Improve your Voice and Speech

Improve your voice and speech with these two audio downloads. D.A. Stern designed these systematic lessons for actors wanting to improve vocal quality, projection, and diction.

Improved Your Voice Production & Projection

David’s method for improving the speaking voice combines artistically and scientifically based exercises. Firstly, it coordinates adjustments in breathing, throat relaxation, mouth posture, and tongue position.  As a result of these, you achieve a richer and more resonant voice that you can project without tension or discomfort.

Heightened American Diction

You’ll first learn a style of articulation/diction often used in American productions of Shakespeare and other classical scripts. Many directors also want this speech style for translations of Greek plays, Molière, and the 19th-century European realists. The result is a speech pattern that is heightened for the world of the play, but still American at its core. These audio products are also useful as follow-up training for those working to reduce accents.

THE SPEAKER’S VOICE first gives you exercises for reducing mouth and throat tension. It continues with instruction in what I call “abdominally controlled breathing.” You then learn to coordinate this breathing style with tension-free sound production. Next, you’ll explore pitch range and pitch variation during speech. Finally, you’ll improve your voice quality with increased resonance by adjusting the shape of your mouth and position of your tongue.

SPEECH IMPROVEMENT first teaches you to form an Elevated or Heightened version of Non-Regional American vowels. Then, it seeks a balance between dropping and over-emphasizing R-sounds after vowels. The next goal is to avoid “sloppy” pronunciation of unstressed vowels, final consonants, and “little words” without overdoing them. Finally, you’ll explore effectively varying your pace or rate of speech when appropriate during heightened text