All The Law’s A Stage
Using Voice Techniques from Theatre to Improve
Presentation and Public Speaking Skills
Association of Legal Writing Directors 2015 Conference
STEPHEN PASKEY
SUNY Buffalo Law School
Below are a series of voice exercises sorted by category, beginning with exercises for relaxation and posture and ending with exercises for expression. I’ve deliberately included more exercises than you’re likely to use; feel free to pick and choose. The exercises are drawn from the sources listed at the end, and each source includes additional exercises. On the final page, you’ll find additional online resources with more exercises and advice. If you’d like an MS Word copy of this document, please email me.
Exercises for Relaxation & Posture
A GROUNDED STANCE (adapted from Act of Communication)
(1) Close your eyes.
(2) Your feet are shoulder width apart, directly beneath your hips.
(3) Your weight is distributed evenly. Rock slightly side-to-side to be sure.
(4) Your knees are bent slightly.
(5) Your pelvis is slightly tipped under.
(6) Your spine is like a long vertical rope with knots, hanging from the neck straight down to the tailbone.
(7) Your head is balanced your neck. Imagine it suspended from a helium balloon, attached by a string to the place where the hair swirls around.
(8) Your shoulders are relaxed back and down. Roll them backward a few times to check this.
(9) Your arms are loose at your sides.
(10) Your hands are relaxed, and your fingers are loose.
(11) Your face muscles are relaxed. Your jaw is slack and your mouth is open.
(12) You are breathing through your mouth.
(13) Your stomach is loose and flabby. Imagine air come in cool over your tongue, go down to your stomach, and come out warm as you exhale.
(14) Take in a deep, relaxing breath. Let out a deep, relaxing breath.
WORKING WITH LARGER MUSCLES (adapted from Turner)
(1) Yawn & stretch. Stretch your arms high and yawn. Feel the muscles stretch and then release as you lower your arms and come to a standing position, shoulders straight, arms and hands hanging loose. Do this three times.
(2) Arm Swings. Swing your arms forwards and back. Imagine that the weight of your hands is causing the swing. There should be no sense that you are working from the shoulders. Do this ten times to the front and back.
(3) Drop down. Stretch upwards, and place your hands gently behind your head. Slowly roll the spine downward, starting from the head, until you are bent at the waist. Slowly let the head, arms, and hands hang loosely. Then, slowly uncurl the spine until you are standing again. Let head and shoulders hang down to the last possible minute.
(4) Shoulder raises. While standing erect, lift your shoulders toward your ears, hold for a count of five, then let them drop heavily. Do this five times.
(5) Head rolls. Drop your head toward your chest. Roll slowly to the right so your right ear is over the shoulder. (Do not bring your shoulder up.) Roll back to center. Repeat to the left. Alternate from right to left several times. Breathe as you do this, and slow down the steps and your breathing. Raise your head.
(6) Repeat the previous exercise, but this time by dropping your head backwards toward your upper back.
(7) Check your stance by placing a finger just above the top of your head and lightly stretching towards it. Let your arms hang easily at your sides, with your hands relaxed, the fingers neither curled nor stretched.
working with FACIAL MUSCLES (various sources)
(1) Scrunch & release. Scrunch your face tight, then open it wide. Repeat several times.
(2) Kiss & grin. Pucker your lips and blow gently; then pull your lips back into a wide smile. Repeat several times.
(3) Motorboats. Blow through your lips and make a “motorboat” sound.
(4) Raspberries. With your tongue between your lips, blow and make a sound commonly known as a “raspberry.”
(5) Tongue gymnastics. Count from 1 to 10 while using the following positions: (a) bite the tip of the tongue; (b) put the tongue over the lower teeth; (c) stretch the tongue to your chin.
Exercises for Breathing
Breathing 101 (adapted from Peters)
(1) Sit forward in a chair and let your stomach muscles relax.
