Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to drama.

This is practising physical and vocal skills.

It's less than two of five, and this is vocal skills part two.

My name is Mr. Wood and I'm your teacher for this unit.

If you're ready, let's get started.

In today's lesson, you're going to need a little bit of space.

So make sure there's nothing in your immediate vicinity that's going to stop you from taking part in the lesson.

So hopefully you've completed your introductory quit.

That's great, well done.

Now we're going to continue with recapping last lesson before we move on to thought-tracking and text work, and then we'll continue the lesson by expanding the text, before we finish with the exit quiz.

Your key words for today's lesson are: thought, and that's just an idea or an opinion produced suddenly in the mind.

An aside is a comment in a play made to the audience, not the other people in the scene.

So it's dipping out of the scene to say something to the audience, coming back and continuing the scene.

And thought-track, that is a drama strategy where you speak the thought out loud in character.

So if the character had a thought, it pops into their head, they say it straight away.

Now let's recap last lesson.

We explored a range of vocal skills in a range of ways.

The skills we started to explore were: pace, if you can remember what is.

It's to do with the speed at which you speak.

Tone, if you can remember what tone is.

That's to do with how you say something in a particular way.

And that gives us one meaning.

If you change the tone a bit so slightly, you might get a completely different meaning.

We explored volume, which has to do with how loud or how quiet you are when you speak.

And emphasis, that is where you stress a particular word to give it certain importance.

And that in itself might give us new meaning too.

Now we're going to start thought-tracking and our text work.

Before we do this, we need the warmup.

So can you please sit nice and tall or you can stand for this.

We're going to start our vocal warm up with some Ps.

I'd like you to say the letter P just like we did before, but I would like you to breathe that letter outward.

Let's get your lips moving.

Repeat after me.

/p/, /p/, /p/, /p/, /p/.

Your turn.

We'll do that one again.

Don't get to really breathe whether you're pushing that letter P outward.

/p/, /p/, /p/, /p/, /p/.

Now again, just do the same thing, but with the letter M.

So we'll breathe that one out into a /m/ sound.

We'll do five of them.

You repeat after me.

/m/, /m/, /m/, /m/, /m/.

Your turn.

Seat back, don't forget to keep your lips moving.

That's the point of this one and breathe out as you do it.

We'll do it once more.

/m/, /m/, /m/, /m/, /m/.

Your turn.

Seat back.

Okay now /W.

We want to get that breath coming out words and we also want to start moving parts about face.

Repeat after me.

/w/, /w/, /w/, /w/, /w/.

Your turn.

We'll do that one again.

Really breathe out with it.

/w/, /w/, /w/, /w/, /w/.

Your turn.

Seat back, well done.

Now Sandra has returned.

Sandra sells seashells by the seashore.

Can you repeat that for me? We'll try and speed it up a little bit.

Sandra sells seashells by the sea shore.

Your turn.

We'll do it again as quick as we can.

Sandra sells seashells by the sea shore.

Okay, well done.

Now, if I said to you, hello? And I said that in a happy way, how would that sound? Hello? Can you copy that for me? Positive and upbeat.

Off you go.

What if I said to do it in a sad tone? Hello? Give it a go.

What about an angry tone? Hello? Confused tone.

Hello? That's it, copying with me.

Now the term is, come back.

Say that in a happy tone.

Come back.

Sad tone.

Come back.

Angry tone.

Come back.

Confused tone.

Come back.

The phrase is now, how long are you? In a happy tone, go.

In a sad tone, go.

Angry tone, go.

On a confused tone, go.

Super, now final phrase, who are you? Happy tone, go.

Sand tone, go.

Angry tone, go.

Confused tone, go.

Super, well done.

Now, Gunter has turned up because Gunter grew great hearty greens.

Repeat after me.

Gunter grew great hearty greens.

Speed it up.

Gunter grew great hearty greens.

And as quick as you possibly can.

Gunter grew great hearty greens.

Well done.

If you'd like to go through that again, please feel free.

If not, let's get started.

So now we're going to start with our thought tracking now that our voices are ready.

Tell me what is the weather like outside right now? Take a look out the window.

What do you see? Now, I want you to think.

What is the first thing that pops into your head when you see this weather? Actually, that's a lovely day.

The weather lied.

It's really coming down out there.

