Voice Training for Actors
My first-hand experience as an actor has given me an insight into the demands actors face from job to job and allows me to tailor my lessons to each individual, giving clients the confidence to know that their training comes tried and tested. My sessions cover the whole vocal progression, and previous clients have discovered a deeper connection to breath, greater resonance and range, and found more clarity in their speech, ultimately giving them more power and confidence vocally both onstage and off.
Voice Training for All
I have worked with many people over the years who are not actors, but who have benefited from voice work in order to make their daily lives more efficient and effective. We tend to think that it is only those who perform who require vocal coaches, but there are plenty of occupations who rely on vocal communication. Understanding certain principles of voice work can improve tasks immeasurably and can remedy such issues as hoarseness, lack of power or volume, mumbling, speaking too quickly or too quietly, to name but a few. Vocal coaching can provide solutions to these issues and much more besides, as it allows clients the opportunity to connect more truthfully to what they are saying.
Voice Training for Immersive Theatre
As immersive theatre attracts ever more audiences, performers in this field find themselves vocally exhausted because the demands often differ from that of “traditional” theatre. The performance time is usually longer in immersive theatre, and actors have to interact with lots of individuals during that time. On top of this, some productions may have a considerable amount of noise pollution depending on where they take place. This means that actors tend to rely on poor techniques such as pushing in order to be heard, and as such the voice will eventually become tired and in extreme cases vocal loss will occur, no matter how robust it is.
I offer specific vocal training for immersive theatre companies and those who perform with them, having worked in this field for the last 8 years with companies such as The Vaults, Specifiq, Dank Parish and Boomtown. It is an area that I am particular passionate about and feel that a lot more needs to be done by companies in order to look after their actors. Voice coaching is a vital and essential way to make this happen.
Accent & Dialect Coaching
Whether you require accent and dialect coaching for an audition or role, or just need to brush up your skills, I can give you the tools to make learning accents both fun and simple. I specialise particularly in RP, General American, Northern Irish, Dublin, Yorkshire, Cockney/London and Bristolian, but I am able to break down any accent into its component parts in order to give you the specifics of your desired accent so that you can be fluent and confident.
I have also worked with many international clients from a non-performance background desiring more clarity in their own accent when speaking English. I give these clients the confidence to reconnect with their accent, to understand how they shape the sounds they make so that they can discover the possibilities of adapting those sounds in any given situation, and ultimately giving them the choice to switch to different accents without losing their own.
Jake Hassam 