“Working with Robert Serrell on my voice has been an extremely inspiring process. He has helped me to discover a voice in me I’d always hoped was there and always longed to find, a voice of strength and authenticity. He guided me to let go in moments I wanted to hold on and those were the moments I found the most growth. I found Robert to be a very supportive and specific teacher. If you are looking to connect more to your power and truth and learn how to effortlessly communicate that into the world then Robert Serrell would be a coach I’d highly recommend looking into.”
– Brittany Daniel, actress
Since 2001, Robert Serrell has coached artists and professionals looking for greater vocal expressivity in a series of vocal/physical exercises that free and strengthen their voices.
Robert’s private coaching clients include actors, lawyers, doctors, and corporate executives, and t.v. personalities. He has also worked as vocal coach on film (including the acclaimed documentary “Code of the West”) and dozens of theater productions in New York City and regionally (including Hudson Valley Shakespeare, Shakespeare & Company, Abingdon Theater, Barrow Group, Wharton Salon).
Robert is a Designated Linklater Voice teacher, and draws inspiration from Roy Hart Voice work, the Alexander technique, and Vipassana meditation.
Robert’s coaching fee is $300/hr. For more information, please email serrell75@gmail.com.
Philosophy
- We all already possess a free, authentic, powerful voice inside ourselves – accepting and letting go of tensions, constrictions, and self-limiting stories help us to rediscover this freedom.
- We move others the most when we communicate from our heart, the center of our highest values.
- Maximum impact often results from minimum effort.
- Blocked emotions can lead to a blocked voice.
- There is no right way to approach public speaking or vocal production – it’s about finding what works for you.
Some of the Exercises We Explore in Coaching Sessions
- Physical awareness
- What story are you communicating physically?
- How does it feel to let go physically?
- What’s it like to balance through your skeleton versus holding yourself upright muscularly?
- Awareness of breath in the body
- What’s it like to breathe naturally?
- What’s the difference between diaphragmatic and clavicular breathing?
- What’s it like to let go of the breath rather than hold on?
- Awareness of vibration in the body
- What’s it like to feel your voice in your body versus listening to (and possibly judging) yourself?
- What’s the relationship between breath and vibration, and what’s pure vibration versus breathiness feel like?
- How does diaphragmatic support feel (rather than pushing from your throat)?
- Gathering, releasing, and freeing vibration
- What’s it like to feel your voice releasing forward without having to push it?
- What’s it like to feel physically loose and free when communicating rather than tight?
- Freeing the throat (jaw, tongue, and soft palette)
- How’s it feel to communicate with a loose jaw and tongue?
- What’s it like to communicate with a free soft palette and open throat?
- Strengthening the chest, mouth, and teethe resonators
- What’s it feel like to speak with the warmth of your chest resonator?
- What’s it feel like to speak with the directness of your mouth resonator?
- What’s it feel like to speak with the brightness of your teeth resonator?
- How does it feel to blend all of these together?
- Building breath power and capacity
- How does it feel to open your lungs and experience the full expansion of your breath?
- What’s it like to grow inner-energy though pants of anticipation?
- Strengthening the upper resonators (sinus, nasal, and skull resonance)
- What’s it like to communicate through the power and vulnerability of your sinus resonator?
- What’s it like to communicate through the extroversion of you nasal resonator?
- What’s it like to stretch the top of your vocal range, the skull resonator, and thereby open up the bottom?
- Moving though a two-and-a-half octave range
- How’s it feel to move your voice from bright to dark and back to bright again?
- Articulation (conditioning the lips and tip of the tongue)
- How’s it feel to balance open vowels with clear, precise articulation?
- Vowel tree
- How does it feel to explore the intrinsic pitches of vowels?
- What wisdom might a sound contain based on where it lives in your body?