Is it positive? Is it negative? It looks really warm and then a massive gust of wind comes past and it looks freezing cold.

I love the sunshine.

Is it a descriptive statement? Hey, seagulls up there.

I can still see the moon.

It's raining.

Smells like chicken.

I wonder how birds don't freeze when it snows like this.

Whatever it is, hold on to it.

I would like you to practise this thought out loud but be clear.

You don't need to make a monologue.

It is just the first thought.

Pause the video to do this.

Click resume when you're ready to move on.

Consider your thoughts now, you're in a restaurant and you've ordered a Mexican bean burger.

You all very hungry.

However, the waiter brings you a burger, but it's not a Mexican bean, it's chicken.

What sorts of thoughts might you have right now in that moment? No idea is wrong at this point? Now, we've got a couple of options to consider as this character.

Which statement are you more likely to be thinking if you were expecting one thing but received something else? Option one is, "I should send this back." Option two is, "Oh, it's chicken.

I don't mind." Option three is, "I'm vegetarian, I'm not eating that." Option four is, "I'm so hungry I don't even care." Have a little think about one of those options now.

Which one is more like you? Which one are you more likely to be thinking right now? I would like you to role play three different thoughts you might have in this moment when you realise you don't have a Mexican bean burger, you have a chicken burger.

These ideas should try to contrast each other.

It's okay if there are connections that overlap, but try and keep the focus upfront.

Say them out loud, consider your use of tone, volume, pace, and emphasis.

Pause the video now to do this and click with you when you're ready to move on.

So this is the text.

"I knew a lady called Sandra.

She was a respectable woman.

She knew how to talk to people and to put them at ease.

She was one of the best.

Sandra was always so helpful to me when I came back from shopping, she would help me with my bags.

Come to think of it, she was always there to help." After hearing that, what's your opinion of Sandra? Who is she? What did she do? Where is she from? Why she so helpful? Now, what about the speaker? What's your opinion on them so far given what they've said? They seem to be quite complimentary about Sandra.

What are your thoughts? Now, I would like you to role play this particular bits of text.

So practise saying this section out loud and get a feel for the character that you're speaking as.

Pause the video to be able to complete this task.

The text is copied in there on the screen and click resume when you're ready to move on.

Sandra is not the speaker in the text.

Is that true or false? Yep, that's true.

Sandra is the focus of what our character is saying, not the speaker.

So what is your opinion? What connection might this speaker have with Sandra? "I knew a lady called Sandra.

She was a respectable woman." And it ends with, "She was always there to help." Think about what you've heard, think about what you've said.

Get a feel for it.

Make these decisions yourself and fill in the gaps of your knowledge.

You get to decide what the reason is here.

What connection have they got? Are they related in some way? Were they neighbours? You decide.

Now, an aside is very important.

Imagine you are saying these words.

What would you say immediately after if your character truly believed something different? This is a technique that is very similar to thought-tracks, which is why we started with that.

So an aside is something where we dip out of that scene.

If you remember me saying right at the start with our key words.

We might have a scene going on and then we just pause there, we look at the audience, we say what we're really thinking and then we come back in to carry on the conversation.

So option number one, "Hello, good to see you." If that's part of our scene, what might you say to the audience? What are you really thinking as you see that person and you say, "Hello, good to see you." Is it, "I'm not actually happy to see them?" Is it, "I haven't seen that in years.

Would you believe that?" Funny I see them here now.

Something like that.

What about option two? "Wow, nice shirt." Or could you say that as you look at your audience? Option three, "I like you." What could be said there.

Have you thought something different? What might you say to the audience? And option four, "It's raining again." Straight to the audience, what would you say? You're going to have go practising this aside.

The line is, "Wow, nice shirt." Creates an aside to go straight after this line which tells us your actual intentions, what you really think.

Now it can be positive, it can be negative.

It can support the statement, it can go up against it.

It's entirely up to you.

You need to pause the video to be able to complete this and cook resume when you're ready to move on.

We just looked at option two.

Refresh your brains.

Now you're going to have a look at, "Hello, good to see you." Just like before creating an aside to go straight after this line.

Now you may be talking to the same person as you did in the last one.

You may decide to have an entirely different setting.

For example, you could be on a beach, you could be in the street, you could be on your front door.

