Hello, My name is Gareth Jameson.
I am a actor and a voice coach from www.londonvoicelessons.
com.
Here are some tips for working on your voice.
Now you may want to do this because you are
in a play, or maybe you want to impress your
friends, or if you're learning German practicing
your German accent while you are speaking
English might help you with your accent while
you are speaking German.
Whatever the reason playing with accents is
a great way to exercise your voice and speech.
Now the key to any accent is to isolate the
sounds that are specific to that accent.
So lets start with the German W and V sound.
There's no difference between them.
They both sound like v. So lets listen to
this (in German accent)"Why is the voice like
wine?".
With an English accent thats "Why is the voice
like wine?" but now its (in German accent)"Why
is the voice like wine?".
Notice also that on the word "the" in "the
voice" the t-h sound has changed to a zed.
In fact its very common for German speakers
to change the sound to a zed or an es.
This is because there is no t-h sound in German
so they get the best suitable sounds from
their native language.
So try something like this, (in German accent)
"Thank you so much for this" (repeats 2 times)
So that's (in German accent) "Thank you" instead
of "Thank you" and (in German accent) "this"
instead of "this".
It also helps me when I do my German accent
to make it a little bit more hissy or breathy
sounding.
This is technically called devoicing.
So listen to this in an English accent first
of all, "I need these big beds".
So you hear how buzzy it is at the end of
the word.
"I need these big beds" and now in German
"I need these big beds".
That's "beds" almost like a t-s at the end.
Very hissy.
"I need these big beds".
Now its a bit of a stereotype to say that
the Germans are more serious or correct than
other nationalities.
That's probably not strictly true but as an
actor it does help me to imagine myself being
more correct and strict when I put on the
accent.
That seems to help when I do it.
I don't know why.
Now of course I can't give you a whole picture
of a German accent in a short session but
that's a general overview.
If you want to learn more about voices and
speech and how you can change your accent
go to www.londonvoicelessons.com.
