Workshops for teachers...

Think for a moment about any teachers you know? Do their voices sound husky? Tired? Strained? Do they clear their throats more often when speaking? Is their speech effortful and strained? Do they have to shout increasingly louder to be heard? Do their voices ring out with confidence or are they struggling to be heard? Do they stagger on using the voice regardless of a cold or cough? Or perhaps they are one of the lucky ones whos seem to breeze through their lessons effortlessly.

Talking Voice sets out to highlight some vocal issues and to improve the knowledge and awareness of teachers via a series of workshops designed to leave lasting structures in place and to help each teacher gain insights into their own unique voice.

The workshop begins by exploring vocal qualities and actively encouraging participants to discover their own voice. Most people do not recognise the full range of expression of which they are capable and have never been given the opportunity to enjoy this!

During the course of the workshop, there is a chance to ask questions and to experience how posture and breathing directly affect the voice. Articulation is extremely important in a classroom particularly as often, the acoustic is not helpful for the listener and clarity diminishes with distance from the teacher. Simple techniques like lengthening vowels and speaking "on the voice" make a huge difference.

With background chatter in classes, teachers most often suffer the Lombard Effect where speech effort increases directly in proportion to the background noise - think of any parties you may have been to or football matches for which you suffer vocally the next day!

In order to maintain good vocal quality, the voice needs to be supported by muscles other than the ones in the throat. The workshop explores how to activate these muscles effectively via the Accent Method of breathing.

Learning a little about how the vocal folds work is useful when they collide anything between 100 and 1000 times a second! Skillful use of muscles and co-ordination will bring about a more energised and dynamic voice.

Of course there is some discussion about hydration and tips for recognising when help is needed. A few small changes made now could save the long reaching impacts of permanent voice damage due to misuse and ignorance.