Hey guys!
Please post any questions / concerns / observations from the reading below. For the mid-term, you are required to know all about breath support, and the importance of being aware of breath patterns. In addition, you are required to know classroom terms such as: destructuring (tremors); Catherine Fitzmaurice; fluffy sound; feeling breath; alpha state; and the names of the different tremoring poses and how you do them (thus far, we've learned - the twist, legs in the air, happy baby, half plough, dying cockroach, legs wide & happy whore).
thx!
Joanna
I found this reading very interesting because in my opinion a lot of my biggest personal struggles with auditions and my voice are my breath and it becoming shaky. The various stretches really helped with deeper breathing and becoming more relaxed. Before this reading, I always pictured achieving a powerful breath through force. However, it seems that if you stretch and relax, breath automatically becomes deeper and fuller.
ReplyDeleteI found that exercise 7 was very informative, and surprisingly effective. Often I tighten my shoulders and that's when I generally loose my breath support, but I have never really pieced the two together.
ReplyDeleteI really connected to the beginning describing that if we don’t take an adequate breath we won’t be able to respond, think or feel completely in the moment. If we aren’t taking in enough oxygen, we are not providing our brain with all it needs to function. Without breath, we have nothing. I also connected to the non-support habits. I didn’t ever actually recognize the vocal strain of speaking like that until I felt the difference side by side.
ReplyDeleteI especially liked reading the part about changing breath. I know when I was in choir we would notate where certain breaths should be taken. That's got to be taken into consideration by good writers; when the actor needs to take a breath. But as an actor it's my job to figure out when those moments are.
ReplyDeleteBreath support is a very interesting topic to me. In high school during the competitive audition season, I remember working a lot on my breath support and control with my teacher and feeling and hearing the difference it made in my singing when I consciously worked on it. In my acting, I think that I need to work the same way and perfect my support and control the way I had in my singing.
ReplyDeleteIt is surprising to realize that few of us breathe fully. I feel like I am one of those people. I especially found it interesting, how breathing into certain words can add truthfulness to it or not. In that section of "owning words" I could see how placing/supporting the breath in a particular way can make actually make you connect more with the words in a emotional sense.
ReplyDeleteI was intrigued by how the amount of breathe support one has, and how they use it, can help them portray a different character. For instance, being on top of, behind, in front of, or beneath your sound. All of those voices sound different, and will probably be used at some point in every actors career...we just have to learn when and where they are appropriate. Before i read this, I just thought the actors who were good at sounding nervous, cocky, tired, drunk, or even overjoyed were just really good at impersonating others. Now I see that they are actually becoming those things (not just acting) and they are doing so by training their voices and breath to act a specific way. Interesting!
ReplyDeleteBefore this class I never realized how much I don't breathe while doing various things throughout the day. Even something as simple as walking up a flight of stairs. The stretches/vocal exercises in these pages are very helpful. After preforming them I really notice the changes in my breath. I find them really helpful and hope to improve my breathing habits even more.
ReplyDeleteThis has been the most helpful section for me thus far. I have been singing longer that I have been acting and I have been looking for a way to improve both. Learning about proper breath support is so imperative in order to sing and act and I believe that after reading this section I have a greater understanding of what exactly breath support is and how to properly execute it. I have already noticed a significant change in my voice and I'm really excited to continue to learn more techniques and improve.
ReplyDeleteAs I become more aware of my breath, I notice how I try to regulate it instead of allow it to flow freely. I think it is hard to make breath natural. In class, often in the tremors i find myself holding back and not willing to breathe out of my mouth and naturally. These exercises encouraged me to relax my body, voice, and breath and to concentrate on really connecting to my inner rhythm.
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ReplyDeleteFull breath has always been somewhat of a challenge for me. I've learned how important is it for acting and singing. It definitely gives us more vocal control and allows us the ability to fill the room with our voices.
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