On this video I'm gonna show you the exercises that I teach my A-list celebrity clients to have a 100 authentic American accent.
Hey there, I'm Gabriel Brufato from GB Voice Academy, your accent reduction coach, to help you get that much closer to mastering the American accent.
If you haven't yet, subscribe to my YouTube channel so you get access to all of my videos here on this channel.
Also check out the link to my five-star best-selling accent reduction course.
I left the link below.
There's learning the American accent to get by, and then there's learning the American accent to sound 100 authentic.
There's a difference from repeat after me to looking into the mechanics of these American sounds and how your body is able to reproduce it effortlessly.
So you don't just sound good enough to get by, but you sound authentic.
Now these are the exercises that I teach my A-list clients.
Hollywood actors, CEOs to big corporations that do presentations to thousands, if not millions, of people in an American accent.
So these techniques are proven.
But, like in all of my videos, you need to go through these exercises with me right to the end, because at the end of this video we're going to put together everything we learn into structured sentences.
So what I teach you sticks with you.
Now, a lot of you know that I use vocalizing techniques to help internalize the mechanisms of these sounds.
Well, we're going to go through them here.
Let's go through the most difficult American sounds, where they resonate and how we could reproduce them on demand.
Let's focus on this very bright forward sound that you hear all the time.
Believe it or not, it's very common.
Thank you.
Fantastic.
Happy birthday.
It's a very forward nasally sound.
Repeat after me.
Your body's not going to want to do that.
It's going to want to go down here.
Because you're not used to making that forward bright sound.
To help you, smile and think of putting it very forward in your face.
When it feels wrong, then you're absolutely right on target.
Try it again.
You got that?
Now, when I teach you this exercise, your job is to keep that sound the same.
Don't veer off.
So now repeat after me.
It's like you're saying nasty.
Nah.
Your job is to keep that forward sound throughout this whole exercise.
Your body's going to want to fight you and go, nah, nah, nah, and put it down here.
Your job, forward, eh, together, and nah, nah. nasally, the better.
The reason why I use the letter N is because N, it puts that resonation right there in your nose.
It keeps the sound forward, which is where this sound lives.
Now let's go through some words with this forward A sound.
Ask.
See that?
The second we veer off from that, ask, there's your accent.
Remember, all an accent is is these missed targets.
So again, very forward, bright in the nose, ask.
Good.
Try this one.
Fan.
If it feels ridiculous, you're on the right track.
Now let's use a name.
Sam.
Good.
Flash.
You see how consistent these sounds are?
Ask, Fan, Sam, Flash. they're all the same, they don't change.
Now, it sounds like we're exaggerating it, but guess what?
You, the audience, people with accents have to do 120 of it, so when you're out in public it'll veer down to 100.
So if it starts feeling comfortable, you're not doing it bright enough.
Forward, eh, it needs to sound nasty.
Now let's put those words into a sentence.
Can you ask for Sam's flashlight?
Feel that forward sound?
Now let's try relaxing the face a little bit, without the crazy facial expression I did to create that sound.
Can you ask for Sam's flashlight?
There it is.
It's all there.
The second you veer off from that sound, can you ask for some flashlight?
There's your accent.
Accent.
Hear that?
Now that is a target sound that we need to get very used to making.
These are sounds your body is not comfortable with and will fight you for it.
Your job is to make the uncomfortable comfortable.
Let's go to the next sound.
This is also an extreme hard sound for a lot of people.
I want you to clench your teeth and pretend you're a bear.
Make sure that the air flows through it.
It's going to feel like you're choking on your tongue and airflow stops.
The key is to clench, choke on your tongue, but let the air flow.
Think of it like a little engine back there.
Right?
Same thing.
I want you to clench your teeth and keep that tightness throughout this whole exercise.
Repeat after me on...
You're going to want to loosen it up.
You should feel some tightness in there, a bit sore.
That's good.
Nice and tight.
Fight the temptation to let it loose.
That's not the proper sound.
Good.
Let's go through some words with the sound car.
See how we have to open up that sound and then right back into that sound bar.
The second we veer off from that herb.
There's your accent other, all right, we want to end up with our nice clenched teeth.
It's like we're choking on your tongue.
World, That O, nonexistent.
It's just a W right into that R. World.
Far.
More.
Again, it seems extreme, but trust me, when we push our body to this limit consistently, like I do in a lot of my videos on this channel, the more your body will positively respond and make these sounds available to you.
Now let's put these words into a sentence.
How far is the bar?
See that?
Versus, how far is the bar?
How far is the bar?
Here's another American sound that a lot of people miss.
This is the oh.
There's two elements to this.
Oh, ooh.
Put it together, oh.
A lot of people just tend to do half of that.
Oh, I know my co-worker co versus.
