Written by Mary Feser
We all know how to talk—or at least we think we do. However, few of us know how we sound to others, or how we can make that sound more understandable, expressive, and powerful. Developing that knowledge is the purpose of Kate Aronson’s new adjunct “Finding Your Voice,” which will take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3:15 p.m. to 4:45 p.m. during Blocks 3 and 4. The class will take students through numerous different exercises to work on breath, resonation, and articulation. These techniques will then be applied to several informal presentations throughout the two blocks.
The inspiration for the class came when Aronson, whose background is in theater and who has worked as an actor, teacher, and director, saw a gap in the theater curriculum at CC: there were no voice classes being offered.
“I noticed that the Theater Department didn’t offer a voice production class for actors, so I proposed the class to the chair of the department,” explained Aronson. “Then I realized that not only Theater majors could benefit from it, but really any student who had a desire to express him or herself more clearly.” She believes that speaking effectively is an important skill in all areas of life.
“It goes across the board, from interpersonal relationships to speaking in front of a crowd, to doing a Shakespeare play,” said Aronson. “I really think it’s important for everybody to figure out not only ‘how do I get my point across’ but ‘am I expressing the emotion that I’m feeling.’” According to Aronson, the three keys to speaking effectively are breath, resonation, and articulation. “The breath is what supports everything with the voice so we have to start with the breath, and then once we do that we can figure out how do we reduce tension so that all those sound waves can vibrate wherever they want to vibrate in the body,” she explained. “The vibration of soundwaves within the body is the resonation, which sends the voice out. Then there’s articulation—the way we shape our mouths so that we can be understood.”
Aronson will guide students through physical exercises that target each of these three areas. In one exercise, students will simply be lying on their backs, completely relaxed, noticing their natural breath. Other exercises include sliding the voice up and down to work on resonation and working out the lips and tongue to achieve better articulation. Aronson will also discuss the anatomy behind speaking: where and how the sounds are made within the body and mouth.
Throughout the two blocks, the students will apply the exercises in low-key presentations of different texts. “I’ll have the students choose whatever text they want,” said Aronson. “So, for instance, if they’re a writer in the English department and they want to read a poem that they’ve written or that someone else has written then they can do that; if they’re an actor and they want to read a monologue they can do that; if they’re in chemistry and they think they might have to present a paper someday then they can do that.”
While preparing for the presentations, Aronson will also discuss effective body language, which some studies have shown is even more important than content in speeches. There will also be some unique opportunities for learning about the voice: Aronson hinted that there may be a guest speaker at the beginning of Block 4, and also said that if there is time and interest, the class can play around with how to vocalize accents and dialects.
For Aronson, voice work is not just important for personal and professional success. Knowing your own voice, how you are perceived by others, and how to alter that perception allows you to shape your own image and portray the way you interpret the world more effectively and truthfully. “You can construct the kind of voice that you want to use in your life,” said Aronson and, by doing so, you can construct who you want to be.