# Vocal Production & Microphones 9/28

For the podcasting workshop on 9/28, Marlon, Casey, and I offered three distinct stations for an undergraduate french class. The students had already completed a podcast for an earlier assignment in the course, and were hoping to pick up new skills in podcasting. The stations included interviewing/content, post-production, and vocal production with microphones.

Here is what happened at the vocal production with microphones station.

## Part 1: Vocal Preparation

*Posture & Relaxation:*

**Spine:** Legnthening, rolling up and down
**Breath:** In for 5, out for 5; In for 10, out for 10; In for 15, out for 15
**Jaw:** Givine the jaw a massage, shaking it out to relax the joints

*Anunciation:*

**Plosives:** Ps,Bs,Ts,Ds,Ks,Gs
**Throwing the Voice:** Finding range in high and low register

## Part 2: Experimenting with Microphones

After finishing our vocal warm-ups, we moved to the microphones to experiment with the different qualities of each microphone in relation to the different qualities of our voice found in the vocal warm-ups. Each participant set up at a microphone and one by one, each chose one aspect of our vocal warm-up into the microphone in front of them. After someone went, we spend time naming the different things we heard and comparing and contrasting what the different microphones had to offer. Afterward, each participant recorded a short introduction, using the microphone of their choice and playing with tone, volume, speed, and persona.

## Reflection and Future Implications

Most students seemed to be a bit uneasy during the vocal warm-ups (which is to be expected, as we were saying some pretty silly things,) and seemed to have fun with the microphones. There were many surprising "aha" moments that came up when students were surprised by the different qualities of the microphones. Some students got really into it, including silly content in their introductions and playing with different registers of their voice.

However, many students seemed to completely forget the lessons from the vocal warm-ups, and resorted to poor posture, inarticulation, and monotone speaking during their recorded introductions. Perhaps in the future, it would be more beneficial for students to learn the vocal warm-ups with the microphones, so that they don't have to do the translational work of bringing the vocal production skills ***to*** the microphone, and can instead learn them ***for*** and ***with*** the microphone.