你不是傻瓜：初學者腹語術

Each week will involve going over different strategies. These will take place on Zoom. Classes will last 30 minutes each. Certain lesson points don't require much class time. I will have no more than six students at a time. Anything more than that could get problematic for some. Each class period begins with me introducing the lesson and then we practice the steps together. For example, when going over pronunciation and lip control, I will include the principle of replacement consonants for words invloving B's, M's, P's, or V's. Let's face it, those letters cannot be pronounced without moving your lips. That is why we call them plosives. The trick is to use replacements instead. The sound of a 'B' is actually a very tangent 'G.' I will assign them tongue twisters using only plosives as a practice mechanism. It is also recommended for students to keep a mirror handy while practicing on their own. This is how they can track their lip control. 

Here is a list of topics we will cover week by week:

Week 1: We will go over the basics of lip control. This is the introduction of speaking without moving your lips. This also covers pronunciation and the correct posture so that the moving throat isn't visible and coming up with different voices.

Week 2: We will continue with lip control, but will also begin the beginning stages of puppet manipulation.

Week 3: We will dive deeper into the steps of puppet manipulation, but also substance. Substance is key to making a strong character. This is what makes your character seem lifelike. We will also begin the guidelines of our final project.

Week 4: We will bring together all of the ingredients to the great ventrilo-recipe: lip control, voice, humor, and puppet movement. This will all happen in our final projects presented on the last day of class

Please contact me if you have any questions! Thank you!