Joel Cohen directed Denzel Washington in the recent film The Tragedy of Macbeth. He harped on Washington to harden his R’s. Cohen wanted Macbeth to project power and knew that precise speech would deliver that quality. And without a regional accent, Washington’s Macbeth could be from anywhere and any era. Actors need to wrap their mouths around the way a character sounds to be convincing, and to inhabit the status, place of origin and attitude of those they portray.

Christine Baranski is in the Downtown Abbey follow-up series The Gilded Age. Baranski plays an old-money New Yorker. When asked why she consistently lands roles playing intelligent women of influence, she laughed. Baranski was born to a Polish family in Buffalo and was gap-toothed. As a young actor, she was turned down by Juilliard because of her sibilant S’s and distinctive R’s. Before re-auditioning, Baranski capped her teeth and hired a speech therapist to rid her of her regional accent.

We are judged by our diction, as well as our appearance. Clear, sharp diction allows you to engineer how you are perceived. Mostly, muscles produce speech and are trainable like biceps or quads. But changing your diction takes steady, repetitive drills and re-tuning your ears.

David came out of Oklahoma farm country and Deborah from inner-city Chicago. We had to walk the talk and become accent neutral. So, it can be done, and when you do, you’ll love your new sound.

Following this tip, we’ve included one of our articles on how to improve diction. Enjoy.

YOUR VOICE AS A MUSICAL INSTRUMENT by David Booth

The voice is a musical instrument. To play it well, practice rote skills faithfully.

Like a tuned violin, played by an accomplished musician, your voice can move people, even make them stand and applaud. Untrained and out of shape, the voice will sound undistinguished or like geese flatulence on a muggy day. With consistent exercise, the voice gains resilience and power. John Raitt, Bonnie’s father, had a trained Broadway singer’s voice that shook theatre walls when he sang. He maintained that voice and performed into his 80’s.

Speakers should consider their voices valuable assets, worthy of care and attention. How would you describe your voice? Is it a viola, a French horn, or a kettle drum? The voice so close to us that we forget it’s there. Unless constantly flexed, our vocal range narrows over time. Then we lose some of our expressive tools, the same as singers losing “tessitura,” or their high and low notes. Many of our clients run 5 miles a day before a talk or pitch, but never warm up their voices. Are they going to use their legs in the talk, or their voices?

When our clients hear a recording of themselves, they always say, “Do I really sound like that?” We can’t hear ourselves precisely as others do, but we can tune our sensibilities to be aware of our tone, cadence and timing.

Walk backstage 15-30 minutes before any theatre performance and you will hear actors warming up their voices. More rubber faces, ooo-ing and ahh-ing you have never seen. These professionals know that if they are to last and be captivating for the next 3 hours, vocal prep is a must. They have to perform and last eight shows a week, and two days contain matinee and evening performances.

Warmup and Muscle Building Voice Exercises

We distilled years of vocal training into a short warm-up and muscle-builder that will serve most people. A client does these exercises with his 5-year old daughter, who finds the exaggerated facial expressions and odd sounds perfectly in tune with her view of the world.

Is your voice tight? Begin a yawn: dropping your jaw and breath intake opens your throat and relaxes vocal folds. Then do the “Lion Face”, forcing your tongue out and down, and your eyes upward. Follow with “how now, brown cow.” Always exaggerate the exercises to work your muscles. (and for maximum comic effect)

Warm up your voice slowly and easily. Hum up and down vocal scales, from your highest note to your lowest. Each time, increase the range a few notes. Do the same with “Z’s”. You will sound like a delirious bumblebee, but feel the resonators in your face activating, which gives your voice a pleasant tone.

Work for precision, so your diction is sharp and distinct. “Lily let Lucy” and “Lippity-Pippity” are favorites, greatly exaggerated. Set a rhythm, then increase the speed, keeping the diction precise. Work other muscles with “OOO-Weet”, making your lips resemble a French woodpecker, then Jim Carrey smiling. You will feel these muscles tire, then ache as you progress.

Vowels carry emotions, and consonants deliver logic. If your tones aren’t round, you won’t move people. And if you drop ends of words or sentences, or your diction isn’t crisp, you won’t sound as intelligent as you are.

“Brah-bray-bree-bro-broo” takes you through the vowel range, and throws in a “BR” kicker. To thrill your Italian friends, trill the r, as in Brrr-ah, making your tongue sound like an outboard motor. Bringing blood and flexibility to the tongue in this way will help you avoid being “tongue-tied”.

Proper breathing and breath support are essential. Breathe into the stomach or diaphragm (below the ribcage) and be economical with the amount of air you expend. Use air to support your voice, get to the end of long sentences, and punctuate where you choose, instead of when you run out of air.

Consider the listener. If you aren’t clear and distinct, and the audience can’t hear or make out what you are saying, they tune you out. If you drop energy at the end of a sentence, you indicate “this is unimportant”. If you speak too fast, you are like the disclaimer at the end of an automobile commercial, clearly denoting “don’t listen-I’m only doing this because I have to”.

Perform a sound test where you’ll present, if you can, to understand the acoustics. Know that bodies and fabrics absorb sound, so you will need more volume when presenting if you tested in an empty room. To project, imagine that your voice is a can of spray paint, and you are covering each listener, especially the person furthest from you. Projection requires a bit more volume, but precision is the key. Imagine your voice as a dart that you toss into the bulls-eye of a target. That target is your listener; think your voice there, use breath support, and drive the voice to cover the distance.

Avoid dairy products, caffeinated or carbonated drinks and bananas prior to speaking. Dairy and bananas create a sticky quality that make your voice sound thick. Strong herbal teas and caffeine dry the voice, and the result of carbonation can be tragically unfunny, especially to the speaker.

What’s left? Room temperature water. Hydration is the speaker’s friend, dryness the enemy. Use mild lozenges, apples or grapes for lubrication. Eat a bit, exercise to get blood flowing, and warm up the voice.

Pretend you’re Warren Beatty in Bugsy. His vocal exercise to calm him down was “Twenty dwarves took turns doing handstands on the carpet”. Another is “Red leather, yellow leather”. Like muscle groups for any sport, you want your vocal muscles warmed up, flexible, and ready to perform. Treat your voice well, and you’ll have a valuable friend for life.