This thread got me thinking about speaking with various accents or dialects. Other than paying for a voice coach is there a way to learn how to do this?
I like to consider myself a reasonably good mimic of voices in general with accents in the “acceptable” range most of the time. Nuances (regional dialects mainly) are harder to nail, but what passes for a different accent in the telling of a joke (for instance) has come by way of trial and error. No coaching, for sure.
IMHO having “an ear” for that sort of thing is essential. How one develops that ear is something I’d like others who’ve had the coaching experience to address.
FWIW, Robert Mitchum was as good at accents as any actor I can think of. Perhaps his wide-ranging travels contributed, but he is reputed to have had a photographic memory. It wouldn’t be too big a stretch to allow a phonographic memory as well.
Good question!
The subtleties and nuances take work, but a general technique I picked up was to focus on where the accent comes from physically. This is a bit conceptual, the idea is to figure out where the voice is “located.” For myself, I found the “surfer dude” is at the top of the throat, a “valley chick” is in the roof of the mouth, a Spanish accent is in the front of the mouth and an English accent is in the chin. The truth of this isn’t important, it’s just a way to get your tongue and mouth to move differently around the various sounds.
I work at Samuel French here in NYC (you know, the play publishers) and we sell dialect tapes. They come with a booklet and a tape, and they make just about every accent you can think of (except that of the Asian variety, go figure…).
Anyway, David Allen Stern is the guy you probably want to go for… he’s the one who works with the stars. Laura Linney just came in the other day for one, as did Paul Reiser. You can order online at their website, www.samuelfrench.com.
DooWahDiddy, Wow! I didn’t know such things were available!
I hope that have various Southern dialects taught correctly. So many times non-Southerners blotch the job totally. I watched a film called Deadly Relations the other night. Everyone but Gwyneth Paltrow and Roxane Zul sounded like the stereotype of a Confederate colonel.
BTW, Kenneth Branaugh is amazing in his ability to do a realistic Southern accent.
Oh yeah, we sell a lot of them… Actually there are two big names who make them, David Allen Stern and Gillian Lane-Plescia. Stern actually does the voices himself, and like I said he works with a lot of big names and is generally considered to be the best in the business. Lane-Plescia uses native speakers from each country to demonstrate the accents, which some say makes it hard to follow or emulate. But really it’s just a matter of preference…
If you really want to pass, find yourself a catalogue of the accent’s phonemes and phonetic rules. Sometimes a dialect/accent will have sounds that you can’t distinguish by ear, because your dialect/accent doesn’t differentiate between them. A vowel map would of course be good also, but I’ve no idea if one can learn to pronounce vowels in different places…
When I do my croc hunter impression I find it helpful to keep my mouth slightly bunched as if I were making the “W” sound.