How To Master (Or Reduce) Any Accent with Dialect Coach Will Van Moss

Have an accent you can’t seem to get rid of? Need to learn a new accent for a role you got cast in? Actor and dialect coach Will Van Moss shares how singers can approach accents with more confidence and a stronger sense of identity. We explore how rhythm, pitch, and the articulators affect the way we sound—and how language can shape emotion in the voice.

Will also breaks down why most performers freeze when working in a new dialect, and how to move past the pressure to “get it right.”

Whether you're working on a role, exploring vocal flexibility, or navigating multiple languages in your artistry, this conversation is full of insight.

📍Mentioned Resource: follow Will @willvanmoss and check out his website here https://www.willvanmoss.com/coaching

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👉 Want to know exactly what your voice needs to improve? Get a vocal evaluation from our professional coaches here: https://lessons.voxtapestudios.com/vocal-evaluation

👉 Book a 1:1 session with Coach Lara: https://lessons.voxtapestudios.com/trial-lesson

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
if I wanted to sound more German
because that's what people always ask me
what can I what can I do to sound
maybe can you just speak in a German accent
can you so for the German accent
first of all we want to do the zzz
for the zzz the t h
yeah
and then we kind of can like
break it down'cause when we do the exaggerated version
we know all the differences
and then we can soften them a little bit if needed
yeah so th is sound like Z Z um

(00:23):
you wanna do what is called a non rhotic accent
meaning the RS are not pronounced
so they say four
yeah 4 instead of 4
yes right
um when we do that
um that non rhotic
or you also wanna make it a diff song
which usually in American we don't do
um and then you wanna drop the pitch

(00:44):
it's funny cause the more I've done accent work
the more I'm like oh
this is also vocal work because there's so many like
pitch changes pitch differences yes
uh from accent to accent
let's say something
hi I'm Lara and I'm here in the studio
okay okay
so hi
my name is Lara I'm here in the studio
hi my name is Lara
I'm here in the studio good

(01:06):
not bad yeah hahaha
hey Vox Star and welcome to from singer to artist
I'm Lara Chapman
award winning singer and songwriter turned viral
vocal coach and the host of this show
at VoxTape Studios

(01:27):
we help singers from all over the world
level up their voices
by teaching them the 3 fundamental skills
all singers need technique
awareness and artistry whether you're looking to go pro
or just develop your voice for fun
my team and I are here to help
check the link in the description
to book your first session
or grab some of our other resources
Alrighty are you ready

(01:47):
let's get started we are back in New York City
this time with a very old friend of mine
and a dialect coach too
welcome Will Van Moss
which I Learned is
a very short version of your actual name
yes yes
yes I did
I did not know that
I've known you for 10 years and I had no clue
what's your full full name

(02:08):
my full name oh
including the middle ones
okay it's very long
it's kind of like you know how uh
some Mexican or Spanish speaking people
yes they usually have like multiple middle names
we kind of have the same thing in Belgium
okay so my full name is William Yan
Martha Marie van Mossaveldah
and that's said the American way haha wow

(02:31):
how do you say it cause you originally speak Dutch
I speak Dutch that's my first language
um in Dutch
you would say William Jan Martha Marie van Mosselveld
OK
Martha Marie yes
that's my
so we get the name of our godmother and our godfather
wow and then for some reason

(02:51):
like my family has like a suffix
like a extra part with Marie
my mom said something about like us
because like
we came from nobility back in the long days ago yeah
that it's just kind of stuck around
that is so interesting yeah
wow and then you look at my nephew
my my brother's son he's just Finn Mulder done hahaha

(03:15):
easy no middle name no nothing
it's super short it's very a lot of like uh
ink on the passport it's sure
mine is always like this long
and they actually have to shorten my name yes
so usually they go William J M
and then sometimes they don't even do the second m yeah
and then Ven Mosalva
cause that's already a huge last name yes

(03:35):
so yeah well
will Ven Mos nice and short
the shortened American version well
you actually you told me that you picked up that
you know shortened name in England
I did yeah
so I went to college at UCL in London
and a lot of my friends obviously couldn't say my name

