The Voice Cafe Blog

Not All Old Habits Die Hard: My Experience of Learning the Modern British RP Accent as a Czech Native Speaker

Learning the modern RP accent has been quite a journey; one that I'd go on again any time. To introduce myself as a learner, I initially spent around 3 years learning Standard BE on my own, during my university studies for teaching English. While I used textbooks explaining general pronunciation rules of, mainly, individual sounds, the recordings I followed were of more traditional RP speakers, whereas my goal was to learn modern RP.

Be Present when you Present. Overcoming fear of public speaking is …

Worse than …? Fear of public speaking is widely touted as the number one fear. The first well known survey in 1973 showed three times more people fear public speaking than death. More recent surveys show that between 40% and 60% of people are terrified of, or hate making speeches and presentations, with more women scared of public speaking than men. Even actors often dislike it because they are not in role and so .........

Take 2 Stools – How self-tape auditions are changing the face of the casting process

Take 2 stools, a pile of hard backed books, a table, a cuddly toy, and a big wad of blu tack: what have you got? You guessed: the beginnings of a rather shaky, somewhat lopsided, and rather unconvincing self-tape.

Parallel Effect – The effect of /r/ in the American Accent

In the general American accent, the retroflex /r/ has such a pronounced effect on the vowels adjacent to it, particularly when in the case of a final ‘rhotic’ /r/ closing a syllable, it dramatically changes their quality. Whatever the preceding vowel, the ‘r-colouring’ effect seems to end up pushing the vowel parallel and close to the top of the hard palate. Literally.

In the zone? In or out? Changing shape

Learning a new accent can mean stepping way out of the comfort zone - initially a new voice placement can feel counter-intuitive and unfamiliar.

Uh huh. The schwa / ə /. Great starting point for learning accents

Ever watched a film or play where the accent is really good but somehow not quite right? Often it&rs

How not to typecast an accent

What is typecasting? So you are learning a new accent for a role, audition, or to help with clear communication. The process of picking up an accent is ...

Stepping West – the story of the General American accent

When asked, “What is the General American accent?” some Americans might reply “Sorry? Is there such a thing?”. Others might reply “Well, the accent with no

RP: A popular British accent with very few native speakers

So what is it about RP? It is the British accent that is most commonly taught to non-native speakers, as well as being considered a ‘must have’ accent on any actor's