Personal Contribution

                                    Thursday 10^th December 2015

Ruth Martino                                

S1400309

Personal Contribution – Ruth Martino

My contribution to the presentation was first the focus upon the understanding of the voice production which I first started searching images of the Anatomy of the Larynx has it will enable me to have a close look into each parts inside the larynx and what they are called. Some of the names I paid most attention in was the Trachea is a larger membrane tube which extends from the larynx to the bronchial tubes which then enables air to get through the lungs. I also learned about the Epiglottis which is referred as a flap behind the tongue which is very essential as it gets depressed during the swallowing process to cover the opening of the lung as know as the windpipe. Researching about the Larynx has taught me that it could be compared to the body of the throat as the word anatomy means the bodily structure of the humans, learning as well that the larynx is where the vocal chords are located has helped me to understand the significance of the larynx because that is where the sound comes from while wanting to project as an actor.

Now looking into the vocal chords, I weren’t aware that we had two of them on opposite sides that’s why they describe it as ‘twin folding’. Having a picture displaying the vocal chords was very beneficial for me especially as I got to see the visual side of how everything inside the mouth is laid out. Vocal Chords was something I really wanted to get clear on mainly as a performer teachers tend to always touch upon it; however I never were clear about how it functions and the purpose of it. Both vocal chords vibrate which then regulates the flow of the air being released from the lungs during phonation. The vocal chords is the main source or sound creation which as an actor immediately alerts you that, that is one of the soft tissues that has to be looked after with great care, that is when my research of how to maintain a healthy voice comes helpful.

I searched on Google (American Academy) on how to keep a healthy voice, it has given me that drinking loads of water is the key way of keeping your voice in shape. Drinking water three times a day to help keep your body well and hydrated. On the website they’ve advised to definitely avoid alcohol and caffeine, I wasn’t so sure to why we were told to stay away from that, so therefore I searched it up (voicecouncil.com) I gathered the information that the vocal folds require moisture to work efficiently although caffeine comes in the form of a liquid, it acts as a drying agent. Adding on with facts of caffeine tends to pull water out of your system and causes the vocal folds of needing lubrication. So for that reason a dry vocal chord tends to tighten which hinders the vocal range and within the endurance. Eating fruits is required as it contains a large amount of water in it, I was so not aware that ‘bell peppers’ contained water in it, so for that I was really shocked about that suggestion.

My reaction to the process of the group presentation was quite disappointing as I felt some people didn’t put as much effort in researching information, people in my group tend to choose the easy path like for e.g. choosing rather easy topics to research on and doing less work on it. I was frustrated at times as I felt I was the only one who cared more and was going the extra mile to produce a effortless presentation. Someone in my group suggested they’d only wanted to write their own notes down and read from it, but my respond to it was that the presentation is targeted towards students in year 11 who are way younger than us, at that age seeing imagery in a presentation kept me engaged at all times and allowed me to picture a visual image in my mind of what the presenter could be talking about. To be honest the members of my group doing work last minuet and not being sure what they’re doing caused me to panic and doubt myself too as I had a gut feeling that the presentation would look unprepared.

My reaction to the presentation changed as we got the chance to look back on the video, adding more vibrant colors into the power point side made it look as exciting. I know for sure learning about voice production, vocal techniques and how to keep a healthy voice could be so boring. Isabelle being in charge of presenting the voice production, Deneille being responsible of presenting the background information of what vocal techniques benefit to us actors and me being the last to talk about how to maintain a healthy voice, has allowed everyone in my group to not take the lion’s chair resulting to everyone putting in an input within the presentation. Although as a viewer you could identify who was put more effort than whom, as a team I felt we done our best and allowed our setbacks to be our comebacks. Working with Deneille and Isabelle was a huge challenge for me as I’ve never worked with them before leaving me with being a bit reserved at first. From previous knowledge knowing one member hardly comes in and the other having a negative attitude also with me being the one who gives up half way, I knew the group work would be something. Well I am proud of what we produced as a team and I could say everything that all the negative thoughts were worth it at the end because it made us want to do more work into grafting our presentation better.