(03:56):
yeah
and I was already known as will back back in school
so that kind of stuck around but then I was like
because I was performing a lot in London um
they were like we can't use your full name
like no one's gonna be able to pronounce it
and I was like just use Van Moss
that's
that's shortened and that's gonna be my artist name
and it just kind of stuck
and yeah

(04:16):
everywhere I've been in like English speaking countries
it's Van Moss yeah
shortened yeah
well you moved around a lot
you're did you were you born in Belgium
I was born in Belgium I was born in Antwerp in Belgium
okay live there for 14 years then we moved to Italy uh
when I was 14 uh huh
my dad uh
got a job there so we had to move school was bad there

(04:38):
so after about 6 7 months we moved back to Belgium okay
uh did another year or so in school
and then we moved back to Italy
cause my dad was still stationed in Italy at the time
for his job so he flew back and forth and um
they eventually found a really good school
a European school in Vaduz
so we found a really good school um

(05:00):
in Vaduz
closest to his border and it's European school
so you can have your first language
or most of the first languages in Europe are
being taught there uh
either as a first language or as a second language
so I got to be in a Dutch speaking part of the
the school wow
um but everyone intermingled the Italians

(05:21):
the French the English speakers
the Portuguese the Spanish
everyone was just kind of intermingled
and we had classes that overlapped and like
intermingled um
I did all of my sciences in English
I did history and geography in English too
so I was already speaking English from a very young age
yeah um
but yeah I don't know where we went with that story

(05:41):
no
it's just so fascinating for me to see like
it makes so much sense
that you're a dialects coach now
yes because you were always around
so many different languages
what languages do you yourself speak English
I speak English Dutch French
Italian a little bit of Spanish
a little bit of German and now I'm learning Japanese

(06:04):
Japanese why
because uh
we're going to Japan for a nice little trip
me and my partner and I was like
I have to I have to learn it
cause there's so many people that come back from Japan
and they're like no one spoke English
and I was like oh okay
yeah let me go learn it
and it's actually been really fun
it's it's easier than I thought
I was like oh
all these characters are really hard

(06:24):
but it's not okay
and maybe did that's just my like dialect coaching
like yeah
your language brain is like
oh it's not that hard
yeah you're just
you're like my brother
my brother also speaks a ton of languages
he did high school bilingual
like English and German yeah
uh and he's a race car driver
so he is around all these different languages

(06:46):
all the time he was racing for a Portuguese team
like a Brazilian team owner
not the the team wasn't necessarily Brazilian
but the owner of the team was Brazilian yeah
and so he picked up Portuguese and I was like awesome
oh you're making me look like such a bad European
hahaha yeah
that's always the joke like oh
you're European you speak like five languages and yeah

(07:07):
you do you do
I do not I like I told you earlier
I had French in school for nine years
I don't remember a thing just like Bonjour
je m'appelle Lara and and that's about it
and people always say like
how do you not speak French
your accent is actually really good and I'm like
I have a good ear yeah
but and like
I know what to change in my mouth to make the sounds

(07:27):
yeah come out without like a crazy thick accent yeah
but I just I don't have the vocabulary anymore
I haven't used it in over 10 years yeah
use it or lose it exactly
that's that's for everything
even it with um bunch of my clients
if they picked up an accent and they don't use it
I'm always like use it in your everyday
like go to Starbucks and order something

(07:49):
in a Scottish accent yeah
like Scottish Scottish
get a nice grande yeah
like
you know oh my God
I love that kind of stuff
I'm always tell them like if you're practicing
practice it in real life don't don't just do the text
yeah because you're gonna get stuck to just the text
and if you then need to improvise in a scene or you

(08:12):
you just like fumble and you need to catch yourself
whether that's on stage or
or in a in a film yeah
you wanna be able to like play around
you know yeah
it's acting you play so if you don't use this every day
like you're gonna lose it obviously
like I don't use all my accents every day
cause I speak over I
I can do over 30 different accents
oh my god but yeah

