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