Unfiltered Thoughts

0126 – Don’t Be A Dick With Your Diction  DICTIONIf ‘articulation’ is the process of moving the jaw, tongue, lips and palate to produce different sounds, ‘diction’ is the use of those different ‘packets of sound’ to create understandable words. Don’t be a dick with your dictionAgain, as I have said several times, I’m not saying you must or should change the way you speak, I’m just putting these ideas out there to be of some help if you want to change. And remember it doesn’t really matter how you sound, as long as your target audience understands your ‘message on the mic’, and ideally acts upon it. That is, what you say and how you say it causes them to, say, trust you, buy from you, or be moved by you. Some mis-articulations are because of a physical impairment. It is not the role of this book to advise on issues such as dental work, a cleft palate, nasal issues, stroke recovery and so on, and for those issues you should obviously consult an appropriate medical professional, such as a speech or ENT specialist. Now we know how to form individual sounds, we need to combine them to create recognisable words and with them build sentences so we can communicate. It should also be said that deviations from what has in the past been referred to as ‘proper’ or ‘standard’ English are now properly recognised as accents often reflecting someone’s culture, heritage, age and upbringing. It is certainly not the point of this book to rule on how you should speak, but to give advice on achieving that ‘standard’ sound, should you so wish. It can also help, as I’ve said before, to know more about the area in which you are hoping to make a living or a successful hobby. It’s a bit like armchair chefs who read cookery books, or those who read about car mechanics: you may not intend to make every recipe or strip an engine down – but it’s useful to know what’s going on under the bonnet / hood all the same. Remember, when we use our voice it is in anticipation of communication, to entertain, inform or persuade. If the receiver doesn’t understand the message you are trying to deliver, or that message is ‘scrambled’ because of their preconceptions they make about you because of how you sound, then you have been unsuccessful. That may be their fault rather than yours, but it’s still unsuccessful communication.
==
Through these under-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios.
And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.
Look out for more details of the book during 2021.
Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_Stewart
Peter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1 to Heart FM, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. Other trainees have been music presenters, breakfast show hosts, travel news presenters and voice-over artists.
He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (“Essential Radio Journalism”, “JournoLists”, two editions of “Essential Radio Skills” and three editions of “Broadcast Journalism”) and has written on voice and presentation skills in the BBC’s in-house newspaper “Ariel”.
Peter has presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with formats as diverse as music-presentation, interview shows, ‘special’ programmes for elections and budgets, live outside broadcasts and commentaries and even the occasional sports, gardening and dedication programmes. He has read several thousand news bulletins, and hosted nearly 2,000 podcast episodes, and is a vocal image consultant advising in all aspects of voice and speech training for presenters on radio and TV, podcasts and YouTube, voiceovers and videocalls.
The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience?
This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects.
Music credits:"Bleeping Demo" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/7012-bleeping-demo License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license  "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license  "Envision" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4706-envision License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Limit 70" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5710-limit-70 License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Rising Tide" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5027-rising-tide License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Wholesome" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5050-wholesomeLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

0125 – Ten More Great Accent Tips Some other accent tips

• ·        Vocal fillers of other languages may also be important
• ·        You have to have a good ear… and a good mouth
• ·        Listen to authentic, native speakers, speaking in an English accent
• ·        That a character’s voice is more than just their accent
• ·        Just focus on one accent at a time
• ·        Practice and get confidence by using your newly-learnt accent on people who don’t know your real one

 Some more resources:

• ·        “How To Do Accents” by Jan Haydn Rowles and Edda Sharpe
• ·        “Accents and Dialects for Stage and Screen” by Paul Meier
• ·        “The Accent Kit” app (iOS and Android)
• ·        “The Real Accent” app (iOS and Android) 

==
Through these under-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios.
And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.
Look out for more details of the book during 2021.
Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_Stewart
Peter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1 to Heart FM, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. Other trainees have been music presenters, breakfast show hosts, travel news presenters and voice-over artists.
He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (“Essential Radio Journalism”, “JournoLists”, two editions of “Essential Radio Skills” and three editions of “Broadcast Journalism”) and has written on voice and presentation skills in the BBC’s in-house newspaper “Ariel”.
Peter has presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with formats as diverse as music-presentation, interview shows, ‘special’ programmes for elections and budgets, live outside broadcasts and commentaries and even the occasional sports, gardening and dedication programmes. He has read several thousand news bulletins, and hosted nearly 2,000 podcast episodes, and is a vocal image consultant advising in all aspects of voice and speech training for presenters on radio and TV, podcasts and YouTube, voiceovers and videocalls.
The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience?
This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects.
Music credits:"Bleeping Demo" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/7012-bleeping-demo License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license  "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license  "Envision" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4706-envision License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Limit 70" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5710-limit-70 License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Rising Tide" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5027-rising-tide License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Wholesome" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5050-wholesomeLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

