I recently had another book review published in the Voice and Speech Review. In this, I look at Now You’re Talking by Trevor Cox (2018), a fascinating book that examines human speech and conversation right from the earliest biological roots to the profound impact of technological advancements on our voices today.
Continue reading “Review – Now You’re Talking by Trevor Cox”British Accents short course @ Genesian
I’ve spent the past six weeks working with a wonderful group of actors in a weekly accent class, hosted by Genesian Theatre Company in the heart of Sydney’s CBD. Genesian is such an historic Sydney institution, currently in its eighth decade of creating theatre for the community!
The British Accents short course introduced the actors to three different dialects across the six weeks, spending two weeks looking into and learning about each accent.
Continue reading “British Accents short course @ Genesian”We’re published!
Very excited that a recent article I co-authored with Dr James Grama and Professor Catherine Travis of Sydney Speaks has been accepted and published online with the Voice and Speech Review! Our article is titled “Australian English Over Time: Using Sociolinguistic Analysis to Inform Dialect Coaching”, and brings together acoustic vowel data spanning forty years to examine the changes in Sydney English, and how this can apply to coaching of Australian accents. This is my first research publication, and I’m thrilled to be able to share this after all our hard work.
Continue reading “We’re published!”Příbor @ CSU
During April I spent several weeks working with third-year students in the Theatre/Media course at Charles Sturt University for their end of term production. The challenge? My first time dialect coaching Czech and Ukrainian!
Continue reading “Příbor @ CSU”Book review: Second Dialect Acquisition
Excited to share that I recently had a book review published with the Voice and Speech Review, an international journal for the dialect and voice industry. I reviewed Jeff Siegel’s 2010 book “Second Dialect Acquisition”, which is a seminal work in the sociolinguistic and SDA fields.
Continue reading “Book review: Second Dialect Acquisition”Linklater Voice Workshop Jan 2020
Following on from the successful workshop in January last year, I was honoured to assist voice coach Amy Hume once again for a Linklater Voice workshop here in Sydney. Amy is one of only a handful of Designated Linklater Teachers in Australia, and this workshop was a fantastic opportunity to learn from her expertise.
This enthusiastic group of people spent three days immersing themselves in Linklater voice work,
Continue reading “Linklater Voice Workshop Jan 2020”Australian Linguistic Society annual conference
I’ve just wrapped up an insightful and engaging week at the Australian Linguistic Society annual conference, held this year at Macquarie University.
I presented as part of the fourth Language Variation and Change workshop, in collaboration with my colleagues Professor Catherine Travis and James Grama at the ANU. Our paper looked at methodological approaches for constructing social classes in sociolinguistic analysis, focusing on speakers of Sydney English. Our paper was well received, and our audience (comprising some of the foremost variationist researchers and sociophoneticians in Australia and internationally!) gave helpful feedback and suggestions for moving forward–I always appreciate the constructive academic environment that is fostered by fellow members of the linguistics field.
Continue reading “Australian Linguistic Society annual conference”Yorkshire Dialect video (and a flash sale…)
Here in Sydney we have a couple of auditions right around the corner for productions involving a Yorkshire dialect. Given that this is something far different from the General American or RP accents most Australian performers are asked to do, I’ve put together a little crash course in creating a Yorkshire sound.
Of course, it’s not a possible to cover the entirety of a dialect in one short video, so instead I’ve presented a few easy sound substitution strategies that can be put in practice if you need a more Yorkshire sound on short notice, especially for learning audition call back material.
Have a watch, and let me know what you think!
Continue reading “Yorkshire Dialect video (and a flash sale…)”Alexander Technique & Sydney Speaks
It’s been a busy couple of weeks lately, but I have just submitted a mammoth paper (along with my colleagues Prof Catherine Travis and Dr James Grama at the ANU) about the use of sociolinguistic data and analysis to inform dialect coaching of Australian English. This is part of my work on the Sydney Speaks project, funded by the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language. Sydney Speaks examines dialectal variation across different ethnic communities of Sydney, based on a unique corpus of audio recordings from the 1970s and the 2010s. Happy that the paper has now been submitted for review, and we will wait to see if it is accepted for publication!
Continue reading “Alexander Technique & Sydney Speaks”Estill Voice Training
I’ve just wrapped up a fantastic week completing the Level 1 and Level 2 courses of Estill Voice Training. We were admirably guided through five jam-packed days by the wonderful Naomi Eyers of Essential Voice (based in Melbourne), assisted by the talented Trish Delaney-Brown.
Stemming from the voice research conducted by Jo Estill and colleagues since the 1970s, the Estill Voice model is a fantastic framework to break down all the individual physiological components that help to make our voices,
Continue reading “Estill Voice Training”