(2) Breathe in through your nose and imagine you are a vessel filling with air, like water poured into a vase. Fill your abdomen first, then your lower ribs (you should feel them expand) and then up to your chin.
(3) Hold this breath for a count of ten.
(4) Exhale slowly. As you do, keep your ribs expanded and tighten your abdomen as you would if you were doing a “crunch” — that is, the lower abdominal muscles should come in first as though you were rolling up a tube of toothpaste. (Since you are not a tube of toothpaste, keep your chest up as you exhale.)
(5) Repeat. Once you have mastered the exercise sitting down, practice incorporating it into your speaking and singing. You may need to do it slowly at first until you can coordinate all the actions smoothly.
Selected Exercises (adapted from Turner)
(1) Place your hands on your lower ribs. Breathe in through the nose and out gently through the mouth, feeling an easy swing of the ribs. Repeat 20 times. Don’t take a deep breath; focus on the movement of the ribs.
(2) Breath in to a count of three, feeling the ribs expand. As you do, raise your arms to your sides at shoulder height. Breath out over a slow count of six as you lower your arms. Repeat ten times.
(3) Breathe in, feeling the ribs expand, and then breath out slowly, gently counting to ten at a whisper on the out breath. Feel that the whisper is just as strong at ten as it was at one. Repeat ten times.
(4) Breathe in, feeling the ribs expand, and then the diaphragm move. As you breath out, count to three loudly using the air from the diaphragm, then count to six quietly using the air from the ribs. Repeat five times.
(5) Breathe in for a count of three, feeling the ribs expand. Keep breathing in for another count of three, feeling the movement of the diaphragm. Sigh out gently on a whispered AH sound with the air from the diaphragm, followed by a whispered OO sound with the air from the ribs. Try to sustain each vowel for a count of five. Repeat five times.
Supporting the Voice (adapted from Blumenfeld)
Stand comfortably, feet slightly apart, and breathe in and out while being aware of the activity of all muscles. Try to concentrate on the action of the diaphragm – the muscle below the lungs. As you breathe out, the diaphragm should rise, while other muscles lower themselves. Continue breathing in and out until you are conscious of the action of the diaphragm and feel you can control it. Then:
(1) Stretch up with arms raised. Bend down with arms lowered. Stretch from side to side. As you do, feel the action of the muscles.
(2) Stand still and place the tips of your fingers at the diaphragm, just below the ribs. Breathe gently, and feel the movement of the muscles.
(3) Now, slowly breathe in, feel the movement of the diaphragm, and breathe out gently on a prolonged “hah” sound. Do it again, but with a shorter “hah.” Repeat with a series of short “hah” sounds.
(4) Remove your fingers from the diaphragm. Continue breathing in and out, saying “hah” as you breathe out. Add a bit of force to the “hah.”
(5) Recite any line of text, with a bit of force but not too much. Continue to focus on the movement of the diaphragm and other muscles.
Breathing and Breathe Control (adapted from Blumenfeld)
Find a copy of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 30 or any sonnet you like. (The key thing is that the length of each line is the same.) Take a deep breath. Then on one breath, say the first line of the sonnet and stop, even if you feel you can go longer. Take another deep breath, and say the first two lines on one breath without stopping. Take another breath, and say three lines on one breath without stopping. Continue until you find the natural limit of how many lines you can say in one breath. Repeat periodically.
Exercises for Pitch
Find your voice (adapted from Blumenfeld)
Stand in a good relaxed posture. Breathe in deeply and make the sound “ah” – the first vowel sound from “father.” Gently go up and down the scale on that note. Don’t force anything; don’t tense the muscles or strain for effect. Don’t tighten the vocal cords or hold abdominal muscles: simply proceed with as little muscular effort as possible. Find out how high and how low you can comfortably go without straining. Then, find the middle where you feel most comfortable. That’s your best voice. In some situations you might want to go higher or lower, but you should stay within the comfortable range.