0124 – Accents Are Not Just How A Word Sounds Accents are not just how the words soundAll accents have a character. Think of a soft projection of highland Scottish, a harsher New-Yorker, the slow drawl of someone from a southern U.S state, the almost operatic excitability of an Italian speaker. Of course, everyone is different but there are ‘cultural averages’ and is partly to do with the melody or song of the accent. Italian has one kind of melody and ‘bounce’, German has another, so you can’t change the sound of the vowels and consonants… but still speak with the same rhythm and emphasis as your native language. The whole flow has to change. You may get an idea of how the words move, if you move. Watching the behaviour of people speaking in their native tongue: their body language, posture and overall ‘attitude’ to get a literal feel of the language.==
Through these under-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios.
And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.
Look out for more details of the book during 2021.
Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_Stewart
Peter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1 to Heart FM, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. Other trainees have been music presenters, breakfast show hosts, travel news presenters and voice-over artists.
He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (“Essential Radio Journalism”, “JournoLists”, two editions of “Essential Radio Skills” and three editions of “Broadcast Journalism”) and has written on voice and presentation skills in the BBC’s in-house newspaper “Ariel”.
Peter has presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with formats as diverse as music-presentation, interview shows, ‘special’ programmes for elections and budgets, live outside broadcasts and commentaries and even the occasional sports, gardening and dedication programmes. He has read several thousand news bulletins, and hosted nearly 2,000 podcast episodes, and is a vocal image consultant advising in all aspects of voice and speech training for presenters on radio and TV, podcasts and YouTube, voiceovers and videocalls.
The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience?
This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects.
Music credits:"Bleeping Demo" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/7012-bleeping-demo License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license  "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license  "Envision" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4706-envision License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Limit 70" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5710-limit-70 License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Rising Tide" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5027-rising-tide License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Wholesome" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5050-wholesomeLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

0123 – How A Rat Can Help You Learn A New Accent Unsurprisingly, you can learn other accents via mimicry: simply listening and accurately repeating how a native speaker speaks, including the subtle nuances. And there are some resources to help you do that. There are several short texts (including “Arthur The Rat”, “Comma Gets A Cure” and “The Rainbow Passage”) which are contain all of the phonetic constructs in the English language – every consonant and vowel structure, and when one sound moves into another. The stories are used for example by speech therapists when they are analysing a patient and the word formations that they may have difficulty in saying. And they have also been recorded by differently-accented people around the word to create a huge database of various voices which you can listen to and learn from. Go to https://www.alt-usage-english.org/audio_archive.html and https://www.dialectsarchive.com/dialects-accents to choose a story, and an accent, male or female, and age that’s appropriate to the character that you will be playing, and mimic the sounds as you follow the texts. So for example you can hear a middle aged German man read about Arthur The Rat, in English with a German accent. It’s a great resource and hopefully avoids you creating a fake, stereotypical or offensive caricature-type accent.
==
Through these under-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios.
And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.
Look out for more details of the book during 2021.
Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_Stewart
Peter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1 to Heart FM, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. Other trainees have been music presenters, breakfast show hosts, travel news presenters and voice-over artists.
He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (“Essential Radio Journalism”, “JournoLists”, two editions of “Essential Radio Skills” and three editions of “Broadcast Journalism”) and has written on voice and presentation skills in the BBC’s in-house newspaper “Ariel”.
Peter has presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with formats as diverse as music-presentation, interview shows, ‘special’ programmes for elections and budgets, live outside broadcasts and commentaries and even the occasional sports, gardening and dedication programmes. He has read several thousand news bulletins, and hosted nearly 2,000 podcast episodes, and is a vocal image consultant advising in all aspects of voice and speech training for presenters on radio and TV, podcasts and YouTube, voiceovers and videocalls.
The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience?
This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects.
Music credits:"Bleeping Demo" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/7012-bleeping-demo License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license  "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license  "Envision" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4706-envision License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Limit 70" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5710-limit-70 License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Rising Tide" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5027-rising-tide License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Wholesome" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5050-wholesomeLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

