My favorite part about my new online video course, The General American Accent Course Pack for Brits, are the “Pitfalls” videos. As an American accent coach who has been based in London and coaching UK-based actors in this accent for the last 8 years, I’ve honed my awareness of the typical traps that Brits tend to fall into when trying to sound authentically American that can really give away the accent.
Some of those pitfalls might be obvious, like forgetting to add your R sounds. But even the R sound dilemma can be more complicated, as while sometimes Brits forget to add their R’s, they also add R’s where they don’t necessarily belong. And some UK-based actors (or even actors from places close to the UK, like Southern Ireland) remember to pronounce their R’s because they pronounce them in their own accent— but the issue is— it’s a different sounding R! They try to place their own R in an American sound and it just doesn’t work.
And some pitfalls might be less obvious to a Brit, but very obvious to an American, like adding a little yod sound in certain words where Americans wouldn’t: pronouncing a word like “student” as “styudent” instead of like “stoodent.” That’s an immediate red flag, and something that many Brits don’t even notice they’re doing.
So in the course, as you’re learning how to find an authentic General American accent in your own voice, there are “Pitfalls” videos along the way that make you aware of these common traps and give you tools for avoiding them.
This free sample lesson is one of those pitfalls videos. I talk about a common mistake Brits make, which is to take the resonance of a General American accent too nasal. This makes you sound like a caricature. In this course, you’ll learn in-depth how to find the General American resonance without falling into that trap.
Have I got you curious? To purchase or find out more about the course, click here.
For the first two weeks only, take advantage of an EARLY BIRD discount, where you can purchase this course, which includes just over 3 hours of video content that you can watch and re-watch at your own time, in your own pace, a written accent breakdown, mp3s of practice sentences and text, AND a live 30-minute coaching session with me via Zoom, for $169.
Please share with anyone you think would be interested and if you have other questions, don’t hesitate to reach out.