Projection!

We had our first full lesson on Saturday. A big well done to our fabulous pupils! Each week we will have a different focus. I will be blogging about these focuses and what we did in class. I do hope you enjoy reading them. Although we live in a technological age with microphones and speakers, it is still important to be able to project your voice. While you may think that this is only a skill required of performers, the truth is that everyone will need to be able to project their voice at some point in their lives. Even if it is only to hurry along the dawdlers as you run for the tube. Often when you ask a someone to be louder or to raise the volume, they will resort to shouting. Yelling uses the vocal cords which can be damaged. I'm sure we can also agree that yelling is not the most pleasant sound either. Projection on the other hand uses the diaphragm to boost the air to improve volume. Rather than the high strained sound of yelling, projection will create a more rounded noise. When asked to take a deep breath, we can fall into the habit of corseted women in costume dramas by breathing high in the chest. This shallow breath means that we will most likely run out of air mid sentence. Instead we should think of ourselves as a tube of toothpaste. Rather than squeezing just from the top, we should start at the bottom and work our way up.

In our classes we discussed the diaphragm and all of the students really noticed the difference when they used it to project! One of the exercises we did was "Who Are You?" I told them to imagine they had a magic finger that could shoot out a beam of light. Using this imagery, they then had to circle it over their heads projecting "Who Are You?" imagining this beam of light blasting through the walls. The younger class requested if they could see if their voices could knock me over and I happily obliged.

Here are my top tips for Projection! · Posture - Are you standing in a way that allows your muscles to assist you? · Eye contact - Are you imagining your voice reaching its target? · Breath support - Have you taken enough breath to sustain you?

· Enunciation - Without proper enunciation you're just making a loud noise

· Confidence - Your body is able to do the work, you just need to allow your mind to let it

Thanks for reading. See you soon!