i don't have the power, captain

[ryloc]

i recently performed in my first show, and was endowed as a lustful scottish carnival game worker. the lust part came easy for me, but the scottish accent was definitely a challenge (i just recited braveheart and fat bastard lines, altering them a bit). and when i went into the scottish accent, i was so focused/worried about it, that i left the lustfulness in my pocket. i want to improve on accents, does anyone know a good way to accomplish that? i don't want to recite "love ya, always have", or rely on stereotypes. i really want to sound like that nationality or like i'm from new york or the south or boston or chicago.

i got the pittsburgh accent dahn, but i'm from there n'at.

any words of wisdom?

 

[Absynthe]

Books, tapes, and leaving Utah...

There's a few good books out there. I've got a book simply called "Accents" with its own CD in the back. My co-worker says it shortchanges women by only presenting male voice patterns on the CD, but as I'm quite the male it's helping me out something fierce.

There's also actual classes that you could consider. Got any accent instructors in SLC?

Or you could get the heck out of SLC and see Europe for a while. The Great Salt Lake lost all its allure to me the day they closed the Speedway Cafe, and I'm showing my age with that comment.

 

[Bernie]

I think it's easier to do a scottish accent or an english accent, vs. a german accent. That is, because if you are doing a scottish accent, scottish people speak english. But a german accent, is meant for speaking german, soo it's not clear how it translates...

But I learnt my accents I believe from imitating both native speakers, and probably more so, people who do accents. It helps to learn a few phrases, so you get a feel for the pattern and how vowel sounds change. With that you should be able to speak with an accent...

To do german, I actually picked up a learn german set (book and CD), and praticed speaking in german, and then tried to speak english with the same vowel sounds... I really think it helps to imitate a person you know. Or rather. I find myself imitating the inflection as well as the different sounds. It makes it easier to speak that way.

 

[Ollie]

IDEA - the International Dialects of English Archive - looks pretty good, although I haven't had time to try it out yet. What they have is a load of mp3s (and I do mean a *load*) of people from various countries and regions speaking English in their native accents. Just for Scotland, for example, they have five different regional accents.

As for practising accents, a good tip is to find the physical habits that inform the accent - some accents have particular characteristic resonances, for example; many have particular ways of moving or placing the tongue or lips - things like that can make it easier to get the overall feel of an accent without getting into the details of how to pronounce individual sounds.

IDEA is at http://www.ukans.edu/~idea/index2.html

 

[funnyerik9]

If you are anywhere near a Samuel French or other Theater Bookstore, invariably they will have a lot of accent tapes. I have some friends who swear by them.

-Erik:up: