Accent Work

Okay, so... Here's the situation: I'm gradually running out of money being unemployed and trying to make car / student loan payments. My bank account is currently at almost 0. Many will ask: What does that mean for me? Well, it means I'm here to apologize for not posting as much as I'd like to. I wanted to be posting once a week or so, but haven't been able to because the job search has basically taken over my life right now. Still, if I found time to write a quick fan fic yesterday, I can find time to keep my promise on here. So, without further ado, I provide the following workshop on how to take your normal voice and get to a completely new accent.

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In a previous post, I mentioned some tips I'll go over in more detail here. These were: I will give a tiny preview of ways to improve accent work:

-Resources
-Script Analysis
-Over extend the stereotype
-Minimize the stereotype thereafter
-See if you can force yourself to think in the accent
-Do tongue twisters in the accent
-Sing in the accent

Now, something I'd like to add before we get into this is that you need to take your current accent into account. Depending on the accent you already have, this may or may not be easy for you. If you're not a native English speaker, it could get even harder. For example, the Japanese (stereotypically) have trouble with r's and l's in English. Why? Because they have a solid single sound. Japanese is all about syllables. Speech transitions like that are difficult and take years of practice (or very intense study) to overcome.

Luckily, I'm guessing most of the people here are native English speakers, so it won't be too much of a problem. I'm not a speech therapist and I can't really help when it comes to stuttering or properly speaking dialogue when you're not a native English speaker. So, sorry, but this is going to be geared towards people who are entirely fluent and have only regional accents, rather than International ones.

So, back to the point at hand. What does that have to do with anything? Well, it's hard to get rid of an accent. I should know. I spent my first 10 years in West Virginia, then moved to Georgia. I had a Southern accent for four years and then tried to drop it as soon as we moved back to the North. My point is, it took me a really long time, months of practice, to get rid of whatever accent I previously had. Even Northeast Ohio (where they send news anchors to learn that monotone drawl) has an accent.

So, what's your best first step? Identify an accent close to yours and then try to learn it. It will get you out of the mindset of "this is how people talk" without being too complicated. For example, Wisconsinites might consider trying a basic Canadian accent. Georgians (state, not country) might want to try the Texas variation of the Southern accent. Stick to a regionally close area with a similar dialect. Of course, New York's a tough one because there are distinct accents for every ethnic community or suburb. Once you've got a handle on that, you can move on to tougher accents. Some people have a natural ear and can mimic anything they hear. For those of you like that, good on ya! Good luck, just go grab some stuff on IDEA and get to it.

For those that don't or those that want to jump into a complicated accent... well, this is for you.

Before we begin, I'll also mention that this is written by an American, but the methods will work for any English speaker looking to work with any accent.

Step One: Resources

Of course, you need resources to begin this process. Just saying "I've heard British people talk before" isn't enough for learning a British accent. A quick look at the IDEA page for the British dialect shows there are specific regions and dialects within each region. So my response is "Which British? Do you remember exactly what it sounded like? Do you know for a fact they were actually British?" 'Cause I'll tell ya, I enjoyed doing an Aussie accent when I went out with my friends for a couple hours.

What resources should you have? Audio clips. Any you can get your hands on. YouTube and IDEA are great starting points. If you have friends with the accent, talk to them, too. Record them if you can.


Step Two: Script Analysis

I will warn you right now, this is the least fun part of the entire process. Script analysis SUCKS. It was the single most valuable class I had in college and the hardest, even including high level computer programming and calculus classes. It's merciless and unforgiving and takes a LOT of practice. Since they tend to teach non-standard symbols, I'm just going to offer two suggestions, either make up your own symbol alphabet that makes sense for every phonetic sound you need to make OR learn / use the international standard. I don't know it and I've got my own way, but I know a lot of actors and linguists who love it.

Step Two A: Analyze the Region

What do I mean by that? Well! Here's the thing: The region is going to have certain characteristics that work well for it. You don't need to know the why, just the how. Liverpool is different than London is different than Dublin is different than Atlanta. Some accents become easier when you work on others first. If you're having a lot of trouble, consider trying another nearby region.

I've also heard that learning a Southern accent is invaluable for learning any British accent. I'll explain why in Two C.

