How To Do Accents - Jan Haydn Rowles

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This chapter shows you how to establish the vowel shapes of an accent. You will discover a spectrum of possibilities in your mouth through: ● Getting the Big Picture – how to use a word list. ● Inventories and Distributions – what are the shapes and where do they go? ● Shape, Length and Movement – what to listen for to identify changes in vowels. ● Getting more Detailed – watching out for environmental issues. 6 The Groove (page 149) Every accent has its own music, made up from the interplay of rhythms and intonation patterns, that we call the Groove. In this chapter we show you how to give your accent depth and roots through: ● The Big Picture – framing and embodying the cultural and physical dynamics inherent in the Groove. ● Intonation – refining our ear to the essentials of rhythm, melody and meaning. 7 Get Professional (page 165) In this chapter we show you how to take your accent to a professional level with advice on how to: ● Get Practising And what to do when your accent meets the demands of a: ● Production ● Character ● Audition 8 Useful Stuff (page 175) This chapter covers the following: ● Making a Resource Recording – The KIT LIST, the Set Text ‘Arthur the Rat’, Major Player Elicitation sentences, Free Speech prompts. ● You and the New Charts – An example of one we did earlier, plus a blank chart for you to fill in. ● Knowing your Equipment – Lips and cheeks, jaw, tongue, soft palate, voice box. ● Space Exploration – the Vowel Spectrum chart, Exploration and discovery of the eight extreme vowels.

      You can use this book to work on a specific accent or to learn the structure inherent in all accents, using your own resource material and/or the downloadable tracks provided. You may want to work through the book systematically, working step by step through the different elements. Or perhaps you are someone who likes to dip in and out of books when the need arises, picking out the relevant bits and getting a good overview. Either way this book will work for you.

If you are learning…
● the structures inherent in ALL accents
This book provides you with a complete course in how to do accents. By working through the book and listening to the tracks you will understand the structures and develop the skills to be able to do not just one accent, but any accent.
If you are learning…
● a SPECIFIC accent
Look at the example You and the New chart on page 182 to see how it works and then use the:
● blank You and the New chart (page 192)
● resource recording (either your own or one of the sample accents we provide on tracks 84-100)
● checklists (pages 38, 52, 65, 72, 76, 81, 87, 94, 100, 106, 112, 121, 131, 133, 140, 148, 164)
to build up a complete profile of the structure and patterns of your new accent.

      We have broken the architecture of accents into five areas: The Foundations; The Two Planets; The Bite; The Shapes; and The Groove. These define the principal points of change from one accent to another. By necessity we have used a limited selection of accents as our examples, but the patterns demonstrated will apply to any accent of English. Recognising patterns, knowing the limited options available to your accent and having a simple structure for remembering them are all key to being able to do an accent.

      Whether you are using How to Do Accents as a work book to develop your understanding of how accents work, or to build up the profile of a specific accent, it is best to take one area of the work at a time. Give your brain time to absorb new information and to get used to the new way of interpreting and creating sound. Working steadily for half an hour or so a day can be better than doing two solid hours once a week. Where possible, find the pace that works for you.

      Sensing

      Being good at accents is about so much more than ‘having a good ear’. It is about using all your available senses to learn new skills, just as you did as a small child. For this reason we encourage you throughout the book to see, feel and hear new accents.

      Through the book you will see these icons:

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