The MOST EFFECTIVE Vocal Warm up for Speaking English (https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=teSAVRScjV8)<\/a><\/noscript><\/div>\nVideo Transcript:<\/h2>\n
Today we\u2019re talking about speaking with a relaxed, natural American accent by using some relaxation exercises. These exercises are what help my students lower their placement, relax their neck and throat area, and really capture that American sound.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nI\u2019m Rachel and I\u2019ve been teaching the American accent and English listening skills to non-native speakers for over 15 years. Check out Rachelsenglish.com to learn more about improving your spoken English and to get a free course: Top 3 ways to Master the American Accent.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nFirst, to learn more about placement, it might be helpful to hear a student speaking with two different placements. This is Shawn, a student in Rachel\u2019s English Academy who has been working really hard on finding a natural American accent through lowering placement and relaxation. Hi native language is Mandarin. This is how he sounded when he first joined the Academy.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nHello everybody, my name is Shawn. So today I\u2019d like to make a free talk video my using the random question generator. So, let\u2019s go to the website and click for a question.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAnd this is what he sounded like after about\u00a0 4-6 weeks of practice with the Academy materials.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nHello everybody, my name is Shawn. So today I\u2019d like to make a free talk video my using the random question generator.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe sound started out pressed in his face,\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nHello everybody, my name is Shawn\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nand now it has relaxed into his whole body.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nHello everybody, my name is Shawn<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nWe\u2019re going to learn a bit more from Shawn in a moment on how he did this<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nFirst let\u2019s talk about where in the body I want you to feel the voice, then we can talk about relaxation techniques to get you there.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nOne of the things I often talk about with my students is placement. I sometimes feel like their voice only comes from their head and is placed very much so here. Whereas my voice when I speak English rests more here and I feel the placement a little lower. Let\u2019s talk a little bit what happens when you\u2019re speaking.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSo the\u00a0<\/span>diaphragm here, an involuntary muscle just like your heart tenses up which pulls down a little bit. That turns your lungs into a vacuum and it sucks the air in. When your diaphragm relaxes the air then comes out. Your vocal cords here are what make the sound. Think of blowing up a balloon and taking the neck of it pulling it wide so it makes that annoying squeak sound. That\u2019s what your vocal cords are. So your lungs are the balloon and your vocal cords are the mouth of the balloon. And this pressure here is the energy of the voice. So this is the energy, the fuel of the voice. And up here we have the articulators. The tongue, the teeth, the jaw. That takes the core sound made by the vocal cords and shapes them into the sounds of American English. I feel like many of my students lack a connection to this fuel, to the energy and they speak only from their face. Of course their body works in the same way, they\u2019re bringing in the air but they seem to have no attachment to it. And their voice seems completely detached from their bodies. But when I speak, I feel my voice very attached to my body. One exercise you can do to try to focus on your body rather than your face when you\u2019re speaking is just to exaggerate the movement here of your abdomen to connect more to a lower sensation of the breath. Now, you wouldn\u2019t want to do that when you\u2019re speaking but it could be a good exercise for you to get you into your body. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSo here we have the fuel and here the articulation. Now we want our articulators to be very relaxed. If there\u2019s any tension in the throat for example, it will bring the voice up and the placement up and then we lose the connection here to the fuel of the voice to the body.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nWe don\u2019t want tension in our body, we don\u2019t want to lose that connection. So we need to relax. My colleague Tom and I are going to go through some exercises now to relax the jaw, tongue, lips, neck, and throat so that you can feel natural and relaxed, speaking without pain, as you work on your American accent. These, and other exercises in Rachels English Academy are exactly what Shawn worked with so hard for those weeks to lower his placement. Another Chinese speaker in the Academy noticed Shawn\u2019s improvement and reached out to him for advice.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nI would suggestion that you really take module 3 very seriously because it is, it is very important for us to learn how to relax if we want to discover you know, voices, uh, around the chest, you know, how to and then our throat, how to relax out throat um, it is very important for us to learn to relax so that we can discover the placement you know from here up until here.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nYou want daily practice, you want to find relaxation. Now let\u2019s see some exercises you can do everyday to relax.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nFirst off you may have heard from teachers in the past that you need to drop your jaw more. More jaw drop. This instruction can create tension as you work on vowel and diphthong sounds that need a bunch of space like ah all and I and others. Instead of thinking about using your muscles to hold the jaw open which can add tension to the face think of releasing the jaw. Let the jaw drop down using gravity rather than muscle. If you put your fingers just under your ears and open and close your mouth, you\u2019ll feel movement of the jaw bone. We\u2019ll call this spot the jaw hinge. Think of releasing your jaw from back here rather than forcing the chin down. By doing this we lose the tension that can affect the sound and we have a fuller more open sound. We\u2019ll come back to the hinge but first let\u2019s start some jaw relaxation exercises.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nLet\u2019s start by just easily massaging the jaw with your fingertips. As you begin freeing the jaw you may start to yawn more. Awesome keep yawning. It\u2019s a great stretch and provides you with wonderful deep breaths that encourage support. When you yawn make sure you yawn both vertically and horizontally. Really get a great stretch for the jaw and the lips actually with that one. Now, using the heel of your hand, drag the hand down the jaw bone on the face towards your chin. Really thinking about releasing that jaw hinge and letting the face muscles relax.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nI look silly.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nHmm.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nBut it is relaxing.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nTotally okay to look silly it\u2019s great actually. Oh I feel so good. Now let\u2019s go back to that hinge we spoke about earlier back here. Allow your newly relaxed jaw to release down for a moment and feel that space that opens up under your ear as the hinge releases down. This is a great pressure point on our face. By pressing into it we can release the jaw even more. Now this can feel quite painful so don\u2019t hurt yourself but it will feel great when you let go.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nOh now take your chin between thumb and index finger and move the jaw up and down.