acting accents and dialects
(We recommend jumping to 9:45, but the whole episode is entertaining and informative). JUST DEFINITELY MAKE SURE YOU ASK, OKAY? In this piece, we tap into the expertise of Dialect coach, Sammi Grant. So, what are those traits? In the realm of voice over, listening experiences are more personal. But the advice in Item #2 above also helps avoid this problem. Links to resources with relevant Subject Headings, plus a selection of series and titles in the University of Melbourne Library that may assist in your dialect/accent search, The Lenton Parr Library at Southbank campus holds 21 titles with accompanying CDs from the Paul Meier Dialect Services collection. Sammi refers to her technique of mastering an accent as spontaneous speech..
I always encourage people to find authentic speakers, not actors in television shows or movies, because they arent always the best representation of the accent, says Sammi. But what you might get wrong if you were studying an Australian accent is rhotic rs used to connect words. Take your tongue and put it behind your top teeth, feel the hard palate. Now, I know thats a lot to tackle, but I hope that this guide will serve as a resource you revisit time and time again any time you need a quick refresher. BUT, when your character finds a new idea in the next phrase, switch to a higher or lower note. If you or someone you know are friends with or knows someone who is a native speaker of that accent, see if you can get in touch! In acting, vowel sounds are how we show emotion. When acting with accents on stage or screen, it doesnt matter how authentic you sound if you cant be understood. This guide will put you on your way to mastering any accent that you might need. Heres one technical suggestion that can help this along. Serious voice artists know they use live direct sessions to optimize remote recording. There will be bits and bobs to an accent which are inconsistent, and this is where the real mastery work starts. Whatever reason you have for learning how to do new accents, the starting point remains the same: listening to people who authentically speak with the accent you are trying to learn. How do I gather all of this information? It should feel and sound natural, and this means not labouring every sound we make. Many animated shows have a diverse character base, but the actors who voice those roles havent always been an authentic representation of their characters. The results were almost as bad. With that being said, here are Sammis tips and tricks for mastering a new accent that sounds authentic in 3 easy steps. Casting directors want a little bit of that: Im driving in my truck. Its not really a strong accent, but they want a flavor of it because of who theyre marketing to.. Know in your heart that all of the sounds that you make from here on out will use a lot of lip rounding. Thats okay! So have a play, try it by ear, try reading some phonetics, it will all help in the long run. StageMilk / Accents / How to Master Any Accent. Mastering a new accent takes practice and dedication to ensure that you are able to speak in the new accent in an authentic and non-stereotypical way. Suffice it to say that after 40+ years of accent coaching, I can now support directors choices to violate accent purity for artistic or aesthetic reasons. Practice, practice practice! We want to keep the sound coming forward, with a stiff upper lip and absolutely no width in the mouth. I could hardly understand a single authentic-sounding word spoken by the actor playing Mr. Lundie. A lot of inexperienced voice actors hone in on three or four sounds, which means they can only do a few words in the proper accent, says Sammi. So figure out just how the jaw, tongue, lips and mouth naturally sit in the accent of your choice and you will be well on your way. Lets start with vowels: These are our vowel sounds. If someone comes to me with the desire to learn an accent that is entirely new to them, I would recommend an absolute minimum of 2, but probably 3 or 4, coaching sessions to fully master that accent. Find out how these sound too. Audio homework after each lesson: a new practice MP3 file after each lesson so you can repeat the lesson as often as you wish. Each month we work on scenes and monologues with a beautiful, supportive, inspiring group of actors. Voices is the world's #1 voice marketplace with over 2 million members. It sounds weird, right? Hopefully, I can clear things up for you a little bit. Listening is a key component toward beginning the process of learning any new accent. Required fields are marked *. So basically what this means is: Pitch Rhythm is the musicality of someones accent. Like learning any new skill, getting the hang of how to do different accents requires a lot of hard work and persistent practice. I next had them modify pronunciationchanging their native vowels and consonants to those of the target accent. Youre more likely to maintain the overall accent and its phoneme consistency if you always start with the basics. Acquire skills for mastering accents of English: develop techniques to help you master the sound, rhythm and tone of an accent. After youve listened to an accent and understand how it sounds, the next step is to learn how to make the sounds youre hearing with your mouth. These traits result from differences in the shape or posture of the vocal tract (mouth, nose, throat, etc.) In auditions, rehearsals, and performances, newly learned accents too often dilute many of those things.
Without the presence of those traits, technically correct pronunciations often sounded fake or disconnected. This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions. Americans never make that sound, Sammi says. The video went viral within 24 hours and now has millions of views on YouTube and Facebook. Some of the clips are people talking about language slang, dialect, taboo words, accents. The difficulty of picking up on new accents largely depends on your native accent.
