Actress, Musician, Voice Coach Annie Little on The Actor's Vow Podcast

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"It was my own vocal challenges that really got me interested in the voice and singing. Because I was just so determined to want to figure it out for myself. Because I didn't want to feel limited anymore. As an actor, as a singer or a songwriter it's such a horrible feeling when you feel like you have something inside you that is stuck or limited by your instrument. My body was getting in the way." -Annie Little

I was recently a guest on an episode of @theactorsvow podcast.

In the episode Denise Borraz Trepat and I talk about how I got my supporting role in Argo, the teaching methodology I use, how anybody can learn to speak/sing, how to find your ideal speaking pitch and some cool exercises you can do at home to warm up your voice.🎙 Available now on iTunes.

For an even more in-depth look at my experience auditioning and shooting my role in Argo (including how I made it bigger), visit my blog post HERE.

Goal setting with Clarity

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When I’ve lost clarity about my goals, or I’m feeling overwhelmed and can’t figure out what I’m supposed to be doing, the first thing I like to do is bake something to clear my head.

I bake with a recipe that gives me clear directions to follow. 

How comforting to know that if I follow them well, I’ll (most likely) end up with something good and delicious in the end.  

So where do we find a recipe with clear directions for life?  

“Just tell me what to do!!!”  I have silently screamed (to the heavens, universe, myself, or anyone who is listening).

Well, after I enjoy a warm, soft-on-the-inside, crunchy-on-the-outside chocolate chip zucchini muffin (here’s that recipe), I go through a process that helps me create my own personalized recipe with directions to achieve my goals.  

A recipe that directs me, with purpose and meaning.

So, Grab your favorite journal and pen, and let’s hand write our way to clarity.

Creating A Recipe For Life With Goal Setting

Take your time with this process by honestly answering the questions below.  

I allow myself to break it up and do it over a few days or so.

These questions will take you through a process of doing an inventory of the recent past, so you can see where you’ve been, figure out where you want to go, and orient yourself towards that vision.

You can decide whether you’d like to look at the last year, the last 6 months or even the last 3 months to do your inventory.  Do what feels right for you.  

I’ve listed a couple of references at the end of this blog if you’re interested in an even deeper dive into goal setting.

Grab your pen and let’s start writing.

SIX questions to goal clarity for your recipe:

1. What were your accomplishments? None are too small to acknowledge. What’s working? Consider what actions you want to keep or do more of in your life.

2. What were your disappointments? Get them all out on paper. Consider what’s not working?What are some actions you can let go of?

3. What roles do you play in my life and how would you rate my satisfaction with them? Up to 10. (For me these might be something like:  Mom, Wife, Homemaker, Family Member, Community Member, CEO, Self-coach, Student, Voice Teacher, Artist)  

4. Which of those roles would you like to see the most progress this year? Choose just one that you’ll prioritize.

5. What are all the goals you’d like to achieve in each of  those roles? Once you’ve made a list of everything you’d like to achieve in each role of your life, and then, narrow that to three per role, starring the ones that make you feel the most excited. 

6. Which 10 goals are your priority? Making sure you keep at least one goal for each role, and keeping in mind which role where you’d like to see the most progress, pick your top 10 goals. 

Tips on Choosing your Goals

If you are feeling stuck around what kind of goals to set or how hard they should be, follow these S.M.A.R.T. goal guidelines.

Set S.M.A.R.T Goals

• Specific

  • Narrow it to be specific so you can do effective planning and really envision yourself achieving your goal.

• Measurable

  • How will you measure your progress?

  • Consider whether it’s best to set a process goal vs an outcome goal.  

  • For example: Practice voice 30 minutes a day 4x per week VS Learn to sing through my break.

• Attainable

  • Don’t make them too easy just to protect yourself from failing, but don’t make them so hard that you give up next week. 

  • Make sure it’s something you can reasonably accomplish within a timeframe.

• Relevant

  • Do your goals align with your values?

  • Do you feel excited about achieving them?

• Time-Based

  • Be realistic AND ambitious about setting a time frame for your goals.

  • Break your outcome goals down into steps and set timeframes for when you’ll accomplish each step in the process.

  • Start from the end date and work your way backwards.

    • Where do you need to be at the halfway point?

    • What needs to happen by the first quarter?

    • What needs to happen right away?

Now that you have completed the questions, take a moment to appreciate the work you just did.

See yourself accomplishing your goals.

How will you feel?

How will you celebrate?

Bonus points:

Forward this to a friend who you know is working on clarifying their vision.

The only thing better than finishing it, is completing it with a friend who you can hold mutually accountable to accomplishing what you said you would. Accountability is key.

I hope this gives you some inspiration and tools to create a RECIPE for a life you love. 

Bookmark this blog can come back to it a few times a year. I like to reevaluate mine every 6 months.

This simple process works really well for me, but if you want to go even more in depth.  You might enjoy a book called My Best Year Yet by Jinny S. Ditzler which you can find here. 

I’m also a former member of Brianna Brown Keen’s philanthropic group The New Hollywood where Brianna created a workbook for her goal setting process called Manifesting Your Mission, which you can get here. 

Please note that I am an affiliate for some of the resources I recommend. As an affiliate, I may earn a referral fee if you purchase these products based on my recommendations. Rest assured, I ONLY recommend resources I actually use myself.

Waking Up Your Speaking Voice

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From the moment you open your mouth, your voice is one of the primary ways people gather information about you and begin to create judgments.

If you are someone who wakes up in the morning feeling like you croak instead of speak, you may not be putting your best foot forward when it comes to how people perceive you.

