The Voice Coach Podcast: Recent Episodes

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This is a question I get asked a lot: what is better for my vocal health, steaming or nebulising? You'll learn the difference between them, how they affect the vocal tract and the voice, and how to do them properly. I also share my nebulising and steaming routines, which moment of the day is better for each of them, and more.

What You'll Learn In This Episode:

• The differences between steaming and nebulising
• What hot steam and cold droplets do to your voice and your vocal tract
• Which one of the two is the best option to hydrate your vocal cords
• The risks of nebulising and steaming
• Nic's nebulising and steaming routine

Whether you want to relax after a long day of work, or to start your day and eliminate the croaky morning voice, you’ll find benefits in steaming or nebulising. So which one will you choose?

Resources:

• Buy my Book
• Get a voice tips freebie! - Newsletter - Nic Redman
• Nebuliser science
• Vocal Mist
• Join The Voice & Accent Hub
• Follow me on Instagram

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Are you one of those who "can't find the time" to do a proper voice warm up? If so, listen to today's episode, because I'll teach you how your vocal warm up can actually help you save time and how to blend it with your morning routines and holistic practices.

What You'll Learn In This Episode:

• Warming up your voice can help you spend less time editing
• How vocal warm ups can help you expand your vocal potential
• The benefits of blending vocal warm ups with any holistic practices

Warming up your voice is about reminding your vocal cords about their true potential. It is the time to show your voice the pitches, the highs and lows it can reach, the tonal changes, the depth, the range, and the emotions it can express. 

Resources:

• Subscribe to The Fold https://nicolaredman.com/newsletter/
• Get my book https://nicolaredman.com/on-the-mic-book/
• Join The Voice & Accent Hub https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

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This week, I'm sharing five of the most common mistakes I see people making in their speaking voice warm ups. I'll explain why you shouldn't extend your warm ups for too long, improvise and go without a plan or focus exclusively on your vocal folds. I’ll also share my thoughts on singing to warm your voice, starting your routine with tongue twisters, and much more.

What You'll Learn In This Episode:

• What happens to your voice when you stretch your vocal warm up too much
• The issue with starting your warm ups with a tongue twister
• How planning your warm ups can help you get the best out of them
• The truth about singing to warm up your voice
• Paying attention to the whole body when warming up your voice

Warming up your voice is crucial for your long-term vocal maintenance and care. It benefits your voice, your body as a whole and even your soul. That is one more reason to make it an enjoyable part of your routine and not a long and unpleasant session of total discomfort.

Resources mentioned:

• Join the waitlist for my upcoming book - https://nicolaredman.com/book-waitlist/
• Receive my Newsletter - The Fold: https://nicolaredman.com/newsletter/
• Join The Voice & Accent Hub: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub
• Follow me on Instagram instagram.com/nicredvoice

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In today's episode, I'll answer why your voice gets to a higher pitch whenever you are nervous or emotional, and how to gain more control over it in these situations. I'll also share three things you can do to counteract the effect of those emotions in your voice, which will help you in the moment of speaking itself.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• Why your voice changes when the nerves kick in
• How tension affects your voice pitch
• How warmups and body stretches can help you control your voice pitch
• The importance of staying grounded while speaking

So warmups, stretching and increasing your grounding and stability are great ways of helping yourself to reduce the moments when you feel trapped in a higher pitch, or when your expressive range is reduced.

Resources:

• Episode 012 How To Do A Spine Roll and Prepare the Body for Voice Work: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/012-how-to-do-a-spine-roll-and-prepare-the-body-for-voice-work/id1551530536?i=1000512028187
• Join Vocally Free for 2023: https://nicolaredman.com/vocally-free-for-2023/
• Receive my Newsletter - The Fold: Newsletter - Nic Redman

Mentioned in this episode:

Join Vocally Free for 2023

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In this episode, I'll share my top tips to prevent reflux during the holiday season. You'll also learn how reflux affects your voicing, how to adjust your routine to avoid experiencing it throughout the year, and more.

What Is Covered:

• What is Laryngopharyngeal reflux and how can it affect your voice
• How to avoid experiencing reflux during the holidays
• The benefits of having your meals as early as you can
• How to use gravity in your favour to prevent reflux
• The benefits of hydration, proper rest and healthy eating habits

To avoid experiencing the voice-crippling effects of reflux, you need to adopt a holistic approach to taking care of your health. Every bit counts, from proper rest to hydration, a balanced and healthy diet, and lowering stress.

Resources:

• Join Vocally Free for 2023: https://nicolaredman.com/voice-masterclasses-2023/
• Receive my Newsletter - The Fold: https://nicolaredman.com/newsletter/
• 074 The Vocal Empowerment Series - Nic’s Chat to Tor Spence of VoiceFitUK

Mentioned in this episode:

Join Vocally Free for 2023

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This week, I bring some tips to enjoy yourself during the holiday season and take care of your voice at the same time. You’ll learn how to be ready for your end-of-the-year voice gigs, avoid getting sick and conduct yourself at parties without risking the health of your voice.

What Is Covered:

• How to be vocally ready for the end of the year party season
• What I did wrong during the last holiday and how it affected my work
• Why you should drink water before, during, and after every social event
• How avoiding late snacks can improve your voice's health
• Why you should always create space for a wee warm up

One of the best things you can do for your vocal health is to cool down, switch off, and indulge yourself a bit. However, finding the sweet spot between enjoyment and responsibility is your duty as a professional. With proper care and conscious use of your voice, you can enjoy your end of the year gigs and your well deserved rest and enjoyment.

Resources:

• Sign up to my Newsletter: Newsletter - Nic Redman
• Join The Voice & Accent Hub: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthubv
• Follow me on Instagram instagram.com/nicredvoice

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This week, I'll share six gift options you can give your voiceover artist, podcaster, or voice-dubber friend this Christmas. From voice-caring devices to performance enhancers, you can rely on this wishlist to save you and your loved one from that awkward moment when they open their presents to find a pair of socks.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• The multiple benefits a quality nebulizer has to offer

• A voice straw is an excellent option for enhancing your warm-up routines

• How to upgrade your hydration game with smart bottles

• Use a voice warm-up card deck to save you and your friends from warm up-boredom

Resources:

• The Voice Deck https://nicolaredman.com/voice-coach/the-voice-deck/

• Voiceover Career Planner https://www.thevosocial.com/product-page/the-voiceover-career-planner-by-the-vo-social

• SOVT straw https://www.rayvox.co.uk/?ref=NICREDMAN

• Nebuliser https://myvocalmist.com/en-gb/products/vocalmist-portable-nebulizer

or

https://lloydspharmacy.com/products/beurer-ih55-nebulise

• Episode 024 Using Straw Phonation to Enhance Your Vocal Warm Up https://pod.fo/e/cfe44

• Join The Voice & Accent Hub: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthubv

• Follow me on Instagram instagram.com/nicredvoice

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This week, to keep things on the book recommendation trail going, I'll share three non-voice books you should add to your library to help you improve your voice training journey.

What We Cover:

• Understand the marks trauma has left in your body with The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk

• The more you learn about breathing, the better. Master your breathing with Breathe in, Breathe Out by Stuart Sandeman

• Encourage better and more productive habits with Atomic Habits by James Clear

Although these books aren't voice training related, they can definitely add valuable skills and tools that'll make your voice quality better.

Resources:

• Join "The Fold", - my bi-monthly Newsletter: Newsletter - Nic Redman

• Your Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Body-Keeps-Score-Transformation-Trauma/dp/0141978619/

• Breathe in, Breathe Out by Stuart Sandeman: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Breathe-Out-practical-management-improved/dp/0008475377/

• Atomic Habits by James Clear: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Atomic-Habits-Proven-Build-Break/dp/1847941834/

• Join The Voice & Accent Hub: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthubv

• Follow me on Instagram instagram.com/nicredvoice

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In today's short and sweet episode, I'll go through five of my favourite books for voice training. You'll learn about really accessible, easy-to-follow and practical resources with plenty of voice exercises and science-based recommendations.

What You Will Learn:

• How to approach your voicing holistically with Finding Your Voice by Barbara Houseman

• Learn to improve your voice's daily care with Everyday Voice Care by Joanna Cazden

• Get hundreds of voice exercises from Voicework by Christina Shewell

• Learn everything you need to know about articulation from The Moment of Speech by Annie Morrison

Resources:

• Finding You Voice by Barbara Houseman: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Finding-Your-Voice-step-step-ebook/dp/B016YAOLOA

• Everyday Voice Care by Joanna Cazden: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Everyday-Voice-Care-Lifestyle-Singers-ebook/dp/B00BFUOZW8/

• Voicework by Christina Shewell: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Voice-Work-Science-Changing-Voices-ebook/dp/B00DAB8HCE/

• This Is a Voice by Jeremey Fisher, Gillyanne Kayes, and Cerys Matthews: https://www.amazon.co.uk/This-Voice-exercises-project-harness/dp/1999809025/

• The Moment of Speech by Annie Morrison: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Moment-Speech-Creative-Articulation-Actors/dp/1350107921/

• Join The Voice & Accent Hub: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthubv

• Sign up to my newsletter https://nicolaredman.com/newsletter/

• Follow me on Instagram instagram.com/nicredvoice

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What to do when you are called last minute for a voice gig, to host a meeting or get interviewed, and you don't have much time to go through a proper voice warm up but still want to sound fantastic? Today is your lucky day, because I'll teach you 5 exercises to warm up dead quick.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• The three main areas every warm up routine should focus on

• The benefits of shaking your body before a voice gig

• How to eliminate the shaky and nervous voice ton

• How to glide up and down your vocal range

• The benefits of slug tongue and underwater speaking

The excitement of getting interviewed and telling your story can cause unnecessary tension in your vocal tract that, on top of making you sound weird, can damage your voice. These 5 quick exercises can help you prevent that, and they're an excellent option for pre-speaking gigs or social networking events.

Resources:

• Buy a Voice Deck for more warm up inspo https://nicolaredman.com/voice-coach/the-voice-deck/

• Send me your voice problems! https://nicolaredman.com/contact/

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If you speak mainly on a microphone and you don't need to be heard in a massive outdoor space, it'll be fair to assume your voice will do fine for the most part. But if you must speak for long hours, doing several hours of recordings in a row, your voice will most likely get tired. In today's episode, I'll share three tips to reduce vocal tiredness and increase vocal stamina that'll help you keep your voice fresh and accurate.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• Why you must learn to take care of your vocal tiredness

• The best way to build a consistent vocal care routine

• How big breaths affect your voice quality and stamina

• How to keep the right amount of tension in your body

Part of taking care of your voice is acknowledging that voice care is a holistic experience; for your voice to be in a good place, your mind and body must be there first. So, if your nutrition, hydration, and sleep quality are poor or your stress levels are high, your voice will suffer, regardless of how much care you put into your warmups and release exercises.

Resources:

• Join The Vocal Empowerment Programme https://nicolaredman.com/voice-coach/vocal-empowerment-programme/

• Join The Voice & Accent Hub: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthubv

• Sign up to my newsletter https://nicolaredman.com/newsletter/

• Follow me on Instagram instagram.com/nicredvoice

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As a speaker, the most empowering thing you can do with your voice is to know it like the palm of your hand and how to take care of it. Today's episode is a guide to help you check your voice, see where you could improve your voice care, and ensure solid and consistent performances.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• One of the best ways of nailing and understanding your voice

• The importance of regularly checking how you feel using your voice

• How to keep your relationship with warm ups up to date

• Why it is crucial to always check your hydration habits

• How to be ahead of your voice gigs, schedule rest and prep time, and plan warm ups

Being able to connect with how you feel vocally and being aware of your voice's needs will make you feel empowered, confident, and it will also have a dramatically positive effect on the quality and accuracy of your work.

Resources:

• 001 How to Structure Your Voice Warm Up https://apple.co/3KSkiHV

• Join The Voice & Accent Hub: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthubv

• Talk to me about coming to the Ultimate Voice Getaway: Ultimate Voice Getaway Retreat - Nic Redman

• Sign up to my newsletter https://nicolaredman.com/newsletter/

• Follow me on Instagram instagram.com/nicredvoice

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Today, in the last installment of the Vocal Empowerment Series, I have the pleasure of chatting with the voice expert and best-selling author Caroline Goyder.

