0194 - Rehearsing Your Script

0194 - Rehearsing Your Script Rehearsals If you have every watched “Strictly Come Dancing” or “Dancing with the Stars” on the tv, I would imagine that you have never presumed that neither the pros not the amateurs simply rock up to the studio, take to the floor and perform faultlessly.In a similar way to the dancers having to get their legs and arms and torsos (and everything!) to learn the routine (‘muscle memory’), you have to rehearse your articulators, such as your lips and tongue to make sounds into clear words (what we might call ‘mouth memory’).Dancers don’t learn to dance by watching a video of the routine, they get on the floor and do it. You won’t learn how to read aloud, by simply reading the script in your head. You have to read it out loud. And marking your scripts is the first step in ‘script familiarity’. Some presenters mistakenly consider it some kind of bravado to sight-read, but there are several reasons why it’s a good idea to rehearse, not silently but aloud:·        Confidence comes from being comfortable with your material. Such familiarity will cause you to relax, your breathing to steady, your timbre to drop and your overall presentation to improve·        It is very unlikely that you will be able to pass off your words in a conversational style if you have no idea of the direction in which the story or the argument is heading. In a rehearsal, you will not only get a sense of the story, you will hopefully understand it and why the different elements included are there. Therefore, pre-reading is essential if you are to understand the full meaning of the script and effectively convey that to your listeners. If the audience gets the sense that you understand the story – by interpreting it and communicating it clearly to them - you will be perceived as more trustworthy·        If you don’t understand the story, now is the time to find out why. It could be that the reporter or scriptwriter has mistakenly left out a part of the story or a stat. In which case give them the chance to correct their copy. It could be that there is presumed knowledge on their part, that “I thought everyone knew that!”. Again, if you the reader doesn’t, then maybe a good proportion of listeners don’t either. At this stage the script may have to be rewritten by the original author. Or, armed with the extra information you may want to rewrite it for accuracy and fluency.·        You can only really, effectively find out where you will need to breath when you get to read out loud, by actually reading out loud. Simply reading with your eyes is less effective·        You experience the ‘mouth-feel’ of the words and the rhythm of the sentences. What looked good with your eyes, just may not sound good and this is a good opportunity (if allowed) to rewrite for easier articulation and your natural speaking style·        You get your mouth used to reading that exact combination of words (‘mouth memory’)·        You get to ‘see with your mouth’ what you didn’t see with your eye, words which may cause a verbal slip or trip, such as “country” / “county”, “uniformed” / “uninformed”, “through” / “though” / “thorough”), as well as convoluted sentences, unintended rhymes and awkward pronunciations… and omitted words which actually aren’t there, when our eyes told us they were·        Reading aloud off-air is also a great way to liven up the larynx and awaken your articulators. To become more confident at reading out loud and to practice some of the exercises to a small audience before you go on air at a station or podcast, consider volunteering for a ‘reading for the blind’ or ‘talking newspaper’ charity. This will help them, and you!Reading aloud will help you find the musicality of a script, the ebbs and flows, the rhythm and the pace, the turns of phrase, rather than reading word. For. Word. Good writers write with sound in mind, an ear to how words flow. Not just that they make sense but that they are polished prose. Yes, the great works of fiction and poetry, but also scripts for commercials and news.Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter StewartThrough these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode!And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.Look out for more details of the book during 2021.Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_StewartPeter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1 to Heart FM, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. Other trainees have been music presenters, breakfast show hosts, travel news presenters and voice-over artists.He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (“Essential Radio Journalism”, “JournoLists”, two editions of “Essential Radio Skills” and three editions of “Broadcast Journalism”) and has written on voice and presentation skills in the BBC’s in-house newspaper “Ariel”.Peter has presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with formats as diverse as music-presentation, interview shows, ‘special’ programmes for elections and budgets, live outside broadcasts and commentaries and even the occasional sports, gardening and dedication programmes. He has read several thousand news bulletins, and hosted nearly 2,000 podcast episodes, and is a vocal image consultant advising in all aspects of voice and speech training for presenters on radio and TV, podcasts and YouTube, voiceovers and videocalls.The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience?This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects.Music credits:"Bleeping Demo" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/7012-bleeping-demoLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license"Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flowLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license"Envision" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4706-envisionLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license"Limit 70" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5710-limit-70License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license"Rising Tide" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5027-rising-tideLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license"Wholesome" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5050-wholesomeLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license Hosted on Acast. 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