Google Voice: Get a Phone Number in an Area Code of Your Choice

I just discovered (through the advice of my tech-savvy daughter) that you don’t have to put your home or cell phone number on your website for the whole world to see and use. There is a nifty new option available through Google, called Google Voice. With Google Voice you can get an assigned telephone number in almost any area code you desire. If you want a New York City area code, as I did, you can obtain one without paying for another phone line (if you don’t live in NYC). In order to get a Google Voice account, you need to have a Gmail account, which is easy to obtain. I reviewed the specifics about call forwarding to see if I would incur any additional charges. The minutes used would count as my anytime minutes. However, since Google Voice forwards the incoming call to your cell phone, home phone, or any or all of your phones, you won’t have to pay any forwarding charges. You might want to read the specs for your specific cell phone provider as each one is a little different. All in one, I have found Google Voice to be a reasonable solution to my problem. Here’s a link to some additional information. google.com/googlevoice/about.html

Hope you found this useful.

Vocal Warm-ups: To Vocalize or Not to Vocalize By the Speech Doc / Bonnie Engel Lee, Ph.D.

There are been a lot of articles about the best way to warm up your vocal instrument. Some protocols involve a series of lip movements, tongue stretches, etc. that are performed without vocalization. Often, these are often followed up by a selection of one’s favorite tongue twisters. What we do often depends on our personal preference.

I was thinking about the parallel between vocal warm-ups used by voice actors and the “non-speech oral motor exercises” used by Speech/Language Pathologists to change speech sound production. Non-speech oral motor exercises (NS-OME) were defined by Lof and Watson in 2004 as “any technique that does not require a person to produce a speech sound but is used to influence the development of speaking abilities”. In a survey conducted by Greg Lof, which was presented at the 2006 American Speech Language Hearing Association Convention, 85 % of speech pathologists surveyed were using non-speech oral motor exercises to change speech production. Lof reported on ten research studies which evaluated the effectiveness of NS-OME on speech production. Nine of the ten studies showed no benefits; the one study that showed benefits had serious methodological flaws.

The bottom line is that when you are warming up, if you want to improve your diction, focus on tasks such as tongue twisters which require the integration of the breath control, vocalization and speech production to maximize your efforts. Don’t waste your time stretching your tongue, puckering and smiling with your lips or performing other non-speech oral motor exercises.

ACCENT BIAS: DO YOU HAVE IT?

By the Speech Doc / Bonnie Engel Lee, Ph.D.

Speech/Language Pathologist

If you’ve seen the movie, My Fair Lady, which I had a chance to see again after many years, then you have some notion of the concept of changing an accent.

Henry Higgins, played by Rex Harrison, is a linguist who places a bet with wealthy gentlemen that he can pass off Eliza Do-little (Audrey Hepburn) as a member of the upper class. When Eliza is introduced to high society at a party, a self proclaimed language expert calls her a fraud and claims that she is probably a foreigner. His reason in saying that she is probably “not” English is that she speaks English “too well” to be from England.

An internet search of several sites about American regional dialects illustrates a lack of agreement about the number of different American dialects. On the most basic level, there are at least three regions: northern, Midwestern and southern with many researchers subdividing regions even further. What emerges from some of the discussion is a common bias that speakers from other regions “speak with an accent” and that speakers from one’s own region are “accent free”.

Here’s an example of this bias from a speaker who developed a test to determine if you have an accent.

The author, Joe Hicks, comments that he is from Arkansas. Here is a direct quote from his test.

“Most people say I talk "country" when I don't think I talk any different at all. I guess when you live somewhere for a long time you don't realize how you talk. But I lived in New York for a little while and I noticed that they have an accent. They say the letter “I” like EYE. Well that’s about it. Take the quiz and see what you get.”

Link to the test:

http://www.gotoquiz.com/do_u_have_an_accent_1

After answering a series of questions about how you pronounce certain words, test takers receive a summary of the extent to which the test taker’s speech pattern is characteristic of southern dialect.

If your speech pattern or accent isn’t typical of southern dialect, you receive the following feedback.

“Ouch! You talk funny. I bet you get made fun of because of how you talk. I kinda feel sorry for you. Maybe you should move to the south where we don’t have accents.”

People from each region view others from different areas as having a dialect and that their speech is dialect free. By the way, if you speak with a southern dialect and want to do some “accent reduction”, you might want to check out my blog post, “Want to Lose or Gain a Southern Accent? ”speechdoc.blogspot.com

In this blog, I’d like to focus on New Yawkuhz (New Yorkers) since I live near and was born close to The Big Apple.

To determine if you sound like a New Yorker, there’s a go to quiz designed just for you. It was written by a person identified as Dylan who also displays accent bias. Here’s what Dylan had to say about NY accents.