We explore the crucial role of the body in vocal empowerment, how imposter syndrome affects our voicing abilities, and what gravitas sounds like and means to Caroline. We look at vocal empowerment through the lens of mindfulness, discuss Caroline’s books and her idea that we, as humans, are not finished products. We talk about voicing and communication as a dance, not a picture, the role of nerves before a voice gig, and much more.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• How Caroline's book "Star Qualities" serves as an imposter syndrome neutraliser

• Why Caroline believes in the beauty of voices' imperfections

• Why feeling nervous is a perfectly normal part of public speaking, and how to go through it

• What Caroline thinks gravitas is and how it should sound

• What vocal empowerment is and how to reach it

• Caroline's advice on the best way to "break a state"

As an internationally recognised speaker and trainer, Caroline Goyder worked as a voice coach for over 10 years at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London. Besides “Star Qualities”, she authored "Gravitas: Communicate with Confidence," "Influence and Authority," and "Find your Voice." In 2014, Caroline presented "The surprising secret to speaking with confidence" at TEDx Brixton, that reached almost 9.5 million views on YouTube. Go and check it out!

Resources:

• Learn more about Caroline and her courses https://www.carolinegoyder.com/

• Join me in The Voice & Accent Hub: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

• Buy “Gravitas: Communicate with Confidence” https://amzn.to/3BDNa3T

• Buy “The Star Qualities: How to Sparkle With Confidence in All Aspects of Your Life” https://amzn.to/3d5DLI0

• Buy “Find Your Voice: The Secret to Talking with Confidence in Any Situation” https://amzn.to/3bqyRFj

• The surprising secret to speaking with confidence | Caroline Goyder | TEDxBrixton: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2MR5XbJtXU

• Talk to me about coming to the Ultimate Voice Getaway: Ultimate Voice Getaway Retreat - Nic Redman

• Sign up to my newsletter https://nicolaredman.com/newsletter/

• Follow me on Instagram instagram.com/nicredvoice

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My guest Samara Bay is an Author, Coach, Podcast Host and International Speaker. We delve into Samara's passion for studying accents and their origins, how we relate to the sounds we hear, and how we are socially conditioned to think about them. We talk about the social phenomena of judging and being judged by how we sound, and what it really means to sound like our true self.

Samara also talks about her experience of losing her voice in her 20s, shares her thoughts on vocal empowerment and tips on how to embrace it.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• Which factors contribute to an accent's existence, acceptance, and judgement

• The stories that fictional characters tell us just by the way they sound

• Why some accents make us automatically think of a dumb, intelligent, or tricky person

• Why it seems easier to create a vocal persona instead of sounding like our true self

• About the cultural mandate of hiding what we care about

• What vocal empowerment means to Samara, and what is the best way to embrace it

Samara worked as a Hollywood dialect coach for over 10 years, with massive stars from blockbuster movies like Wonder Woman and Guardians of the Galaxy. She is passionate about decolonising public speaking, and debunking the invisible voice biases that hold voice workers back. She is the author of "Permission to Speak: How to Change What Power Sounds Like, Starting with You" and host of the Permission to Speak Podcast.

Resources:

• Join The Voice & Accent Hub: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthubv

• Find out more about Samara & pre-order Permission to Speak: https://www.samarabay.com/

• The Voiceover Social Podcast episode on The Birmingham Accent: https://www.thevosocial.com/the-vo-social-podcast/episode/fd0923cf/brummie

• The Voice & Accent Hub https://www.facebook.com/groups/160080935058642/

• Talk to me about coming to the Ultimate Voice Getaway: Ultimate Voice Getaway Retreat - Nic Redman

• Sign up to my newsletter https://nicolaredman.com/newsletter/

• Follow me on Instagram instagram.com/nicredvoice

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Today I share the best parts of my conversation with the brilliant Tor Spence, Voice and Upper Airway Specialist, and the Founder of VoiceFit Private Speech Therapy Services.

We delve into some voice health issues like reflux, its causes, how to identify it, and the consequences of it being misdiagnosed. Tor shares her thoughts on voice empowerment, how you can benefit from it, and how to better know your voice from a vocal health perspective. She also offers top tips for keeping your voice healthy and consistent during hay fever season, what inflammation might look and feel like, and much more.

What You Will Learn:

• The symptoms of reflux and consequences on your voice

• Why you shouldn't ignore reflux symptoms

• Tor's best advice on hydration

• What vocal empowerment is for Tor, and its role in enhancing your voicing consistency and health

• Tor's recommendation for being more in touch with your voice's health

• Advice for voice users recovering from COVID

• Why some people need to constantly clear their throats

• The importance of nose breathing

If you find this useful and interesting, check out Tor’s voice therapy skills training, online courses, webinars, in-person training, as well as her VoiceFit Blog.

Resources:

• VoiceFit website: https://voicefit.co.uk/

• Tor Spence LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tor-spence-05b7571a4/

• Tor Spence Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/voicefituk/

• Tor Spence Twitter: https://twitter.com/voicefituk/

• The Voice & Accent Hub https://www.facebook.com/groups/160080935058642/

• Talk to me about coming to the Ultimate Voice Getaway: Ultimate Voice Getaway Retreat - Nic Redman

• Sign up to my newsletter https://nicolaredman.com/newsletter/

• Follow me on Instagram instagram.com/nicredvoice

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Today's episode is all about habits and how to incorporate your vocal warm ups and voice care into your daily routines. I'll share a few tips to help you make space in your day and turn your voice work more habitual. I’ll also talk about navigating new habits using timers, rewards, a warm up partner, or sticking fun things at the end of your voice work or warm ups.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• Why it is so hard to maintain your vocal warm up routines through time

• How making your voice warm ups into habitual practices can help you develop efficient muscular patterns

• The advantages of setting a timer for your warm up and voice work routines

• How to motivate yourself using rewards

• How to increase accountability by adding a voice warm up pal

Adding pleasure or fun things at the end of every warm up session is an excellent tool to motivate you to commit to doing our voice work consistently. Keeping consistency in your vocal warm up will increase your confidence, clarity, speaking performance, and vocal expression.

Resources:

• Book: James Clear Atomic Habits https://amzn.to/3PkLpw8

• Talk to me about coming to the Ultimate Voice Getaway: Ultimate Voice Getaway Retreat - Nic Redman

• Sign up to my newsletter https://nicolaredman.com/newsletter/

• Follow me on Instagram instagram.com/nicredvoice

• Join the Voice & Accent Hub https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

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This week, we'll explore the ways to keep your voice safe and functioning while dealing with a cold. I’ll talk about how to deal with your clients, listeners and colleagues' needs and expectations, how to reduce the impact on your voice of recording during illness, and what you can do to alleviate the effects of using your voice while enduring a cold.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• Why you must set clear expectations with your colleagues, listeners, and clients about what they can expect from you

• The effects of hydration and nebulising reduce and help mitigate cold symptoms

• What you need to know about facial lymphatic drainage and cold medications

• The benefits of creating a consistent nose breathing routine

• Why you must pay attention to and perform releasing exercises

Releasing exercises are crucial to soften the tension produced by using your voice during these challenging times. Your usual work will demand a bigger physical and mental effort, which is why it's a good idea to create more space for resting or even taking some days off.

Resources:

• Subscribe to my newsletter: https://nicolaredman.com/newsletter/

• The Ultimate Voice Retreat: https://nicolaredman.com/voice-coach/courses-and-retreats/ultimate-voice-getaway-retreat/

• Beurer nebulisers: https://www.beurer.com/web/gb/products/medical/nebulisation/ih-18.php

• 023 What is SOVT Work and How to Use It In Your Vocal Warm Up: https://pod.fo/e/cdff8

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Today I'll answer the question everyone I come across asks: why should I do a vocal warm up? We'll explore the effects vocal warm ups have on the physical aspect of voicing as well as your mental preparation, and I'll share the three not-so-obvious reasons why doing a proper vocal warm up really matters.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• The simpler answer to why vocal warm ups are necessary

• How vocal warm ups affect your voice and mental preparation for a voice gig

• Why vocal warm ups are great for reducing voice tiredness

• How vocal warm ups affect your voicing muscles

• How incorporating healthy habits impact your body in the long-term

Vocal warm ups are handy for learning about your body, voice and mind. You can also learn about your breath, have fun, and ensure proper ageing of your voice.

Resources:

• Sign up to my newsletter https://nicolaredman.com/newsletter/

• Follow me on Instagram instagram.com/nicredvoice

• Join the Voice & Accent Hub https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

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This week, we'll learn to deal with the popping plosives. We'll overlook mic placement and other silly techniques to reduce plosives and we'll go right at the source of the issue, our lips. I'll share an exercise to help you release the plosives with more ease, reducing the popping sound on the mic in the long term, and I'll share an emergency tool for exceptional occasions.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• Why some consonants explode on the microphone

• The connection between the vigour we use to speak and plosives

• How to reduce plosives by paying attention to the lip tension

• A quick fix to reduce plosives (not a long-term solution)

In most cases, we sound poppy on the mic because we are over-excited during the plosive release phase. To reduce plosives, we must increase awareness of our lip tension when voicing and explore the sound produced under different levels of tension.

Resources:

• Subscribe to my newsletter https://nicolaredman.com/newsletter/

• Episode 047 What are Plosives and Fricatives? https://pod.fo/e/10d7bd

• Episode 062 What are Vowels and Consonants and What They Mean for Your Speaking‎ https://pod.fo/e/f79e2

• Join the Voice & Accent Hub https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

• Follow me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/nicredvoice/

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This week's episode is all about mouth noises. We'll focus on three most common - saliva clicks, nasal farts, and behavioural lips and tongue smacks. We'll learn to identify and understand why we produce them and focus on what we can do to avoid them.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• The things we should focus on to eliminate behavioural mouth sounds

• The three main reasons why we produce saliva and how to prevent them

• What nasal farts are and the best ways to avoid them

Soft palate awareness, release and toning exercises are great for preventing some of the most annoying mouth sounds. Proper hydration and healthy eating habits are also great tools, and we should always keep them in sight to keep our voices clean and clear.

Resources:

• Join my Newsletter: Newsletter - Nic Redman

• Ep 33 Getting to know your articulators: ‎The Voice Coach Podcast: 033 Articulation 002: Getting to Know Your Articulators and How They Make Sounds on Apple Podcasts

• Ep 43 Exploring and Energising the soft palate: ‎The Voice Coach Podcast: 043 Articulation 010: Exploring and Energising the Soft Palate for Extra Vocal Clarity on Apple Podcasts

• Join the Voice & Accent Hub https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

• Follow me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/nicredvoice/

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Have you noticed that you never run out of breath in the middle of a sentence, but you do when you have to record a long-phrase written by somebody else? In today's episode, I'll reveal why this happens and I'll share three exercises that will help you get to the end of any phrase with plenty of air in your lungs.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• Why it is that we run out of breath when recording words we haven't written ourselves

• The link between our thoughts and breathing

• Why it’s okay to breathe in the middle of a thought

• Three exercises to synchronise your breathing with the length of the phrases you need to record

When the breath comes in, it acts as fuel for the thought we are building in our minds. In other words, the breath is as important in the communication process as the thoughts and the words themselves.

Resources:

• Receive my newsletter to get first dibs on the new brilliant thing I've made… https://nicolaredman.com/newsletter/

• Talking Voice Training with Barbara Houseman - Part 2 https://pod.fo/e/10979b

• Breath support episodes for further study:

• 015 How to Use Your Breath Part 2: Focusing on the Out-Breath https://pod.fo/e/c147a

• 016 How to Use Your Breath Part 3: What is Breath Support https://pod.fo/e/c2c37

• 017 How to Use Your Breath Part 4: Connecting with Breath Support for Speaking https://pod.fo/e/c45ac

• 020 How to Use your Breath Part 5: Connecting the Voice to Breath Support https://pod.fo/e/c90ec

• One Voice Conference: https://www.onevoiceconference.com/

• Join the FREE Mastering Your Vocal Warm Up Masterclass Mastering Your Vocal Warm up - Free Masterclass - Nic Redman

• Join the Vocal Empowerment Programme waiting list https://bit.ly/empowermyvoice

• Book an Ultimate Voice Getaway Retreat Consultation https://nicolaredman.com/voice-coach/courses-and-retreats/ultimate-voice-getaway-retreat/

• Join the Voice & Accent Hub https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

• Follow me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/nicredvoice/

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Today, I'll answer one of the questions I get a lot during my one-on-one coaching sessions: how do I know what to do during my warm up? Although the answer is quite simple: awareness, it leads to three less simple things we should be aware of to perform the perfect warm up for us. After listening to this episode, you'll know what you need to be mindful of to perform the warm up your voice needs.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• What a warm up really is and what you should expect from it

• Your voice's needs might vary from one day to another, so the warm ups should also change according to that

• The kind of voice gig you must perform is crucial to deciding what type of warm up you’ll use

Being aware of the kind of warm up you need is crucial to producing beautiful, efficient and on-point voicing.

