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0126 – Don’t Be A Dick With Your Diction   DICTION If ‘articulation’ is the process of moving the jaw, tongue, lips and palate to produce different sounds, ‘diction’ is the use of those different ‘packets of sound’ to create understandable words.   Don’t be a dick with your diction Again, as I have said several times, I’m not saying you must or should change the way you speak, I’m just p...

0125 – Ten More Great Accent Tips   Some other accent tips ·        Vocal fillers of other languages may also be important ·        You have to have a good ear… and a good mouth ·        Listen to authentic, native speakers, speaking in an English accent ·   &...

0124 – Accents Are Not Just How A Word Sounds   Accents are not just how the words sound All accents have a character.   Think of a soft projection of highland Scottish, a harsher New-Yorker, the slow drawl of someone from a southern U.S state, the almost operatic excitability of an Italian speaker. Of course, everyone is different but there are ‘cultural averages’ and is partly to do wi...

0123 – How A Rat Can Help You Learn A New Accent   Unsurprisingly, you can learn other accents via mimicry: simply listening and accurately repeating how a native speaker speaks, including the subtle nuances. And there are some resources to help you do that.   There are several short texts (including “ Arthur The Rat ”, “ Comma Gets A Cure ” and “ The Rainbow Passage” ) which are contain...

0122 – How Different Languages Have Different Pitches   VOICE BOX Language experts [1] say that our speech is made up of a huge number of frequencies – base tones and overtones. It’s claimed that every language has a different range, for example British English moves between 2,000 and 12,000 Hz and French much less so between 125 and to 2,000 Hz and Russian between a wide...

0121 – Learning Accents Learning accents We looked at vowels and consonants earlier and how they are formed, and it’s true to say that accents are usually down to how you sound the vowels. Yes, consonants are sometimes pronounced differently from your native tongue, but they are much more likely to be the same.   There are vowel sounds in some languages that do not exist in standard English....

0120 – Speaking’s Most Important Body Part What is the most important part of the human body when it comes to speaking?   Arguably the ears: we need to be able to hear sounds and process them before we can reproduce them.   And similarly, we all adapt to be able to process different people’s voices. So, scientists say, it is amazing that even though my vocal anatomy is different from you...

0119 – The ‘Global Accent’ A global accent With around 2 billion speakers (either as a first or second language), English is the most understood language in the world.   Spread by traders, invaders and slave owners, explorers, teachers and preachers through the printed word and, literally, the word of mouth, it’s now mostly learnt via American TV and films (rather than, unfortunately, through...

0118 – How Advertisers Use Accents To Sell Us Stuff   VOICE BOX Marketers know exactly how to manipulate our feeling towards different accents. Call-centre switchboards are so sophisticated that they often route calls from different geographical locations or from customers with specific enquiries, to operatives with certain accents.   So a bank customer from Alabama might get an adviser...

0117 – Voice Morphing   Voice morphing There’s is nothing wrong in having two or more speaking styles: a ‘personal voice’ and a ‘professional voice’. Linguists refer to ‘style shifting’: a kind of chameleon camouflage in which we unconsciously or deliberately alter our speaking style depending on who we are talking with and factors such as our perception of the relative social class of us and...

0116 – The Story Of Bailey And The Beach Bailey was brought up in New Zealand and so spoke English with that fantastic accent. She was a great newsreader and applied for a job at a radio station in the south-east of England. The news editor didn’t mind the slightly different inflection, Bailey was perfectly understandable and her slight accent added a certain point of difference to the sound of th...

0115 – How An Accent May Make Or Break Your Career If you are working for a regional radio or tv station then having a pronounced accent from outside that area may cause you problems, particularly if it’s from the ‘wrong side of the river’ in a neighbouring state or an area with whom there’s some historical, sporting or religious antipathy. [1]   Presenters with an accent from a foreign count...

0114 – The Accent That Killed When the Tribe of Gilead defeated the Ephraimites in The Bible, they used accent as a means of identifying surviving Ephraimites trying to escape.   People were asked to say the Hebrew word " Shibboleth ", which means ‘stream’. People from Gilead pronounced it with a ‘sh’ sound, whereas Ephraimites did not, so anyone who said " Sibboleth " was killed on the spot....

