Projection Part 3: Making Sounds (or Good Vibrations!)

So far in the Projection series we have outlined exercises to strengthen your diaphragm, and cleared up some misconception on how your body breathes, but there is one more step to projection.

To truly understand how to project you must understand how your body produces sound in the first place. This is truly a case of understanding the parts before you can understand the whole. In Projection for the Actor I outlined some misconceptions about our body’s production of sound. I’ll go over these briefly again and then give you a few exercises you can use to illustrate this to yourself. Before we get into that though, I want to discuss again the importance of learning the skill of projection.

We all know that projection is important to an actor, but is it really as complicated or as essential as I’m giving it credit for in this series? Well, yes and no. There are many people who just instinctively know how to project. It’s as if they come with speaking from the diaphragm ingrained in their subconscious. These people tend to be very loud a great deal of the time. But this series is about understanding how to use your body. You can project without understanding how you breathe, or how you make sounds, but you run the risk of hurting yourself by misusing your body. Your body is a marvelous machine that will give out what you put in ten fold, if used correctly. It’s when people don’t understand how to use it that they strain their voices, burst blood vessel and other various, incapacitating things. Know your instrument; you will not get another one.

Two Most Common Sound Misconceptions:

Sound Comes from the Air We Breathe Out – Well, yes and no is the answer to this one. Yes, sound is helped by the air leaving your lungs, but that is not how your body produces sound. Keep in mind that sound travels in a wave that is created through vibration. Yes, the air vibrating out of your throat makes noise, but the sound is primarily produced by the vibration of your diaphragm, vocal chords and larynx. With that in mind . . .

Sound Comes from Our Throat - So now that we know that there are many things that can vibrate to make noise, we can begin to reshape the way we see this system working. Now you must realize that your body acts as one big resonating chamber; not just your throat. Your chest itself can act like a resonation chamber to amplify your voice and project it farther. Think about that the next time you speak or sing and you’ll see how much better you can do both just by realizing that your throat alone can’t make sounds that loud, but your mouth, throat and chest can produce a booming sound.

Number Two on that list can really get you into some serious trouble. If you only make sound from your throat you’ll soon find yourself hoarse, sore, and unable to speak. You must realize how much more powerful you can be if you use your entire body to resonate the sound.

To help illustrate this, and help you hone this skill, you should do a daily voice exercise that a former vocal coach of mine referred to as “Sirens.” These are exactly what they sound like, police car sirens. The point of this exercise is to take your chest voice through it entire range, and the more you practice this, the better your range will become. To do this exercise, stand in a relaxed manner with your feet shoulder width apart and your hands on your diaphragm. Now, speaking from your diaphragm in a powerful voice, say “YaaaaAAAAHHHHhhhhh!” moving from the lowest note you can produce to the highest note you can produce and back down, without moving into your head voice. So each “Yah!” you say sounds like a drawn out police siren, moving up and down in pitch. You’ll feel like a complete ass, but try it anyway, I guarantee it will help.

There is one more exercise you can do to illustrate to you in a very powerful way just how much vibration your body produces when your make sounds. To do this exercise you will need to find a place with a real wooden floor, sprung-wood dance floors work best, and preferably a few friends who are willing to try it with you. If you don’t feel like dragging your friends into this, you can try it on your own.

Start off by lying on your back on the wooden floor, with your hands resting lightly on your diaphragm. If necessary you can put something behind your head for comfort. If you are doing this with others, have everyone lay in a circle with their heads point inward and everyone’s shoulders touching. Give yourself a few minutes just to breathe deeply and allow your muscles to relax. Let the floor hold you up, you don’t need to concern yourself with that. The floor has your weight just fine. When you feel you are ready, begin by picking a vowel sound (A, E, I , O, U) and producing the sound from your diaphragm. This sound should come like a Buddhist chant, one long note (“Ooooooooooooooo”). Have everyone in the group begin making the same noise at the same pitch. If you run out of breath just breathe deeply and keep going until you decide to change the vowel.

This can be a very transcendental experience once everyone is on the same frequency of the sound. What you begin to feel is something like a massage from inside your own body. The vibrations, produced by the sound you are making, will be channeled into the wooden floor behind you and the back into your body. The effect is made even greater when more people are added. The key to this exercise is not to get impatient with it. Take your time because it may take a few tries before you really find the frequency needed for the best vibration. Once you find it, however, you’ll immediately feel it vibrating throughout your entire body. This is a very powerful experience, not to mention a great method of meditation.

Give these two exercises a try and see if they help you produce the projection skill you strive for. You’ll know if you are projecting correctly because it will be painless, joyous, and powerful. Remember that this is a skill everyone can master; it only takes practice and understanding how your body functions. Keep working at it and it will become easier as your lung capacity gets larger and your diaphragm becomes stronger. Soon you’ll be just like me and speak far too loudly in just about every situation. I won’t lie to you, once you turn this skill on, it’s hard to turn off. So take these exercises, find some friends to embarrass and “Yaaahh” Boldly!

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