If you are interested in getting autonomy over your warm ups, join my free Mastering Your Vocal Warm Up Masterclass on Tuesday, April 26th at 7:30 BST (British Summer Time).

Resources:

• Join the FREE Mastering Your Vocal Warm Up Masterclass Mastering Your Vocal Warm up - Free Masterclass - Nic Redman

• Join the Vocal Empowerment Programme waiting list https://bit.ly/empowermyvoice

• Book an Ultimate Voice Getaway Retreat Consultation https://nicolaredman.com/voice-coach/courses-and-retreats/ultimate-voice-getaway-retreat/

• Join the Voice & Accent Hub https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

• Follow me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/nicredvoice/

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This week, I'll share some tips to take care of and get your voice ready for outdoor speaking. I'll separate them into two groups, the first one for taking care of your voice, and the sendo one for your performance and delivery. After listening to this episode, you'll be able to keep your voice sharp and ready to use, and you'll learn to rely on your body to improve the sound of your voice.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• The differences between speaking outdoors and indoors

• The massive benefits of warming up and staying hydrated for outdoors speaking

• Being louder doesn't guarantee being heard

• The sounds vs. the volume of your voice

• How alignment can improve the quality of your outdoors voice

When speaking outdoors, remember that being heard is not a byproduct of speaking louder; it is more about finding the right pitch, paying attention to the sounds of your voice and being mindful of your alignment.

Resources:

• Join the Vocal Empowerment Programme waiting list https://bit.ly/empowermyvoice

• Book an Ultimate Voice Getaway Retreat Consultation https://nicolaredman.com/voice-coach/courses-and-retreats/ultimate-voice-getaway-retreat/

• Join the Voice & Accent Hub https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

• Follow me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/nicredvoice/

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Sometimes, we might find it challenging to get our mouth around certain words, or during a recording session, we keep on stumbling over the same words, and we feel strongly about throwing the microphone out the window. So, to prevent us from unleashing our frustration on our recording setup, I'll share three fun articulation exercises that'll help us develop clarity in our speech and keep our sanity up to date.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• The multiple benefits of the slug tone exercise and how VOs can apply it into their routines

• How to find more space in our mouth and get an active, responsive tongue using one finger

• How to activate all the articulation muscles in our face using the "through the chippy window" exercise

These exercises are designed to make things harder to make them feel easier. Even if they feel hard to perform, they'll make our voicing easier and smoother. Have fun with them!

Resources:

• Join the Vocal Empowerment Programme waiting list: https://nicolaredman.com/voice-coach/vocal-empowerment-programme/

• Book an Ultimate Voice Getaway Retreat consultation https://nicolaredman.com/voice-coach/courses-and-retreats/ultimate-voice-getaway-retreat/

• Join the Voice & Accent Hub https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

• Follow me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/nicredvoice/

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This week, we'll explore how consonants feel on their own, using the same words we used to explore vowels in the previous episode, using feet, mouth, syllable, and of course, the fragment of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Just as with the vowels, we'll explore the sounds, not the letters, and the different sound combinations they produce when pronounced together.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• How different qualities of fricative and plosive sounds feel in the mouth

• How to evaluate which consonants' sounds feel valuable by putting the vowels back in

• Using consonants to emphasise the essential parts of our speech

Consonants' sounds are vital to adding clarity to the words of our speech. Even when making serious announcements in the corporate world, we can voice our speech in a compelling, engaging and expressive way by paying attention to how we produce those sounds.

Resources:

• Book an Ultimate Voice Getaway Retreat consultation https://nicolaredman.com/voice-coach/courses-and-retreats/ultimate-voice-getaway-retreat/

• Join the Voice & Accent Hub https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

• Follow me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/nicredvoice/

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In today's episode, we'll go through a wonderfully ridiculous exercise on exploring the sounds of vowels. We'll exercise with mono and multisyllabic words, and then tie them together in a sentence. This exercise is beneficial for those moments when we feel disconnected from the words we are voicing, or when we’re reading something we might find boring or simply disagree with.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• How to effectively connect with our speech to create authentic communication

• Why we need to reconnect with words we use too often, to make any speech sound more enticing

• The difference between long and short vowels sounds and how to manipulate the sounds to emphasise the writer's message

Exploring the vowels' sounds provides the speaker with a real sense of emotions’ flow of every line they read. If vowels are the river that conducts the words' feelings, we connect with the writer’s feelings and their intention in writing those lines by generating a genuine connection with the text.

Resources:

• Book an Ultimate Voice Getaway Retreat consultation https://nicolaredman.com/voice-coach/courses-and-retreats/ultimate-voice-getaway-retreat/

• Finding Your Voice by Barbara Houseman https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1854596594/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1854596594&linkCode=as2&tag=voicecoachpod-21&linkId=df5298ea303c367b2899af3803c0dc92

• The Verbal Arts Workbook by David & Rebecca Carey https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1408123460/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1408123460&linkCode=as2&tag=voicecoachpod-21&linkId=f707ffd8350807f0d913bb57e08a9e06

• Voicework by Christina Shewell https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0470019921/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=0470019921&linkCode=as2&tag=voicecoachpod-21&linkId=6a74c872723adf15964131b8484accab

• Join the Voice & Accent Hub https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

• Follow me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/nicredvoice/

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This week, after the Christmas, podcast birthday and Valentine's Day's hiatus, we get straight back into the step-by-step voice training process. We’ll pick up right where we left back in episode 48 to start with sound shaping. In this episode, we'll revisit what consonants and vowels are and what they mean to us from a speech perspective. We’ll also explore how to exploit vowels and consonants' sound structures and energy in our favour to add volume, emotional connection, expression and clarity to our speech.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• There are more than five vowels in spoken language, and the number varies according to our language and accent

• The differences between vowels and consonants from a speech perspective

• The effects of a speech that is more consonant or vowel heavy on the listener, and why it should be balanced

Keeping an audience engaged depends not only on the message's content but also on how it's communicated. A perfectly articulated speech without emotion would be as disengaging as a discourse full of emotion without clarity. Therefore, we should balance the feelings expressed in the vowels with the clarity and understanding provided by the sound of the consonants.

Resources:

• Join the Ultimate Voice Getaway Retreat waiting list

https://nicolaredman.com/voice-coach/courses-and-retreats/ultimate-voice-getaway-retreat/

• Episode 48 How Practising Consonant Exercises Can Save You Money: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/048-how-practising-consonant-exercises-can-save-you-money/id1551530536

• Episode 33 Articulation 002: Getting to Know Your Articulators and How They Make Sounds: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/033-articulation-002-getting-to-know-your-articulators/id1551530536

• Book: Barbara Houseman - Finding Your Voice: A Step-by-Step Guide for Actors: https://www.amazon.com/-/es/Barbara-Houseman/dp/1854596594

• Join the Voice & Accent Hub https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

• Follow me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/nicredvoice/

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Today's episode, on Valentine's Day, is all about love. I'll share three tips to fall in love with your voice again and leave aside the mean comments and opinions that might be making you dislike the sound of your own voice. We'll explore the science behind why most of us don't enjoy the sound of our voice, the influence of society and media on what we think of our voice and the best way to deal with critics of our voicing capabilities.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• The stereo plus one mode in which we hear our voice and how it influences what we think of our voicing

• The importance of being aware of the unconscious bias that society and the media imprints on us when we critique our voice

• Why we need to be kind to ourselves and observe the relevance we give to other people’s' opinions of how we sound

• How to ask questions to generate positive and encouraging opinions of our voicing, and the healthiest way to deal with criticism

There is a difference between adjusting particular features of our voice based on the opinion of a producer or a specific requirement for a job, and someone else's misophonia. We must focus on the information that helps us improve our voicing and move forward from there. Everyone else's opinion of how our voice sounds is nothing more than that - their one opinion.

Resources:

• Join theUltimate Voice Getaway Retreat waiting list - https://nicolaredman.com/voice-coach/courses-and-retreats/ultimate-voice-getaway-retreat/

• Join the Voice & Accent Hub https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

• Follow me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/nicredvoice/

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In this episode, we'll do a little recap on warm-ups. We'll go through five questions that will help us structure our warm-up routine and create one that won't tire or bore us and that we'll find fun to do. For those new to the show, or those who don't know how to get your voices ready for work, you'll get a good feeling of what a proper warm-up should be, and for those who already know and feel they have a slick warm-up routine, this episode will help you make your routine slicker.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• The points every warm-up routine should touch and stimulate

• The importance of staying curious and raising our awareness towards the exercises we include in our warm-up

• Why it is crucial we pay attention to the length of our warm-ups

• Why we need to make sure we enjoy our warm-up routine

• How we should feel after every warm-up, before starting our voice work

Warm-ups shouldn't be too long or repetitively tedious, nor the same exact routine we've been doing for the last 18 years. They shouldn't be too long to avoid getting unnecessarily tired, and it should adjust to the changes of our voice over time.

Resources:

• Episode 001 How to structure your voice warm-up

https://pod.fo/e/b48fb

• Join the Voice & Accent Hub

https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

• Follow me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/nicredvoice/

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Today's episode is the last part of our interview with Barbara Houseman, and it is also the closing of the celebrations for our first year together.

We dive deep into voiceover and podcasting lands in this second part of our lovely encounter. Barbara shared golden nuggets and practical examples on prepping the voice for microphone work, conversational read, resonance, female-identifying people playing male, and vice versa, and breathing while reading long phrases.

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

• Why we should get rid of the word "conversational" when we talk about finding authenticness

• Where directing and voice recording collide and why it is not possible to do both

• One thought, one breath - Barbara's advice for voiceover artists facing multiple lines sentences

• What we can do to prep our voice for mic speaking

I hope you enjoyed and found very useful the chats with amazing voice experts such as Barbara Houseman and Dane Chalfin during the podcast birthday celebrations! Now back to voice work and I’ll see you next week.

Resources:

• Final call! Join The Vocal Empowerment Course Now: https://nicolaredman.com/voice-coach/vocal-empowerment-programme/

• Barbara Houseman website: https://www.barbarahouseman.com/

• Barbara Houseman Books: https://www.barbarahouseman.com/about

• Nicola Harrision - Embodema https://www.nicolaharrison.co.uk

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Continuing with our podcast's first anniversary celebrations, I'm honoured to bring Barbara Houseman to the show. She is a Voice, Text, and Acting Freelance Coach with over 40 years of experience, including six years at the Royal Shakespeare Company and many years coaching in West End. Barbara is also the author of two books, "Finding Your Voice" and "Tackling Text." During the first of this two-part interview, Barbara shared her thoughts on warmup, breathwork, and support. We explore some insights on Barbara's practice, the link between her work and practising mindfulness and self-awareness, and why she decided to bring these techniques into her work. We also touch on authenticity, voice training before, during, and after lockdown, tongue release, and more.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• What kind of work Barbara Houseman does with her students

• What moved Barbara to start teaching mmindfulness and self-compassion, and how those practices benefit voice enthusiasts and professionals

• Why many people's voices suffered during the pandemic

• Why Barbara firmly believes that warmups should rather be habit builders

• Advice for voiceover actors and actresses

Barbara’s clients' list includes Jane Asher, Jerry Hall, Clive Owen, Daniel Radcliffe, Jude Law, and Nicholas Hoult, among many others. Each and every tip she shared with us is gold, so stay tuned for Part 2 of this interview!