(08:34):
um but that's something sometimes I'm like
okay let me do use this or like
let me practice this or you know wow
that is so cool yeah
before we get into all the different accents
and how you help people with uh
with accent coaching
cause like it's something that we see in singing too
not just in acting but also you know
when you're singing in a different language uh

(08:56):
you know maybe you're not a native English speaker
but you wanna sing in English
or you're a native English speaker
but you wanna sing in Spanish or whatever right
like it's all like mouth shapes and yes
you know a lot more than I do
so before we get all into all of this stuff um
let's quickly tell everybody how we actually met
oh yes
which was 10 years ago in this very beautiful city

(09:17):
New York I miss it dearly
I try and travel here all the time
and we both went to the New York Film Academy
to study musical theater yes
we did so that was 10 years ago
we were never in the same class
no no
no no
we were never were you're in section D
I have no idea and I was in section A

(09:37):
I don't remember yeah
what it was called I think in the first year
they like separated us by like singing
acting ability
and then like we had separate dance groups
yeah like whatever that was
yeah and then yeah
the and then dancing ability was the last one
so it was like and then yeah
there I was in group 2 out of four
so I was not a very good dancer

(09:58):
you were you in group 4 yes
yeah of course you were
it's funny cause they put me when
when we auditioned cause I
I don't know if you remember
but we had to audition for like
being put in the dance groups
yeah and the first
when they did the audition
they put me in Group 3 and I was like okay
like I guess like that's fine

(10:18):
and then I did Group 3 and Michelle
the she saw how I danced and she's like
you're in the wrong group will
oh really
and I was like yeah
this is too easy and she's like
let me see if I can bump you up to Group 4 really
and somehow someone said like they made of the
might have made like a mistake in

(10:39):
in the the
like
grading or maybe got someone else's paper for mine
and yeah and it was funny
cause like in group 4 I was like
ah this is much more to my liking and like interesting
so much easier interesting
I was so my ego was so hurt that I was in group 2
and I was like I was vocal about it too
cause I was a cocky little bitch
like I was like why am I in group 2

(11:02):
I have a lot of dance backgrounds
like I haven't really like I was never a good dancer
but you know
I took dance classes because I wanted to get better
before because of
you know musical theater school
yeah and um
I did ballet as a kid and was really good yeah
but then you know
as a kid and as an adult
is something completely different
yeah and so I was like
why am I in this group I am better than this

(11:24):
I should be in Group 3
I was not expecting to be Group 4
like I was not that delulu yeah
but I really wanted to be in Group 3
yeah yeah
yeah uh
but then do you remember Chad
yes of course
uh Chad was kind of like yeah
you're you're at the top of Group 2
and so you know
he was like
you're the only one that can do a triple pirouette
that's true and I remember this yeah
and he said like

(11:45):
some people in Group 3 can't do a triple pirouette
but that's just like one thing
you know it's like
that's so you know
I wish it it
I don't know if he was just being nice
he was trying to like stroke your ego
yes he was like
you're really really good at doing triple pirouettes
but Chad is not the kind of person that like bullshits
like no
that's true he's pretty real with you
yeah so yeah
now my ego is just bruised

(12:06):
cocky little bitch you know hahaha
but it happens it is what it is
yeah um
but yeah that's
that's how we met we did
is in musical theater school
so I Learned so much about your background
that I had no idea that you were an opera yes
yes oh
so let's rewind when I was a kid
my mom put me in like a a boys choir

(12:28):
um
and that really informed a lot of my artistic endeavors
afterwards so I
I really excelled in singing in the boys choir
and then she was like oh
there's like auditions for the opera happening
you should totally do it and I was a little like
I think 10 years old I think I was wow
and I was like ah
I don't wanna be in the opera stupid

(12:49):
like stuffy annoying opera
no one goes to see it like yeah
I was like this is ridiculous
and then she made me do the audition
which I sang like a gospel song
cause a year before with the boys choir
we had sang gospel with this famous gospel singer cool
called Leah something
I forgot her last name and they really liked it
and then yeah

