must feel something but I mean they can bring higher yes, it's a little higher. Where do you feel your breath is going? Maybe you're like tommy area it's going right here just to about here that's a ce faras it's going? I'm not feeling any movement here none at all. So the reason that it's a little higher is because you're not dropping it down and so you're trying to push sound out of your mask so you khun b singers are usually here. Singers use their mask to, you know big belters to reach the back of the theater that's where you could make the loudest sound comes out of the mask and that's the easy place to force it out. If you don't have a lot of breath, you khun sound louder if you push it up here if you don't have much breath than it's harder to sound larger and make more sound so the breathing is the thing it's it's tight and then what happens is you try to throw it forward so you see how the c l of a sudden now you're closing off the natural pathway for the voice for the air to come through so you're trying to open up your trying to open up the musculature and you're trying to find a free path for it to come out so what you want to do is you want not worry, just wait everybody here loves you don't you love this's your time taking this whole group and just say today? So take a big breath let us sound come out, don't worry about what it sounds like your big breath ten ah on again breathe bring sound no way, theo dropping down down around my netting the sound you've ever heard come out before just a big breath in hell and that way go good, good again breathing hill and even back here you can hear a difference because you're starting to get some more residents moving backwards you're hearing a difference in the front here too good so where's the microphone where's the microphone so anybody out here in the audience you what are you hearing? Starting to change its just slight obviously there's more work to be done, but what do you starting to hear? Yes, patricia, it just sounded more solid, more more natural that's exactly right, who want for mike less space between his voice and the outside of where it's going les les france between the voice and the outside of where it's going could you say more about that it's fuller we're going to the edge voices at the edge as it's going out uh wonderful great thank yu who wants it seems like you're having so much more fun and that you're not nervous is that true? Well he's sweating nervous but it's a little bit less than when you started your nerves yeah okay I'm gonna stay here in case he falls down I got your buddy don't worry okay who wants a mike I think you sounded like you were giving more of you were you was that your experience I think so good. I felt that way good yeah that's it it's this deep, deep deep desire to give everything of yourself to the people in the room that is our responsibility everything we have we don't leave anything out there everything is left in this room one more big breath do with us come on here we go in hell wait for me here okay big inhale and all right gunilla you ready? Come on doing on time okay, ready two is ready right here we go and whenever you're ready take deep breaths and say to die with your arms up and keep your arms up tio I want you to keep the arms out keep them up. The reason I want you to keep them up is because it starts to get emotionally confronting keeping your arms up in front of a whole big group to be perfectly honest and often the breakthrough comes when we start to break down a little bit. The graduate school the idea was in the first year they taught you how to play in the second year they broke you down until you're just a mess you don't know which end was up and it supposedly they put you back together in the third year which wasn't really always the case that's what the therapist was for so let's try it again big breath inhale arms up teo teo just take a big donna let it out okay big breath teo there we go good again keep your arms up big red and tio let it out your ass for more for more you're hurt your voice don't push on your voice take the breath in allow it in take a big inhale and exhale and sound waves we're not we don't have to sing it just let it out inhale and then exhale the sound out tio ah and inhale again and express yourself more uh you certainly hear difference give her a little gas for more weight, breathe and then exhale tio okay, I wanna add something so it's this thing that happens sometimes where we come up with were like I'm doing an exercise and it becomes this like where's the sound going what's the purpose of the sound and it kind of floats out there but if you look somebody in the eyes come back to the principles of performance look somebody in the eyes and it's that I am naked here in order to communicate with you look one person in the eye and two dolphins she's not looking at that them it was a little here okay so the ideas we were looking at them and you keep looking at them as you do it that's what? You keep your arms up and you stay with them and then you breathe and you jonah and then you let it take another breath and he said ah and you're connecting with them and the breath will come naturally okay let's give it a go a again for you keep your arms up start breathing inhale uh hill excelente in hill big nice sound let it out tio again good in hill again out tio hell one more time nice big going make it easy so uh you hear the difference you feel your way of trying to connect with the breath and the backs like you started opening in those last three you felt that good? Yes nice work think it's surprising how difficult it is it really is surprising the finer tuned piano plays pretty or notes so we all have an instrument, but it hasn't been too, and if you train it and tune it up, then you could do a lot more with it sound good? Give me a high five so at home there's at home at home I hope you're doing this I hope you are standing there in front of your computer saying really just all express and you know, the police, the neighbors don't don't worry about that. If you live in new york, it's completely normal walk down the street talking to yourself, they just figure you're crazy or you're an actor, which is usually the same thing but outside new york or l a it's it's, not as typical I was working on it, one of my key notes in the hair place where jake was getting a haircut and I was just going through lines as talking and everybody was looking at me like I was absolutely out of my life that is not used to it. So if you're around people that are comfortable doing this kind of work, then you'll get comfortable doing this work so you want to surround yourself with people that will allow themselves to play to be silly and then you start to open up and you start to feel more comfortable expressing yourself question for somebody who is at home doing these exercises now are people here are thankful enough they have you to kind of help them with the exercises but one of our users here says any specific exercises you'd recommend to expand the rib cage and encourage that deeper breath and residences right and people could do at home sure so one very simple thing is you can actually do for yourself what michael was just doing that and do this for a moment so you can put your hands here on your side ribs or you may be more comfortable here but that drawing in with the hands to provide a little bit of resistance well then give you something to expand into if you're not doing any effort or providing any kind of boundary with your hands there's not ah call for the rib cage to expand but if you really press in with your hands you can expect doing it this way because of my size I can it really helps me with my back body so my ribs open to the side and they're my my then they open to the back so they go I know you can see it on the camera but let's see if you can see this on the camera you may even want to have a friend to put their hands on your back body can you see that little died but uh I think it's visible and the other thing, just to add into this home, and then if I could do it this way down under, I can't write under the ribs. Then I can feel it in the side. Ribs, you push in and then friend. Yeah, another thing is just some more of what we call them. Lateral openers. You're opening the side of the body to do some more of these side stretches and the kind of play with really full, deep breaths, you could go forward a little bit to get more into the back rib. If it doesn't feel good on your neck, you khun, cradle your head in your hands, and you can lift the elbow up to get a little bit more into front ribs. But you're using the breath to open you from the inside. It's, kind of like a massage from the inside out.