On a scale of Minkus to Urkel...

Hey everyone!

Today I slept in as I always do on Saturday.  I went to the school later on in the afternoon and practiced dance stuff with one of my friends.  2 hours!  I actually practiced for 2 hours straight without getting distracted which rarely happens.  Haha.  I then got pizza to reward myself of course.  Then came back to my dorm and watched movies, observing the speech technique of the actors and actresses in them.  It's really interesting now that I actually know what is right and wrong when I am watching movies to see who is actually speaking correctly.  It has made me have so much more respect for them than I ever have before.  It's so hard to speak properly and healthily!  I'm working on it but it is not something that comes easily when I've been speaking wrong my whole life!  I'm not even talking about a regionalism, which is hard enough to get rid of, but I'm talking about the actual speaking itself.  The tone, pitch, etc.  I am supposed to speak like half an octave above where I have been my whole life.  The thing that gets me the most is glottal when I speak.  (Using a glottal stroke means you hit your vocal chords together when speaking.  It usually happens on words that begin with a vowel and it's really unhealthy).  This is something I just learned about this past week.  I knew what it was in terms of singing and I knew it was bad but I didn't know I did it when I speak too!  It's so hard to not do!  But anyways, I watched "The Help" last night and "People Like Us" and "Zero Dark Thirty" today and listened the whole time for people using glottal when they spoke.  Bryce Dallas Howard who plays Hilly in "The Help" (the mean one) has perfect technique.  I did not hear her glottal once!  I'm sure I could've missed it if she had done it but still!  She has great vocal technique!  Jessica Chastain only did it a few times in "The Help" and "Zero Dark Thirty".  She trained at Juilliard and Bryce studied at NYU I think.  Emma Stone has terrible vocal technique.  I never would have noticed because I didn't even know what it was. Haha.  Elizabeth Banks (she was in "People Like Us" she also plays Effie Trinket in "The Hunger Games") was another one who had practically perfect technique!  I'm so jealous!  Haha.  But it gives me something to work towards!

I'm really sorry I just wrote an entire paragraph on that.  I'm such a nerd.  See Mom!  I am learning things!

Now that I just openly admitted to watching movies all weekend while analyzing vocal technique like a total loser, I'm gonna go to bed so I can actually sleep tomorrow night and wake up for school the next day.  Haha.

Thanks!

Molly