Five Vocal Exercises for Better Improv Characters

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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So you do not need to do funny voices,

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to be a really good improviser.

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You don't even need to do voices if you're doing characters.

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You can always stick to your own voice entirely.

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You don't ever have to do voices.

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However, thinking about voice and your vocal dynamics

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is very important to improv.

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And making subtle changes to it can be extremely

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useful for your scenes.

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And if you do get into changing up your voice,

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it can be really fun to do those big switches

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when you're ready.

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Just considering your own voice and playing with the tone

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and the emphasis or the cadence is very useful in a scene.

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How you express emotion can be altered,

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just thinking about your voice.

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Those subtle adjustments can go a long way.

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And none of this I speak of would be in the realm

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of doing a voice.

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It's just really playing with your own voice.

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To make those adjustments, it helps

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to know what the voice actually contains.

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And I covered all of the core components

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of vocal musicality in an earlier episode on a different show.

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So I'm going to summarize that information

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in this episode here.

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And then I'm going to give you five new improv exercises

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to practice with your own voice.

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This is your Improv Brain, the show and the podcast.

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I'm your host, Jen deHaan

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I've taught and coached and done a lot of long-form improv

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comedy.

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I'm sharing how I personally think about and perform

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improv in these shows.

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And since all of our brains are completely different,

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some of this might resonate, and the rest you can just throw away.

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But hopefully some of these episodes

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are kind of useful for your improv.

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Before we go on to some character-focused vocal exercises

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for your improv, ones you can do with others or on your own,

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we will first review the core components of vocal expression

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and how to analyze your own work.

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This is important because understanding these building

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blocks is really the first thing towards better vocal control.

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In some other episodes I did--

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and I'll link these episodes in the description--

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I talked about vocal speed and pacing

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and finding the natural rhythms and musicality

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of your voice for presentations.

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And those ideas will be useful in this episode.

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So you might want to go check out those episodes as well.

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In one of those episodes, I told a story

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about how I once gave a presentation on a book

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that I found absolutely amazing.

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It was really mind-blowing to me.

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It was all about making regular speaking more exciting

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through vocal musicality.

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And when I gave the presentation about that book,

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I kind of didn't do any of those things.

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The audience was incredibly bored.

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So the main point here is that just because you're

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excited about something doesn't mean it necessarily

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translates through your voice.

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So by consciously using the elements of your voice,

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things like your rate and cadence and pitch and volume,

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you can create distinct characters

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and drive your scenes forward.

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So your voice, of course, delivers lines,

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but it's also your most effective instrument

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for bringing truth and humanity and relatability

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and all those other things to the stage.

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So I'll link those episodes that kind of deconstruct

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these vocal mechanics in the show notes.

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But I'll go over the basics in this episode

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of the things that make your voice really expressive.

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The words that you choose to use are just one layer

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of the information in general.

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How you say these things can completely change

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the meaning of the sentences that you're using.

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So the first one is speech rate.

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So this is the speed at which you speak.

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So a character who speaks quickly might be perceived

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as like nervous or excited or my grandma, Audrey or me, Jen.

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I can talk really fast sometimes,

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but I come by it honestly because I came from Audrey.

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A character who speaks slowly might come across

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as deliberate or tired or confident, perhaps.

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Cadence is the rhythm.

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Speech rates the speed, cadence is the rhythm.

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So it's the rhythmic flow of your word.

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And this could be thought like a character's signature pattern

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of speech.

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This can help you do things like take on multiple characters

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and differentiate them easily for the audience, prosody.

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So this is a really broad term

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and it's for the features of speech beyond

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the words themselves.

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So it includes the intonation, the stress and the rhythm.

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It's the core of the subtext that you might be using.

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And this allows you to communicate things like sarcasm

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or fear without actually saying those words

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like you're showing, you're not telling.

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And you can do that through your voice

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and that's how you do it.

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Intonation, this is really the melody of the sentence.

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So in Canadian English, a rising intonation

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typically signals a question

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and a falling intonation generally indicates

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that it's a statement.

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So on stage, you can play with this.

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See, that sounded like a question,

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but it really should have been a statement of fact.

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Intonation, baby.

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So these things all go together.

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Speech rate is the tempo.

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Intonation is the melody.

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Volume and stress are the dynamics.

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And cadence is the resulting rhythm.

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And like I mentioned before in this episode,

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a strong vocal variety is really important

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for differentiating between the characters

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because we often play multiple characters in improv

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without those costume changes.

