VOCALIZATION Put Your Best Speaking Voice Forward Vocalization

VOCALIZATION Put Your Best Speaking Voice Forward!

Vocalization • Vocalization involves using our voice as an instrument. • It’s shouting or whispering, speaking high-pitched or low, clearly or unclearly, quickly or slow. • Elements of Vocalization: • Articulation • Rate • Pitch • Volume • Quality A variety of vocalization issues: https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=lq 5 c 6 d. Yfse. Y

Articulation • Saying words correctly and with clarity. • Articulation Problems: • Substitution: replacing sounds in words with other sounds • Da (the), bref (breath), git (get), excape (escape) • Omission: leaving out sounds from words • Frien (friend), hep (help), probly (probably), bes (best) • Addition: adding extra sounds to words • Idear (idea), ascared (scared), pronouncing silent letters (T in often) • Transposition: switching or reversing the order in which sounds are spoken • Aks (ask), childern (children), hunderd (hundred)

Articulation Problem Sentences Write three sentences that each contain a variety of articulation problems. Choose from these types of problems: Substitution, Omission, Addition, Transposition Examples: • • • I think I’ll order a roas beef sammich. I’m bout at the end of my rope. Erverybody stop yellin at each other! Larry aksed her to dance. A scale drawring of the project is available on reques. Janine got an athaletic scholarship cause she was the bes playa on her team.

Rate • Rate: the speed at which you talk. • Influenced by: • Emotional content of your message • Occasion (speaking to audience vs. talking with friends) • What ideas you want to emphasize • How much time you have to speak • Your ability to articulate accurately! • Slide presentation: 100 -125 WPM • Speech and debate: 150 -160 WPM • Auctioneer: 250 WPM • World Record: 637 WPM (Steve Woodmore)

Steve Woodmore and John Moschitta • Steve Woodmore: https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=c 4 - CRv 0 ih 28 • John Moschitta: https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=Ne. K 5 Zjtp. O-M

How Fast Do You Speak? 1. Read the passage given to you in class. Time yourself for one minute. 2. After one minute, draw a line by the last word you said, then count how many words you spoke. How does your rate of speech compare with the target rate for speech and debate?

Tongue Twisters (practice your articulation and rate of speech!) • The sea ceaseth and it sufficeth us. • The sixth sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick. • She sells seashells by the seashore. • The pitcher chided the churlish catcher for changing his signals. • Ruby rented rubber baby-buggy bumpers. • Three sixths equals six twelfths. • Theosphilus Thistle, the successful thistle sifter, in shifting a sieve full of unsifted thistles, thrust three thousand thistles through the thick of his thumb.

More Tongue Twisters • A tree toad loved a she toad that lived up in a tree. He was a three-toed tree toad, but a two-toed toad was she. The threetoed tree toad tried to win the she toad’s friendly nod, for the three-toed tree toad loved the ground that the two-toed tree toad trod. • How much wood could a woodchuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? A woodchuck couldn’t chuck but a chopped -up chunk if a woodchuck could chuck wood. • Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, where is the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

Write your own tongue twister! • Write a sentence that you think would challenge people’s ability to articulate clearly. • We will try out one another’s sentences, so make the most challenging one you can! • Tongue twister features: • Alliteration • A combination of consonant sounds that are difficult to make together • A complete sentence

Pitch • Pitch: the highness or lowness of a sound you make. • Melody: variations in pitch that help to give expression to a person’s voice. • Inflection: the upward or downward glide of your pitch as you speak. • Rising Inflection: indicates doubt, indecision, questioning, surprise • Falling inflection: indicates certainty, completed thoughts • Circumflex: an up-and-down inflection

What is the inflection of these sentences? • Are you going home? • Yes, I am. • What are you doing tomorrow? • Tomorrow? Hmm, I’m not sure. Rising inflection, falling inflection, circumflex

Tom is the one who took the book. How many ways can you change the meaning of this sentence by changing your melody and inflection?

Volume • Volume: the loudness of your voice. • Comes from pressure exerted from abdomen or lower chest, not neck or upper chest (leads to sore throat!) • Variations in volume… • Keep people interested • Mirror emotional content (lower volume for sad stories, higher volume for exciting, action-packed stories) • Tips: • Always keep the back of your audience in mind. • Start loud and finish loud. • Finish sentences strong…don’t trail off. • Emphasize important ideas by speaking louder or softer as appropriate.

Quality • Quality: the tone of your voice. • Nasality: too much = whiny or tinny voice; caused by “talking through” your nose • Breathiness: too much = lazy- or tired-sounding voice; caused by breathing out as you speak. • Harshness: unpleasant, grating sound caused by too much tension in the neck and throat. • Hoarseness: muffled- or raspy-sounding voice; caused by too much tension in the neck and throat.

Experimenting with Quality • Read the passage below with nasality, breathiness, harshness, and hoarseness, then in a way you think a “good” speaking voice sounds. Your voice says so much about you. It also affects whether your audience will “tune in” or “tune out” to your speech. Volume, rate, pitch, quality, and articulation should be used together to produce effective and appropriate speech.

Vocalization Practice • Go to the website: freedrama. net • Click on the Free Monologues link on the right-hand side of the page. • Pick a monologue to read to the class. • Practice reading the passage with appropriate • Articulation • Rate • Pitch • Volume • Quality • Present your monologue. Read with feeling and create interest! • Remember that to create interest, you should vary your rate, volume, and pitch as necessary.