#122: Readjusting Them
Tuesday 12/17/24
I had a great chat with a client yesterday about something we touched on last week on the blog. The idea that technique is something you need because you aren’t emotionally going to be so present every single performance. That’s why you learn acting technique.
The same goes for voice and that’s where my conversion took an interesting turn. We study voice so that we learn the art, learn music and rhythms, figure out our singing artistry, hopefully do it “safely”, and each tool we use gets put in the toolbelt/arsenal. All of the things we learn are not supposed to magically connect in the moment nor are these overnight fixes and solutions. They are, oh you guessed it… THE LONG GAME.
Singing technique is just as critical as acting. Singing makes some people feel so powerful and they need to know how to control the intensity, the breath, the volume. Acting makes some people feel so powerful and THEY need to know how to control their emotions, the intensity, the breath, the volume lol. It’s all rooted in technique.
But what IS technique? Really… what is it. Is it fixes or theories? Well, it’s both. It’s technical AND artistic.
Singing technique may include breathing, accessing placement, resonating/phonating, articulating, use of registers, pitch control, onset, vibrato. All of those work together to increase your ARTISTIC technique as well which, of course, includes the story telling component THROUGH your musicality.
In terms of acting technique, there are many “techniques” that have a bigger name as a classification like Meisner, Method, Stanislavski, Physical (viewpoints, suzuki), Linklater - etc. All achieve the same thing which is a truth portrayal. Each have their own way to go about doing that.
This has been on my brain as I’ve approached learning this script for my audition on Friday. I’m really working through my technique - mine is primarily based in Uta Hagen, Meisner and Suzuki. Hopefully the words of Elia Kazan will help me: “Take it from a director: if you get an actor that Sandy Meisner has trained, you’ve been blessed.”
Dreams Don’t Die
Julie