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Using your voice can really help signal

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to the audience who is who.

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In that previous episode,

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it also included a checklist

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for like analyzing your own recordings.

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And the main idea here is to listen back to your voice

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so you could redo a character at home

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and record yourself or perhaps you already record your shows

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or you get permission for a practice.

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Great, use that thing.

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And then you want to listen for these things.

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Pace and rhythm.

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You're asking yourself if you tend to play

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all the characters speaking at the same speed

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or are you differentiating your pace and your rhythm

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and your speed between your characters?

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Listen for vocal variety.

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Is your delivery really monotonous

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or does your pitch rise and then fall?

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Then you want to notice any filler words that you might use.

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So you want to kind of listen for the ums or the awh's

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or the likes that you use or the ya knows or the so's.

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So this might be your character.

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Your character might be using these filler words

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or you might just want to adjust

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what you yourself naturally use in your speech

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because maybe the character wouldn't be using

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the same kind of filler words that you personally use.

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So this is just about listening to your recordings

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and making those choices for yourself and the character.

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So check your articulation and clarity.

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So you probably want to remain fairly clear

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most of the time for the sake of the audience

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to understand what you're actually saying.

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But perhaps for some characters, the odd character,

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you might play with this a bit.

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Those earlier episodes also covered three exercises

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to really get you started on these mechanics of your voice.

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It was for presentations, so I'll quickly mention them here

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and I'll also add them to a download for this episode

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as well and you can find that at improvupdate.com/downloads.

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So pace and rate control.

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You read a paragraph three times.

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First, as quickly as you can while staying really clear.

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Second, very slowly and deliberately.

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And third, you just kind of mix it up between those things,

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varying the speed, treating it like a monologue,

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like how you would normally deliver one of those things.

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Cadence and rhythm.

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You can take a piece of text and practice inserting pauses

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for emphasis right before or after key words.

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And this helps you get comfortable with silence.

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Pitch and tone.

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You choose a simple neutral phrase like celebratory herald

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or improvising cat.

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And you say it in as many different ways as you can.

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You're conveying different emotions or different intent

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with those things that you're saying.

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If those aren't neutral phrases to you, that's on you, not me.

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So you can go listen to that full episode for more details.

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But in this episode, we're going to build

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on those mechanical exercises

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with some new improv-focused exercises designed

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to help you create distinct vocal characterizations.

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All right, so before we start, let's quickly talk about accents.

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So this is really personal, and people all have their own choices

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about what accents we do or if we really do them at all.

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So it is a really important thing to remember,

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not to make any assumptions around people's physical appearance

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to kind of assume what their background is culturally,

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like what accent might be part of their experience

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or their family lineage.

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And in my opinion, it's important to never make an accent,

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and this would include any other vocal dynamics

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that are often associated with, say, a region or culture,

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that you never make those part of the bit

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or turn that into the game of the scene ever.

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So it's up to everyone individually

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to sort out what they are comfortable with

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and what their thoughts are about doing accents.

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And it's a great idea to also have a conversation

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with the people that you're doing scenes with

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to make sure everyone is comfortable with what's going on.

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This is also pretty important to remember

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when delivering notes.

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Ask before making any assumptions on these things.

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And again, it's totally good to always just make the choice

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to play within your own voice and accent.

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That's always valid.

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Like once I was assigned a South Asian accent

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for a casual cold table read in an environment I was new in,

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so I didn't even know anybody there.

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And I just simply said no.

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Even after I was encouraged multiple times

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after first saying no, I still just said no.

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You can always stick to that no,

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or you can not say anything and just not do it,

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and you don't ever have to give a reason.

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So none of these exercises

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that we're doing today use accents.

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We're going to practice going out of our comfort zone

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on the musicality, the tone, the pace, the volume,

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the emotion, all those other things.

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You do not need to do any accents for these.

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Personally, I usually choose not to,

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but remember if you're ever gifted with an accent in a scene

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or one of these exercises even,

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you can always just opt out.

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Without a mind, let's get into the improv exercises.

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You can get all of these written out in a PDF download

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on my website called Vocal Basics for Improv.

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Now here are five exercises that will help

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with character voices, and the first of which is dubbing.

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So this is often done with four people up,

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so two people are doing the voices,

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and two people are doing the characters' bodies,

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who are dubbing those voices.