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nWell, ah it\u2019s hard.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nDon\u2019t hurt yourself on this one.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nYeah, watch your tongue.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nIt can be very difficult, yeah make sure your tongues not in the way. But really let your hand control your jaw. You\u2019ll feel the jaw kind of try to fight back a little bit, see if you can relax it and just let your hand be in control.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nYeah, my jaw definitely does not want to give up control.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nYeah, yeah. So lots, lots to work on.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nNow, if you haven\u2019t felt silly already, prepare to. And if you\u2019re really relaxed prepared to let a little saliva fly around. Now clasp your hands together and shake your body and face keeping that released.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nI don\u2019t know if I\u2019m willing to do that on camera.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nCome on Rachel.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nOkay. Do it again.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nLet\u2019s use this newly released jaw a bit and practice on some vowel sounds. Some vowel sounds that use some jaw drops so ah and oh, now let\u2019s go from u, which has a tight lip rounding here, u and move into all oh.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nU-oh<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nNow let\u2019s move from u into ah.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nU-ah<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nYou can practice going back and forth and this may help you hear and feel the difference between those two sounds.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAlright. Hopefully your jaw feels more relaxed, remember to do this whenever you feel tension creep in as you practice and drill and when you\u2019re having trouble finding the difference between vowel sounds it may just be that you want more space and the best way to create space is to release that jaw.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nFrom the L to the R to the T. The tongue is very important when it comes to articulation of all kinds of sounds. So having a relaxed tongue that can move quickly and efficiently is a very good thing. Let\u2019s learn how to relax this very strong muscle.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nJust how strong is the tongue? Very. It\u2019s considered the strongest muscle in the body in relation into its size. One way to see how strong it is, is to put your pinky finger to the roof of your mouth and then pin your pinky finger to the roof of the mouth with the tongue.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nLike that.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nNow, have a tongue versus pinky war.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nIf you\u2019re like me, your tongue wins every time and your pinky hurts. Ow.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSo let\u2019s relax this mega muscle.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nFirst, stick out your tongue. Make sure you have clean hands for this and massage your tongue. Now, this may feel weird but it\u2019s a good way to get to know this muscle that works so hard for us.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nI\u2019ve never done that before.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nIt\u2019s strange. It\u2019s a strange feeling. But it actually kind of feels good.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nUhuh.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nNow, stick your tongue out again and this time, see if you can go from relaxed to pointed to relaxed and back and forth without tensing the rest of the face.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nIt\u2019s hard to do it without tensing your lips. You can get there eventually but just to start just begin exploring that ability.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMaybe give them a side angle of that.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSure.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAlright. At first you may feel like you need to tense the lips and jaw to tense the tongue. But eventually, you\u2019ll be able to isolate the tension to the tongue alone.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThen, keeping the tip of the tongue behind the front teeth where it stays for almost all of the vowel sounds. Do some tongue push-ups or push-outs to be more accurate.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nOh, I\u2019ve never seen that before either so you\u2019ll stick out the middle of the tongue giving the tongue a good stretch.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nWow, you\u2019re really good at that. Did you learn this in acting school?\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nI did.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nOkay.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nI spent a lot of time doing these exercises in school.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nLet me try.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nIt\u2019s hard if you\u2019re not used to it.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nYeah. It\u2019s a little bit of a strange movement. But again, doing this will help you have a great relationship with all of what\u2019s happening in your mouth so that when you\u2019re working with a teacher or when you\u2019re working with yourself and you learn about where the tongue is supposed to be, it may become easier to do that new movement or action with your tongue because you\u2019ve been able to have these exercises.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nYeah.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nNow, one way to help yourself is to put your hand in front of your tongue and reach towards your hand to give yourself a bit of a challenge.<\/span>
\nNow, I will never reach my hand but it\u2019s something to reach for.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nNow, my least favorite exercise but a great one for the tongue, we\u2019re going to circle the tongue around the mouth in both directions. Now, imagine that you\u2019ve got peanut butter stuck on your gums and you\u2019re going to circle the tongue around trying to get the peanut butter out.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nHmm, I kind of like that one.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nYeah?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nYeah. Why is that your least favorite.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nBecause when you do it ten times one way and ten times the other, your tongue starts to really get sore. So work up to ten times one way and then you can switch to ten times the other way but you can starts with five.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nNow, drop your head, relax the tongue out of the mouth and shake.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nOh boy. Do I have to try that?\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nGive it a shot.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nOkay, better hold my hair.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nPerfect! Such relaxation.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nYeah.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nNow, you should feel the tongue release all the way in the back of the mouth and as you do this, some saliva may fly around. If so, congratulations, you\u2019re doing it perfectly.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nNow, let\u2019s practice some articulation with this newly relaxed tongue.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSo that\u2019s using the unvoiced T sound, now let\u2019s try the voiced D sound.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n