“Do you have a New York accent? Do you think you do? I’m sure you wish you do. Don’t lie. You know New Yorkers are super cool. Now, it’s ok if you’re not… we won’t make fun of you. NY Rocks!”

Here’s a link to the NY test:

http://www.gotoquiz.com/do_you_have_a_new_york_accent

After you take the test, if your accent is not characteristic of New York, you’ll receive the following comment from Dylan.

“Well, keep on working on it….you know you want to. (I LOVE NY).”

So, what can you do if you do sound like you’re from New York and you want to “neutralize” your accent?

Here are some practice materials to reduce or eliminate signs of your “New York” accent.

Pattern: Omission of the initial “h” sound

Word: human (“h-you-min”)

New Yorker “you-min”

Word : huge (“h-you-juh”)

New Yorker: “you-juh”

Word: humongous (“h-you-mong-us”)

New Yorker: “you-mong-us”

Pattern: Use of the unstressed “er”

Word: idea

New Yorker: “eye-dee-er”

Name: Amanda (“uh-man-duh”)

New Yorker: “uh-man-der”

Pattern: Substitution of “t” for the voiceless “th”

Word: third (“th-erd”)

New Yorker: “t-erd”

Word: three (“th-ree”)

New Yorker: “tree”

Pattern: Substitution of “d” for the voiced “th”

Word: that (“that”)

New Yorker: “dat”

Word: this (“this”)

New Yorker: “dis”

Word: those (“those”)

New Yorker: “dose”

Here are some similar words to practice: the, these, though, them, then, their, there, they’ll, etc.

There are other dialectal features but these are the most prominent ones.

I hope you’ve found a little humor in poking fun of different accents and gained some insight into some of the dialectal differences associated with the various regional American dialects.

TAKING CARE OF YOUR VOICE: Some Great Resources

By The Speech Doc/Bonnie Engel Lee, Speech/Language Pathologist, Member of Vasta

A frequent area of concern among voice professionals is how to take care of the instrument of your livelihood, your voice. The purpose of this blog is to share some of the excellent resources that are readily available to the everyday internet user. First of all, if you are not familiar with Edge Studio’s Talk with a Pro, you can be informed of each Tuesday night topic by subscribing to their newsletter called Voice Over Today eMagazine at Edgestudio.com and select career building. On one of the Tuesday evening talks in August of 2009, the “pro” for the evening was Dr. Kessler, an otolaryngologist (MD), who specializes in vocal problems and how to take care of your voice. Even from the point of view of a speech pathologist, some of the remedies were new information. To locate his presentation, just go to the EdgeStudio.com website, select career building, type in your name and email address and you’ll be able to listen to/and or download archived recordings of previous Talk With A Pro sessions. Look under “articulation” to find the link to Dr. Kessler’s talk on 8/11/09. Another great resource on the same website is the voice over vocal care chart. Go to EdgeStudio.com and look for the Voiceover care chart.

If you’re looking for advice from a speech pathologist who is a vocal performer (singer) and actively blogs about vocal problems, check out the blog of Joanna Cazden. You might want to take her quiz to find out how your voice is doing. You can find it at:

VoiceOfYourLife.com

There are many resources out there. Some of the recommendations we read are from fellow voice professionals. It’s also helpful to know what the experts recommend. I hope you find these resources informative and helpful to you.

THE VOICE ACADEMY: A Great Resource for Voice Actors

By the Speech Doc / Bonnie Engel Lee, Ph.D.

You may not know that May is Better Speech (Voice) and Hearing Month. In honor of that month, I invite you to learn more about your voice by visiting The Voice Academy. Although it is a website specifically geared to the voices of teachers, you’ll find a wealth of information for you, the Voice Actor.

To start your journey, visit www.voiceacademy.org

At the top of the homepage you can take a test about your voice called “How’s Your Vocal Health”. After completing the 20 items, click “Submit” at the bottom of the test and you’ll find out if you have “healthy” vocal habits.

Then, you can explore the virtual “school” by visiting the different rooms. You can go from room to room by clicking on the “hall pass”. When you do, you will see the layout of a school.

Here is a summary of the topics addressed in each room of the school.