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So the people doing the voices

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are just doing the vocals, the sentences,

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they're just saying the words in the scene,

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and the two other people, the bodies, they are silent,

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but they're moving their mouths to mimic the voices

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that are being spoken by the other two,

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and they're adding all the physicality in the scene.

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So both groups need to try to match each other.

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Everyone is really working together in this thing.

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So the voices will try to match the physicality,

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and the physicality, the people, the bodies,

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will try to match what the voices are doing,

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what actually the speech is adding to the scene.

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And this ends up creating a really rapid push

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and pull of focus.

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So all improvisers want to try to match

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that same energy and what's happening overall

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with whatever they're putting into the scene.

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And because the voice and the physicality

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are two different sets of people,

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sometimes it's easier to just make those big choices

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in an exercise like this.

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So try to make those big choices for your practice.

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That's the central point of this exercise.

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So there are many variations on this one,

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and you might have seen this exercise,

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an example of it in the show, "Whose Line Is It Anyway?"

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And one version that you can do solo for practice

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is watching a video with the audio turned off

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and dubbing that person that you're watching in the video.

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And if you're using footage for something like a streamed,

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a live streamed improv something,

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there's a great repositories of public domain footage

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that you can search and use.

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So the second example is called "Ranting."

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In this exercise, you are practicing the tone

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and the volume of your voice against a provided

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or given emotion.

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How you express that emotion using these elements

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or the musicality of your voice, that's the exercise.

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So the main bit, the main part of this exercise

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is to escalate and heighten the emotion.

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So rants are pretty easy,

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so that's why it's kind of the default place

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to start on this one.

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So you're given a topic to rant about.

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That topic, I suggest a really good idea

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is to make it very mundane.

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So we don't get into topics

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we might not want to rant about.

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Well, we want to rant about them, but just not an improv.

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So pick something like mundane,

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like leaving the cap off the toothpaste bottle

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or something like that.

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And you can also be given a character description,

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like who is doing this rant.

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And if you're working solo,

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you can use an app or even a chat bot

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to get a suggestion for this one.

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For this exercise, the player starts really grounded.

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So really calm, really regular,

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and then as they get going in the scene,

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the monologue, the rant,

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that's when they amp up the energy.

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And you're gonna see what that then does to your voice.

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So you're watching for the volume, the tone, the energy,

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the cadence and the speed.

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And the monologue version is pretty much a solo exercise

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that you can do anywhere,

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just as you might do in a class,

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just maybe without an audience, maybe.

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So try this one on your own.

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I'm sorry about the volume on that one.

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That was your example for a rant.

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And I saw like the meter on there and it was solid red.

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So I'm sorry, what that's gonna, anyways.

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For variations, you could do this as a scene.

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So one character has to heighten their emotion throughout,

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and one has to play it grounded.

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Or for an extra challenge,

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one character tries to de-escalate their emotion,

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like from a 10 to a one throughout the scene.

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And the other person in the scene has to go

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from a one to a 10.

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So in the middle of the scene, they're both kind of out of five.

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You know, like really testy.

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Okay, you get the picture.

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Anyways, you can also switch up the emotion.

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So you don't have to do rage.

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You can do anxiety or joy or whatever you want

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in this rant exercise.

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So some emotions might be a lot easier than others, of course.

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So do you think about that when you're choosing them?

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Like you probably aren't gonna wanna choose calm or relaxed.

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I wouldn't recommend that one.

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Or the really mental ones, like jealousy or boredom or over it.

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Okay, those aren't good choices for this one at all.

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So I lied about that whatever you want.

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Make smart choices, that's right.

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So make the smart choices.

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Third exercise, whisper or shout.

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This is a variation of a viola spolan exercise.

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So in this exercise, two people are up

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and they do a normal scene just with normal voices

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as you would do any other scene.

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Then the people in that scene are going to repeat

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that same scene, but this time,

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they're only gonna do it in a whisper.

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Then they repeat it again and this time they're shouting.

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Then you could do a bonus round

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and you could use all three things.

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You can whisper, you can shout or you can speak normally.

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And that changing in between them

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is a pretty good exercise in itself.

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And another bonus round is my newsletter.

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So you can sign yourself up at improvupdate.com

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and I'll send you my human writing

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and I'll send you a download if you sign up.

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You get a special download just for signing up

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and that helps you mentally work through

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your improv sessions after the fact.

