Drama Journal#1
Jazz Chants are snappy, rhythmical poems that can be said with a swinging rhythm-similar to rap or rapping. For the first class Mr. Tran randomly gave groups a sheet with a chant. The group then had to make a beat for the chant, and present it. By jazz chanting students have the chance to develop a sense of the rhythm of the English language and obtain practice using idiomatic phrases and expressions. Jazz chants help you to sound more natural when speaking. Also, jazz chants focus on different vocabulary.
This was not one of my favourite activities. I like to rap, but I was unable to because my group was not able to say the words properly, so I had to say the chant. I would have liked it if we had to make our own chant and we were able to do a beat that suites our whole group. It would have been easier, because since it is our choice, we can make a chant where we want a specific beat. It could have been better! Also, I think that we should have had more time. By doing jazz chants, to me I was able to speak and sound more natural. This will help you be a better performer.
Drama Journal#2
Tongue twister is a phrase which is designed to be difficult to articulate properly. On the second period of drama dance Mr. Tran gave everyone a sheet of paper containing various different tongue twisters ranging from very difficult to easy. . Every student had to choose one of the five tongue twisters, and prepare it. Once everyone was prepared, they had to present there tongue twister in front of the class. The class then evaluated everyone based on clarity, accuracy and if they had a fast speed. I enjoyed this activity greatly because I did one of the difficult ones and I won!
This activity was fun, but many people did the easier ones, then the difficult ones. I picked the easy one for me, but to many people it was hard. I didn’t pick any others, because they were difficult. But, I think Mr. Tran should have made everyone do the most difficult one for them. It would have been more challenging and it would have been fun. I also think that, everyone should have done all of them. Then only would they understand how tongue twisters, is related to drama and dance. Tongue twisters help with improving your articulation and pronunciation. Since, you are saying the phrases really fast, it is hard for you to recognize the word then say it immediately as clear as possible and continue on. When speeding many people usually “mess up” it there are alternating phonemes. These are the reasons why tongue twisters are an important part of vocal training.
Drama Journal #3
For the third day of drama and dance, Mr. Tran gave every group the same sheet, and they would have to present it, in anyway they would like to. This was fairer, because it can actually show which group does better, unlike the jazz chants where everyone got a different chant. No two people think the same thing! It was a little hard because the words did not make sense. So, a group who did tongue twisters would have a difficult time on it. The purpose of this assignment was to combine what you learned in the previous dram dance classes and combine them into one. It is basically a summary. During this assignment, through tongue twisters I was able to train my clarity, accuracy and my pronunciation. Jazz chants helped me to develop a dynamic sound, and helped me sound more natural. Also, it helped me stay with a constant speed. Altogether, it trained my voice. These dramatic elements can be applied when I am acting, or preparing for a speech. They are good training methods! The strength was that we had two people who played the piano before, so they knew how to keep the beat. The weakness was that all of us differed on what we should do. So, we had less time. We didn’t plan it out until the end. Also, we had one person who joined our group at the last minute and we had to change everything. I recommended a rap, and it worked, but no one except me knew how to keep the beat and say the words for it. Other groups rehearsed a lot and they had great ideas. They set their minds to it. My group could have done better, but we messed up three times. Also, some groups acted it out, and others added things to it. It made it more interesting. All groups had diverse interpretations of the same text because no two people think the same. Everyone has there own brain and it thinks different from others.
Overall, voice was the best concept I studied in drama dance. It taught me to be a better performer through fun and interesting ways. I used to just have one voice. If i read a story, I say the quotation and the text the same. Through these activities I learned how to change my voice and pronounce words with clarity,
