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I was wondering if you could help me with something (Singing Teachers)
Hi all – I was wondering if you could help me with something.
I am running a 1 hour team-building event on Thursday for a group of NHS managers to help improve the use of their voices in the workplace. It’s not really about singing, although I’ll probably do some singing warm ups amongst the usual warm ups. Here is my overview:
– Introduction: Scrubs Clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9PqU3LC2L8
– Stretches: Relaxing the muscles in your larynx, releasing tension
– Breathing: Connecting with the diaphragm
– Strength of your voice/resonance: the power of the diaphragm & larynx together
– Articulation: Speaking clearly with good diction & expression
– Engaging your listener: Tone & Pitch
– Singing warm ups: Vocal techniques that cover a lot of the above
– Group Game: Splitting into small groups to try out these techniquesI am reading Roger Love’s “Set Your Voice Free” as he talks about the speaking voice being the foundation for singing. He has some useful points on the speaking voice that could easily fill an hour, but of course I don’t want it to be a lecture; I want them to interact and have fun!
I also don’t want to bombard them with academic anatomy and technological terms (couldn’t if I wanted to!) would love some tips, and if you could dumb it down, at the very least for my sake 😉
Overall, if there’s anything you feel you could add, (or comment on existing overview!) or if you’ve done something like this before, I would love your comments. This is my first event doing something with a group of people that isn’t choir, or singing for that matter! I’m quite nervous.
Thanks 🙂
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16 Replies
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This sounds great! Some ways I’ve found of simplifying things is to firstly talk about terms people might have heard. Like “voice box” and “adams apple” are familiar to people. So when you start using the term larynx you could explain verrryy simply how these terms relate. Another thing you can do is demonstrate something with an action first and then name it second rather than the other way round. Often people don’t understand why something is important or how it relates until they see it in action. Obviously don’t wear yourself out, but some “bad” vs “good” examples and discussion can help them get past the theory aspect.
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Great, thanks for this Kate. Do you think the content is enough? TBH it might even end up being too much. It’s getting enough fun group work in…!
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I think you should be fine 🙂 You can always have some back up ideas about activities people can do in groups that brings all of these ideas together. That should keep them busy! Like role-playing or speech-reading or something I don’t know. It will also be interesting to see if the room gets loud with all those projecting voices in different groups talking over each other. Could be another thing to address as you go.
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Check out Kristen Linklater’s vowel tree exercise I love it for spoken voice resonance work
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I LOVE IT.
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Unless you meant this of course: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgkJmzNm0gQ
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That’s the one worth reading the idea behind the exercise. How funny you found that video, that’s a friend of mine leading
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The first one
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Was just going to jokingly ask for confirmation
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Lol I didn’t watch the video before replying
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Love the vowel tree! Having some visual aids are good – printed diagrams of some points or a large white board – people often respond well to visual prompts- so might benefit if you have the time / resources xx
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Thanks for this – they loved the vowel tree!
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Maybe use some political speech extracts to give them something to work on? The Gettysburg address for blokes and Emma Watson’s UN speech for ladies are both great.
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It’s happened now, it was yesterday, and it went very well! Thanks for your help everyone!
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Great news!🙂