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Access Accents  By  cover art

Access Accents

By: Gwyneth Strong, Penny Dyer
Narrated by: Penny Dyer, Denise Gough
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Publisher's summary

Access Accents bring the highly sought-after voice techniques of top voice coach Penny Dyer to the actor's audio device. They offer a unique opportunity to prepare for auditions at short notice.

Included in this programme:

  • A description of the accent and region
  • Examples of resident speakers
  • Penny Dyer and actor Denise Gough working on the accent and text
  • Practice sentences
  • The text example

Penny Dyer is an internationally renowned Voice and Dialect coach and a leading specialist in theatre, film, and TV work.

Gwyneth Strong is an actress known especially for her role as Cassandra in Only Fools and Horses and for a wide range of contemporary theatre and TV work.
©2007 Gwyneth Strong and Penny Dyer (P)2007 2007 Methuen Drama

What listeners say about Access Accents

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • BG
  • 10-04-07

Wonderful resource

It's a wonderful opportunity to hear RP being discussed by an English acting coach and an Irish actress. This is much more helpful than learning RP from an American teacher, no matter how well trained. The British discussion gives an insight you'll never get from listening to American discussions -- not just the How's of the accent, but lots of the Why's. For example, I had never heard that the reason the tongue stays low in the mouth for RP is that for many years English society held that it was vulgar for the tongue to be visible even during speech.

There is one unfortunate thing about this Audible release: they refer several times to the information in the "booklet that accompanies this disc" (including mentioning that the practice sentences can be found in the booklet), but, of course, there is no booklet available for the Audible version.

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19 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Theory over Practice

What would have made Access Accents better?

There should have been more examples of Received Pronunciation that gave readers the chance to practice it.

What could Gwyneth Strong and Penny Dyer have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

They should have directed the book toward the listener.This was a recorded conversation of two academics talking to each other.

How could the performance have been better?

The participants should have considered the interests of the audience not their own.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Not really.

Any additional comments?

This audiobook is a waste of time for actors trying to become more adept at Received Pronunciation. Save your money

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

This audio recording is offensively bad.

This audio recording forces you to listen to a "lesson" in Received Pronunciation where the "student" is an actress with a strong native Irish accent. The "student" and "teacher" spend most of the time in a meandering chat that is NOT in Received Pronunciation. We then hear the actress improve her RP accent very slightly so that by the end of the recording she merely has a bad RP accent, as opposed to an outrageously bad RP accent. There are precisely give minutes of practice words, phrases, and sentences in good RP at the very end of the recording. This is an absolutely worthless recording and one that will not teach you anything useful.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Very Practical

As advertised, this title is aimed at the preson who understands the basics of the RP already, and needs pointers on how to produce the sound naturally. It is extrememly useful for anyone who does not want to sound like some annoying spinster aunt, or Carol Burnett's stage RP. She's being hysterical; you want to sound as if you went to Oxford.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Dissappointing

For something that cost $13.00, I expected this course to be more instructional and less opinionated. If it had cost $5.00 I'd have given it a 4, but as it is, it just won't do.

The interview playback was also a waste of time, and consider it was an hour program, I wanted it to be one hour of intensive instruction, but alas it is not to be.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Not a training but...

What disappointed you about Access Accents?

This really isn't a training resource. Granted if you are careful enough and born British can pick-up few pointers to add one or two nuances to your range but, as I said it is not a training tape

What didn’t you like about Penny Dyer and Denise Gough ’s performance?

performance was fine, it just wasn't what it is advertised as

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Useful auditory lesson…

And delivered in an interesting conversation. Their dialogue holds my interest and makes it easy to absorb the lessons.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Good content, zero organization

This book is specifically about English accents.

It is short, but also concise so thats not really a bad thing.

however there is no aparent organization to the book, not so much as chapter numbers, it just kind of flows from one thing to another with almost no context.

still, very helpful content if youre trying to pick up one of several english accents, and you can learn useful techniques for picking up other accents or changing your own speech patterns.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant.

Loved it. It is beautiful to listen to. Practicing the exercises is easy. If you are looking to improve your English, this is good.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

And where is the booklet?

A bit unfortunate that the booklet that is referred often in the recording is missing.

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