Why not practicing your American accent is holding you back from getting U.S. auditions.

Do you ever wonder what’s getting in the way of you getting to audition for more U.S. roles?

 In today’s episode, I am sharing with you how spending more time on your American accent practice can help you get more U.S. auditions.

BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU’LL LEARN/DISCOVER/FIND OUT: 

• Why you need to know the purpose of your practice
• What will happen if you don’t practice
• How to effectively practice your American accent

  If this episode inspires you then I'd love to hear from you! Take a screenshot of you listening on your device, post it to your Instagram stories and tag me@katherine_beck_ !

  Then follow me on Instagram to go 'behind the scenes' with me and my own journey as an American accent coach and Voiceover Actor.

  
  LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  Ready to master the ALL AMERICAN ACCENT? Grab my free guide to learn how to master the All American accent. Grab my free guide here. 

  LEARN MORE FROM KATHERINE BECK:

  WEBSITE| INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK | YOUTUBE | TIK TOK

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  SHOW TRANSCRIPT

  You're listening to the All American actors podcast, Episode 16. In today's episode I'm going to share with you why not practicing your American accent is holding you back from getting us auditions. That's coming up next. Ready to go behind the scenes and learn what it really takes to build a sustainable career as a working actor in the US film and TV industry. Join me Katherine Beck, your all American accent coach, as I give you the insight and inspiration to take action on your career, learn my best tips and tricks to performing with an American accent and hear from working actors and other industry professionals. To give you a comprehensive overview of this biz we call showbiz. This is the all American actors podcast. We are going to jump into today's episode in just a sec. But first I want to give a big shout out to Fujian fan who says my students from Australia and Fiji often need coaching on their us accent for American productions shooting in these countries. Katherine's approach is cheery, easy and spot on, she is an asset to the international acting community. Oh, thank you so much. I love this review. Thank you, thank you, thank you Fijian fan, I am so honored and so thrilled to share my expertise with actors all around the world. So it's really touching. When I get reviews like this, it really warms my heart to know that I am inspiring both actors and teachers in other countries to really follow your dreams and work on your American accent to get you to where you want to go. So thank you so much. And if you also want to be featured as one of our star listeners of the week, go ahead send us a five star review of this podcast. And I will give you a shout out right here on the show. And do me a favor, take a screenshot of your review before you press Submit and share it with me on Instagram. And don't forget to tag me at Katherine underscore Beck underscore so I can see your review. Alright, let's get into it. I was doing a group coaching call with some of my newest members of American accent freeway the other night. For those of you who don't know, that is my online American accent program where I teach my actors how to authentically perform with an American accent. And it was our first coaching call together. And so we're talking about preparation, which basically is preparing your body and your voice to sound more American and I am not reinventing the wheel here with my voice exercises, they are exercises that you have probably already done in some manner in a voice class or learned somewhere. But I am very selective with the exercises I use because as I say to my students, we want to effectively prepare for the accent. We want to be smart about how we prepare. So we want to do exercises that will serve a purpose, which is the goal that you have in mind. And for my students in this case is to sound American like you were born in the US. And when I was in class with my students online, I brought up my own experience and relationship to voice classes. Because for me growing up in high school and college I really hated voice class. And maybe it's a little harsh to say I hated it. But I definitely disliked it or I dreaded going to voice class because I was so bored. I just didn't understand the why why we had to lie on the ground breathing and touching on sound. And I just I really I just did not get it. And it was probably not the fault of the teacher. You know, it just it felt old school to me. And I was definitely bored. And I was seeking purpose. And I just didn't get it. And I obviously didn't think of asking my teacher to break it down for me. So it really wasn't until I became an American accent coach and then went back to university got my postgraduate degree in voice that I started to look at voice in a different way with open eyes and an open mind. But you know who was funny? Like if I think about it, I was in a small group with other voice teachers and all the other students would totally geek out on what we're learning. But again with me, I noticed that even though this time I was more intrigued and enthusiastic to learn, there was still this part