Class 1, Tues Mar 26: Introduction of syllabus and review of destructuring and restructuring.
Assignment: Read the chapter from Cecily Berry up on Blackboard. A one page response is due on Blackboard Thursday. Come to class Thursday prepared with your mats and pillow/zafus.
Class 2, Thurs Mar 28: Warm-up introducing the modified cobra tremor, standing tweeter release and the vocal arc. Group 5 flood gates. Discussion of Cicely Berry reading and Dudley Knight speechwork.
Assignment: Chapter 1 of “Speaking with Skill” and reading of Knight article on Blackboard (this one will have a one page response).
Class 3, Tues April 2: Warm-up adding new stretches for the neck/shoulders and the abdominals. Discussion of Dudley Knight’s chapter 1 and article on “Standard Speech.”
Assignment: Read chapter 2 of Knight’s book and there will be a quiz on the diagrams on pages 14 and 17 on Thursday. Make sure you brush up your sonnet from Voice 1 and have it off-book for Thursday. If you only have the first 4 lines memorized (this occurred in a class last quarter only) have that ready for Thursday but have the sonnet fully memorized by next Tuesday. Read Chapter 1 of JC Catford’s book “A Practical Introduction to Phonetics.” All books are on course reserve in the library.
Class 4, Thurs April 4: Warm-up adding new hip opener exercise and modified bow tremor. Working with mirror and chopsticks we went over the exercises in Dudley Tool Kit.
Assignment: Read Dudley Knight Chapter 4. Go over all the exercises, there will be a quiz on Tuesday on these (minus the cheek exercises). Be able to do each kinesthetically (at least attempt it with a clear understanding of what should be occurring using the language we used in class and the language in the chapter). Continue the daily practice with the new exercises and the new front tremors. Journal daily!! And make sure you have started your binder.
Class 5, Tuesday April 9: Warm-up adding work on support ‘sh’ and individuals lead the flood gates. Partner work 1 by 2 by 3, etc. Partner quiz of articulatory actions. Ingressive/egressive, creaky voice and gurning exploration.
Assignment: Read Chapter 3 from Dudley’s book. Be prepared to be quizzed on the chapter 4 toolkit.
DAILY PRACTICE (there is a progress grade) and JOURNALING!
Class 6, Thursday, April 11: 20-minute warm-up: led by Vivian and also the parameters of the assignment were discussed with a handout. Quiz on the kinesthetic toolkit from Knight’s chapter 4 exercises. Discussion of obstruent and phthongs in language. Gurning, gurn freeze with partner (mask, habits, and putting on partners habit and gurning around that), gurning with sound, maraphthonging freeze/explore and then with partner, isolations with lips and maraphthonging.
Assignment: Read chapters 5 & 6 in Dudley’s book. Be sure to do all the activities and listen to the sound files.
20 Minute warm up: Your worksheet/script is due the week before your go!
> Thursday 4/18 Lucas; Tuesday 4/23- Amaya ; Thursday 4/25 – Ivory; Tuesday 4/30- G ; Thursday 5/2 – Leo; Tuesday 5/7 – Blake ; Thursday 5/9 – Ryan ; Tuesday5/14 – Amanda ; Thursday 5/16 – George ; Tuesday 5/21 -Ian ; Thursday 5/23 – Lillan ; Tuesday 5/28 – Trent
Class 7 4/16 Tues, : 20 minute warm-up. Listen to world a capella music. Exploration of obstruents and Outlandish. Standing tremor.
Assignment: Read Chapters 6,7 & 8 in Knight’s book. Continue daily practice. Amaya and Ivory, your warm-up scripts are due on Thursday. G, your’s is due Tuesday 4/23
Class 8 4/18 Thurs: Lucas warm-up. Vocal arc work: 1by2by3…. Orlando’s speech from As You Like It: exploration of punctuation on 90 degree turn and pitch exploration. Front tremors ending with sonnet and pitch/passaggio exploration. Groups of three from viewpoints filling the space. Explore the oral tract with obstruents.
Assignment: Groups will take the sound files and memorize the first 20 seconds (this may mean stringing two or three sound files together, and please start with sound file marked 1 then 2 etc) and present as a chorus and then individually in class on Tuesday.
Groups: G., Leo & Ryan; Amaya, Ian & Lillian; Amanda, Blake & Lucas; Ivory, Trent & George.
Class 9, 4/23 Tues: Amaya warm-up. Share languages, group then individually. Discuss the sounds, pitch, rate, volume and musicality of the languages. Begin exploration of the pulmonic obstruent chart of the IPA.
Assignment: Journals are due on Thursday. Play with the obstruent chart and your language. Where do you find the obstruents in the chart? Put an x there. Also, remember there may be non-pulmonics or other combinations. Note these. If you did not memorize your language for today, make sure you have it for Thursday. It is another grading opportunity!!
Remember: The Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson needs to be purchased by next Thursday. (it is also on course reserve in the library)
Class 10, 4/25 Thurs: Continue work on the open IPA obstruent chart: Fricative, Approximant and Laterals. Language group work: discover the obstruents, mark them with an x on the open IPA chart; find 7 (two of which are not sounds we make in English) and be able to kinesthetically describe them and do them. Switch groups and teach each other your 7 obstruents.