0122 – How Different Languages Have Different Pitches VOICE BOXLanguage experts[1] say that our speech is made up of a huge number of frequencies – base tones and overtones. It’s claimed that every language has a different range, for example British English moves between 2,000 and 12,000 Hz and French much less so between 125 and to 2,000 Hz and Russian between a wide 125 to 12,000 Hz.  It’s thought that a new-born baby can recognise the entire range of human speech sounds, but by around eight months it starts to narrow that range to its native language or languages. Some linguists say the critical period for picking up a language completely fluently is at around six years old, others believe the cut-off period is in the teens. By adulthood it is almost impossible to pick up a new language without some trace of an accent. This is partly because their brain can no longer hear the entire range of frequencies, or pitch, that make up the ‘new’ language and so their mouth can’t reproduce the right sound. [1] “Can technology help you lose an accent?” https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20190506-this-technology-could-help-you-lose-your-accent?ocid=twwl
==
Through these under-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios.
And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.
Look out for more details of the book during 2021.
Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_Stewart
Peter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1 to Heart FM, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. Other trainees have been music presenters, breakfast show hosts, travel news presenters and voice-over artists.
He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (“Essential Radio Journalism”, “JournoLists”, two editions of “Essential Radio Skills” and three editions of “Broadcast Journalism”) and has written on voice and presentation skills in the BBC’s in-house newspaper “Ariel”.
Peter has presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with formats as diverse as music-presentation, interview shows, ‘special’ programmes for elections and budgets, live outside broadcasts and commentaries and even the occasional sports, gardening and dedication programmes. He has read several thousand news bulletins, and hosted nearly 2,000 podcast episodes, and is a vocal image consultant advising in all aspects of voice and speech training for presenters on radio and TV, podcasts and YouTube, voiceovers and videocalls.
The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience?
This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects.
Music credits:"Bleeping Demo" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/7012-bleeping-demo License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license  "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license  "Envision" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4706-envision License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Limit 70" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5710-limit-70 License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Rising Tide" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5027-rising-tide License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Wholesome" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5050-wholesomeLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

0121 – Learning AccentsLearning accentsWe looked at vowels and consonants earlier and how they are formed, and it’s true to say that accents are usually down to how you sound the vowels. Yes, consonants are sometimes pronounced differently from your native tongue, but they are much more likely to be the same. There are vowel sounds in some languages that do not exist in standard English. So it’s not a matter of making the same sound but in different situations, you have to first perfect a whole new sound if you want to emulate say Chinese or some African languages. Other languages as we saw earlier have sounds that are much more like English, although where you place your tongue or use your larynx and to what degree will be different. Although an ‘American’ will sound more similar to a Canadian or Australian, think how different a native speaker of French or German sounds. So it’s not just down to the accent, but the native language itself. There are some places that will help you create these different mouth movements and sound structures:·        https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/IPAcharts/inter_chart_2018/IPA_2018.html - will play you the different sounds and how to mimic them by the placement of your tongue or palate and so on·        https://seeingspeech.ac.uk/ipa-charts/ - shows you an x-ray of what happens in your mouth as you make these sounds==
Through these under-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios.
And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.
Look out for more details of the book during 2021.
Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_Stewart
Peter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1 to Heart FM, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. Other trainees have been music presenters, breakfast show hosts, travel news presenters and voice-over artists.
He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (“Essential Radio Journalism”, “JournoLists”, two editions of “Essential Radio Skills” and three editions of “Broadcast Journalism”) and has written on voice and presentation skills in the BBC’s in-house newspaper “Ariel”.
Peter has presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with formats as diverse as music-presentation, interview shows, ‘special’ programmes for elections and budgets, live outside broadcasts and commentaries and even the occasional sports, gardening and dedication programmes. He has read several thousand news bulletins, and hosted nearly 2,000 podcast episodes, and is a vocal image consultant advising in all aspects of voice and speech training for presenters on radio and TV, podcasts and YouTube, voiceovers and videocalls.
The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience?
This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects.
Music credits:"Bleeping Demo" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/7012-bleeping-demo License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license  "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license  "Envision" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4706-envision License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Limit 70" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5710-limit-70 License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Rising Tide" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5027-rising-tide License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Wholesome" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5050-wholesomeLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