Develop Variety and Flexibility (adapted from Blumenfeld)
(1) Take a grounded stance. Say “mah,” and as you do take your voice smoothly from low to high on one note, then from high to low. Make a conscious effort to speak rather than sing. Repeat, varying the pitches on which you begin and end, until you can do this with ease.
(2) Stand comfortably, feet placed apart. Say “em” then “mah.” Start with “em” at a low pitch, then jump to a high pitch with “mah.” Reverse it, starting high and ending low. Do this on varying pitches over your entire comfortable range.
(3) Choose a short text, and practice it as above, purely for vocal effect. Read it with a staccato rhythm, and then in a smooth, flowing manner. Read on high and low pitches, varying from high to low and from low to high.
(4) Now read the text again, giving it the sense it should have. You should find that you have added variety to your reading. Record yourself and listen to the recording. Repeat the exercise and vary the reading as you think necessary.
Broaden Your Range (adapted from Blumenfeld)
Recite any of the phrases below at a medium tempo, neither rushed nor artificially slow. Then repeat it, first faster, then slower. Do this ten times and vary the pitch patterns. Be spontaneous and read for vocal effect.
(1) Never, oh never, the fatal endeavor, the ties that they sever, the fatal endeavor, the tried true tricycle, the tricycle tried and true.
(2) The incredible edible sheddable beddable blinking twinking nodding prodding pointed icicle popsicle appeared out of nowhere to me.
(3) How could you? How would you? How did you? How might you? How may you? How can you? How dare you? How fare you?
(4) Other than that or this or these or those, might one not speak of a bright red nose?
(5) Questionable and quick and quite, quite clean, the quiet crazy crawling crabby cricket creeps unseen.
(6) Lilacs and lavender line the lordly lake luxuriously. Let lambs low lovingly in lonely lees, while lads and lasses live to love and laugh.
Exercises for Tone
Selected Exercises (adapted from Turner)
(1) Yawn on an AH sound, feeling the arching of the soft palette in your mouth. Do this three times. Repeat using the sounds OO and EE.
(2) Intone gently, making vowels long: “Who are you?” and “Can’t you see?” Ensure the tone is rich on each word. Repeat three times.
(3) Say a long “M” sound, as if you had seen something pleasant. Repeat five times, getting louder each time.
(4) Intone the following, repeating each pattern three times, and ensure that all vowels are full and rich:
No no no no no
Nee nee nee nee nee
Moo moo moo moo moo
Mah mah mah mah mah
No moh nee mah
Exercises for Articulation (Clarity)
For each exercise, speak the lines three times each. Start slowly and gradually increase your speed. Speak quietly but form each consonant sound distinctly.
Selected Exercises (from Turner)
Look at the windmills whirling in the wind.
I’m pulling a long length of string.
Hot coffee in a proper copper coffee pot.
I’ve got a lot of chocolate melting in my pocket.
Two flew through the window.
Try to attend today and take the test.
Articulatory agility is a desirable ability.
Vocal Warmup Tongue Twisters (from Gordon)
The lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue.
The tip of the tongue, the teeth, the lips.
A box of biscuits. A box of mixed biscuits and a biscuit mixer.
A big black bug bit a big black bear and the big black bear bled blood.
Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager managing an imaginary menagerie.
Any noise annoys an oyster, but an noisy noise annoys an oyster most.
Sister Susie went to sea, to see the sea, you see. The sea she saw was a saucy sea, a saucy sea saw she.
Tongue Twisting Limericks (from Blumenfeld)
A flee and a fly in a flue,
Were imprisoned, so what could they do?
Said the fly: “Let us flee!”
“Let us fly!” said the flea.
And they flew through a flaw in the flue.
A tutor who tooted the flute
Tried to tutor two tooters to toot.
Said the two to the tutor,
“Is it harder to toot or
to tutor two tutors to toot?”
Exercises for Emphasis and Expression
Read the following sentence in a monotone. Then, read it again and
play with emphasis, using pauses and varying the volume, pitch, and pace.