Main Office-includes a glossary of terms about the voice in the upper right hand corner of the screen.
Hall Pass- takes you to a map of the school and allows you to go to other rooms. You’ll need to return here to move from room to room.
Nurse’s Office- contains a list of which medications that affect your voice and other pertinent medical information.
Science Center- contains information about the vocal mechanism and how it works. There are audio samples of different voice qualities such as breathy voice, hypernasality, etc.
Teacher’s Lounge- includes “Vocal Fatigue” facts, a microscopic look at vocal damage, and information on the Lombard effect, what it’s like to speak over background noise.
Women’s Room- The topics in this room relate to the impact of hormones on a women’s voice.
Auditorium-includes information on breath management. There are 5 How to Videos on how to stretch away tension, connect to your breath, get the articulators ready, build resonance and get ready to speak. The speaker on the videos is Judy Leigh-Johnson, a theatre vocal director and lecturer in the Theatre Arts Department at The University of Iowa.
Gymnasium-When you visit here, you’ll learn about “Stress-busting Voice Tips”, Information about Caffeine in Drinks and Male and Female Vocal Differences.

The last two “rooms” may not be relevant to your work but I’ve included them for your information.
Media Resources- Information on amplification systems that might help.
Classrooms- “How loud is loud” shows the sounds that are typically heard at various loudness levels.

When you’ve explored every room in the school, you can print your graduation certificate.

If you have any voice or speech questions for the “Speech Doc”, feel free to email them to speechdoc@gmail.com

Breath Support: Back to Basics

By Bonnie Engel Lee, Ph.D.

Good speaking depends on having enough air to speak and controlling that air. Here are two quick and easy ways to tell if you have the breath support you need to do a good job speaking.

The first test is the “SSSS” test. It involves sustaining the “s” sound as long as you can on one breath. How long you can keep the “s” sound going is a factor of size and age. Here are some general standards to which you can compare yourself and they will give you an idea of the effectiveness of your breath support.

· Women age 16 or older should be able to sustain the “s” sound for approximately 15 seconds.
· Men age 16 and older should be able to sustain the “s” sound for at least 20 seconds.

The second test involves counting to the highest number you can while you exhale. Try this task three times and use your longest time as your score.

· Women should be able to continue counting for 10 seconds.

· Men should be able to continue counting for 12 seconds.

Of course, these are general guidelines. However, if you aren’t close to these suggested targets, now might be the right time to work on your breath support.

If you have any voice or speech questions for the “Speech Doc”, feel free to comment here or email your questions/comments to:
speechdoc@gmail.com

Want to Lose or Gain a Southern Accent?

By Bonnie Engel Lee, Ph. D.

“The Speech Doc”

Do you have a “southern” drawl you’re trying to lose? Or a voice over job that requires you to use one? I just found a good website that, believe it or not, is hosted by the BBC. Here’s the link… http://www.bbc.co/uk/dna/h2g2/A30501695 to the article on “The Southern Drawl”.

There are too many aspects (word choice, durational changes, etc.) to address all of them here. However, I’ve included some minimal pairs (pairs of words that illustrate some of the distinctions) to enhance your awareness of the differences. (See below)

After you’ve read the article, return here for some practice materials to help isolate some of the features of southern dialects. Examples are numbered. The first word after the number shows you how a word might be pronounced by a southern speaker; the second word is provided for contrast. In the center is a comment to explain the major differences.

Vowel Additions

Southern Speech/ Not Southern Speech

1. pay-ut - pet

2. say-ut - set

3. may-ut- met

4. way-ut - wet

5. fray-ut - fret

Vowel Differences

1. mah/ m…”eye” (my)

2. bah/ b…..”eye” (bye)

3. dah/ d….”eye” (die)

4. sah/ s….”eye (sigh)

5. crah/ kr…”eye” (cry)

Other Vowel Differences

1. Mon-dee/ Mon- day

2. Toos-dee/ Tues-day

3. Wins-dee/ Wens-day

4. Thurs-dee/ Thurs-day

5. Fri-dee/ Fri-day

R sound variations

1. holl-er / holl-oh (hollow)

2. foll-er/ foll-oh (follow)

3. yell-er/ yell-oh (yellow)

R sound with another vowel

1. har/ high-er (hire)

2. bar/ bye-er (buyer)

3. far/ fie-er (fire)

4. tar/ tie-er (tire)

5. lar/ lie-er (liar)

Primary Stress Patterns

Sometimes, the syllable which receives the primary stress is different in some of the variants of southern speech. In the BBC article, some of the examples given were “GEE-tar (guitar) or SEE-mint (cement), where the first syllable may receive the primary stress in some southern dialects.

First Syllable-Primary Stress Second Syllable-Primary Stress

1. ‘gui- tar / gui ‘tar

2. ‘ce-ment / ce-‘ment

3. ‘out-side / out-‘side

4. ‘be-long / be-‘long

Hope you enjoyed this little “exercise”. Have fun, y’all. (I used to live in Texas).

If you have any voice or speech questions for the “Speech Doc”, feel free to comment here or email your questions/comments to:

speechdoc@gmail.com