"Horatius" by Thomas Babington Macaulay

[marnanel]

Me, reciting "Horatius" by Thomas Babington Macaulay. Feedback welcome. Hope you enjoy it.

Comments

[wordweaverlynn]

You have a lovely voice -- thanks!

[treeowl]

Positives: Great facial expressions, exciting body language, and emotionally intense delivery.

Things to work on: I must admit I couldn't understand the text. It was too fast (like Shakespearean acting), and indistinct. My auditory processing ability is not the greatest, and the webcam-quality video doesn't allow for supplementary lip-reading.

Breath technique was poor: I could hear you gasping with each breath. Try breathing in through mouth and nose simultaneously. Also try holding yourself in a balanced forward position so air intake is accomplished by relaxing the abdominal muscles rather than tensing the intercostals.

[marnanel]

Thank you for the helpful and detailed feedback!

I was going fast because was worried I was going to run out of time, which is silly, really.

What you say about breath technique is really interesting: I had to go and see an ENT surgeon last week because they're worried about apnoea. I certainly need to work on this.

[treeowl]

I've been taking singing lessons for fun the last couple years, and I must say they've been most interesting. Breath and posture just keep coming up over and over again—it's easy to forget them in the moment and slide into bad habits, but it's also easy to get back on track! The sensation of standing and breathing correctly is really quite relaxing.

[hitchhiker]

why so fast? there were some nice passages, but it felt more rushed than anything else; i've always felt the poem called more for a weighty "measured tread" approach.

[marnanel]

You're right :( I wasn't sure how much time YouTube would give me, and I worried I'd go over. Silly, really.