24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A "must have" for every serious actor!, July 25, 2003
This review is from: Make Your Voice Heard: An Actor's Guide to Increased Dramatic Range Through Vocal Training (Paperback)
This small book, only 141 pages in length, offers a most refreshing, lively and accessible guide to practical voice training written for actors and voice students who strive for honest performances using a voice that responds naturally to their inner selves. Chuck Jones, a remarkable teacher, has pioneered his voice training practices through many years of acting and teaching experience, guiding innumerable voice students and performing arts professionals to integrate fully expressive voices into their work.
Jones' approach to vocal training is unique since he clearly and very convincingly focuses on the relationship between vocal training and acting, thereby supporting American actor training in which actors are encouraged to draw on their own emotional lives and resources. Jones explains that "....voice training does more than solve vocal problems: Voice training allows actors to extend their range, develop power, and create that mysterious quality known as presence....helps put actors in touch with their deepest emotional states and allows them to connect to their roles in a profound way....helps actors to develop the capacity to reveal the full range of their inner lives." (page 23)
In the first half of the book Jones examines fundamental acting issues that relate specifically to the vocal instrument such as, being heard, character choices, and vocal power. In the second half of the book, Jones introduces a very specific, logical sequence of exercises as part of a daily vocal workout that release, stretch, strengthen, increase the expressive range, resonance and flexibility of the vocal anatomy and physical instrument leading to a heightened physical and emotional awareness.
Jones brings the book to a close by defining how to connect the voice to the emotional life, breathing as part of acting, and finally, how to get used to the new sound that results from his vocal training practices; thus Jones addresses practically the full integration of the expressive voice into acting work based on an honest connection that includes the physiological, the physical and the emotional aspects of the actor's instrument eliminating the "mystery" from voice training.
I first met Chuck Jones about 15 years ago when I attended his voice class as a student and his work and who he is as a teacher changed my life and my work as an actress! He took the "mystery" out of voice production for me as an actress and he is my inspiration for becoming the voice teacher I am today.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Book, April 26, 2003
This review is from: Make Your Voice Heard: An Actor's Guide to Increased Dramatic Range Through Vocal Training (Paperback)
Make Your Voice Heard is a useful book for actors interested in increasing their vocal power and range. The exercises are simple, concise and easy to follow. And they really work! Actors who use these exercises notice improvement almost immediately. We use this book as the text for the beginning voice classes at the Atlantic Theater.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This book saved my acting!, November 24, 2007
I can't praise this book highly enough!
I'm a student at a conservatory actor training course in Australia and had struggled with my vocal training for the first year and a half, but after reading the reviews on Amazon I decided to buy this book and it has absolutely changed my acting.
Jones sets out the daily vocal workout (warm-up) in a logical, easy-to-follow way and, more importantly, explains exactly WHY each exercise is important and how it will directly affect the voice. He also has excellent exercises that help with release and the connection of thought to breath and emotion, in a way that is natural and which bypasses the 'head'.
While there are many other books on the market which cover similar ideas (Freeing the Natural Voice, The Right to Speak, Voice & the Actor), Jones' book worked for me because it is so simple and to the point.
I found that this, along with Alexander movement training, completely changed my voice and allowed me to access parts of my vocal range that I had never been able to before, as well as making me a much more open and emotionally connected actor.
If you're serious about your development as an actor and want an accessible and effective approach to voice training, then I'd highly recommend getting your hands on a copy of this book.
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