(13:09):
I got into the the
the youth choir of the opera
we practice every week every Sunday
we had to drive from where we were living
all the way to the center of Antwerp um
and we practiced and then I did several operas
I did Carmen Rinaldo I did uh Tosca
we did the very first production of Richard the third
the opera um

(13:30):
and then we toured around all of Europe as well wow
yeah that is so cool
so you got started with boys choir
then opera then when you went to England
cause you did you do college in England
yes yeah
so actually if we wanna go into like
how I did musical theater and theater
when I was 14 I had to leave the

(13:51):
the opera cause also we were moving to Italy
exactly yeah
and there I didn't do anything for two years
I was just like I was a teenager
I was like yeah
I don't want to do anything
also like it was a new country
I didn't want to move to Italy in the first place
I had no friends cause we were in a very tiny school
and there was only 2 girls in my class
so I had no friends um

(14:12):
and then when I went back to Belgium
still didn't do anything
cause people had kind of moved on
you know how it's very frustrating
you see like even you've I've
I was only gone for seven months
and like a lot of my friends were like
oh yeah we've moved on and this this
this guy has that girlfriend
and that girl has that guy friend
and blah blah blah
I didn't do anything
and I still has a couple of friends

(14:32):
but I didn't do much of theater or anything
it was when I moved back to Italy when I was 16
uh my mom was like hey
do you do you wanna do some artistic stuff
cause I know you used to do opera like I was like
ah maybe like what can you suggest me
and she found this theater group
called the Benvenuta Players
which put on musicals pantomimes
plays and like all of that stuff

(14:54):
because I really wanted to do theater in school
but they didn't allow me because yes
they didn't allow me
because I was such a studious little boy
I already took 40 hours of classes
which was apparently the maximum okay
they're like you can't do more than 40 and I was like
but the theater class is on a Wednesday afternoon
when there's no other classes

(15:14):
like why am I not allowed to take it
yeah they're like uh
we'll see and then they never got back to me
and I never got to do it oh no
so went into the Benvenuto Players
got to learn a bunch like I'm so happy
they taught me how to do Shakespeare
pantomime uh musicals
all of that and it was really
really fun so when I was 17

(15:34):
I finally was like I wanna be an actor
you know this is fun
I love this this is what I wanna do
and my parents are like no
oh no no
you have to do a real um degree
yeah fair
cause for some reason being an actor
being in the arts is not a real thing according
it's bullshit um
but uh

(15:55):
they eventually came around
that story will come in a bit
um so went to UCLA
did a biochemistry degree
oh shit okay
which you know
in definitely not acting yeah yeah
so in uh
in the UK I was lucky enough
that degree only had 20 hours of classes a week
wow and a lot of the

(16:16):
the free time is spent on self study
is what they expect you to do
but I was like screw this
I'm in London like
let me do a bunch of theater and singing and all that
so I joined the UCL Musical Theater Society
the UCL Drama Society the UCL you Dance Society
all of that I was like
let me get this like I wanna do this
let me just do do do do do

(16:37):
and it got to a point where my parents were like
it seems like you're doing more of a theater degree
rather than your your science degree
and I was like oh
I wonder why
haha
but you know they were very
very nice about it they were like
as long as you like pass your degree and
and you you don't fail
and I did I I was very studious
I always passed
I was maybe like at the bottom of my class

(16:58):
but I always passed yeah
and I did a bunch of theater
I did a bunch of musicals
I did guys and dolls yeah
I did kiss of the Spider Woman
which we actually performed at the Edinburgh
Fringe Festival back in 2013
cool um
I did Romeo and Juliet I did um
Trojan Women a bunch of different shows
um and that really solidified my love for like oh

(17:22):
I wanna be an actor I wanna do musicals um
and then I applied for the New York Film Academy
and got in cool
so yeah wow
that's that
what did you say bio what biochemistry
yeah I actually my cause I switched degree three times
oh my god over three years
I went from biochemistry to molecular biology