of me that was like, I just don't enjoy this specific exercise or actually now I could see Oh, I really liked that one. But there were other exercises that reminded me of the past that I still it wasn't really connecting with me. So I thought that was really interesting. So I was really consciously observing what I enjoyed, and what I didn't enjoy about the idea of voice of voice classes of voice exercises. And for me, I noticed that I really enjoyed the facts. I enjoyed the information understanding why the purpose of an exercise or the purpose of doing certain things for your voice for an actor or using your voice for other types of careers as well, where you would have to present information. And the thing I really enjoyed and always have is the idea of speech of speech sounds and learning phonetics. And that really was the area that once again piqued my interest, my excitement, so it makes perfect sense why helping my actors and other professionals with their speech has been a major part of my coaching. So here I am explaining the story to my students in this call, because, you know, there could be another one of me in this group, another actor who's thinking and not really understanding why I am asking them to do fish lips. So they're just gonna go through the motions, you know, they're gonna go through the motions, but not fully get the results that they want. So when you practice, my biggest piece of advice for you, is to practice effectively, and to really understand the why. But see what happens when you don't practice. That's what we're here to talk about today. What happens if you used to practice, but you fell off the wagon, you forgot one day, and then another day, and then the next day, you were too busy. And then so many days went by, and he just haven't practiced at all, not one warm up exercise, not the fish lifts, exercise, not a practice sentence, not anything on your pronunciation. And then you get a call from your agent or an email telling you that you've got a self tape audition for a US project and you think, Oh, I should practice my accent, I should have been practicing. Now I'm freaking out because I feel unprepared and not ready. So what happens when you're in this scenario? Well, you might feel tension you might tense up, which makes it harder to sound authentic in the American accent. And it may also make you feel more aware of your flaws, your accent flaws, or when you drop out of the accent when you're trying to perform, because you're too tense or too nervous or too worried or to this or to that. And he finished the audition, feeling like it was just okay, but not your best work. And then there's another missed opportunity. And then you may start questioning whether you'll ever master this accent. Well, guess what? You can, but you got to practice. And not just practice, but practice effectively. And so when I say not practicing is holding you back from getting us auditions. I mean that it makes it very hard to gain representation, because they're looking for an impeccable American accent. And let's say you do the hard work, and you prove that you've got a good accent. But then you stop practicing. Well what happens when you submit an audition, and your accent is not good, because it's rusty, because you haven't practiced, your agent is not going to be happy. And if it happens again, well, they may stop submitting you or pausing on submitting you for us auditions until you get your accent back in working order until it starts to sound authentic again. So do yourself a favor, keep up with your practice. And it doesn't need to be super in depth or super intense or super long training every day. But you need to be doing something, just something little every day to keep your body and your brain familiar with the act of speaking like an American, it will make auditioning so much easier. So take a little time in your busy day to practice your American accent. And hey, take a photo of you practicing your American accent and post it to me on Instagram. I would love to see it because it's when you do that. It's like that accountability factor coming in, right? It's like, okay, she told me to do it, I'm gonna do it. And then it forces you almost to like, be accountable. Ultimately, what you want to do is have that self accountability, but if it helps you post, tag me in it, send it to me, and I will be cheering you all along the way. So make sure you do a little bit of American accent practice today. And hey, if you've been thinking, gee, I want to do a podcast. That idea kind of excites me. Well, I've got something really exciting for you. My dear friend Courtney Elmer, she is going to be holding a free workshop on podcasting coming up. And if you want to sign up for the workshop, just head over to Katherine Beck comm slash podcast to get all the details and to register. And coming up next week on the show. Oh, I am so excited for this interview with actor Marianly Tejada. She's got a brand new TV series she is about to shoot and she's gonna let us know all about it. Now make sure to share the show with all your actor friends, let them know what's coming up next week and invite them to tune in with you and learn how to become an all American Actor. So you can be the working actor you dream to be. Until then go practice your American accent. And I'll see you back here next time.