Groups: Amaya, Trent, Amanda, G; Ian, Ivory, Blake, Ryan; Lillian, George, Leo, Lucas
Assignment: With your new group and the new obstruents in the open IPA chart play with your new language. Explore a wide variety of phthongs, try maraphthonging to explore beyond American sounds. Be able to converse in this new language with this obstruent alphabet. And after you get comfortable speaking in it, find a joke and memorize it in this language for class on Tuesday (the group will tell the joke collectively and individually).
Keep working on Dudley’s toolkit as part of your daily practice! You saw how important it was in today’s work.
Class 11, Tues 4/30: New Languages: introduce the country and its specific gift to Omnia and tell the joke. Group work on the IPA Obstruent chart. Discussion of co-articulation and affricates.
Assignment: Work on the full chart (including non-pulmonic). Play! Don’t manage your experience before you’ve had one. Read Knight chapters 8-10. Read the Ladefoged chapter up(ONLY up to page 18, stop when it gets to the vowels) on Blackboard. And Chapter 5 in JC Catford’s book “A Practical Introduction to Phonetics.” After reading and playing, then check out JC Wells and partner exploring the obstruents. Come to class prepared!!!
Class 12, Thurs 5/2: Leo warm-up. Group work on the open IPA chart fully exploring each of the obstruents.
Assignment: 2-3 page written vocal critique of “She Kills Monsters.” You can use all of the terminology and technique from voice one and also add the work we have been exploring in voice two. One page written response to chapters 1-4 of Bill Bryson’s book. Play with Omnish. Explore it fully! And look at the differences between this and Outlandish and gibberish.
A reminder: Vocal Critique:
This is a critique of the vocal life on stage during the performance.
This is not a review of the play, no synopsis please, nor is it a critique of the acting choices, nor is it a critique of the production elements.
Specs: 2-3 pages, no headers just the name of show and your name on the same line. Double spaced. 1 inch margins. Composition style: first paragraph states your thesis, the next 3-5 paragraphs support the thesis and this is followed by a concluding paragraph. The concluding paragraph is where you may bring in other observations: the set/costumes/lights/writing/directing/acting, but be sure to support those observations! No bibliography is needed as we have a shared library in class. If you are quoting from the readings in class just put the author’s name in parenthesis directly following the quote or paraphrase.
Chose one or two actors to observe for the entire show. Take notes. It is often best to see the show more than once. (As a young performer taking advantage of the proximity and low (often free) prices to see shows more than once is encouraged as live shows change from performance to performance.) If observing one actor please write about a myriad of vocal techniques, if observing 2 actors please limit your observations to 3-5 specific techniques to keep the paper within the page limit.
The vocal critique is specifically based on the techniques you are learning in class. I want to see that you can articulate their uses and observe them in the medium in which you perform. Correct use of language is necessary.
There are many vocal techniques to observe: alignment (tensions anywhere in the body that affect it), specifically the atlas/axis relationship, i.e. bobblehead, 3D breath or lack thereof, listening with breath, circular or synchronized breathing (and how this affects the vocal life), the pitch availability from tweeter to woofer and in between, consonant action and the use of the muscles of support or are the “frenemies” taking over?
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask in class or email me. And if you are in the production the above still holds true except the paper is about your vocal journey.
Class 13, 5/7 Tues: Discuss “She Kills Monster” and Bill Bryson chapters 1-4. In groups on the board: the pulmonic obstruent chart and X’s where the American obstruents live. Discussion of transcription, broad and narrow, diactrics and the ‘r’ and where it lives in America.
Assignment: Read this first! Please read Dudley Knight’s pages 115-154 and do all the exercises. And find Eric Armstrong’s obstruent workbook on Blackboard. Print it out and fill it out and bring it to class on Thursday. There are three symbols that I crossed out…..fill those in!!!! I need to make a new clean copy so until I do, fill it all out.
Class 14, 5/9 Thurs: Blake warm-up. Partner work on Omnish. Speed Omnish 1min rounds with 1 min observation feedback then back to original partner. What did you learn? See/feel? How did you grow? Board work with questions from reading and workbook on obstruents.
Assignment: Work on Ominish. Actively!!! Read Bryson 5–10 and put a one page response on Blackboard. Go over Dudley and Eric’s workbook for Obstruents. Remember to have sonnet ready to go on Tuesday.
Class 15, 5/14 Tues: Amanda warm-up. Discuss Bryson 5-10. Partner plow tremor. Groups: Omnish, Sonnet, Sonnet in Omnish. Phthong chart!
Assignment: Bryson 11- end and put a one page response up on Blackboard. Continue to play with Omnish and journal about the wedges you learned from your group. Explore the phthong chart!
Class 16, 5/16 Thurs: George warm-up. Quiz. Kneeling arch tremor. Phthong work on front and back positions from close to open and from schwa.
Assignment: Continue to work on Dudley’s toolkit exercises and on obstruents! Read Chapter 7 in JC Catford’s book. Keep in mind that he sometime alludes to vowels as approximants. Ignore that.