(17:42):
cause I was like I hate the chemistry part
so let me just do the biology part then
I was so intrigued about like
the infectious part of the molecular biology
that I went into infectious diseases and immunology
that is my final degree
I have a bsc in Infectious Diseases and immunology
well okay
do you ever use that stuff now
no never
only to just do like be be a smart ass and be like

(18:03):
did you know the t cells does blah blah
blah blah
yeah I don't even know what the t cells are
I love it it's hilarious
but yeah I don't use that
so your heart it was really set on acting theater
yes of that
I was a big nerd yeah
that's all I watched all the movie musicals
I went to so many West End shows
and I was lucky enough that one of my roommates in my

(18:24):
like final year
she was also a big musical theater nerd
so yeah we went to see a bunch of shows together
cool and that's kind of how we bonded
and we ended up living here in New York together
cause she got into NYU nice
for um
art history degree okay cool
so yeah wow wow
so then you did NAIFA we did that two year program yep

(18:45):
uh which was both theater and film
yes which was really cool
I love that about NAIFA that we had to
the camera stuff too I thought it was so
so special cause I know I didn't want to do another
like four years hmm yeah
that's why I was like I don't want to
I don't wanna do a masters or
cause I'm not ready for a Masters
I wanna I don't wanna do a B E B a
cause that's gonna be four years or three years

(19:06):
depending on where you where you do it
so NAIFA was the perfect program actually for me
cause it was two years and I was like
oh I get to do film as well
that's awesome I've always wanted to do film and TV
yeah so yeah
and now 10 years later you're still in New York
you had to go back a little bit for visa issues
yup uh
cause we all know about that

(19:27):
foreigners no
yup
now you have a green card and you're a working actor
yes and dialect coach
yes so you've done off Broadway shows
you've done movies too you were on the night agent
right that's a series
TV series yeah
I was yeah
sorry like movie
TV series to me
that's all in the same film right
that's all in the same bracket for me yeah
totally different but I yes

(19:47):
thank you for correcting me
no you're good
and uh
so yeah
you've done a bunch of you know
like being on stage in front of the camera
but now also dialect coaching
so this is the part where I'm like
I'm super super
super curious about this
cause you know
people usually when they learn that I'm not from here
that I didn't learn English until I was in like
7th grade mm hmm

(20:08):
and English too is like when you learn it
like any any language
when you learn it in school
that doesn't really mean that
you really know the language
or anything and so
you know like yeah
I moved to the US 10 years ago and they're like
but you have no accent accent
mm hmm why
and I'm like that is a great question hahaha
I don't know I remember at NAIFA
I couldn't really do the the
the sound the th sound yeah

(20:29):
so I would like say mother and weather yeah
yeah instead of mother and weather
yeah um
but Cody Melbourne yes
would always one of our classmates uh
she would always like point it out
because I asked her to yes
I asked her to so she's like yeah
here this and this and this
and I'm like oh OK
OK OK
and so
now I don't really have a noticeable accent anymore

(20:50):
and people always ask me like
can you teach me and I'm like
no I don't know how to
I don't really know I don't have like the
you know that real
like knowledge behind it
yeah and that just shows you like
just because you know how to do something
doesn't necessarily mean you can teach it
yes absolutely
so
tell me more about your background with Dialect Coach
yes
so I don't know about you

(21:10):
but I was taught English in a British manner
so I spoke like formal RP British yeah
did you do did you get that as well
yeah we
we every just like all of our teachers had accents
so we were technically supposed to
have the British English in
in class yeah
you know like the spelling of like colors
yeah yeah yeah
like it would be like the British English
that's so typical Europe yeah

(21:32):
but like none of them like really had a British accent
it was just like a Swiss accent
oh yeah so funny yeah
um but yeah
so I was taught in a British manner
and when I moved here
I spoke British like formal RP modern RP yeah
estuary English as they call it sometimes now um
because I had also been in
in the UK for a good 3 years