Resources:

• Barbara Houseman website: https://www.barbarahouseman.com/

• Barbara Houseman Books: https://www.barbarahouseman.com/about

• Nicola Harrision - Embodema https://www.nicolaharrison.co.uk

• Join The Vocal Empowerment Course: https://nicolaredman.com/voice-coach/vocal-empowerment-programme/

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Today, continuing with our celebration week, we go through the second part of my interview with Dane Chalfin. In this part, Dane answers the previous episode's cliffhanger - are straws a good tool for warmups? He also shares his thoughts on post-pregnancy voice training, stuffed up nose and how to deal with voice ageing.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• Dane’s take on the use of straws for warmups and in voice therapy

• The dependency straws can cause and why it is so easy to get things wrong with them

• The benefits of using steam and how we can benefit from breathing through our mouth and nose simultaneously

• Why the voice tends to change after pregnancy and how to deal with it

Throughout this interview, we also dive into a fun and informative myth-busting quickfire, where I bombard Dane with some internet-based knowledge about voice fatigue, the use of nebulisers, throat coat tea, and much more.

Resources:

• Register for Vocal Empowerment Course https://nicolaredman.com/voice-coach/vocal-empowerment-programme/

• Dane Chalfin website https://www.vocalrehabilitation.com

• Join the Voice & Accent Hub https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

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Our podcast turns one year old this week, and we are celebrating! We'll start our celebrations with an interview with Dane Chalfin we aired on The Voice and Accent Hub. Dane is a Vocal Rehabilitation Coach and Singing and Voice Teacher, a dear friend, and my first ever voice teacher.

Today, in the first part of our interview with Dane, we defuse some myths around foods and drinks that affect our voicing, and we explore the differences between voice warmups and workouts.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• Truths vs. myths about how chocolate, alcohol, and caffeine affect our voice

• What is behavioural and what is woo-woo around eating habits and voicing

• For how long we should warm up our voice, and the four things warmup should do for us

• Dane's take on image-based methodologies

• What is Dane's opinion on support, and why does he believes SOVTs aren't one size fits all

Stay tuned for the second part of our interview with Dane, where we touch on the ageing voice, post-pregnancy voicing, what we should do when we are all stuffed up, and Dane's opinion on straws in voice training.

Resources:

• Dane Chalfin website https://www.vocalrehabilitation.com

• Join the Voice and Accent Hub https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

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This week, following our voice plans for this year, we'll go through five questions to reflect on in 2022 to help us achieve our vocal goals. Setting and writing down these five questions can be used as a guide to be aware of what we intend to do with our voice this year and how to accomplish that. What You Will Learn In This Episode: - The importance of acknowledging what we like about our voice as it is at this moment

• Being aware of what we need from our voice this year based on what we want to achieve

• Deciding what areas, from the ones we've been working on, are interesting to explore further

• Why it would be useful to have a coach or mentor to help us upgrade our voicing abilities this year

• How much time we can dedicate to our voice this year

Going through these questions is an interesting way to commit to our goals and plans for this year. The only non-negotiable from these five is how much time we'll spare to work on our voicing - there is always time somewhere in our day and we must find it.

Resources:

• Join me for New Year New Voice free training https://nicolaredman.com/new-year-new-voice/

• Join the Voice & Accent Hub https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

• Susana Conway - Unravel Your Year 2022: https://www.susannahconway.com/unravel/

• Follow me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/nicredvoice/

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I believe New Year's resolutions add too much unnecessary pressure, so I don't do them anymore. Instead, I prefer reflecting on the year that ended and, based on the conclusions we can get from that, setting up some goals for the following year. So, in this first of a two-episode series on the new year, we'll go through five questions we should ask ourselves to reflect on the year we just left behind about our voicing progress, what we need to change, improve, and be grateful for.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• The positive things about our voice we can focus on to keep growing

• The importance of expressing gratitude for what we've accomplished so far with our voicing

• What we've improved in our voicing this year

• What kind of relationship we have with our voice and what are the things that could be improved

Setting resolutions for the New Year feels like things we must complete or reach. Rather than thinking about the things we must achieve, we can consider our goals and aim in that direction. The closer we get to them, the better, and not reaching them is not a failure, it is progress.

Resources:

• Sign up for New Year New Voice Free January Sessions https://nicolaredman.com/new-year-new-voice/

• Download some Short courses to kick start your voice traininghttps://nicolaredman.com/voice-coach/#download

• Join the Voice and Accent Hub https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

• Follow me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/nicredvoice/

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Today, in 2021's last episode, we will slow down a little bit. After whatever kind of celebration you had during Christmas, I thought it was a good idea to take a pause and have a moment of holistic awareness. So take a moment to check in with your body, your breath and make some space into your mind so it can also breathe. You only need to find a comfortable position, lean back, relax, and follow my voice.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• A simple relaxation method to check in with your body and breath

It was a fantastic journey so far, and it was a pleasure to share some nuggets of helpful information in voice training. While I'm putting together more fun things for next year, take care of your voice, be safe and enjoy your holidays!

Resources:

• Sign up for New Year New Voice Free January Sessions https://nicolaredman.com/new-year-new-voice/

• Download some Short courses to kick start your voice traininghttps://nicolaredman.com/voice-coach/#download

• Join the Voice and Accent Hub https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

• Follow me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/nicredvoice/

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Christmas is almost here, a time to celebrate and spend time with our loved ones. Still, that shouldn't be a reason to stop taking care of our voices. To keep things playful while caring for our voices during the holidays, I came up with three fun festive-themed voice games.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• The Lip Trill Olympics

• Three Festive-themed Tongue Twisters

• The Hydration Station

These exercises shouldn't take you away from your family. You can drop them right there while you celebrate. Remember that although we might be on time off from our voicing work, Christmas is a time when we do lots of talking, so being careful is something our voice will thank us for.

Resources:

• Sign Up for my Free Voice Training Week https://nicolaredman.com/new-year-new-voice/

• Nic on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/nicredvoice/

• Downloadable Courses https://nicolaredman.com/voice-coach/

• Join the Voice & Accent Hub https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

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This week, we'll go through the second part of the Twelve Days of Tips-mas. We will debunk some myths about breathing, we'll learn the proper position for our chin while speaking, and remember to be mindful of releasing unnecessary tension. This also serves as a reminder to keep things playful, to stay curious, explore our body responses, and be aware of the importance of feedback to improve.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• Where our chin should be when we are in front of the mic

• Why speaking or breathing with our diaphragm makes no sense

• Why we must never forget to release tension

• How keeping things playful makes everything easier

• What we should focus on at the beginning of every warm-up

• Why it is essential to get a voice pal to receive feedback from

Whether from a professional coach or from a sincere friend, feedback is an essential part of evolving our voicing. Accountability is a powerful ally of improvement, and partnering with someone we love, respect, admire or learn from is perhaps the best choice to improve our voicing abilities.

Resources:

• Sign Up for my Free Voice Training Week

https://nicolaredman.com/new-year-new-voice/

• Follow me on Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/nicredvoice/

• Join the Voice & Accent Hub

https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

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Invaded by the Christmas spirit, I've decided to share with you 12 tips that will help you take care of your voice before, during, and after this holiday season that might get noisy and force us to eat, drink and speak more than we usually do. Today, we'll go through the first six of these vocal health tips.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• Remember that you have more body after the larynx

• What kind of beverages are the best to keep our body and voice hydrated

• How to avoid pushing your voice harder than you need to

• What it means to watch your diet closely in order to maintain vocal health

• How focusing on out-breath and flooring down helps you take care of your voice

These tips are handy to close a solid year of voice training on a high note. There is no reason to not celebrate during holidays, but there is also no reason not to take care of your voice.

Resources:

• Sign Up for my Free Voice Training Week

https://nicolaredman.com/new-year-new-voice/

• Follow me on Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/nicredvoice/

• Join the Voice & Accent Hub

https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

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This episode comes on the back of a request from a lovely client who's headed off to panto-land for the festive season. Don’t know what panto is? Then listen to this episode. Know what panto is, but you’re not doing it? Still listen in, because a lot of the tips I’m sharing today are relatable and usable, whether you are batch recording loads of podcasts, or you're doing character voicing for an audiobook, or you've got lots of Christmasy type speaking in your diary for the next few weeks.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• Five tips for vocal warmups and cooldowns during the festive season

• How to maintain your vocal health over this intense period of rehearsing and shows

• How to take care of your voice while your are on stage speaking or performing

It feels like I am prepping you for some battle, but it is a sort of a battle to go through this intense period for performers and speakers. So if you've ever done panto or if you're going to see panto this year, just think about how much effort those performers are putting in and give them a big clap at the end of it.

Resources:

• What the heck is panto anyway...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantomime

• Join the Voice & Accent Hub

https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

• Send me your questions to be answered in the podcast

https://nicolaredman.com/contact/

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Now that we know the difference between obstructed and unobstructed sounds and voiced and unvoiced consonants, we'll jump back into the practical side of articulation. This articulation training will make our voice sound clearer. Therefore, we'll be asked to repeat ourselves less often, and we'll save editing time. In other words, this training will save us money. Happy days!

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• What are consonant clusters and how can they help our voicing

• The different ways of working with consonant clusters

• The benefits of overtraining our articulators

By adding these exercises to our warmup routine, we'll reduce our pickups while recording, reduce the time we spend in the booth, which in turn will save us money, energy and make our lives easier. The clear voice we always wanted will be waiting just around the corner if we keep our articulators working and responsive.

Resources:

• More on consonant clusters in the Tongue Training course. https://nicolaredman.com/voice-coach/tongue-training-course-downloadable/

• Join the Voice and Accent Hub https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

• Downloadable courses to study in your own time https://nicolaredman.com/voice-coach/#download

• Book a call to discuss coming to my voice training retreat https://nicolaredman.com/voice-coach/courses-and-retreats/ultimate-voice-getaway-retreat/

• Follow me on Instagram and share your twister attempt

https://www.instagram.com/nicredvoice/

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This week, we will go through some necessary and exciting theories about sounds. After working with the basics of articulation, release and toning, the next natural step is learning about the sounds of words. In this show, we will divide our speaking sounds into two large groups, vowels and consonants, and we will dive into the mechanics of how these sounds are produced. Hop on and join me in today's entertaining technical interlude.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• The difference between obstructed and unobstructed sounds

• What are short, long, and sliding vowels, and how we can identify them

• What are plosive and fricative sounds, and what is the difference between them

• What are voiced and unvoiced fricatives

The main goal of learning to identify the elements of our voicing is to use this information to our advantage and produce lovely, expressing and engaging sounds. This way, we can avoid making annoying sounds on the mic, like extreme explosions from our plosives, which distort our words' sounds.

Resources:

• Join the Voice and Accent Hub https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

• The Vocal Arts Workbook by David and Rebecca Carey https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/9780713688245?gC=5a105e8b&gclid=CjwKCAiA1aiMBhAUEiwACw25MQoCQN-Bbilj94XuIM6AGBN7LONglde46HhBT_Y-34153484FgIsiBoCm9YQAvD_BwE

• Seeing Speech - MRI scans of speech sounds https://www.seeingspeech.ac.uk/ipa-charts/

• Downloadable courses to study in your own time https://nicolaredman.com/voice-coach/#download

• Book a call to discuss coming to my voice training retreat https://nicolaredman.com/voice-coach/courses-and-retreats/ultimate-voice-getaway-retreat/

• Follow me on Instagram and share your twister attempt

https://www.instagram.com/nicredvoice/

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A cold caught me by surprise during my holidays! So as I'm on the edge of coming back to total health, I decided to dedicate this episode to how to look after your voice during cold and flu season. We will go through some helpful tips to look after your voice and prevent getting ill during the winter season, which has already started here in the U.K.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• How important it is to keep our vocal folds properly hydrated

• Keep in mind the importance of a balanced diet and proper rest

• The benefits of keeping our throat warm and breathing through the nose

• Why certain types of home heating systems and medicines can dry our voice

It is common to get a cold during the cold season. Still, we can do things to prevent getting sick, and if we get sick anyway, to help us recover faster. A proper warm-up routine, hydration, eating healthy, adequate rest and wearing warm clothes are excellent for preventing a cold.

Resources:

• Episode 005 How to stay hydrated https://pod.fo/e/b545d

• Episode 001 How to structure your warm up https://pod.fo/e/b48fb

• Downloadable courses to help with your warm up https://nicolaredman.com/voice-coach/#download

• Join the Voice and Accent Hub https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

• Breath by James Nestor https://www.mrjamesnestor.com/breath

• Book a call to discuss coming to my voice training retreat https://nicolaredman.com/voice-coach/courses-and-retreats/ultimate-voice-getaway-retreat/

• Join the Voice & Accent Hub

https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

• Follow me on Instagram and share your twister attempt

https://www.instagram.com/nicredvoice/

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Today's episode is a special one because I'm recording it directly from my holidays. Our last Ultimate Voice Getaway Retreat helped me realise how important it is to spare some time to stay away from our everyday lives, relax, and focus only on one thing.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• How important it is for our mental, physical, and vocal health to get away and have a break

Having a break doesn't necessarily mean travelling or taking a week off. We can do it by simply going to a quiet place and just sitting there, enjoying the company of silence and our breathing.