It doesn't matter where you are or who you're speaking to, but I would like you to imagine what you say directly after this line.

Pause the video to complete this task and click resume when you're ready to move on.

Now, we're going to start expanding the texts that I gave you earlier.

So there are many opportunities to develop this text.

We can add asides which would of course help make the text more interesting to an audience.

It stops us just watching it.

Instead, it breaks down the fourth wall and it allows us to be involved.

We are spoken to as if we are allowed to be there.

So enjoy that.

Have a connection with your audience there.

"I knew of a lady called Sandra.

I didn't like Sandra at all.

She was a respectable woman.

She wasn't actually horrible snake of a woman.

Always shoving a nose into other people's business.

She knew how to talk to people to put them at ease.

There were countless times actually she belittled me in front of people.

It was embarrassing.

She was one of the best.

Sandra was always so helpful to me when I came back from shopping.

She would always help me with my bags after the car only because she knew that meant she could look and see what one was buying.

Why else would she come and help? Savage.

Come to think of it.

She was always there to help, always always." So you're going to have a go at this yourself now.

Develop the text with any asides of your choosing.

Now, all you've put in a few gaps into the body of this text, but you can use this at your own discretion.

So if you would love to put some asides in right at the very start, right at the very end, partly through the middle, it's entirely up to you where you put them, but I've put some markers so that you can see a rough idea of where I would put them.

Now, use this as a chance to add character.

Because this is your interpretation, you are looking at this speaker and how they have a relationship with Sandra and that's where the interest will lie.

So it'd be really interesting to get your perspective as the speaker and really hearing what you think.

This seems this bit of text would appear to be a bit of a facade.

Don't forget to keep looking at your audience each time you say an aside.

And you need to pause the video to complete this task and click resume when you are ready to move on.

Welcome back, I hope you enjoyed that bit.

Now an aside can stop us from knowing more about the character speaking.

Is that true or is it false? The answer is false.

An aside helps us to build a relationship and it can help us learn more about the character who is speaking.

So it's ever too early for an aside? As I said earlier, you could place in the side right at the very start of the text.

What's aside would you use if you could before introducing the character Sandra? Are there any bits of information that would be important to hear? For example, about their background? They are really three.

They come in to ask me about someone and I'm going to have to fill you in as I go, but why did they have to be early? Anyway, whatever I'll say to them, I don't mean it, trust me.

I'll tell you more later, but yeah.

"Hi, so, I knew of a lady called Sandra." So now you'll go to have a go yourself at creating an aside as the speaker which warns us about this Sandra character and the immediate arrival of having to talk about them.

You can prepare us for what we're about to hear.

For example, is there anything shocking in the aside you made previously about Sandra? Is there anything that went on between you two? For example if Sandra did something and after that, did the speaker do something even worse so they're trying to cover it up? In which case do they need to forewarn the audience? Consider your use of tone at this point? Is it going to be different? I would imagine that the tone you use now at the very start is similar to what you use in your asides later, but it could have a sense of urgency.

You could have, let's say a rising tension.

It could be very shocking to start with as you realise you have to tell us.

Your pace might also need to change.

For example, would you be quite quick at the start and then gradually slow down the pace as the text continues.

Your volume may also need to be higher or lower depending on what you use with tone and pace.

And lastly, emphasis.

Don't underwrite emphasis.

Stressing a word will make an audience remember that word.

So really consider what words need highlighting in what you're saying.

So pause the video for now, get this task done, be as creative as you like, and then click resume when you're ready to move on.

Welcome back, how did you get on? What was the most challenging part to that activity? Was it trying to figure out what's going to come before? Trying to take those steps backwards? Did you manage to add in any details about Sandra right at the very start? Or about the speaker themselves? Now, we are at the end of the lesson.

So, well done for your hard work today.

We have gone through thought-tracking, asides, and we've worked with both of them in amongst the texts to explore emphasis, volume, pace and tone.

So we were using all of those skills from last lesson today as well.

Next lesson, we're going to be focusing on the physical skills before we work towards combining both of them.

So I look forward to seeing you in our next lesson, lesson three, physical skills part one.

Until then, it's goodbye.

If you would like to share any of your work, as ever you can.

Just ask your parent or carer for permission first and they can share your work on Twitter using @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

Take care, I'll see you soon.

Bye bye.