(21:54):
and most of my friends were British
and so when I got here um
I spoke in a British accent
I don't even remember that
yes yes
I know and it's funny
cause I had a boyfriend at the time
and after we broke up and we saw each other again
he's like you speaking an American accent now
oh no way
it was the funniest thing
he was like that's so weird

(22:15):
you're changing I was like yes
so what different person yeah
so what happened is actually
um Bobby Cronin scared the shit out of us in a good way
okay he was like
if you guys don't adopt an American accent
it's gonna be very hard for you guys to book jobs
because you're limited
to the amount of jobs you can do

(22:36):
and I took that to heart I was like
he's absolutely right like
you know how teachers sometimes scare you
and you're like oh
but this was actually good
cause they were absolutely right
yes so I took that to heart
and then I just started pretending to be a valley girl
I was like oh my God
cause that's like the most
that was the most American accent I can think of yeah

(22:57):
and so I started doing that during the day
and at night I would practice
just on your own like
do you have any help with this or no
I just also did it in class
I was like hey guys
I'm gonna start like trying to do this American accent
I think a bunch of people were on board
and they were like yeah sure
like I'll help you out and it just kind of stuck
I was also fortunate enough then

(23:19):
um I think in second year when we did carousel
uh the musical
yeah at NAIFA
I also had a voice and speech coach
uh just for me
cause I was doing jigger uh huh
and jigger had to have this raspy voice and he
had to talk
cause he was smoking cigarettes all the time yeah
so um
she taught me it was Lauren Mack

(23:40):
I think their name is
I think they go by they don't know um
and they taught me how to do this
and they helped me with the
the accent a little bit as well
yeah and I really like dug it and I
I started speaking more and more in an American accent
wow I didn't really get into the teaching of it
until a bit later um

(24:02):
it was during the pandemic
that I was teaching a few people how to speak German
how to speak French and our friend Jennifer Pernia
I don't know if you know her yeah
she was like hey will um
the prep
New Jersey is looking for accents and dialect coaches
I know you do a bunch of those
I was like yeah
just a few like I can do a French accent

(24:22):
German accent
I can do an American British blah blah blah yeah
I could do a Scottish accent at the time too
cause I studied in the UK and she's like
why don't you apply and I was like okay
so I started getting gathering all this like
information on like different accents
and I started adopting new accents
I started to learn how to do a southern accent
I started to learn how to do a Canadian accent

(24:43):
all of that yeah
and I applied and and our friend Jesse
who also was at NIFA she said yeah
we're looking for a dialogue coach
so great you're on board
wow and that's when I really dug in deep
I was like this is so much fun
this is a way for me to stay connected to the arts
without being in the art
because you know
during the pandemic there was yeah
nothing until like 2022 wow

(25:05):
because all the pre show the
the shows that were in pre production
or production during the time of Covid
they started again in 2022
so that we didn't really have auditions until 2023
wow so Ahem
um
I was like let me just do this
and I really dug in deep
I took a bunch of night Thompson speech work classes
cool and um
that's a speech technique kind of

(25:27):
how do you remember we did Linklater
which is a voice technique
I don't even remember that
what was that link so you have
there's a couple of like
voice and speech techniques that are out there
Linklater is one of them
we did that at New York Film Academy
when we did voice and speech
uh it's the
the like haha and the hahaha
if you remember that oh

(25:48):
with Seth yeah yeah yes
oh I did not know that that was
that's what that was that was Linklater okay
um
but um
there's also speech techniques
and you have Alexander technique and what not
um I did Knight Thompson
speech work
and that was a new technique that started kind of in
202012 so it's pretty new

(26:09):
cause everything before that was from like
the 1950s and the 60s and it's very outdated
so I started taking their online classes because um
Eric Liber man I think you also had him as a teacher
I don't know maybe maybe I don't think so okay
so Eric Liber man
got me in touch with another accent coach
cause he he's a really great mentor of mine
Eric and he's like we let's get you going like