I often relate a story from the first time I coached Brigadoon. However, this is such a controversial and intriguing issue that I will devote a whole future blog post to it. Without getting too deep into the bowels of the phonetic alphabet well take a little look at vowel and consonant sounds. In Sammis experience, as mentioned above, General British (RP) accents tend to be popular. Sammi once produced a viral video in which she slips into different accents in a short span of time.
That presents a challenge for me, because I need to navigate the sensitivity around coaching accents that belong to a race or nationality that isnt my own., I also need to be mindful when Im demonstrating those accents, so when Im coaching an accent that wouldnt authentically be spoken by someone of my race or nationality, I always want to say that Im demonstrating for the client or students learning, not because Im trying to perform the accent. We asked Sammi whether its more advantageous for a voice actor to try to expand their breadth by learning as many new accents as possible, or whether to focus on perfecting a select few. All Rights Reserved, 'I came to Lindsey having spent two years trawling around London searching high and low for a dialect coach that a) had time and wasnt away on jobs much of the time (Lindsey coaches via Skype and is accessible from anywhere) and b) had a technique or way of teaching that ACTUALLY worked. They wont get into the more specific idea of the placement and oral posture, which means they will only sound British for a couple of words, while the rest of the dialogue will demonstrate the actor slipping back into their natural accent, Sammi says. Required fields are marked *. Good. Before you record the audition, talk in the accent for 20 minutes. Learn a monologue (Ideally by a writer from that particular place). Rule of thumb: Dont begin two consecutive phrases (or make consecutive discoveries) at the same pitch. However, meeting Lindsey totally changed this. The French R, which is a back of the mouth sound, tends to be harder, especially for Americans. Some have a much easier time seeing the sounds on a page through the use of phonetics and others pick up accents by ear. In any way, you can! It has the correct inflections and it sounds like a chat youd have with your best friend. Sammi assures us that, like any other art form, it takes time and dedication in order to really become a pro. Phonetically based tuition: your accent coach will guide you through a detailed phonetic breakdown of the accent you wish to learn compared with your own. Instead you should embrace those traits as TOOLS the characters USE for framing words, making points, and landing actions. Theres nothing better or worse about either but I think its important to find out which works better for you. Is the air clean? Accents and dialects for stage and screen : an instruction manual for 18 accents and dialects commonly used by English-speaking actors / by Paul Meier. Does your character live in a hot or a cold climate? I personally fall into the latter category. Which accents do voice actors most commonly seek dialect coaching for? Never underestimate the power of a good accent coach! An amazing book to get you started is Paul Meiers: Accents and Dialects for Stage and Screen. To some, these accents simply dont sound real if spoken with noticeable pitch variety. ", Includes audio files of accents and dialects from the United Kingdom, Includes dialect and accent links, and voice, speech and phonetic sites. Can different accents make me more marketable as a voice actor? NOTE: Before you begin any accent work, we always recommend doing a vocal warm-up first up, to really get those articulators working and that breath nice and grounded. The easiest to teach is the Londoner accent, or Standard British. For a specific role or show, I will get as specific as possible into the accent and dialect of that region.. Theres a beautiful melody to the way they speak as it varies in pitch and speed. Sammi Grant grew up in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago and dreamed of being an actor. Theyre free and open to anyone with a passion for accents. Other clips cover all sorts of subjects and simply offer a flavour of how we talk today. How can I prevent myself from sounding inauthentic? Its all about feeling the changes inside your mouth, and how that differs from your natural accent. In 2018, she moved to London to start the MFA Voice Studies program at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Suddenly a new dream began to take shape. Sammi recognizes that there may be a degree of truth in the sounds of stereotyping an accent, but its important to avoid silliness and character voices when learning a new accent. After a long exploration of my own accent-imitation skills, I discovered there were speech traits other than pronunciation that I changed from accent to accent. If you have an Australian accent try saying this sentence without a rhotic r between idea and and. There is no better way to learn an accent authentically than to speak using that accent as often as you can. Actors tell stories on the stage and screen. How do people in different locations record audio? Take a look at youtube, or movies or TV, for inspiration, theres plenty to be found. Provides resources to assist in understanding the speech sounds of English, German and Spanish. Thats right. When youre performing animation, those contrasting sounds are both great to know. Your email address will not be published.