Resources:

• Join the Voice & Accent Hub

https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

• Follow me on Instagram and share your twister attempt

https://www.instagram.com/nicredvoice/

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Today, we will talk about the glorious, joyous, and crowd-pleaser tongue twister. We will go through my tongue twister do’s and don'ts, we will learn what kind of tongue twisters we should pick, which ones to avoid, how often we should change them, and much more.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• Why tongue twisters might feel irrelevant with time

• Why we must take time to do our tongue twisters exercises

• What kind of tongue twisters we should pick to obtain better results

• Why we should avoid doing the same tongue twister for ages

Tongue twisters are great to help with the clarity of articulation, and they are another fundamental part of the warmup process. We use tongue twisters to energise the sound of our voice, which is helpful when we need to emphasise emotions in the message we are communicating to our listeners.

Resources:

• Join the Voice & Accent Hub

https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

• Follow me on Instagram and share your twister attempt

https://www.instagram.com/nicredvoice/

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This week, it’s time to shake our soft palate a wee bit. We will perform a couple of exploratory exercises to help the soft palate stay flexible and responsive. We will base these exercises on two sounds, focusing on what we feel when we go through them.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• What and where is the soft palate, and what is its function in our voicing

• What exercises we should do to ensure our soft palate is awake and ready

• The link between high oral resonance and a soft palate that is up

Working on the soft palate is excellent for those who feel their voice is a bit nasal and those who think their voice is adenoidal. Having a responsive and elastic soft palate will also make vocal tone and variety sound better and this is gold, especially for those who do character work.

Resources:

• Episode 033 Articulation 002: Getting to Know Your Articulators and How They Make Sounds https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/033-articulation-002-getting-to-know-your-articulators/id1551530536

• Episode 038 Articulation 007: Yawning and How it Can Help Your Voice and Articulation https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/038-articulation-007-yawning-and-how-it-can-help-your/id1551530536

• MRI scan of k sound https://www.seeingspeech.ac.uk/ipa-charts/#location=107

• Join the Voice & Accent Hub https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

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This week we are continuing with our toning exercises for the articulators. We will focus on the lips, and I will share one of the most loved exercises I've ever known, the “Pout-Nana Cat's bum-Clown”. We will go through these four exercises to help us gain responsiveness and clarity in the sounds we produce.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• How toning our lips help us improve our voicing

• The benefits of the “Pout-Nana-Cat's bum-Clown” exercise and how to perform it correctly

Once we've mastered the articulators release exercises, focusing on toning them is crucial to enhancing the movement of the muscle groups around them. Working on these specific groups of muscles will help us activate them quicker and more precisely when we need them.

Resources:

• Join the Voice and Accent Hub

https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

• Lip Excersise in Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8E63vup6aA&t=93s

• Book: Speaking with Skill by Dudley Knight lhttps://www.amazon.co.uk/Speaking-Skill-Introduction-Knight-Thompson-Performance-ebook/dp/B00BHNS5J2

• Join the Voice and Accent Hub

https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

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In the last few weeks, we covered all we needed to cover on awareness and releasing the articulators. Now it's time to move on, and today we will start learning about toning the articulators. We will begin with the tongue, and we will perform some explorative exercises to master the control of the tongue.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• Why it is crucial to tone our articulators for vocal clarity

• A simple and effective routine to tone our tongue

When we tone our articulators, we train them to basically be capable of jumping into any kind of voice job we need to do. Once they go through a conscious awareness and release work, toned articulators are easier to manipulate and adapt to any kind of voice work.

Resources:

• Download Tongue Training Week

https://nicolaredman.com/voice-coach/

• Join the Voice and Accent Hub

https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

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I'm recording today’s episode on my birthday! We are also coming to the end of Back To Voice School Week, and I want to take this opportunity to thank all the participants, talk a bit about what we have done and what resources are still available for those who missed it.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• What we've done in the Back To Voice School Week

• Where you can find videos and extra resources if you missed this one

• The power hour one-off sessions available in the Voice & Accent Hub, and how you can get access to them

• The Ultimate Voice Getaway #2 is coming up from the 14th to the 17th of October!

The Ultimate Voice Getaway is a perfect place to do big, long, gorgeous days of voice work, eating excellent local home-cooked food, lots of walks, and if you want to, doing some cheeky little singsong around the piano. You will also find time and space to give yourself a moment to breathe and exist and nothing else.

Resources:

• Find the free voice lessons here

https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

• Book a call to discuss coming to my voice training retreat

https://nicolaredman.com/voice-coach/courses-and-retreats/ultimate-voice-getaway-retreat/

• Snaffle one of the limited Power Hour Sessions

https://nic-redman.mykajabi.com/power-hour-session?cid=cf280c83-67d5-40aa-88cc-300b99899070

• Downloadable courses to study in your own time

https://nicolaredman.com/voice-coach/#download

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This week, I've decided to remind you of the main three things you need to check with your voice before autumn continues. We will go through a few things that you can ask yourself and that you can do to make sure you are in the right place for the rest of the year's lessons.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• The importance of constantly checking our hydration levels

• Why checking our alignment before voicing is crucial to have a nice and smooth performance

• How to avoid trivialising warmup and prevent lots of headaches

The first days of September are the ideal time to take a step back, breathe, and get ready to crack into the last quarter of the year. After a tough year full of anxiety and uncertainty, take a moment to check your voice, go through the fundamentals and the principles learned so far, tweak, and adjust what needs to be corrected.

Resources:

• Sign up to Back to (Voice) School Week
  https://nicolaredman.com/instagram-links/

• The Voice & Accent Hub
  https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

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Today, in the shortest episode of the history of this podcast, we will learn to release and stretch the soft palate. We will go through the benefits of stretching and releasing this movable articulator, and then we will perform a cheeky voice exercise to stretch and release the tension of the naughty kid in the back, the soft palate.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• Why it is useful to release and stretch the soft palate

• The role of the soft palate in our voicing

• How to stretch and release the soft palate

The soft palate is exclusively responsible for a couple of sounds and serves as the back door of the nasal cavity. Raising awareness of our soft palate will help us increase and decrease nasality in our vocal tone, encourage oral resonance, and help us with the volume when speaking.

Resources:

• Yawning - A Critical View

http://baillement.com/voice/voice.html

• Yawning to exercise the face, throat diaphragm and voice

https://parkinsonsdisease.net/living/the-power-of-a-good-yawn-exercise

• The Voice & Accent Hub Facebook group

https://m.facebook.com/groups/160080935058642

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This episode is another instalment of our movable articulator release journey. We will learn how to release the lips to help us improve our vocal clarity and communication. We will talk about the benefits of lips release, and we will go through a simple yet effective lip release exercise.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• The benefits of lip release

• The importance of awareness of the lips

• What sounds our lips helps produce

• How to do the Martian speak exercise

The lips have a central role in many of the sounds we produce, like bilabial plosives, bilabial nasals, bilabial approximants, and labiodental sounds. Releasing the lips is very important for articulation, but it is also crucial for volume and vocal quality.

Resources:

• Vocal Arts Workbook by David & Rebecca Carey

https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/books/david-carey-jr/vocal-arts/9780713688245?gclid=Cj0KCQjwvO2IBhCzARIsALw3ASoqCzOjurSCnOgVmGVJIKyr7X-T2Q7besYNSJs7MQEO1gYt4ohNG0oaAvlkEALw_wcB

• The Voice & Accent Hub Facebook group

https://m.facebook.com/groups/160080935058642

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Today, we will work on the release of another movable articulator - the tongue. We will explore the tongue, analyse its connection with resonance and the quality of our voicing, and perform a tongue release exercise.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• The effects of tongue tension on our voicing and resonance

• A simple yet effective exercise to release tongue tension

As the tongue is crucial in shaping consonants and vowels, it can accumulate unhelpful tension. Excessive tongue tension can cause speaking difficulties, also known as tripping over our own tongue. That is one of the main reasons why tongue release is so important.

Resources:

• Jaw Release Week downloadable course https://nicolaredman.com/voice-coach/downloadable-courses/jaw-release-week-downloadable/

• The Voice & Accent Hub Facebook group https://facebook.com/groups/160080935058642

• Voice Work by Christina Shewell https://www.wiley.com/en-gb/Voice+Work:+Art+and+Science+in+Changing+Voices-p-9780470019924

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In today's episode, we talk about jaw tension, the different reasons that might cause it, and how to release it. Then, as an intro to jaw release, I will share some exploratory exercises to help relax the jaw, which is one of our main articulators.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• The possible reasons why you are experiencing jaw tension, and the benefits of learning to release it

• The link between jaw tension and how we've been conditioned throughout our lives

• The role of awareness in releasing jaw tension

• How we can massage the tension out of our jaw

Releasing jaw tension will help us reach higher volume, extra vocal variety, and clearer speech with minimal effort. It also helps with anxiety, as it gives us a sense of mental release. In some cases, it can also help to stop teeth grinding and jaw clicking.

Resources:

• Jaw Release Week - Downloadable Course https://nicolaredman.com/voice-coach/downloadable-courses/jaw-release-week-downloadable/

• The Voice & Accent Hub Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

• Freeing the Natural Voice by Kristin Linklater https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/books/kristin-linklater/freeing-the-natural-voice/9781854599711?keyword=&gclid=CjwKCAjwruSHBhAtEiwA_qCppmOSvZS5EFAyAVP5wldnvXyhp7HqiCl_QC-

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In this episode, continuing with our articulation series, we will talk about the two steps we need to take to warm up and get our articulators ready - releasing and toning. As usual, we will perform some exercises to explore different ways to release and tone our articulators.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• The importance of releasing and toning our articulators

• How gurning can help us release and stretch the articulators

• What is the drawstring bag face, and how it allows us to release and tone the articulators

Releasing our whole face is beneficial not only for articulators but also for resonance, because it removes tension and stretches the muscles involved in articulation. The more we understand and perfect releasing and toning exercises, the more we will get from our articulation in our voice warmup, which will save us a lot of time.

Resources:

• Voice & Accent Hub https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

• Knight Thompson Speechwork https://ktspeechwork.org

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Today's episode is about articulators and how they make sound. We will explore each one of our mouth's articulators, their location, function, and the sounds associated with them.

This episode is about raising awareness of the articulators, so we can make better use of them.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• The relevance of articulation awareness for our voicing

• The difference between movable and non-movable articulators

• What are the different sounds produced in the hard and the soft palate

• What is the uvula, and what kind of sounds it helps produce

As already mentioned, articulation isn't only about the sounds themselves, it is also about the effects of our phonatory anatomy on the voice, about the stress patterns and the emphasis. That is why it is crucial that we know and understand the articulators from the bottom of the vocal tract up to the top of the mouth.

Resources:

• Voice & Accent Hub

https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

• Pictures of the articulators

https://developingvoices.blog/tag/articulators/

https://slidetodoc.com/histology-of-tongue-by-dr-sobia-ibrahim-assistant/

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Today we will start the next stage of our voice prep journey. We've already worked on physical release, breath, resonance, bringing the voice in, and now we will start with articulation.

As a first step, we will define what articulation is, how it can improve our voicing, and present every element involved in it to get familiar with the articulation terminology.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• What articulation is about, and its relationship with accents

• What the articulators are, and the difference between passive and active articulators

• The difference between voiced and unvoiced consonants

• What plosive consonants are, and what a fricative is

There is a misconception about articulation and accents. As long as the message is understood, there is no need for making any adjustments to our accent. For us, articulation is about getting our articulators released and toned to produce the sounds we need to make.

Resources:

• Voice & Accent Hub

https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

• Articulation - Merriam Webster definition

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/articulation

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This week, I'm answering a question I've seen asked a lot on the voice forums I regularly visit: how to make reading a script sound conversational. To answer this, I'll share my four top tips to make reading a script sound not only conversational, but authentic and natural as well.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• The importance of practising sight-reading

• How write-as-we-speak can help us to sound more natural

• How we can modify our script to make it sound more natural

• Why a perfect speech sounds artificial and forced

Podcasters and presenters may feel safer reading a script, however, there are several ways of making it sound casual and conversational. Trying to clean our accent, or sounding too perfect can sound artificial. Our hearing is used to lumpy, flawed, and bumpy conversations, and adding those details will give our speech a more authentic tone.

