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THE
MORRISON BONE PROP (MBP)
BENEFITS OF USING A MORRISON BONE-PROP * accelerates the acquisition of articulatory agility * slows speech rate for more effective communication
* increases space within oral cavity - enhancing resonance * helps correct tongue carriage imbalance * encourages forward placement * encourages lip and tongue muscularity * corrects habit of opening mouth too wide
* helps the actor, singer, public speaker maintain a high
* helps children and adolescents understand the principles
* helps voice coaches, speech and language therapists and
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HISTORY In the autumn of 2003 Annie decided she'd had enough of exercising her students' tongues using the "two finger drop" (literally two fingers inserted between the teeth) and that it was time to bring back the good old-fashioned bone prop. This decision was further reinforced by the observation that students who had mastered the advanced vocal technique demanded by classical texts (i.e.; Jacobean and shakespearian), seemed to be having difficulty applying this to modern dramatic text. The use of the bone prop died out in the 1970's along with the notion of the "voice beautiful"and the thrust of voice teaching became that of freeing the actor's voice in dynamic relationship to the truth of the text. It was still possible to buy a bone prop in London, but generally voice teachers were advocating the use of corks, until the evidence that this resulted in jaw tension caused a shift to that of fingers. Andrew Wade, voice coach at the RSC told Annie they used corks because of the need to produce strong, muscular speech quickly was paramount. All sorts of things have been tried from bits of raw plug to ballpoint pens and even sawn off ends of old toothbrushes. However jaw tension is an inevitable and highly undesirable side-effect, either because they have to be held in place by the teeth, or because they hold the teeth in place.
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THE MORRISON BONE PROP IS BORN Frustrated in her attempt to find a decent bone prop, a vision of them - all different colours, fun as well as functional, aesthetically pleasing - came to Annie, along with the idea that she would have to find a way of getting them made. Some clients need help with their speech after having had lingual braces fitted, so Annie contacted the dental technician who made the braces and asked him to make the props according to her specific design. The exciting thing was, he could indeed produce them in a range of fabulous colours ! |
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* having a teeth-groove wide enough to allow the prop to remain between the teeth without being held * being big enough to exercise the tongue etc. without causing the jaw to open too wide thereby reducing oro-pharyngeal resonating space * having a teeth-groove wide enough to allow for wide variation in individual dentition and bite. The other important criteria considered essential are: * hygeine - using dental acrylic means they are safe to use in the mouth and can be cleaned * they are attached to a ribbon strong enough to avoid choking should the prop be inhaled * they are slim enough to avoid impeding the lips during production of bi-labial sounds and lip-rounded * they have a surface smooth enough to avoid irritating the inner surface of the lips * durability - as they are hand-made and therefore not cheap, they need to last a long time. |