So, few audience members understood his pivotal explanation of why the town appeared out of the highland mist only once every hundred years. Audience members should be able to follow those stories. And youll definitely learn something about the world around you. But natives of Edinburgh and Inverness, for example, are typically more intelligible to outsiders. Listen to the way they speak. "The clips are drawn from the BBC Voices recordings which capture 1,200 people in conversation. There are all sorts of these little gems just waiting to be found in any accent or dialect. But, to keep an audience engaged with the story and relationships, characters must continue being the same people whether speaking or singing. Try and look (or should I say listen) out for these little idiosyncrasies in accents and dialects that make it what it is. For example, even following my directions to change Long-A to Long-I and Long-I to OY, most still failed to create Cockney-sounding words and phrases. Give it a squiz. Now a consonant is any sound, that is not a vowel sound. The same is often true of West Texas speech and the accents of languages like GERMAN and ARABIC. Working on your vocal flexibility and agility will make your voice stronger and capable of performing different styles of voice over. In addition, some accents have lilts or inflections on stressed syllables. My earliest accent-coaching attempts failed. Not even a strong Southern, but more so that hint of a Southern sound, with a little bit of twang, or a Southern drawl. This website works best with modern browsers such as the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. Published by McLouth, KS : Paul Meier Dialect Service, 2004. It looks like you're using Internet Explorer 11 or older. She generally trains voice actors in a standardized version of the accent, unless the voice actor is auditioning for a specific role. The sessions would take place once a week, because its necessary to have time in-between to practice..
If you dont have any luck with google, give analog google a try The Library! Saoirse Ronan shows us a pretty good example of the differences here. I know when Im really struggling to identify a particular sound Ill turn to phonetics. For example, when performing with a British accent, it is common for inexperienced speakers to drop the R sounds. So as an exercise, lets try it on for size.
Go find them! Dive deep, keep practising and have fun doing it. My Spanish accent sounded really Russian at first, she says. Practice on your mates. Its important to know that the British accent is really broken down by class. You can find Jake taking shelter from the sun in any number of outdoor areas and/or on the hunt for his next caffeine fix. While British is an optimal accent for North American voice actors to have at the ready, Sammi explains that many people presume they can easily fake the accent without any training. Google. Knowing that I have that safety net quite literally at my fingertips is a great comfort when preparing for a role. Specifically, Sammi helps us answer these questions: How many accents should a voice actor learn? Not that it necessarily aligns with the population of the world, but especially in media and entertainment, General American and General British accents are the most commonly heard., I would suggest leaning a bit into the British, Sammi continues. My favourite part of this one is you might even make a new friend! But those thoughts and actions come from individual personalities, relationships, and given circumstances. Now I know this wont be accessible to everyone, be it financially, geographically or otherwise but I would be out of my mind not to mention the importance and value of a good accent coach. Avoid being erratic with several elements of the accent . A great example of this is Southern Irish. Even if you cant do accents perfectly, it is important to try to learn the limits of your vocal range. Dont worry, here are just a few ways for you to gather the resources you need to start your journey to accent mastery. I could not possibly recommend her more highly, particularly to actors that, like me, have despaired at the lack of quality dialect coaching out there. This is not an accent that you smile with, it is an accent that you stoically, bear the universe with. Maybe even ask if its okay with them if you record them for later use. However, I now agree with many directors that artistic choices can and often should override an accents geographic correctness.. This can be a tough one but can be ideal for learning any accent. If you ever get lost, just realign your placement! Some Glaswegian and Border Scots are difficult to understand for many English speakers, even some in the UK. Your goal should be to combine the impression of authenticity with total intelligibility. Something that I think its important to note, is that everyone learns accents differently. Practice answering the phone (Unless its professional, I cant endorse that). To put it simply, if youre a white person, probably dont perform a bunch of Latinx accents. Actors often overly emphasize such patterns, perhaps subconsciously trying to prove theyre doing the accent. But thats not your job as an actor. I am called upon to teach accents from around the world, which often includes accents associated with different races and ethnicities, Sammi describes. Listeners use earbuds, car stereo speakers, home radios, or a smart speaker (among other things) when they encounter voice over, as opposed to a voice actor who may be positioned at a distance, like on a stage. Let me ask you this: when you speak, in whatever accent you may have, is it hard? Starts with a g and kind of rhymes with noodle. Use the accents resonance/muscularity and inflections to express thoughts, paint images, and physicalize actions. When acting with accents, dont let speech patterns dictate that characters have specific personalities or are inclined toward certain choices. Is it easy and laid back or more conservative and regimented? Thats right you heard me (or maybe you didnt through my thick Aussie accent). Ill long remember auditioning decades ago for a production of Anouilhs