Resources:

• The Voice & Accent Hub Facebook group

https://m.facebook.com/groups/160080935058642

• Ultimate Voice Getaway Retreat

https://nic-redman.mykajabi.com/uk-ultimate-voice-retreat

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Celebrating our 30th episode, we will learn about balancing the resonance. We will start with a quick voice warmup, and then we will perform some explorative exercises that will help us access resonance qualities and learn to balance them.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• What balancing the resonance means and how it can help us develop our voicing

• How to perform a five-minute voice warmup

• Why it is essential to increase our resonance potential

• Practicing simple yet effective exercises to balance our resonance

Our ultimate goal as voice users is to keep our audience engaged. Therefore, learning to properly balance our resonance, and having access to our resonance potential will give us the tools to bring variety and expressive potential to our voice.

Resources:

• Ultimate Voice Getaway information https://nic-redman.mykajabi.com/uk-ultimate-voice-retreat

• Linklater voice work https://www.linklatervoice.com

• Ep 27 - How to encourage resonance through tension release https://pod.fo/e/d44ce

• Ep 26 - WHat is vocal resonance https://pod.fo/e/d2d86

• The Voice and Accent Hub https://m.facebook.com/groups/160080935058642

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After a slight digression on dealing with hay fever, we are continuing with our resonance training. In this episode, we will work on increasing our resonance awareness in order to find vocal variety and expression in our speaking voice. We will talk about primary and secondary resonance spaces, and we will practice some exploration exercises to identify the areas of our vocal tract we can use to manipulate resonance.

What You Will Learn in This Episode:

• What are the elements involved in resonance, according to Michael McCallion

• Exploration exercises to increase resonance awareness

• What are the three spaces where primary resonance happens

• What is the difference between primary and secondary resonance spaces

The primary resonance spaces are ideal for exploring a variety of tonal qualities in the voice, for accessing different emotional vibes, and taking listeners on an inspirational journey through our voices. Secondary resonance spaces are more controversial, as some people feel they help change our voice tone, some people don't. In any case, resonance awareness is a powerful tool and a valuable asset to improve our voicing.

Resources:

• 008 Why Posture is Important for Reducing Vocal Fatigue https://pod.fo/e/b70e5

• The Voice and Accent Hub https://m.facebook.com/groups/160080935058642

• The Voice Book by Michael McCallion https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/books/michael-mccallion/voice-book/9780571195251?gclid=CjwKCAjwieuGBhAsEiwA1Ly_naI4cgTvq4nua_6-jkgvaY1UV97IgIB0JvNfvwO207Dzpmq1DHKBJxoCeE4QAvD_BwE

• The Voiceover Social Podcast podkite.link/thevosocial

• Resonance article on Voice Science Works https://www.voicescienceworks.org/resonance.html

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We will pause our resonance training to talk about allergies, more specifically about hay fever. In this episode, I will share seven tips that might help mitigate the effects of this stational affection. We will go through the medications' side effects we need to be careful of, and some exercises to help us keep things on track.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• The importance of letting the doctor know we work with our voice before he prescribes any medicine

• How staying hydrated can help us with hay fever

• What kind of medicine components we should avoid

• How vocal naps and avoiding clearing our throats can help us in our recovery

• How consuming local honey can help us build immunity to the particular pollen in our area

• Why wine is not our best friend if we struggle with allergies

In general, a healthy lifestyle is the best preventive method for any disease of affection, and hay fever is not the exception.

Resources:

• Episode 005 How to Keep Your Voice Hydrated Efficiently https://pod.fo/e/b545d

• Baylor College of Medicine blog post https://blogs.bcm.edu/2015/04/22/its-spring-time-but-why-am-i-hoarse/

• What is hay fever? https://patient.info/allergies-blood-immune/hay-fever-leaflet

• Allergies and the Voice https://www.ohniww.org/allergies-and-voice/

• The Voice and Accent Hub https://facebook.com/groups/160080935058642

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In this episode, we will continue talking about resonance. We will break down Barbara Houseman's definition of resonance, and I will share some exercises to encourage awareness of the spaces that affect our resonance potential.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• What resonance can offer to our voicing

• How we can explore our resonance potential

• A few soft palate, pharyngeal, and tongue release exercises

When it comes to our voicing and the message we have to share, it is really not about what we are trying to communicate, or who we are trying to communicate to. It is about having an accessible and responsive voice to the emotions of our message. That is why resonance is so important, because it grants that our voice and body are fully awake and connected.

Resources:

• The Voice and Accent Hub https://facebook.com/groups/160080935058642

• Vocal Arts Workbook by David & Rebecca Carey https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/books/david-carey-jr/vocal-arts/9780713688245?gclid=CjwKCAjwwqaGBhBKEiwAMk-FtL65pbqlTwPMz_9yINTagyBiuxmXE-kpaWt0hBIekkhrcYR3z_KdDRoCEEEQAvD_BwE

• Finding Your Voice by Barbara Houseman https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/books/barbara-houseman/finding-your-voice/9781854596598?gclid=CjwKCAjwwqaGBhBKEiwAMk-FtEkQhGczybl1AAYpqFSgTw_RYpdXzp3GV8-TqlpYfqqPUOiT0rxZ1hoCCwQQAvD_BwE

• Nic's Quick Voice Tips https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8E63vup6aA&t=140s

• The Whispered Ah https://www.alexander-technique-online.com/articles/defining-the-alexander-technique/the-whispered-ah/

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In today's episode, we will define and understand what vocal resonance is, and how we can improve it. I'll also share some simple exercises to increase resonance awareness and feel the vibrations in our bodies.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• What resonance is, and how it affects our voicing

• How resonance affects the tonal quality of our voice

• How different tensions in the vocal tract can affect the resonance

• Why it is crucial to increase awareness around resonance

• Some exercises to build up our resonance awareness

Understanding vocal resonance and exploring our resonance potential can help us better grasp our tonal quality. We can also play with other options within our voice, like using resonance to give the most of our voice with a minimum effort.

Resources:

• Voice & Accent Hub FB group https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

• Voicework: Art & Science in CHanging Voices by Christina Shewell https://amzn.to/3uVyRAZ

• The Right to Speak by Patsy Rodenburgh https://amzn.to/3zhz70f

• Ep 01 How to structure a voice warm up https://pod.fo/e/b48fb

• Ep 012 Physical release prep for resonance https://pod.fo/e/bbe13

• Episode of The Naked Vocalist on resonance http://www.thenakedvocalist.com/nasal-resonance/

• Voice Science Works article on Resonance https://www.voicescienceworks.org/resonance.html

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In this episode, we will talk about breath capacity for voicing, and understand it from a holistic perspective, rather than from a mechanical aspect. I will also share some simple exercises to increase our breath capacity that we can easily incorporate into our daily routines.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• Why breath capacity is part of a more extensive conversation than just increasing our breath range

• The things we should consider before starting breath capacity training

• Three simple exercises to improve breath capacity

Understanding that breath capacity is much more than the need to have bigger loads of air coming in or out is crucial. We must consider things like breathing habits, familiarising with the length of the words, being aware of the air necessary to voice those phrases or words, and paying attention to the out-breath before the in-breath.

Resources mentioned:

• Voice & Accent Hub FB group https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

• Voicework: Art & Science in Changing Voices https://amzn.to/3uVyRAZ

• Breath support episodes 15, 16, 17, and 20

https://pod.fo/e/c147a

https://pod.fo/e/c2c37

https://pod.fo/e/c45ac

https://pod.fo/e/c90ec

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Today, we will have a prop-related episode - we will talk about straw phonation. I'll share three techniques to start practicing straw phonation in two different ways, doing straw work in water and doing straw work out of water.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• What is straw phonation, and how it can help us in our voicing

• The simple techniques to practice straw phonation in and out of water

• What are the differences and different effects in the type of straw we choose to do our phonation

Straw phonation can improve the connection to lower abdominal support. It can encourage vocal fold alignment or closure, and it can promote an efficient, unregulated, subglottic air pressure, which will eventually help reduce vocal fatigue.

Resources:

• Book on to Ultimate Accent Toolkit https://nic-redman.mykajabi.com/course-ultimateaccenttoolkit

• Another podcast on SOVT & singing https://www.thenakedvocalist.com/podcast/42/

• Buy an SOVT straw https://www.rayvox.co.uk/?ref=NICREDMAN

• The Voice Straw https://voicestraw.com

• Research paper on WRT (water resistance therapy) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32302246/

• The Voice and Accent Hub https://m.facebook.com/groups/160080935058642

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In this episode, we will talk about SOVT - Semi-Occluded Vocal Tract. We will dive deep into what SOVT work is, and how you can use it in your daily voice work to improve your voicing.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• What is SOVT, and what it is used for

• How SOVT can help us improve our voicing

• A couple of techniques to use SOVT in vocal warmup, voice reset, and vocal cooldown

Although SOVT has been used in voice training since the '60s, it was almost 30 years later that a study highlighted SOVT's scientific benefits. Understanding the importance of SOVT is essential for day-to-day voice users, because its entire purpose is to make voicing easier.

Resources:

• Sign up for info on The Ultimate Accent Toolkit Online Course https://nic-redman.mykajabi.com/ultimate-accent-toolkit-2-0

• The science behind SOVT https://www.isingmag.com/semi-occluded-vocal-tract-exercises/

• Abstract from research into the efficacy of SOVT, both with FRT (flow resistant tube eg straws) and VFE (vocal function exercises, eg exercises that utilise the SOVT position) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4610291/

• Article on SOVT https://www.voicescienceworks.org/sovt-exercises.html

• Paper on VFE, 2017 https://uknowledge.uky.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1029&context=honprog

• Paper on SOVT, 2014 https://pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/vvd24.2.71

• The Voice and Accent Hub https://m.facebook.com/groups/160080935058642

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A few clients recently have mentioned how they feel like they struggle to find the time to do their voice work in the day. So I wanted to offer some tips for how to fit voice training into your routine without it hanging over you.

Tips for Fitting Voice Practice Into Your Day:

• Tip 1 - Aim for consistency. It doesn't matter how tiny the practice, it just has to be consistent, and to become a habit.

• Tip 2 - Add your voice practice habit onto another habit. Check in on your habits and see what you could co-ordinate.

• Tip 3 - Little and often is more useful in many cases. Do what many pros do: split your practice time into smaller, super-concentrated chunks, working multiple times a day.

• Tip 4 - Set an achievable practice goal.

• Tip 5 - Just do it. If you don't want to do it, reflect on why, what's holding you back?

• Tip 6 - Make it fun! We do the things we enjoy more readily and voice work can, and should be fun.

Okay, now I'm off to take my own advice and spend one minute lip trilling whilst I boil the kettle. I hope this inspires you to fit some voice work into your day.

Resources:

• Article from NPR on effective practice https://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2017/03/06/518777865/the-most-practical-tips-for-practicing-according-to-science?t=1620725823672

• Deliberate Practice by James Clear https://jamesclear.com/beginners-guide-deliberate-practice

• Send me your questions https://nicolaredman.com/contact-accent-voice-coach

• The Voice and Accent Hub https://m.facebook.com/groups/160080935058642

• 5 Minute Vocal Warm Up https://youtu.be/SX6LSr8qJp8

• Episode 1 - Voice Warm Up v Voice Work Out Chat https://pod.fo/e/b48fb

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Today, we will condense all the breathing work we've been doing into a simple 5 minute routine to use either as a warm-up or as a tiny voice workout. I'll guide you through every step of this routine to make voicing a little easier.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• The importance of being aware of our breathing

• Why we must check our alignment before starting any breathing exercises

• A short, 5 minute breathing routine

• The importance of keeping an exploring mindset while doing this routine

This 5 minute routine can be added to our voice prep; it can also reset our voice or cool it down. The more we can prolong these exercises, the better. What we want to achieve is to turn breathwork into daily practice.

