Eating plenty of whole grains, fruit, and vegetables helps to keep the throat healthy too.

Remember something that amused you – made you smile. As you smile your throat relaxes – you might want to yawn - that’s even better. Remember something that made you laugh. If you can feel your stomach dancing up and down it means you’re relaxing your breathing muscles. Which is good…

Silently whisper HAAAAAA for 8 seconds. Breathe out… let go… you’ll feel more relaxed!

ABOUT ALAN Woodhouse - voice coach & Voice Trainer

How is 2009 treating me? Very well. The fear of god was put into me when, for the first time in more years than I care to remember, I needed to actually learn parts of a script. The Open University audio-record an unbelievably large repertoire of texts. So that people who have reading concerns can fully-study all the required material for their courses. There is now a DVD offering advice to new readers. Featuring yours truly. So there I was, facing a camera. Having to do some of my own exercises to keep calm and focussed. And trying to look relaxed!
At the end of May I was at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London working with the Swedish artist FIA BACKSTROM. Fia and I are workshopping together again at the Frieze Art Fair in October.
Handel and Purcell are just two composers with important anniversaries this year. Very nicely this has offered me further working trips to Paris and Vienna.
And, as always, stressful times mean my business clients are more often pushed to the limits. The need to deliver strongly and with presence in a nervous environment. I always begin, and really end, with breathing. Giving of your best becomes more and more impossible if the breath is weak and not well-co-ordinated. But there are answers!
Work in the media is always potentially stressful. I enjoy a continuing relationship with SKY SPORTS voice coaching young presenters.

After TRAINING as a singer and actor at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, London, I studied Voice at the Central School of Speech & Drama, London

CAREER as singer, actor, voice coach, acting coach, presentation skills coach, stage director, script development advisor.

I work with corporate clients: I work with actors and singers and presenters.

I come from a performance background: in all of my work I focus on communication. Learning the technical skills, finding the words, structuring the message, preparing to deliver. Everyone needs to find a voice to meet the world. Always alive to the ever-changing moment.

I wanted to sing and act, and I did – Royal Opera House Covent Garden, West End, TV and Radio.

I always wanted to direct, and I do – with professional actors and in major drama academies in this country and in Italy.

I honestly think that teaching is the best way to learn something.

My teaching career includes work at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Central School of Speech & Drama, L.A.M.D.A., Webber Douglas Academy, Arts Educational Schools, and Rose Bruford College.

I’ve also worked as teacher and coach in Italy, France, Germany, Denmark, Hungary, and Sicily

Voice coaching actors and singers is a major part of my working life. Clients include Royal National Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, and Glyndebourne Opera.

I work as English Language Consultant with the baroque music group Les Arts Florissants in Paris.

Corporate work

1-to-1 work allows me to enter your world. Find out who you are. I want you to feel comfortable with your voice. To trust it.

Your voice must work hard for you.
We must work on relaxation and voice training. How to prepare physically, mentally, and emotionally for the big meeting, the important presentation.

Current clients come from Switzerland, Sweden, Hong Kong, France, Trinidad, and many other parts of the world. They need a clear Standard English pronunciation, for their career, for their life.

Group work can cover many of the same priorities. It can also be a learning experience for group members. Sharing with each other and helping each other to find practical answers. The need to match the energy and profile of the delivery to the expertise and strength of the underlying message. Perhaps learning that acting is not such a bad idea. And can be more easily achieved than many might imagine!

Radio and TV Presenters need performance skills. I use all my experience as acting coach, and communication skills coach, and my work advising young writers on script development. Recent clients work for Radio 5Live and BBC London.