Respiration and getting to know your voice

Respiration and getting to know your voice

As an actor respiration is very important because it helps your voice with projection. Voice delivery is one of the many tools that is used for an actor. The voice is the main tool for an actor because it is a way to communicate with the audience. There are many others ways of communicating to the audience to but the voice is a common way to perform as an actor.

Respiration is a process of breathing. The process of breathing is, inhaling through the nose and out through the mouth. When you breathe you inhale oxygen. When you exhale you breathe out carbon dioxide. As an actor having good respiration is a good skill to have because it helps your projection on stage. Especially in an open air theatre where there is more sounds in the surroundings. There are many organs that are involved in respiration such as the larynx. The larynx is where speech sounds are produced. The oxygen goes through the larynx after the nose. The oxygen then travels to the trachea. The trachea is a tube which is kept in the chest cavity. After that the tubes are split to form smaller tubes to go to the bronchi. The bronchial tubes lead directly to the lungs. The bronchial tubes are divided even more to travel to the alveoli. The bronchial tubes have tiny air sacs which connect to the alveoli. On average the number of tiny air sacs for an adult is 600.The tiny air sacs are surrounded by capillaries. After the alveoli the oxygen diffuses into the arterial blood. Meanwhile, the waste-rich blood from the veins releases its carbon dioxide into the alveoli. The carbon dioxide follows the same path out of the lungs out of the lungs when you exhale.

The diaphragm is a dome shaped muscle that is located beneath the lungs. The diaphragms job is to help pump the carbon dioxide out of the lungs and pull the oxygen into the lungs. When the diaphragm contracts oxygen is pulled out into the lungs and carbon dioxide is pumped out. When you inhale the diaphragm goes down and flattens. This is because the diaphragm is tensing. When the diaphragm tenses the lungs expand and fill with air. Normally the diaphragm is in a raised position. When the diaphragm is lowered, because it is connected to the lungs, it pulls the lungs downward much like opening up an accordion. When you open an accordion it fills up with air. To notice how the diaphragm works you can do your breathing exercises. One of them is half pant and feels how the diaphragm is working. How to half pant is you need to stop yourself half way through the pant and you can feel your diaphragm flatten.

As an actor knowing how to control your voice is key to the performing arts because then you can try out new things and knowing how long you can do things. For example knowing how loud your voice goes, how high or low your voice goes and your articulation etc.  You should also understand where your voice is being produced and what improvements you can make.