Hi, everyone. In this video, you'll learn about  American English Placement. American English  

placement. Have you heard of that term before  - placement? It means the place in your body  

where your voice resonates - the center of your  voice. That might sound vague, but I promise you,  

placement is a real thing. When I work with  accent clients, sometimes their pronunciation  

is good - they have the correct lip placement,  tongue placement, and jaw placement - but still,  

something sounds different, and that’s  almost always the placement of their voice.

American English placement is low - it’s down  here, in the upper chest. Not up here in the  

face or nose. And for some of you, your native  language might have a higher placement than  

American English, so when you speak American  English, the overall quality of your voice  

sounds different than an American’s, even if your  lips, jaw, and tongue are in the correct position.

Even different varieties of English  have different placements. When I  

hear people speak English who are from  the UK, South Africa, or New Zealand,  

it sounds like they have a higher  placement than American English,  

maybe somewhere up here in their mouth or in their  nose. American English is low, open, and relaxed.

Before I discuss how to achieve  an American English placement,  

I want to go over a few terms and some  basic throat and mouth anatomy so you can  

have a better understanding of what’s going on  inside of your body when you work on placement.

This is a drawing of the inside of the nose,  mouth, and throat. I’ll point out a few landmarks.  

This is the tongue, this is the jaw, the teeth,  and the lips. This dark area here is the inside  

of the mouth. This dark area on the top is  the nasal cavity, or the inside of the nose.  

And this dark area here is the inside of  the throat. The inside of the throat has  

a special name; it’s called the pharynx,  but you can just refer to it as the throat.

This dark area here is the vocal cords,  

and the vocal cords are located inside of  the throat, just behind the Adam’s apple.  

If you keep following this tube downward, it leads  to the lungs, which you can’t see in this picture.

When you speak, the air travels up from the  lungs and goes between the vocal cords and  

causes them to vibrate. This is where the  sound of your voice comes from. Say AHHH,  

and put your hand on your throat. You will feel a  vibration - that’s coming from your vocal cords.

The vocal cords are responsible for giving you  the pitch of your voice - is it a high pitch,  

a low pitch, or a pitch that goes up and down.  You can also think of the pitch of your voice as a  

musical note on a piano. This pitch is higher than  this pitch, or this note is higher than this note.

The reason why the inside of the throat, mouth,  and nose is shaded in a darker color is because  

these areas are open spaces. Look in a mirror  and open your mouth. You’ll see a big open space,  

except for the space that is taken up by the  tongue, teeth, and the roof of the mouth.  

Everything else is open. That’s why this is  called the oral cavity - oral meaning mouth,  

and cavity meaning an open space. You also have  a nasal cavity - the open space inside your nose,  

and the pharynx, which is the  open space inside your throat.

Now, let’s go back to the mouth to show  another example. Look in a mirror and  

open your mouth wide. Now close your mouth to  make it small. You just changed the shape of  

your mouth - you made it big and open, and then  you made it small. How did you do that? Well,  

you used the muscles of the mouth to pull the  mouth open or to contract the mouth smaller.

Just like the mouth is surrounded by muscles,  so is the inside of the nose and the inside of  

the throat. So think of these open  spaces as being surrounded by thin  

layers of muscles. You can make the spaces  larger by relaxing the muscles and opening  

them up. Or you can make the spaces smaller by  tensing the muscles and making them contract.  

And notice, too, how the spaces here are all  connected. The nose connects to the mouth,  

and those connect to the throat. It’s one big open  space. We call this open space the vocal tract.

Ok, I hope that illustration helped you  to understand how it looks on the inside  

of your mouth and throat, because now  we’re going to get to the good part.

The placement of the voice is controlled by  the muscles that surround the nose, mouth,  

and throat. A voice that has a high placement,  something like this, AAA, means that the muscles  

are tensed, and the entire system is smaller and  lifted. And a voice that has a lower placement,  

something like this, AAA, means that the  muscles are relaxed, and the entire system  

is open and lower. That’s the American  placement - a low, open, relaxed sound,  

which means the entire vocal system is also low  and relaxed - the mouth and throat are open.

So you want to relax the muscles inside  the mouth and throat so those open cavities  

can become larger, and allow the voice box,  this area here that houses the vocal cords,  

to relax and be low. This will help to give  your voice a nice, rich, low resonant quality.

I’m going to demonstrate how to change the  placement of your voice. I’ll use the vowel,  

AH, but you can use any vowel you want.  My voice will stay on the same pitch,  

so I’m not just using a high pitch and a low  pitch - I’m going to stay on the same pitch,  

but the quality of my voice will change.  And to make sure I stay on the same pitch,  

I’m going to use this pitch app called  Pitched Tuner, and it’s going to show  

the pitch of my voice so you’ll be able to  see if I'm changing the pitch up or down.

So here’s my normal pitch and  normal placement: AHHH. Ok,  

so my pitch is an A3. I'm going to  stay on that pitch, or close to it,  

but you’ll notice how the quality of  my voice will change. OK, here goes.

OK, so here’s what a nasal placement would sound  like. A forward mouth placement. A back mouth  

placement. And a chest or throat placement. Could  you hear the difference in the quality? To do  

that, I was changing the muscles inside my mouth  and throat - the muscles that you can’t see - but  

I changed the shape of my entire vocal system, and  that is what changed the placement of my voice.

Now, let’s move on to the placement exercises. Here are a few exercises to help you achieve a  

low, relaxed, open American placement. First,  you can do some general relaxation exercises to  

relax your face, jaw, tongue, shoulders, and  upper body. Maybe take a few deep breaths,  

roll your shoulders up and back a few times,  and allow your jaw to open and hang loose.

Now, imagine that your voice is coming from  here. Of course, the vocal cords are higher  

in the throat, and that is where the  sound source of the voice comes from,  

but you need to use your imagination and  visualize that your voice is actually  

coming from right here - your mouth is right  here. Use the vowel, Uhh, to bring your voice  

down and relax. Uhh. Uhhh. Now glide your  voice down on a scale as you hum - a nice,  

relaxing hum. Hmmm. There’s no tension - it’s  not - Hmmmmm, it’s hhmmmmm. Nice and relaxed.  

Put your hand on your upper chest and feel your  voice resonating here as you glide down. Hmmmm.

Now say a word, like, hey, and feel your voice  

resonate down to your upper chest  as your voice glides down. Hey. Hey.

Now start to play around with your voice - play  around with the placement - so you can feel what  

it’s like to have a higher, nasal placement - Hey,  hey - with the tongue high in the mouth and the  

upper muscles of the throat and mouth tensed.  Or a front mouth placement - hey, hey - with  

the tongue placed forward in the mouth and the  lips pulled back. Or a back of mouth placement  

- hey hey - with the tongue pulled back into the  mouth, and the mouth and throat open. And now a  

lower throat or chest placement, hey, hey - with  the tongue lower, and the jaw and throat relaxed.

I hope this video helped you to understand  the concept of voice placement, and how to  

achieve a low, open, and relaxed  American placement in your voice.

Thanks so much for watching! And let me know  how I can help you find your American placement!