Step Two B: Analyze the Text

This is probably the least fun part of the entire process. You're going to have to print or transcribe a speech in the accent you want. I recommend double spacing it so you can have space to either make notes or write a phonetic transcript, which is what I usually do, to read off of later. This is one of the reasons IDEA is such an important resource! They only have two scripts for hundreds upon hundreds of accents. You can compare your accent to the one you're trying to learn with a lot less effort.

Another piece of advice... this is going to take a while. You need to go through the text SLOWLY. It took me over an hour to do two minutes of dialogue. Take your time, this is the place it's most well spent.

Step Two C: Analyze Video

This step is going to be really hard if you can't find any video. If you can, thank your lucky stars. You may not notice this until you start looking for it, but facial expressions are the same across cultures. What isn't the same is the frequency with which they appear and the mouth movements for individual sounds. Many British dialects use very drawn together, closed lips without a lot of movement. Therefore, expression comes from tone rather than actual speech. It's very expressive, but in a way that's very different from American English. The exception is our Southern dialect. The mouth positions are very similar and conversation relies more heavily on tone than it does context and word choice. A friend has also said the British can talk about absolutely nothing for hours and hours and still be entertaining, I fully believe it.

So! Look for videos, try to imitate the mouth movements you see. If you have trouble with the accent in the later steps, try doing something different and weird with your mouth.

Step Three: Warm Up

Now that you have your resources squared away and a piece of text to work with, it's time to begin. Before doing so... please, please, please! remember to warm up. If you haven't taken a look at the workshop-y post I put up a bit ago, please check it out. Doing a warmup will save your voice later on. This is going to be super rough on your vocal cords. Have some water, possibly even tea and spoonfuls of honey, at the ready. Be sure you haven't had too much caffeine or smoked recently and STAY HYDRATED!

Step Four: Overextend the Stereotype

Okay, now that you're in the thick of it and actually speaking, this is the first step. You're not even going to have to try to overextend the stereotype. When working on it at first, it's probably just going to happen. If you have a mic or tape recorder, try to listen to yourself. For lack of anything else, put one finger in your ear and just see how you sound. Chances are, you're off, but it'll be hard to pinpoint why. The reason is probably because you're overextending the vowel and consonant sounds to the point at which it's just slightly unnatural and rings a little off.

Step Five: Minimize the Stereotype

So, how do you fix that? Well my saddened friend, back to script analysis or a variation of it. There are two ways to make it what it needs to be, natural.

A natural voice is one you're comfortable with. It isn't an act, it's just a part of you. That's why a lot of accent work is hard for people not native to the dialect they're imitating. It's also the main reason you'll be overextending the stereotype when you first start out.

As I said, there are two things you can do. One is to analyze your own voice. Try to figure out where you're holding vowels too long, where the consonants are too hard, which consonants are you saying that the dialect actually drops? These and similar questions are the ones you want to look at if your accent is a bit off. And let me tell you, it is. Even with the best training and the hardest work, I'd bet money that you'll still sound not-quite-right to someone who naturally speaks in that dialect.

However! That statement is mostly geared towards Australian, Irish, Scottish, and British dialects. If you want to imitate an Egyptian American, it's very different. You can sound a little off and no one will notice because the community is small and people have very different ways of learning a new language.

If you're looking to craft a voice for an South African who moved to Ireland... eh, good luck is all I can say. You're not going to find many resources since IDEA is based in America (and therefore every dialect is [Country] American rather than [Country] England / Ireland / etc. To do that requires a step that's going to be even less fun. You'll have to analyze the linguistics of the original language (pauses, inflections, body language, tones, alphabet type, possibly syntax and morphology) and then map it to your dialect. In other words, how does a non-native English speaker learn British English or whichever variation you know. If you're non-American and trying to craft an accent for a foreign language to a non-American dialect... well, good luck. If you have tips, please share them. I'm nowhere near experienced enough to offer more advice than I've just written down.

Now that the above rant is over... The other piece of advice is to get more comfortable in your chosen accent which is what the next few steps will help you with.

Step Six: Find Your Voice

Now that you've mapped the accent, imitated it, and toned down the stereotype, it's time to find your voice. Chances are you've been imitating more than just the accent. You've probably been imitating the tone and inflection of your target example, too.

How do you find your voice in the accent again? Well, the best thing is to grab other samples of the same accent and imitate them until you form a pattern for exactly the way consonants, vowels, diphthongs (two letter pairs), and triphthongs (three letter pairs, like -ing) are said regardless of the speaker. Try to figure these out and then try to speak in your natural voice with the accent's modifications.

