Music Banter - View Single Post

djchameleon · 03-24-2011, 02:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThePhanastasio

This is targeted towards individual performers, so they're things that actors can do to practice on their own. Basically, this book has individual exercises that focus on 21 different categories including:

Creative State
Imagination
Concentration and Focus
Voice
Performance
Characterization
Understanding Your Objective

All of the exercises are designed to be entertaining or stimulating in some way that will also aid in growing as an actor.

One of the exercises in the book I really enjoyed pertained to music in a way:

Basically, you take a song you know really well - like all of the lyrics to. Then you think of a really emotional time in your life - it could be positive, like the time you won the State Championship in bowling, negative, like remembering a horrible accident...anything really. Just something in your own memory that elicits really strong feelings and memory. Then, by yourself, you try to explain this using these song lyrics. You're not just reciting the lyrics and thinking about the event; you're saying the lyrics as though those are the words which actually describe the event, like those are the only words you have to explain it.

The first time I attempted this one, it was a little rough. It's a really interesting exercise though - as an actor, the words you're saying aren't your words anyway, and sometimes there are lines in the script that just seem like something you would never say or couldn't really see your character saying initially. You have to think about what's actually going on, and get the context behind someone else's words to express what you're thinking. It's pretty neat.

Hmmm....that music exercise sounds pretty interesting. I might try it out and see how well I can accomplish that. I have zero acting experience but it sounds like something fun to attempt. I think if I were to do this, I would focus more on facials to convey/express my emotions during certain parts of the song that I pick. hmm interesting indeed.