By taking a little time to prepare your voice, you give people the chance to take you in as your best, most confident self.

When people hear you speak with a voice that warmed up and expressive, they are more able to fully receive your communication and feel emotionally moved and influenced by you.

Getting Rid of Morning Voice

Check your vocal hygiene

• Get plenty of sleep. The National Sleep Foundation recommends seven to nine hours of sleep per night for adults to function at their best.

• Hydrate the day before. The vocal cords aren’t exactly your body’s first priority when it comes to hydration. How fast your vocal cords rehydrate is directly related to how dehydrated you are in the first place.  Water will travel to your cords faster if you are already hydrated, so I like to think of the water I drink today being for the voice I use tomorrow!

• Use a hygrometer. Check the humidity of your living and sleeping environment, and consider using a humidifier at night if it’s too dry. 

• Mist with a nebulizer. Nebulizers can be used with saline to directly hydrate the vocal cords.  Some people prefer steaming, which feels good, but the water particles from steam are too large to get all the way to the vocal cords. A nebulizer creates smaller particles which allow the moisture to directly reach the vocal cords.

• Warm up your entire body. A short stretch and brisk walk can help get the blood flowing in the body, which will also help it flow to your vocal cords.

Find Your Ideal Speaking Pitch

Many people speak too low in their range and fall into using vocal fry. This can be tiring to the voice. Watch the video below and I’ll lead you through the following process of finding your ideal speaking pitch.

• Say “uh huh” like you are agreeing with someone, and you’ve got to really mean it, or it doesn’t work as well.

• Use the second pitch you get on the “huh” part, which is usually higher than where you start the first one.

• Play around with speaking around that second pitch you found.

• Is it higher than where you normally speak? It might feel or sound strange to you at first, but it’s most likely that you just aren’t used to it. When I’m using my ideal pitch, I like to think of it as using my “happy voice”.

Warm Up Your Speaking voice

For the same reasons you warm up your body before you exercise, it’s wise to warm up our voices before vocalizing.  This is true whether you plan to speak or sing.

Warming up:

• increases blood flow to the vocal cords

• stretches and relaxes the muscles we use for singing

• gets the voice into vocal balance

• helps prevent injury

Let’s try it…

Mini Warm Up for your speaking voice

In this simple 3 minute warmup, you can take your voice from frog to princess (or prince), so that you have more confidence and build stronger trust with your audience, allowing them to fully receive you and your message.

Feel free to pause the video at any point and repeat each exercise as many times as you’d like until your voice feels warmed up.

Please note that I am an affiliate for many of the resources listed above. As an affiliate, I may earn a referral fee if you purchase these products based on my recommendations. Rest assured, I only recommend products and services that I actually use myself.

Introduction to Scale Patterns for Singers

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In my years of teaching, I have seen how being unfamiliar with scale and arpeggio patterns can get in the way of making the most of a lesson. They might be intimidating at first, but don’t worry, I’m here to ease the worry and prepare you for what’s to come.

These patterns will feel easy in no time!

Below you’ll find practice recordings of the 3 most commonly used scale patterns for you to listen to right here, or download to your device so you can practice them on-the-go.

Let’s start with this video to see what these patterns are all about.

The 3 Most Used Scale Patterns for voice lessons

What are The scale patterns?

Scale and arpeggio patterns are a specific order of pitches and intervals that form a repeated melodic sequence.

1. 5 Tone - uses the scale degrees 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1. We will use this for your vocal assessment and other exercises.

2. Octave Repeat - uses the scale degrees 1 - 3 - 5 - 8 - 8 - 8 - 8 - 5 - 3 - 1. This one gets used a lot for a variety of exercises.

3. Octave and a Half - uses the scale degrees 1 - 3 - 5 - 1 - 3 - 5 - 4 - 2 - 7 - 5 - 4 - 2 - 1. This one is usually the trickiest, but just keep listening and either humming or lip trilling along like I demonstrated in the video. I would not attempt this one with numbers.

Scale Pattern Practice Recordings for Singers

How to use the practice recordings

• For each pattern there are two versions, one set for higher voices, and one set for lower voices.  Use what feels most comfortable for your voice.  

• When you practice the patterns, just focus on getting the pitches, so that you’ll be free to explore your voice and technique once you get to your lesson.

• As I demonstrate in the video, you can sing along, hum along, use numbers, or even a lip trill while you get familiar with these patterns.

• If ever it feels too high or too low, just drop out, no big deal!

Higher Voices

Lower Voices

What is Mix?

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This is the last of a three part series exploring chest voice, head voice, and mix (or mixed) voice.

With so many terms to learn about the voice it can get a little confusing. These three are the foundation of the voice and a great place to get started. Let’s jump into mix voice, and why it is so important to find yours!

What is Mix Voice?

This is where we are able to blend the chest voice with the head voice, so that we can sing from the bottom to the top of our range without a sudden change in quality, and without strain, breaks, or cracks.

If we take just the head voice, we can go really high without too much effort, but there isn’t much power or intensity.  

Then we have the chest voice which has intensity, but on its own, it can’t go up that high without causing a lot of strain and tension.

So we need to be in the middle of them and use a mix of both, so that we have the strength and intensity of the yell (or chest voice) and the flexibility of the whoop (or head voice).

We need the CT (head voice) muscles to thin out the chest voice, so we can sing higher without straining or breaking. When the chest voice and the head voice muscles can coordinate and work together, we can sing through our whole range without it sounding like two different voices!

We get that great “mix” sound where we sound like ourselves, no matter where we are in our range.

Book a lesson with me to explore your chest, head, and mix voice!