Yesterday I delivered the first open voice workshop I have run for a few years. It was a reminder of how positive an experience it can be to bring together a diverse group of people. All had a central focus but also individual needs and issues to explore. We met at the Vestry House Museum in Walthamstow and I think I may have made a few new converts to the area. In spite of the chill yesterday the gardens at the museum were in top condition and the situation is nothing if not charming. I had a diverse group of people who variously came through google, referral, a local ad in the paper, telephone marketing, a flyer, youtube and an old aquaintance. Just goes to show that diverse forms of marketing do work! Everyone was generous, committted and managed to have a laugh as well as going home with some new skills and certainly plenty of factual knowledge about their voices in performance. The highspot for me was during an exercise in which we chanted to gain extra resonance. Everyone spoke on a single but not the same tone and we effortlessly achieved some absolutely beautiful harmonics. I nearly stopped the workshop there and then to form a choir!
Bring on June 16 and 17 when I am running my next two courses.
Resonance Voice Training - Voice, Presentation, Confidence
Sunday 29 May 2011
Thursday 5 May 2011
Voice training for returners to work and for interviews
If you have had a spell off work through illness, redundancy or maternity leave then getting back into the right frame of mind can be tough. The lack of contact with work mates leaves you feeling out of the loop. Getting back into the physical routine might seem very arduous and a bit daunting and you may feel that you won't cope. It may be that you feel your mental muscle is never going to come back and that you won't be as good as you want to be. Essentially your self esteem is generally a bit in short supply!
What I value above all about the training we offer is its physical nature. We appreciate that the mind and body are intrinsically interlinked and that to ignore the needs of one in order to focus solely on the other is not a great game plan. Of course we need to prepare content in order to come across to any audience with clarity and focus but if we leave out the physical preparation we can seem lacklustre, even boring to our interviewer. We may not even be heard. Our training focuses on the physical signals we send out and then offers ways to easily counteract any negativity. We accept that most people can't spend hours improving themselves vocally so we offer simple practical ways into vocal work that when tied in with the bodywork has an immediate effect. There is a beauty in its simplicity and the way that after some brief very but affirmative interventions people are more buoyant, stronger and back in a frame of mind that allows them to take on the world again. They also look and sound terrific.
Top tip: Sound goes where it is placed. Focus your voice on a point just beyond the person furthest away from you to ensure everyone hears what you have to say.
What I value above all about the training we offer is its physical nature. We appreciate that the mind and body are intrinsically interlinked and that to ignore the needs of one in order to focus solely on the other is not a great game plan. Of course we need to prepare content in order to come across to any audience with clarity and focus but if we leave out the physical preparation we can seem lacklustre, even boring to our interviewer. We may not even be heard. Our training focuses on the physical signals we send out and then offers ways to easily counteract any negativity. We accept that most people can't spend hours improving themselves vocally so we offer simple practical ways into vocal work that when tied in with the bodywork has an immediate effect. There is a beauty in its simplicity and the way that after some brief very but affirmative interventions people are more buoyant, stronger and back in a frame of mind that allows them to take on the world again. They also look and sound terrific.
Top tip: Sound goes where it is placed. Focus your voice on a point just beyond the person furthest away from you to ensure everyone hears what you have to say.
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