Resources:

• The Ultimate Voice Getaway Retreat with Nic in the UK https://nicolaredman.com/spoken-voice-training-retreat-uk-ultimate-voice-getaway

• To submit a question for the mail bag episode https://nicolaredman.com/contact-accent-voice-coach

• Episode 0011 - Voice Warm Up V Voice Work Out Chat https://pod.fo/e/b48fb

• Accent method breathing https://www.isingmag.com/the-accent-method-how-does-it-help-singers/

-If in Doubt, Breathe Out!: Breathing and support for singing based on the Accent Method, a book by Ron Morris and Linda Hutchison https://amzn.to/3tZujtD

• Linklater Voice https://www.linklatervoice.com

• Fitzmaurice Institute https://www.fitzmauriceinstitute.org

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In this episode, we will go back to breathe land. We will go through a set of exercises to bring awareness of how voice support can help us use our voice more efficiently and reduce voice fatigue.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• Why breath and support are essential for our voice

• How to do a short and effective warm-up

• How voice fricatives can help us with voice support

• Why we must release our belly on each end breath

These exercises are of great help if you experience vocal fatigue issues or discomfort; they will help you coordinate the voice and the support, get vocal fold closure and airflow coordination.

Resources:

• Send me your questions for the mailbag episode here https://nicolaredman.com/contact-accent-voice-coach

• Link to The VAH https://m.facebook.com/groups/160080935058642

• The Primal Voice - Dane Chalfin https://www.vocalrehabilitation.com

• 5 Minute vocal warm up https://youtu.be/SX6LSr8qJp8

• Finding Your Voice by Barbara Houseman https://amzn.to/3nEeQwN

• Accent method breathing https://www.isingmag.com/the-accent-method-how-does-it-help-singers/

• Accent method breathing book https://amzn.to/3tZujtD

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Today I want to discuss a question that came up after a coaching session with one of my coachees: is voice coaching needed after we understand the techniques to voice efficiently and safely? I will share with you three reasons why it is a fantastic idea to explore voice training, even when we feel like we don't need it.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• What is a voice coach's role and ultimate goal

• The benefits of working with a voice coach to prevent rather than to cure voicing issues

• Three reasons to keep exploring our voice training

There are top voice performers who never did a warmup or a tension release exercise in their lives, and their voices are perfect. Still, there is no harm in trying some voice coaching. The beauty of consistently doing voice training is that it focuses on awareness and mindfulness, which is incredibly useful for day-to-day life.

Resources:

• Book coaching with Nic

https://nicolaredman.com/voice-coaching

• British Voice Association

http://www.britishvoiceassociation.org.uk

• Barbara Houseman

https://www.barbarahouseman.com

• Matt Dudley

https://www.fitzmauriceinstitute.org/find-teachers/2017/11/27/matthew-dudley

• Yvonne Morley

https://yourvoicebox.co.uk

• Joanna Ousten Weir

https://www.thelinklatercenter.com/joanna-weir-ouston

• The Voice and Accent Hub https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

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In this episode, we will talk about getting nervous when speaking in public. We will dive deep into why this happens to us, how it affects our voice performance, and how to deal with it. I'll share four simple tips that you can apply before speaking to an audience, to help you handle the anxiety and prevent it from affecting your voicing.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• Why we feel nervous before and while we speak in front of an audience

• How the awareness that feeling nervous is something normal can help us

• What happens to our voice when we feel like we have no control over our bodies

• What we can do in the days before public speaking to avoid getting nervous

Feeling nervous and anxious before speaking in front of an audience is entirely normal, and even the most experienced speakers feel it. The tension that affects our voice is a natural response of our bodies to a frightening situation. Using the tips I’ve shared, you will be able to better deal with nerves when speaking in public.

Resources:

• Article - What is the Fight or Flight Response https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-the-fight-or-flight-response-2795194

• Article - Grounding Techniques https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/grounding-techniques/

• Book - Stage Fright and the Actor by Linda Brennan https://amzn.to/3uQJpBK

• Book - Find Your Voice by Caroline Goyder https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1785042831/

• Book - How to Own the room by Viv Groskop https://amzn.to/3wXzzzw

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In this episode we are continuing with our breathing for voice journey. Today we will talk about connecting breath support with speaking, and we will perform a few exercises to explore and understand which body parts participate in breath support.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• Is it hard to implement breath support?

• How to avoid creating tension when we practice breath support

• The parts of our body that react first when we need vocal support

• How to connect our voice with a support action through popping vocal fold vibrations

We are using vocal support all the time while we speak, even if we are not aware of it. But working too much on generating support might create unnecessary tension. The more we practice an easy release of the air in the out-breath, the more we develop flexibility in the muscular system, required to keep the voicing support with low effort.

Resources:

• Finding You Voice by Barbara Houseman https://amzn.to/3rz3VEF

• This is a Voice by Jeremy Fisher & Guillyanne Kayes https://amzn.to/3m9qm25

• Voicework by Christina Shewell https://amzn.to/3d2oGot

• The Voice and Accent Hub https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub/

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In this episode we will go through the meaning of common terms in voice training like voice support and breath support. We will talk about the three crucial elements of voice support, and we will do a simple yet powerful breathing exercise.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• How getting support is not a simple one-step fix

• Why voice production works somewhat like a guitar

• The role of diaphragm in speaking, and why it is so hard to be aware of it

A common misconception when speaking is believing that we are using the diaphragm when we activate our abdominals. In fact, we are making our core more rigid and making the in-breath much harder to take. Ideally, you should release the belly completely on the inhale, making space for the diaphragm to expand freely and draw down as the air comes in.

Resources:

• Find You Voice by Caroline Goyder https://amzn.to/3whj4yf

• Finding You Voice by Barbara Houseman https://amzn.to/3rz3VEF

• This is a Voice by Jeremy Fisher & Guillyanne Kayes https://amzn.to/3m9qm25

• Freeing the Natural Voice - Kristen Linklater https://amzn.to/3nDZwyp

• Joanna Cazden - Everyday Voice Care https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1458443183/

• Christina Shewell - Voicework; art and science in changing voices https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0470019921/

• The Voice and Accent Hub https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

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In this episode, we are analysing the importance of in- and out-breathing. Understanding the in-breathing as the fuel for voicing, and out-breathing as the mechanism responsible for producing sound, we will go through a simple exercise to gain awareness of the pause between breathings, or to notice any tendencies to hold air unnecessarily.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• The adverse effects of holding our breath

• The origin of the word inspiration, and how our thoughts are connected to in-breathing

• Why the exhale is the most potent process of using our voice

• The importance of finding the balance between breathing in and breathing out

• A simple exercise to gain awareness of our out-breath

Speaking is a holistic experience, and breathing affects the quality of the voice we produce and our vocal freedom. The tension created by holding our breath will affect the power of our voice to connect and communicate our message with clarity. By being fully aware of our out-breath, we will ensure that the body is naturally dropping as much air as it needs to.

Resources:

• Freeing the Natural Voice by Kristin Linklater https://amzn.to/3fatYj7

• Autonomic nervous system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomic_nervous_system

• The psychology of exhaling https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/body-sense/201009/waiting-exhale

• Etemology of the word 'inspire' https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/the-origins-of-inspire

• The Voice and Accent Hub https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

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Today we are talking about filler sounds and words when speaking, why they show up in our speech, and whether we need to eliminate all of them. I’m also sharing a few techniques we can use to reduce or replace filler sounds.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• Hesitation signs and filler words as a natural part of speaking

• Why we use filler words

• How to use pauses as a powerful tool when speaking

• How to replace a filler sound with an out-breath

• How our mind and speech can flow smoothly in a perfectly aligned body

Unless we are writing every speech word by word,, we must accept filler words as a natural part of speaking. What we can do is focus on our body alignment, be aware of our breathing, pay attention to our speech tempo, and use pauses to give us time to think and plan our next words.

Resources:

• How to Improve your breath awareness https://pod.fo/e/bd7ac

• How to release the body for voice work https://pod.fo/e/bbe13

• Why posture is important for voice work https://pod.fo/e/b70e5

• The Voice and Accent Hub https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

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Today, we are taking the first step on our journey into breathing for voice work. We will explore how to improve unnecessary patterns in our breathing and why we tend to use more breath than we need. This episode will help you become more aware of the intuitive nature of inhalation, and the importance of breathing rhythm in a resting position.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• The benefits of proper breathing

• The most common breathing issues in voice work

• A simple exercise to identify our breathing patterns

• The scientific understanding of our breathing

• The importance of the in-breath for getting a free, responsive, and supportive breath for voice work

When we have a better understanding of how breathing works, it impacts not only our voice work performance, but also our mental and overall health. Although breathing is an automatic function of our bodies, having an awareness of our breathing patterns will enhance our voicing performance.

Resources:

• Article on breathing from Voice Science Works https://www.voicescienceworks.org/breath.html

• Breath by James Nestor https://amzn.to/2NSG2tU

• And Breath Podcast https://breathingtree.co.uk/welcome-to-the-and-breathe-podcast/

• Vocal Rehabilitation/Primal Voice - Dane Chalfin https://www.vocalrehabilitation.com/primal-voice

• This is a Voice - Gillyanne Keys & Jeremy Fisher https://amzn.to/3b9MGVw

• The Voice & Accent Hub https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub

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Today, I will walk you through a preparatory physical bodywork that will help you release tension. Learning how to loosen any tightness in our bodies is essential before starting with the fundamentals of voice training.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• Alignment and posture - mandatory step #1

• Spine roll - secrets and techniques

• From spine roll to crouch transition

• The shoulder clock movement

• From curious dog to ‘what are you looking at’ position

• Drawing the infinity symbol with our nose

Awareness of alignment and tension is a must before any voice training. As voicing is a holistic experience, any isolated tension in our bodies might lead us to low-quality performance and perhaps even voice damage in the long term. While doing these tension release exercises, it is vital to allow the breath to keep flowing and to go through this bodywork with a curious mind, observing the body's response.

Resources:

• Vocal Rehabilitation/Primal Voice - Dane Chalfin https://www.vocalrehabilitation.com/primal-voice

• Spine roll and release routine video https://youtu.be/D6A9pixcaLU

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In this episode, we talk about sibilance, what it is, why some people sound more sibilant than others, and why it gets people annoyed. We will also focus on a few practical ways of controlling our voice's features, so we can reduce sibilance.

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

• Is sibilance a speaker or a listener issue?
• What is sibilance in phonetic terms
• The sibilance and its relationship with different accents
• The effects of the various articulation contacts
• The benefits of exploring the alveolar and post-alveolar area

Next time when someone tells us we sound sibilant, we have two choices - we either ignore them, or we can observe which part of our tongue we use to make the "s" sound, we pay attention to the airflow we produce, and work on it. The only rule is to keep our voice exploration fun, curious, and free of judgement.

Resources:

• The Voice & Accent Hub https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthub
• Finding Your Voice by Barbara Houseman https://amzn.to/2NOdtgW
• Vocal Arts Workbook by David & Rebecca Carey (pg 174 & 175 for extensive consonant cluster practise) https://amzn.to/2NSC1VW

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This episode is a practical guide to deal with a common, yet dramatic situation - losing our voice. We will go through the possible reasons that cause it, the importance of resting our voice, release exercises that can help us, and what to beware of when we lose our voice.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• Don't panic because stress is not helpful in these cases
• Why you need to rest and cancel any non-essential talking
• How nebulizers provide great assistance to your voice
• Why we must stay away from menthol
• How to encourage vocal rehab through exercises

Even when we have a balanced diet, we keep ourselves hydrated, and we meticulously perform voice warm-ups and cool-downs, we can get ill or be stressed out, and lose our voice as a result. However, if this happens, we must keep calm, take some rest, start upping our fluids, and perhaps do some gentle exercises to smooth voice rehab.

Resources:

• Nic's Quick Voice Tips - vocal tract release:
• • Tongue Release https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGaTHw7rFfU&t=69s
  • Yawning https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3pbTvEPwIs&t=42s
  • Jaw Release https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUJAHfDdmdM&t=67s
  • First Aid for Hoarseness http://www.joannacazden.com/first-aid-for-hoarseness/?fbclid=IwAR2orTOSscKiRRbIOleOfoyejOImLMb8OrRZOJfvQQg4z-_EWFB8gA-yDp0
  • NHS Laryngitis guidelines https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/laryngitis/
• The Voice & Accent Hub Facebook group

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In this episode, I'm sharing with you five cheeky tips you can use to improve your speech. These simple yet effective tricks that you can start applying right away will help you enhance your voicing without a lot of practice.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• How making pauses can help us when speaking
• A rule to consider - new thought, new breath
• What it means to ‘find the floor’
• Why you have to listen to your recorded voice in order to improve it
• Any good speech starts with a great warm-up

The element that connects these five tips for vocal improvement is awareness - not only being aware of our flaws and fails, but also of our posture before and while speaking, the in-breath and out-breath, and the time we take to talk. And listening to our recorded voice is a great tool to improve that awareness and improve our speech.

