Finding the 'tune' of General American — and staying on key!

Many actors have been told they need to deliver an audition or self-tape in 'Gen Am'. But sometimes we can get stuck in 'paralysis by analysis' when working on the vowel sounds of an accent, making it difficult to translate the technique to authentic speech. The good news is, every accent has its own unique melody, rhythm and intonation pattern, and it's this musicality that can be the missing piece for performers. Drawing on his research presented at the World Voice Consortium in 2017, Michael has developed a framework rooted in the musicality of accents to help actors quickly and confidently access the General American accent for auditions, self-tapes and voiceover work. No singing ability required!


The session centres on practical prosodic tools: the melody, rhythm, stress and intonation patterns that give General American its distinctive sound. Rather than getting lost in phonetic detail, you will learn to tune your ear and your body to the feel of the accent from the inside out. Listening to and learning from the variety of voices in the room, you'll compare your own vocal melody with others before applying targeted techniques to adapt your muscle memory towards a confident, natural-sounding General American. Bring a short piece of text to work on during the session.


You'll leave the session with a clear, repeatable process for hearing, analysing and producing General American (and accents in general) along with a toolkit of strategies to help you recognise your own vocal patterns and stay 'in tune' when using your target accent in performances and audition tapes.