I know my co-worker.
There's a lot more to it.
So let's do some of these exercises.
Let's use an M sound into this O sound for this exercise.
So for example.
Yeah?
Mo, mo, mo, mo, mo.
I gotta hear the full O sound.
Mo mo mo mo mo mo mo mo mo mo mo mo mo mo, mo mo.
One more mo mo mo mo mo.
You're probably wondering why am i doing scales with these american sounds?
Well, because when americans talk, we tend to use different pitches, so we want to make sure that all these american sounds are there, regardless of the pitch.
The structure of that sound never changes.
It's not dependent on pitch.
And that is a thing we have to practice over and over and over and over and over again, like I do in all of these videos on this channel, so it becomes a new muscle memory in your body.
And you don't have to think about it anymore.
Let's go through some words.
Most.
Feel that?
See how deep that is?
No.
Good.
See how easier it is to do now that you've done the exercises?
Old.
Open.
Home.
Don't.
There's a lot more to it than just home, don't, old, open.
Let's put a sentence together.
I don't know how old the home is.
See, now we don't hear these sounds when Americans speak fast, because they do.
I don't know how old the home is.
But if we were to slow that down, I don't know how old the home is.
That structure is there.
We don't have the luxury of going fast yet.
Not until you get these sounds in your body.
Excellent.
Let's go to the last one.
And remember after this, we're going to be putting all of these sounds into structured sentences to see how your muscle memory will respond to the work we did.
So stick around.
Ah.
Ah.
Ah.
It sounds extreme, but it's there.
My colleague, awesome.
Give me a call.
Big, big.
Versus my colleague, awesome.
Give me a call.
There's your accent.
Remember, an accent is just missed targets.
Good, let's go through some more exercises here.
For this one, let's use the l sound la, and la la la la, la.
Don't take any shortcuts.
I want the full structure.
See how your chest resonates on this one.
It's a lower resonation, right?
Even if it's up here, it's still lower.
Same thing.
You should feel your hand vibrate.
La, la, la, la, la.
Good.
La, la, la, la, la.
Big.
It's like you're yawning.
La, la, la, la, la.
Good.
Let's go through some words.
Thought.
See how big that is?
Walk.
Always.
Draw.
I'm making extreme faces here, just so you can visually see physically where the sound would resonate.
But, as you do these exercises moving forward, as well as the other ones on this channel, try to eventually internalize these sounds.
Because I could make these sounds without moving my face.
Watch.
Ah, er, oh, ah.
It's all internal.
Internal mechanisms are moving around to accommodate these sounds.
But because you're learning this, we have to physicalize it more.
But then eventually your body will be like, oh, sure.
OK, I remember that sound.
No problem.
Ah, ah.
Oh, there it is.
Now let's put a sentence together.
See, we don't hear that deepness when Americans speak fast.
I thought a walk would always draw attention.
But it's there.
I thought a walk would always draw attention.
We don't have the luxury of taking those shortcuts.
Excellent work.
Now, are you ready for the big test?
We're gonna get everything we learned, shake them all up.
Let's do these structured sentences and see how well your body can identify these new sounds you just learned.
Here we go.
Do you know if the bar is open on Saturday?
Do you hear all those sounds?
Do you know, remember that one?
If the bar there's that aw sound is oh, remember that one open on Saturday, on sat, saturday again, i'm going extreme, just so your body is able to go.
Oh, i remember that.
See if we could try it again a little more in real time.
See if we could flow in and out of these new sounds we made.
Do you know if the bar is open on saturday?
Little more real time.
Do you know if the bar is open on Saturday?
There you go.
We don't catch this stuff because Americans speak so fast.
Do you know if the bar is open on Saturday?
But it's there.
We have to slow it down, lift up the hood, look underneath, and see where these sounds resonate.
Good job.
Next one.
My co-worker called in absent today.
You hear those sounds?
My co-workers called in absent today.
O-A-S.
Excellent.
Good work.
A little more real time.
My coworker called an absent today.
Beautiful.
Let's try this next one.
Always open the car door for Alex.
Always.
There's that big deep sound we did.
Oh, oh.
Remember that?
Open the ca.
Remember that one?
Into the er.
The car-er.
Do-er.
For Alex.
Once again, slow falling into these sounds.
Always open the car door for Alex.
So once you've learned how to physicalize these sounds, Then the next step is how we flow through these sounds, how we flow up here to down here, then type back here and then don't, it's air flow.
And this is the stuff that a lot of action reduction coaches don't do.
They just follow the repeat after me.
Well, that doesn't work.
Repeating after somebody is great, but it's temporary.
This stuff, forever.
You just got to put in the work.
So use this practice video, as well as the other ones on my channel, to make these American sounds the new normal for your body.