Resources:

• Join my Facebook group Voice & Accent Hub: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthubb

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Today I want to talk about posture, and why it is essential for reducing vocal fatigue. You will understand the secret to improving your posture when speaking, and we will also talk about the four questions you need to ask yourself to turn body alignment awareness into a habit, and the exercises and activities that can help you with it as well.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• What is body alignment
• How the lack of alignment affects our voice performance
• The kink in the straw effect
• The ultimate secret of body alignment
• Four questions to quick-check your body alignment
• How understanding body alignment brings freedom

Once we are aware of our body alignment, we can start making it a habit. Bad posture can have devastating effects on our voice, and to fix it, we need to understand voice as a holistic experience, and be mindful of the connection between our body parts.

P.S. Thank you Jack Evans for making the music for this podcast!

Resources:

• Nic's Quick Voice Tip - Chin jutting and mic position video https://youtu.be/RTRu3Yq7nnI
• The Use of the Self by FM Alexander https://amzn.to/3p9pSd8
• 5 Alexander Tech Exercises to Try http://ergonomictrends.com/alexander-technique-exercises-posture-back-pain/
• My Alex Tech Teacher https://alexandertechnique.co.uk/users/n-osorio
• Alex Tech Directions https://www.alexander-technique-london.co.uk/on-giving-directions-doing-and-non-doing/
• Dane Chalfin https://www.vocalrehabilitation.com/primal-voice

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Today's episode is about microphone techniques. We will let aside the different mic setups and styles, and we will focus on the universally beneficial tips when it comes to speaking on a microphone. We will talk about body alignment, the better way of facing a microphone, the ideal distance from the mic and much more.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• The importance of body alignment when speaking on a mic
• How to let the microphone take your voice
• Plosives and how to play across the microphone
• It's not about you or the mic - it's about the listener
• How hydration can help our microphone technique

These five tips apply to voice professionals, but they are also helpful for Zoom meetings or virtual presentations. Time and practice will help you perfect these techniques, and still, they'll have a visible impact in your voice performance from day one.

Big thanks goes to Jack Evans for creating music for this podcast!

Resources:

• B Double E https://b-double-e.co.uk/services/
• Nic's Quick Voice Tips - Alignment and Avoiding Vocal Fatigue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTRu3Yq7nnI&t=3s
• Join my Facebook group Voice & Accent Hub: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthubb

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In this episode, I want to talk about a different aspect of vocal health, neglected for some and appreciated for others: the vocal cool-down. Just as in any sport, some movements are necessary before and after every performance to reset the body. We will go through an easy to follow step-by-step routine to perform a perfect vocal cool-down.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• Why vocal cool-down is important
• The impact of vocal cool-down on professional voice users
• The step-by-step vocal cool-down routine
• How to transition from a heightened physical state back to our senses

Research on vocal cool-downs is still in its infancy, but so far it has not shown any negative outcomes. That means that a vocal cool-down might have different levels of impact on vocal users, but it's something we must try and experience for the sake of our vocal health.

Thanks to Jack Evans for creating the music for The Voice Coach Podcast!

Resources:

• The Efficacy of Cool Down Exercises by Kari Ragen (originally published in the Journal of Voice) 2018 https://www.nats.org/_Library/JOS_On_Point/JOS-074-5-2018-521_-_Efficacy_of_Vocal_Cool-Down_-_Ragan.pdf
• The Impact of Vocal Cool-down Exercises: A Subjective Study of Singers' and Listeners' Perceptions 2016 https://www.jvoice.org/article/S0892-1997(15)00227-1/abstract
• The Value of Vocal Warm-up and Cool-down Exercises: Questions and Controversies by Rima A. De Fatta and Robert T. Sataloff, (Journal of Singing) 2012 http://www.vocapedia.info/_Library/JOS_files_Vocapedia/JOS-069-2-2012-173.pdf
• 3 point neck stretch - Nic's Quick Voice Tips https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA6sEJJZohM
• The Vocal Cool Down, Your Secret Weapon by Dane Chalfin, vocal rehab expert https://www.vocalrehabilitation.com/post/the-vocal-cool-down-your-secret-weapon
• Join my Facebook group Voice & Accent Hub: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthubb

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Today I want to talk about hydration - why it is so important, how to hydrate our voice, how we know we are dehydrated, and what should we do if we are? I'm offering you solid tips to ensure you are adequately hydrated and enjoy optimum vocal health.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• What systemic and superficial hydration are and how they work
• Why hydration doesn't come just from fluids
• How much and when we should drink fluids
• Consistency as key to a stable hydration
• Top tips for systemic and superficial hydration

Keeping ourselves hydrated is a complex, but not a complicated process. With a proper diet, awareness of our vocal mechanism, knowing the fluids that count, and keeping in mind the relevance of superficial and systemic hydration, we can keep our voice healthy and optimally hydrated.

Thanks goes to Jack Evans for creating the music for The Voice Coach Podcast!

Resources:

• VocalMist Nebulizer https://myvocalmist.com/products/vocalmist-portable-nebulizer
• Join my Facebook group Voice & Accent Hub: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthubb
• Find me on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA6sEJJZohM

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Today we discuss why you should find time to do a voice warm-up and why it's important for those who work with their voices. I will also walk you through a small, focused and applicable five-minutes warm-up routine. A short and precise voice warm-up will not only prepare your voice to work, but will also help you to set your nerves before speaking in front of the mic.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• How much time vocal warm-up routines require
• The best way to add a new habit into our routines
• How to increase your vocal stamina, the clarity of public speaking and confidence
• Working with ease, fun and curiosity
• Step by step voice warm-up routine

Voice warm-ups should ideally last more than five minutes and less than fifteen. Those voice users that have their schedules flooded can try the warm-up example from this episode, pick and cut parts and replace them with different exercises. You can also use it as a preparation ritual before performing.

Big thanks to Jack Evans for creating the music for this podcast!

Resources:

• Nic's Quick Voice Tips - 5 minute warm up support video https://youtu.be/SX6LSr8qJp8
• Freeing the Natural Voice by Kristen Linklater https://amzn.to/3nDZwyp
• Speaking with Skill by Dudley Knight https://amzn.to/3nA3w2T
• Finding Your Voice by Barbara Houseman https://amzn.to/3buQt0a
• The Vocal Arts Workbook by David & Rebecca Carey https://amzn.to/2MW3iqi
• Fitzmaurice Voice Work Website https://fitzmauricevoiceworksummit.online
• Join my Facebook group Voice & Accent Hub: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthubb

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This is Part 2 of how to have good vocal health, and we will talk about the other side of vocal health: the preparation for using our voice. We can control several factors that affect our voice's performance, like alignment, breathing, mid-season resets, exercises as yawning and articulation stretches, and more. We need to remember that using our voice is a holistic practice between the mind, the body and the voice.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• The best way to keep our vocal health in check
• What vocal resets exercises are, and how to do them
• Why body alignment is the perfect ally to prevent vocal fatigue
• The importance of performing voice warm-ups
• Recap for an ideal vocal health

Having a healthy voice requires commitment and constant monitoring of our habits, reflecting on our vocal health routines and adopting consistent, reliable, and vocally healthy practices.

Big thanks to Jack Evans for creating music especially for this podcast!

Resources:

• Nic's Quick Voice Tip Videos for Alignment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTRu3Yq7nnI
• Nic's Quick Voice Tip Videos for Yawning https://youtu.be/b3pbTvEPwIs?t=42
• Everyday Voice Care by Joanna Cazden https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1458443183/
• Voice Work: Art and Science in Changing Voices by Christina Shewell https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0470019921/
• Join my Facebook group Voice & Accent Hub: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthubb

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This is the first part of a series of two episodes about vocal health. What should we do to have an excellent vocal health? In Part 1, we talk about how our lifestyle affects our voice's shape. We analyse how our diet influences our voice's performance and stress the importance of keeping ourselves hydrated.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• How the state of our body impacts our voice
• The benefits of exercising
• What to include and what to avoid in our diet in order to have a healthy voice
• Truths and myths about dairy products and voice health
• What kind of medication affects our hydration

The term vocal health is often associated with healing or repairing damage, rather than preventing wounds. But it doesn't have to be like that. We can incorporate simple habits and change our routines towards a balanced and voice health-friendly lifestyle.

Thanks to Jack Evans for creating the music for The Voice Coach Podcast!

Resources:

• NHS: How to Get to Sleep - Sleep and Tiredness https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/sleep-and-tiredness/how-to-get-to-sleep/
• Is Caffeine Dehydrating to the Vocal Folds? https://choralnet.org/2018/11/is-caffeine-dehydrating-to-the-vocal-folds/
• British Voice Association: Reflux and Your Voice https://www.britishvoiceassociation.org.uk/voicecare_reflux-and-voice.htm
• Everyday Voice Care by Joanna Cazden https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1458443183/
• Voice Work: Art and Science in Changing Voices by Christina Shewell https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0470019921/
• Join my Facebook group Voice & Accent Hub: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthubb
• Find me on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA6sEJJZohM

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In this episode, I talk about a proper voice warm-up, and I cover the bases of how to do it, when to do it, and for how long. We also talk about the difference between a warm-up and a workout of the voice and the five stages to correctly perform a voice warm-up.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

• The difference between a warm-up and a workout of the voice
• The simplified science of how the voice is produced
• Five stages of a mindful voice warm-up
• Three spaces the voice travels through

Warming up the voice is not just doing loads of random tongue twisters for no reason. It's also about finding out what your voice needs, and concentrating on it. Lastly, it is crucial to keep your warm-up routine nice and playful anytime you can.

Thanks to Jack Evans for creating the music for The Voice Coach Podcast!

Resources:

• Voice Science Works: Resonance https://www.voicescienceworks.org/resonance.html
• The Voice Foundation: How the Voice is Produced https://voicefoundation.org/health-science/voice-disorders/anatomy-physiology-of-voice-production/understanding-voice-production/
• Barbara Houseman Masterclass: Developing Your Voice https://www.digitaltheatreplus.com/education/collections/tinhouse/barbara-houseman-masterclass-developing-your-voice
• Dane Chalfin - Vocal Rehabilitation Coach https://www.vocalrehabilitation.com/
• ShewellVoice https://www.shewellvoice.com/
• Academic article on hydration https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2925668/
• Where I did my Vocal Health First Aider Training https://vocalhealth.co.uk
• Vocal Mist Nebuliser https://myvocalmist.com/products/vocalmist-portable-nebulizer
• Nebuliser or Steamer article from The Naked Vocalist Podcast https://www.thenakedvocalist.com/upgrade-your-vocal-steamer/
• Join my Facebook group Voice & Accent Hub: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthubb
• Find me on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA6sEJJZohM

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Welcome to The Voice Coach Podcast!

This podcast is for anyone interested in improving their spoken voice.

I’m Nic Redman, a voiceover artist, speaker, podcaster and coach. I’ll be sharing with you vocal health tips, vocal technique exercises, interviews with other voice geeks, and voice training advice.

Why do we need a podcast about spoken voice?

Most of us have a voice, and we use it every day without even thinking about it, until we wake up one day and find our voice sounding croaky or getting tired really quickly. Or sometimes people say they don’t understand what we are saying. Or we're suddenly asked to speak in a room full of people at a networking event, and find that nothing comes out of our mouth.

As a working voice professional, I understand how important the voice is when you rely on it for your job. All voices are brilliant and valid, but all voices can be even better, and that’s why I’m here. I want this podcast to inspire you to explore what your voice is capable of.

Whether you are a podcaster, a voiceover artist, an actor, public speaker, teacher, business professional or athlete, join me each episode as I guide you through raising your vocal awareness and understanding.

Let's have fun with our voices and remember, stay hydrated!

P.S. Big thanks to Jack Evans for creating the music for The Voice Coach Podcast.

Let’s connect:

• Join my Facebook group Voice & Accent Hub: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevoiceandaccenthubb
• Find me on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA6sEJJZohM
• My website: https://nicolaredman.com/