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So after you do these exercises,

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you're gonna reflect on them in that PDF

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and I'll give it to you, you just gotta sign up.

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So let's go to the fourth exercise.

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This one, voice attitude posture.

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So this idea comes from Jill Bernard's

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small, cute book of improv.

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And the concept of Jill's is that

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if you do one of these things, voice or attitude or posture,

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you get the other two for free.

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So it's a great deal.

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As is her book, check out her book.

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In this context, practicing voice,

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we want to be very aware of how the other two things

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affect the voice specifically and vice versa.

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So you're going to start by doing a regular scene again

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and just figure out your character.

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What's your character's deal?

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Then you consciously change one thing about that character,

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either their attitude or their posture.

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Then you do the scene again or you do another scene,

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but just with that same character.

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The main thing is just do that character again

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and just see how that one thing you chose to change

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affects that character's voice.

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So the attitude or the posture.

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You want to pay special attention to how the attitude

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and the posture affect the voice

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when you analyze that second scene with that same character.

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You can also, or instead, try changing the voice

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of the character and notice how it affects

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your attitude or your posture.

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So the main point is to become aware of these things

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and see how it can help with your voice

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and your characterization.

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Like just awareness is half the battle.

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And so this one is pretty easy to practice solo.

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Just decide to change your attitude or your posture

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and see how it affects your own voice.

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You can deliver a monologue about the same story

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and try it that way or just annoy someone that you live with

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or your dog.

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So you might think this is a little bit of a bit,

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but dogs will really pick up on these things.

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So I came upstairs doing a character

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and my new dog Susan would not stop barking at me

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because I had a different voice

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and presumably attitude and posture.

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And she just wasn't used to this.

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Like I normalized it with my other dogs.

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They knew I was doing a character

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and they were just like, they were over it.

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They were over it, but my new dog Susan,

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she was just like, I have no idea what's going on.

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So dogs will pick up on this.

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♪ The more you know ♪

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So fifth, this is your bonus round.

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This is a special bonus round.

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So there's an exercise that I've done before an improv

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that where you just sing the dialogue.

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So this isn't a song, this isn't musical improv,

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but you're doing it kind of opera or musical.

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Sometimes musicals have this.

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Where you're just doing that thing

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where they sing the sentences to move the plot along

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at a faster speed.

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And there's just like basic music notes in the background.

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If you're familiar with that, that's what this exercise is.

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So this is called "Rechet Chetiv"

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and I'm not gonna do a demo of it right now

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because I want to keep the subscribers that I have.

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♪ The more you know ♪

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But I'll put a link in the show notes

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to an example of this.

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Now there's no right or wrong way.

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You just sing the sentences instead of speaking them.

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It's a very literal voice musicality improv exercise

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like pretty much the most literal you can do.

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And if you want to do this one solo,

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♪ Cision one day ♪

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♪ To speak in "Rechet Chetiv" wherever you go ♪

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♪ Your people that you come across ♪

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♪ Or the people that you live with or your dog ♪

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♪ Will absolutely love it so much ♪

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Just be sure to bring a coat

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in case they kick you out the door.

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I don't know, oh my, that was awful.

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That was awful, that was awful guys.

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So I lied again, you got a demo

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and I probably have no subscribers anymore

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and that's on the internet for posterity too.

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Talk about going outside of your comfort zone.

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Anyways, all these exercises are about building up

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your awareness and expanding your range one step at a time.

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You don't need to create like a hundred voices

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or even a second voice.

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You don't need to practice all of these things at once.

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Just choose one thing to work on

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and then move on to the next thing.

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And you can absolutely just get comfortable

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playing with the voice you have already

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and seeing how just small changes to your pitch

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or your pace or your posture can create

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or affect your character.

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And as a reminder, you can get all of these exercises

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including the ones I summarized from the last episode

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written out in a PDF download

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which is going to be called Vocal Basics for Improv

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and you can find it on the website improvupdate.com

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and I'll be back later on for another episode.

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Bye for now.

:: 21:33

You have been listening to Your Improv Brain

:: 21:37

as StereoForrest Production.

:: 21:39

This show is created and is written, edited

:: 21:42

and produced by Jen at StereoForest.com

:: 21:46

You can find show information, show notes, transcripts

:: 21:49

and contact information at the show's page

:: 21:53

at stereoforest.com/improvbrain.

:: 21:56

Thanks for listening.

:: 21:58

(gentle music)

:: 22:01

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