Becket. Thats especially true of accents with upward lilts (Liverpool, Northern IRISH, SCOTTISH, JAMAICAN) or up-down lilts (AMERICAN SOUTHERN, NORWEGIAN, Minnesotan). I had three minutes to do the video, so I chose the most standard version of each accent. Whatever way you get there doesnt matter, only that you do whats best for you. I have seen Lindsey for a year now, and have recommended her to many other actors and agents with one top agent at WME in LA calling me to say his client had wished he had seen her earlier because she had changed his career. Remember that thing I brought up before? Here are my two truths for accents in musicals: (1) Singers can still support the voice while the mouth posture supports an accents resonance and vowels. their characters were from. Im not endorsed or sponsored by Paul Meier and neither is Stagemilk, this book has some of the best resources for learning accents and dialects out there, and were big fans. She is spending the school year at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where she is teaching Acting for Non-Majors, assisting with voice classes, and dialect coaching CCM productions. *Please note: certain accents requiring special research prior to your project may be priced differently. The benefits of being able to work on Skype with Lindsey are endless. Your email address will not be published. Thats pretty straight forward right? This is ideally where we wanna get to with any accent were working on. Your characters accent becomes the new vocal medium for playing the same acting elements youd use for a non-accent role. From high-level casting decisions to voice actors personally ensuring theyre not contributing to appropriation by stepping away from BIPOC roles, instead ensuring a character is represented authentically by the appropriate BIPOC talent, these examples are expected to be harder and harder to find in the years to come. Every accent has a unique resonance (or voice placement or timbre). I work with clients on specific texts, but also on spontaneous speech. A note on this: Its always best to pick someone whos actually a native speaker of that accent and always to pick just one person, or it can get a bit muddled. Accents and dialects for the Australian performer / compiled and introduced by Bill Pepper, Get rid of your accent: the English pronunciation and speech training manual / by Linda James and Olga Smith, Dialectic Resources by Gillian Lane-Prescia, IDEA - International Dialects of English Archive, British Library Sound Archives - Accents and Dialects, Paul Meier Dialect Services - Accents & Dialects for Stage & Screen. An authentic voice sounds like a normal chat. All of these sounds and phonetics and ah! And were glad for it. This guide will point you to Acting and Theatre resources in the University of Melbourne Library, https://unimelb.libguides.com/actingtheatre, English language -- Pronunciation by foreign speakers, English language -- Accents and accentuation, Accents and dialects for stage and screen, Dialects for the stage / by Evangeline Machlin. Happy accenting. Talk to yourself or your friends, and allow yourself to make mistakes and build that muscle memory. Some accents are so unknown to and unidentifiable by most audience members, they could end up being confusing and distracting. There are tons of USB mics out there now, with the rise in remote work. For Sammi, who also has an Eastern European background, the hardest accents for her to learn are any of the Spanish language accents. The only true way to learn a new accent is by speaking with that accent. It has to be natural, Sammi says. British English Received Pronunciation, General American, Australian and more: feel more confident to be able to produce an accent on demand. Some accents typically employ more vocal variety than others. Keep it supported and try and say the following sentence with Pat: Try it a couple of times, and really make sure youre holding on to that placement. A posh and upper class voice may sound a bit too much like it belongs in a Jane Austen adaptation, while a Cockney accent can occasionally veer into character voice territory. It is also important to avoid sounding too stereotypical. Im thinking particularly of truck commercials. Have a listen to native speakers of that accent and youll see what I mean. How would many UK residents respond to realistic Philadelphia or St. Louis speech? Spontaneous speech could involve talking to yourself out loud in the accent for an entire day, or even chatting with friends and family as you test out the accent. Let me explain: Pitch = The notes someone makes when they speak (2) The choice to sacrifice character inevitability for pure musicality is usually a bad one. Now, like all things in life, nothing is set in stone. Sammi has a natural Midwestern American accent, and says that, in general, the French accent can be a bit more difficult for Americans to pick up. Because of this, audiences can hear every detail of the actors performance, and if they falter even a single word, it will stand out and blemish the illusion of the entire spot. Not only is she extremely skilled in various dialects, but her techniques and her extensive website make learning a new accent easier than it should be. Basically what Im saying is if youre doing Boston and youre watching The Departed: Go with Mark Whalberg over Leo. Jake graduated from WAAPA in 2017 and since then has gone on to work on and off stages around the country. Stereotyping the sounds of the accent you are learning is not an issue so long as it is coming from a place of research and having carefully listened to authentic speakers repeatedly.
I know I know, thats a little confusing but never fear! This time find at least one thing hes doing other than sounding English.. When acting with accents, characters objectives and actions must still grow from their backgrounds, relationships, and given circumstances. Based on her experience, Sammi is largely approached to instruct students as they tackle two main types of accents. When you first start your accent journey, you should take a page out of your acting book and do some mental reconnaissance, or, investigating.