Step Seven: Think in the Accent

It doesn't matter if you "just think" or if you actually think in complete words (most of us don't). Try to pick some daily tasks, like reading over a grocery list or set of chores, and think through it. Clearly enunciate every word, but wait! Don't do it out loud! That's right, force yourself to learn how to think in this accent. Make the voice, the accent, your voice, your thoughts.

Does an Irishmen think in Irish dialect? You bet! To truly become comfortable with an accent, for it to be natural, it has to FEEL natural TO YOU. To do that requires that you slightly alter the way you think. If you think a line ahead and think that line out in the accent, it will come out more fluidly and naturally than anyone who's simply imitating.

Step Eight: Tongue Twisters

Another thing you can do to become comfortable with the accent is to do a second warmup. Do the warmup in your accent. See how hard it is, and how different, to read out loud in the accent. This is another way to force you to think about how you're speaking and ingrain "this style of speech is natural" in your brain.

Tongue twisters are meant to be difficult, but many are designed for American English. Some can be really entertaining in a different accent. They may get easier or much, much harder. Play around with it. Being silly and ridiculous in the accent makes acting with it more comfortable. The more comfortable you are, the less you overextend the accent, the less you stereotype the better you're perceived and the more realistic the accent.

Step Nine: Singing

Finally, we come to the final step. This is when all else has failed or if you plan to move to said country and want to fit in more quickly. Singing uses an entirely different part of the brain than speaking. Additionally, many singers lose their accents when they sing and just have sound. So, if you can force yourself to sing in an accent (one of my favorite tricks for quickly learning it), then you can get perfectly comfortable in it.

Now keep in mind, I'm advocating two steps here. First, sing in as stereotyped an accent as you can. Like I said, people tend not to have accents when they sing. The Beatles and Scars on 45 or rappers tend to be an exception. Why? Because their accents are very thick and their singing is closer to speech than to belting out lyrics like Ozzy. So, sing in a heavy, stereotyped accent first.

Then go back to your original accent (the comfortable one) and sing in that. Try to analyze some singers and see if you can catch the small hints in their lyrics that betray an accent. They are there, they're just subtle. See if you can handle it. If you can, congrats! That's a very difficult and very impressive feat.

This step can also be a first step if you're a singer looking to learn an accent. If you want to learn a British accent, it may help you to sing a bunch of Beatles songs and match their inflections in song before trying to learn Liverpool.

Step Ten (Optional): Craft a Character

Now, this is an interesting step. This is for when you aren't intending to use your own voice, but still need an accent. I have to tell you, this is the roughest thing out there for voice actors. Not only must you convey everything through your voice, but you must also act, feel, emote, and express in a voice AND an accent that aren't yours.

This is where you'll have to learn layering. I think I may need to come back to this in a full blog post, but for now I'll give a step-by-step process.

1. Decide how you think you want the character to sound based on cues from the script, director, and artwork
2. Get the voice down first, the nasally or the gravely, the feeling and the emotions
3. Layer each on top of the other
4. Get comfortable with that
5. Then add the accent on top of it
6. Get comfortable with the accent with the new voice
7. Then audition

I wouldn't handle it any other way... this is just... leaps and bounds beyond most voice actors. I don't recommend trying to do it unless you almost never speak in your own voice to begin with and have years of experience and vocal training. I'm rarely comfortable with doing it. An accent on its own is essentially a new voice and will rarely sound like you, but adding a character voice to the accent... forget it. I can do it, but I rarely want to. It's hard. Really hard. If you're doing this... good luck.

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Now, a question that might be occurring is: Can this be used to imitate celebrities and / or craft new voices? Absolutely! These techniques are great for making new voices for voice-less characters. Anyone interested in voice acting will need to be able to look at a character sketch and basic personality profile and instantly craft a voice from it. It requires a little more work and I may try and write that down someday, but for now, these tips should be enough.

It may be that not every step is necessary, but I recommend going through each and every one if you're having trouble. To test yourself, see if you can find someone with that accent and convince them you're from somewhere nearby.

If you're still having trouble after all of this, you should speak with a friend who has a good ear. Ask them if they can figure it out. If not, message me and I'll take a listen or you can try a new accent and come back to this one. It's always possible you've been working too hard.

Cheers,
Drew