0120 – Speaking’s Most Important Body PartWhat is the most important part of the human body when it comes to speaking? Arguably the ears: we need to be able to hear sounds and process them before we can reproduce them. And similarly, we all adapt to be able to process different people’s voices. So, scientists say, it is amazing that even though my vocal anatomy is different from yours, if we met we would both be able to hear and understand each other. We are able to calibrate our brains to process the different sounds.==
Through these under-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios.
And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.
Look out for more details of the book during 2021.
Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_Stewart
Peter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1 to Heart FM, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. Other trainees have been music presenters, breakfast show hosts, travel news presenters and voice-over artists.
He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (“Essential Radio Journalism”, “JournoLists”, two editions of “Essential Radio Skills” and three editions of “Broadcast Journalism”) and has written on voice and presentation skills in the BBC’s in-house newspaper “Ariel”.
Peter has presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with formats as diverse as music-presentation, interview shows, ‘special’ programmes for elections and budgets, live outside broadcasts and commentaries and even the occasional sports, gardening and dedication programmes. He has read several thousand news bulletins, and hosted nearly 2,000 podcast episodes, and is a vocal image consultant advising in all aspects of voice and speech training for presenters on radio and TV, podcasts and YouTube, voiceovers and videocalls.
The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience?
This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects.
Music credits:"Bleeping Demo" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/7012-bleeping-demo License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license  "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license  "Envision" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4706-envision License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Limit 70" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5710-limit-70 License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Rising Tide" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5027-rising-tide License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Wholesome" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5050-wholesomeLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

0119 – The ‘Global Accent’A global accentWith around 2 billion speakers (either as a first or second language), English is the most understood language in the world.  Spread by traders, invaders and slave owners, explorers, teachers and preachers through the printed word and, literally, the word of mouth, it’s now mostly learnt via American TV and films (rather than, unfortunately, through the culture of its motherland). It is though the language of entertainment, information and business.  It is therefore understandable that many international businesses require an international voice for their brand. Audi, Airbus, Renault and Samsung have adopted English as their official language of business across countries, and other companies use it on corporate commercials or internal elearning.  Enter the ‘global accent’. This is an ambiguous, amalgamated, amorphous accent that combines characteristics of the major English-speaking dialects, and not immediately recognisable as being any single one. The aim is for it to be easily understood by as many people as possible. It’s sometimes called a ‘neutral English’ accent, or a ‘General American’ (or ‘GenAm’) accent.[1] Many voice directors believe such an accent from ‘anywhere’ is accepted by ‘everyone’ in multiple markets; others that an all-encompassing accent reduces regional relevance.
[1] It’s also the accent often needed by those hired to teach English as a second language in a school abroad. 
=
Through these under-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios.
And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.
Look out for more details of the book during 2021.
Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_Stewart
Peter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1 to Heart FM, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. Other trainees have been music presenters, breakfast show hosts, travel news presenters and voice-over artists.
He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (“Essential Radio Journalism”, “JournoLists”, two editions of “Essential Radio Skills” and three editions of “Broadcast Journalism”) and has written on voice and presentation skills in the BBC’s in-house newspaper “Ariel”.
Peter has presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with formats as diverse as music-presentation, interview shows, ‘special’ programmes for elections and budgets, live outside broadcasts and commentaries and even the occasional sports, gardening and dedication programmes. He has read several thousand news bulletins, and hosted nearly 2,000 podcast episodes, and is a vocal image consultant advising in all aspects of voice and speech training for presenters on radio and TV, podcasts and YouTube, voiceovers and videocalls.
The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience?
This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects.
Music credits:"Bleeping Demo" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/7012-bleeping-demo License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license  "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license  "Envision" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4706-envision License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Limit 70" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5710-limit-70 License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Rising Tide" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5027-rising-tide License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Wholesome" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5050-wholesomeLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

