Learning a new accent is a great way to improve your resume and enhance your accent skills. It can make you more castable and eligible for more roles.
Accent acquisition can be tricky to know where to start, which is why I’ve put together this guide on how to learn accents for actors, focusing on effective accent training techniques.
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Choose An Accent To Learn
One of the first things you need to do in your accent training journey is think about what accent you want to learn. When considering accents to do, it’s crucial to perform an accent analysis to determine which ones align with your career goals.
It can be a great idea to think about what characters you are likely to be cast as, or what characters you want to play.
For instance, do you look like you have heritage from a certain part of the world? Do you really want to play upper-class characters in period pieces? East-end gangsters?
Have a think about the characters you may end up auditioning for in order to focus your efforts on an accent that will work for you.
This could range from a French accent to a Northern English accent, depending on your casting type.
Also, consider where you’re from. Many casting directors now like to cast actors that are authentically from the same region the character is from.
So, it can be worth looking at other accents that are in your region. For instance, if you’re from the Midlands, can you perfect your Herefordshire, your Birmingham and your Staffordshire accents?
Thinking of your accent learning goals in relation to your casting goals will help you find purpose in your work, and build a career that works for you.
Give Yourself Six Weeks
It has been said that it takes about six weeks to learn how to do an accent well. So, try to give yourself at least six weeks to master your accent.
This means focused and concentrated practice of how to learn accents for actors, including mastering the oral posture and rhythm changes specific to your chosen accent.
It can be a good idea to make weekly and daily goals for approaching your accent learning. Why not take the suggestions in this article and incorporate them into your plan?
It can be a great idea to do a little bit each day as you work on your accent acquisition.
Get An Accent Coach
One of the best ideas when it comes to how to learn accents for actors is to get an accent coach. These acting coaches are experts in the field and will be able to give you direct feedback on your work.
If you’re in the UK, you might consider finding an accent coach in London, while those in the US might look for an American accent coach.
If you’re looking to really perfect an accent and improve your accent performance to a high standard, then getting a coach will definitely help you to achieve this. It can also help to speed up your accent proficiency.
The feedback coaches provide can be invaluable. They will be able to point out any errors you’re making and advise you on setting them right. You don’t want to be practising an accent wrong!
While getting an accent coach is the best way to learn an accent, it can be pricy. You may simply want to save this for before an audition where you need to use your chosen accent.
Let’s explore some other, more cost-effective ways to learn a language.
Get A Book On Accents
There are some great books on accent learning out there that can give you some crucial pointers in your learning. These books often serve as a comprehensive accent course, helping you master various accent techniques.
Accent books will help you to break down the phonetics of the language. They will clearly break down the specific sounds you need to pay attention to in the accent.
Many books on accents will also come with a CD, so you are able to listen to the accents, hear the phonetic sounds out loud, and practice along with the material.
Some even offer a British accent course or focus on specific regional accents.
Some of the best books for learning accents are:
How To Do Accents by Edda Sharpe and Jan Hadyn Rowles
Accents: A Manuel For Actors by Robert Blumenfeld
Accents and Dialects for Stage and Screen by Paul Meier
A quick search will also help you to find books and audiobooks entirely focused on specific accents, such as a General American accent or Southern Standard English accent.
Purchase An Online Course
There are also online courses you can purchase in order to help you in your accent studies. These are available at a range of prices and will provide plenty of information on your accents.
Many offer a comprehensive English accent course or focus on specific accents like Cockney or Northern English.
Courses often include guided pronunciation audios and phonetic information so you are able to really get to grips with the accent.
Some even offer accent reduction training for those looking to neutralize their native accent.
Some of the best resources for online accent courses are:
Listen To Native Speakers
One of the absolute best ways to get used to what an accent sounds like and ensure accent authenticity is to listen to native speakers.
There are certain things, such as intonation and rhythm, that can be hard to grip unless you have been raised as a native speaker of an accent.
Listening to a native speaker can help you get to grips with the intrinsic qualities of an accent that may otherwise be hard to convey.
This is particularly important when learning distinct accents like a French accent or a Northern English accent.
When you find resources for listening to accents, try to avoid fictional films unless you can be sure that all of the actors are actually native speakers of that accent.
You don’t want to confuse yourself by listening to someone else not doing an accent quite right.
It can be a great idea to look into people from the area and listen to them speak. Remember that accents change over time, so think about the time period of the accent, too.
If you want to learn a Cockney accent from the 60s, it will be quite different from the Cockney accent of today. So, try to find a speaker from the period you’re looking at, if possible.
The absolute best resource for this is the International Dialects of English Archive. This is the largest collection of recordings of various accents and dialects of English language speakers.
Here, you will be able to find some fantastic resources for listening to your chosen accent.
Practice, Practice, Practice
So, you have your resources. You have your books, your courses, your coach, and you’ve been listening to your chosen accent non-stop. Now what?
Now, you need to practice actually speaking in the accent! This is where you’ll apply all the accent techniques you’ve learned and work on your accent performance.
A big part of how to learn accents for actors is using muscle memory and allowing the mouth to get used to make certain shapes and sounds.
Think of it like learning a dance routine. The more we practice physically, the easier it is for our body to just do it without having to think too much.
So, try to practice your accent as often as possible. Here are some ideas for how you might want to do that:
- Practice example sentences that feature prominent sounds in the accent (books and courses will often provide these for you)
- Read a newspaper article out loud
- Read a page or two of a book out loud
- Narrate something you’re doing in the accent, such as cooking or your morning routine
- Have a conversation with a friend in the accent
- Order something in a restaurant in your accent
- Speak for a whole day in your accent! (For the really committed)
Speaking to others in your accent, especially strangers, is a great way to commit to doing the accent as accurately as possible. No one wants to be caught out doing a funny voice, do they?
Try to practice your accent every day, if you can. This way, you will get used to speaking in it, and your mouth will find it easier to make the shapes it needs to.
Practice Even More!
So, you’ve learned your accent. You’ve practised it for six weeks, you know your accent inside out, and you sound like a real native speaker.
What now?
Practice more!
Accents can be easy to forget. We can even lose our muscle memory for them if we don’t practice them.
It’s really important to stay on top of them if we put the accents we learn on our resume. No one wants to be called in to audition only to be asked to do an accent we learned last year and haven’t practiced in months.
So, try to put accent practice on your weekly schedule. Practice reading some text aloud in the accent each week, just to keep on top of it and keep it fresh in your mind.
(Tip: Make sure to change the text your read each time, so you’re practicing a variety of different words and sounds in the accent. This will help maintain your accent skills and boost your accent confidence.)
What If I Don’t Have Time To Do All This?
Making an accent a skill you are confident in is a great idea so you can add it to your CV and submit yourself to jobs that require this skill.
However, sometimes we may have to record a self tape using an accent we don’t have much experience in.
So, what do we do when we need to learn accents in a pinch?
Check out Heidi Dean’s amazing video on how to learn an accent – fast!
Summing Up How To Learn An Accent For Actors
There you go – that’s your foolproof guide to how to learn accents for actors. By approaching an accent using these tools, you will be able to learn an accent accurately enough to put in on your resume.
It’s all about feeling confident enough so that you know you can go into an audition room and give your best accent delivery at a moment’s notice.
It’s a really good idea to try and add accents to your resume, as they can really expand what roles you are able to play.
Whether it’s mastering a General American accent or perfecting your Cockney, these accent skills can significantly boost your castability.
Break a leg in your accent learning, and always remember to play and have fun as you go!