0113 – All About Accents ACCENTS Accents are wonderful things. None of us think we have one, but we all do!   They are what helps make us who we are, reflecting our family history, heritage and where we grew up.   They are the product of the dominant speech patterns of those around us, picked up almost by osmosis, as to fit in to a group. We emulate or mimic the sounds from the community...

0112 – Six Tongue Exercises – Including The One You Won’t Be Able To Resist Trying VOCAL YOGA - Peter’s PT for the tongue These exercises stretch your tongue, releasing tongue root tension to give you a more resonant voice and gain fine control and make the most of the tongue’s ability and agility. ·        Stick your tongue out (sorry mum!) Curl it back to...

0111 - Face Yoga VOCAL YOGA - Peter’s PT for the face Pull a face! - Make an exaggerated expression and then release, and express again. The Lion – a scary face, baring your teeth and angry eyes The Clown – full and bright, with your mouth wide open The Lemon Eater – tight and acidic == Through these under-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and...

0110 – Getting’ Lippy With It! Pucker Up For Some ‘Lip PT’ VOCAL YOGA - Peter’s PT for the lips ·        Humming – yes something as easy and straightforward as this can help loosen your lips and free up your facial muscles ready for a voice session. ·        Lips trills – like humming this is an opportunity to wake up...

0109 – Morgan Freeman’s Favourite Voice Exercise VOCAL YOGA - Peter’s PT for your throat ·        Here’s how to reduce tension in the back of your mouth and throat, and create a better resonance in your voice. You will notice that when you say ‘car car car’, the back of your tongue touches the roof of your mouth. Now say ‘ga ga ga’ and the tongue moves down...

0108 – Tension-Busting Jaw Exercises VOCAL YOGA – Peter’s PT for the jaw ·        Beware of clenched teeth which may be a sign of stress. The most relaxed position for your jaw is with the teeth slightly apart. Open your mouth slightly and carefully move your lower jaw from side to side. Do this slowly and gently and just six times a side. ·  ...

0107 – The 1941 ‘Radio Announcer’s Test’ To Help With Speaking Skills The Radio Announcers Test [1] This was created by Radio Central New York in 1941 to test new announcers’ speaking skills. It covers a variety of vowel and consonant sounds and you can either say it line-by-line, in just one breath without sounding rushed or out of breath, or read line 1, then 1 and 2, then 1,2 and 3 and so...

0106 – Our Amazing and Unique Alphabetised Exaggerated Articulation Exercises VOCAL YOGA – Peter’s PT for Articulation Traditional tongue twisters are great to warm up your mouth and to help increase your clarity and overall oral muscularity, because despite their name they also help you develop the better use of your jaw, lips and soft palate too. Our Amazing And Unique Alphabetised Exaggerated A...

0105 – Mouth Clicks And Audio Processing Mouth clicks and audio processing What is audio processing?   After sound is recorded it often goes through a professionally post-production process. This obviously won’t happen if you are going live to say YouTube/Zoom from your phone or laptop, but will happen if you are live or recorded from a professional studio, or if your home studio has a proces...

0104 – Cutting Mouth Clicks By Balancing Proximity, Projection And Levels   So the closer you are to the mic when you speak, the softer your voice will be and the input level on that mic channel will be tweaked to achieve appropriate recording level. If you get close and shout then the input level will need to be low to avoid distortion on the playback of the recording. If you move away from...

0103 – Mouth Clicks And Mic Technique Mouth clicks and mic technique Whatever the cause, being too close to the microphone will certainly accentuate clicks. It stands to reason, if someone whispers in your ear you are far more likely to hear their tongue, cheeks and lips at work making those word-formations. This could be sensuous in some circumstances but, maybe not when you’re trying to understa...

0102 – Kissing When Speaking: The ‘Lip Smack’ Sound Subconcious vocalisation Finally (although you may be able to think of some more), distracting and unnecessary non-verbal sounds may be the subconscious ‘kiss-sound’ as someone vocalises an in-breathe a split-second before talking.   As this often happens in a news-reading situation just before a new story, and because the sound can also sou...