Training the Voice

It has taken me a while to realize that the voice is an instrument, and the words within the story are the music which a storyteller brings to life. I attended a workshop called "Training the Voice" at the Scottish Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh and it was quite clear that I had never felt or tasted words for the music within them. It was a very interesting workshop because a number of the participants were not native English speakers, but Norwegians students of drama; the workshop leader was very quick to get everyone into doing physical exercises with which to relax our bodies and our voices. I enjoyed the workshop very much, since we had to act, improvise and develop the strength of our voices using our diaphragms. It reminded me of the times when I was a singer at the Convivium Musicum in Mexico City singing at the Palace of Fine Arts.