0118 – How Advertisers Use Accents To Sell Us Stuff VOICE BOXMarketers know exactly how to manipulate our feeling towards different accents. Call-centre switchboards are so sophisticated that they often route calls from different geographical locations or from customers with specific enquiries, to operatives with certain accents. So a bank customer from Alabama might get an adviser with a similar Southern accent, even though the call centre may be at the other end of the country. That’s if they are after a loan and the bank wants to appear friendly and helpful. If they’ve defaulted then a staff member with an accent that’s perceived as more aggressive, perhaps one from New York, may handle the call. A study in the UK[1] found some people, for example in Manchester, like hearing adverts in their own accent, while in cities such as Bristol or Birmingham they prefer voice-overs who speak with a south-east England accent. The 15 most trustworthy accents in the UK: https://www.countryliving.com/uk/news/a34435560/most-trustworthy-accent-uk/  The effects of accents on trustworthiness and overall credibility. (Video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSp9ghRymgk&feature=youtu.be  1943: Should a woman or even a Yorkshireman be allowed to read the BBC news? No chance... https://twitter.com/BBCArchive/status/997887608330928128 and https://twitter.com/BBCArchive/status/998506068669059072  
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/may/13/birmingham-bristol-accents-advertising-government ==
Through these under-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios.
And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.
Look out for more details of the book during 2021.
Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_Stewart
Peter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1 to Heart FM, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. Other trainees have been music presenters, breakfast show hosts, travel news presenters and voice-over artists.
He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (“Essential Radio Journalism”, “JournoLists”, two editions of “Essential Radio Skills” and three editions of “Broadcast Journalism”) and has written on voice and presentation skills in the BBC’s in-house newspaper “Ariel”.
Peter has presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with formats as diverse as music-presentation, interview shows, ‘special’ programmes for elections and budgets, live outside broadcasts and commentaries and even the occasional sports, gardening and dedication programmes. He has read several thousand news bulletins, and hosted nearly 2,000 podcast episodes, and is a vocal image consultant advising in all aspects of voice and speech training for presenters on radio and TV, podcasts and YouTube, voiceovers and videocalls.
The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience?
This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects.
Music credits:"Bleeping Demo" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/7012-bleeping-demo License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license  "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license  "Envision" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4706-envision License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Limit 70" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5710-limit-70 License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Rising Tide" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5027-rising-tide License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Wholesome" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5050-wholesomeLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

0117 – Voice Morphing Voice morphingThere’s is nothing wrong in having two or more speaking styles: a ‘personal voice’ and a ‘professional voice’. Linguists refer to ‘style shifting’: a kind of chameleon camouflage in which we unconsciously or deliberately alter our speaking style depending on who we are talking with and factors such as our perception of the relative social class of us and them, and what we want from the interaction.  We all do it all of the time: one to use with friends[1], one for talking with our parents (or our friends’ parents[2]), one with colleagues, one on air and so on. This ‘voice morphing’ may include more of your parents’ accent when home for the weekend, a higher tone when talking to strangers, a softer voice when at the doctor’s surgery.  It’s ‘dressing up’ the voice: a tie for formal occasions and jeans for the familiar. And with each voice you are telling your listener a different message.  So it may be that you wish to consider to toning-down or limiting your natural, heritage-rich accent while broadcasting, but it be exotically exuberant, ‘loud, proud and personal’ in other situations.  The overarching consideration should always be, will the audience (whether on broadcast or social media or the stage) understand what you are saying? Will you be able to clearly communicate? Is the diction appropriate for the project and the audience? Only interfere with your natural speaking style if it is a barrier to the understanding of your message. On the radio of course there are no ‘second chances’ to hear something again if words aren’t immediately understandable.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJmqCKtJnxM [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gZCoQ0NNg4 =
Through these under-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios.
And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.
Look out for more details of the book during 2021.
Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_Stewart
Peter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1 to Heart FM, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. Other trainees have been music presenters, breakfast show hosts, travel news presenters and voice-over artists.
He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (“Essential Radio Journalism”, “JournoLists”, two editions of “Essential Radio Skills” and three editions of “Broadcast Journalism”) and has written on voice and presentation skills in the BBC’s in-house newspaper “Ariel”.
Peter has presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with formats as diverse as music-presentation, interview shows, ‘special’ programmes for elections and budgets, live outside broadcasts and commentaries and even the occasional sports, gardening and dedication programmes. He has read several thousand news bulletins, and hosted nearly 2,000 podcast episodes, and is a vocal image consultant advising in all aspects of voice and speech training for presenters on radio and TV, podcasts and YouTube, voiceovers and videocalls.
The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience?
This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects.
Music credits:"Bleeping Demo" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/7012-bleeping-demo License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license  "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license  "Envision" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4706-envision License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Limit 70" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5710-limit-70 License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Rising Tide" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5027-rising-tide License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Wholesome" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5050-wholesomeLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.