(26:30):
cause this seems something that you're really good at
and you're interested in so
he got me in touch with another accent coach
who's worked with many stars
and she was like
I've been doing Night Thompson speech work
and it's really good at helping me
figure out how to teach these accents hmm
so I did all of their online courses
I did actually I did two twice uh
because I was I was that intrigued with the

(26:52):
the how to teach accents
and now I'm trying to get certified in that
hopefully next year knock wood
I can get a certification in this night Thompson
speech work um
and yeah that really helped me just get off the ground
I was able to learn a bunch of different accents and
and know how to break them down

(27:13):
and know what to listen for
know what to look at in terms of like mouth movements
tongue movements yeah
so that's how I got into being an accent coach
that is so cool I mean
that's kind of how I got into vocal coaching
just kind of like you get thrown in the deep end right
you're just like yep
I'm just gonna do this now and then you learn as you go
yes
and and then you like if you have the passion for it

(27:36):
you start learning all of these things on the side
yep right
like okay
how can I support my students better right
I wanna do a better job at this yes
so you do all of this research
YouTube University was my friend
yes hahaha yes
and so you know
it's a you just kind of learn as you go
if you have a passion for it
you you have to be willing to learn right

(27:56):
and so that's that's so cool that you're just like yup
I'm just gonna do this I have a passion for this
and then you Learned and Learned
and Learned and Learned very cool
see for me
it's like with accents
I can usually identify like where somebody's from
uh huh cause I can hear it yeah
but I could not then replicate it
like sometimes when people ask me like oh
you speak German can you do a German accent

(28:17):
I cannot it's funny yes
I had the same issue with Belgian and Dutch accents
for a while okay
they were always like cause I lost it
I was well
first of all
I never had it cause I was speaking in a British yeah
proper RP accent so I was like
how do I do this like
I've heard people do this a million time
and I don't know how to do it
cause it was so wired in my brain like no

(28:38):
that's that's
that's the bad sound that's how you don't wanna sound
so yes
yes but through the
the learning how to adopt an accent
I was like now I can do it hmm okay
can we hear a little something
ooh uh
let's do an Antwerp so uh
if you speak like an Antwerp uh
person you talk like this and uh
it's a yeah
we do this and uh
we do that and that's the flowers over there okay

(29:01):
so it's it sounds
it sounds very much like a mix between French and Dutch
yes yes
that's it Belgian is like this nice little like well
Belgian people speak Dutch or French
but the Dutch speaking part
they are very much influenced by
by the French speaking part
so we have all these like French isms in our Dutch yeah

(29:22):
so
so much that the Dutch speakers in the Netherlands are
like you
y'all sound funny like
you know I'm sure you have the same
like Swiss and like the Germans don't understand us
no yeah
no chance like they have to be in Switzerland
for a good amount of time to be like
I finally understand what it is
you guys are talking about yep
but in school we speak German
cause yes

(29:43):
cause Swiss German is not a written language
not officially it's officially just a spoken language
I didn't know that yes
so in school we read and write and speak in German wow
but at home we speak Swiss German wow
yeah that's fascinating
it's weird huh
so if you if you hear a Swiss person speak in English
sounds different yes
than when a German person is speaking English

(30:06):
but I couldn't do either of them if I wanted to like
yeah this is what you get
and I I don't know how to change anything
so okay
if I want I wanted to sound more German
because that's what people always ask me
what can I what can I do to sound
maybe can you just speak in a German accent
can you do that so for the German accent
first of all we want to do the zzz
for the zzz the t h
yeah and you want to sound

(30:28):
this is very exaggerated German
but that's where we always start
we start with like an exaggerated version
yep and then we kind of can like break it down
cause when we do the exaggerated version
we know all the differences
and then we can soften them a little bit if needed
yeah so t
H is sound like Z Z um
you wanna do what is called a non rotic accent

(30:49):
meaning the RS are not pronounced
so they say four
4 instead of four yes right
um when we do that
um that non rhotic
or you also wanna make it a diff song
which usually in American we don't do um
and then you wanna drop the pitch
it's funny cause the more I've done accent work
the more I'm like oh

(31:10):
this is also vocal work
because there's so many like pitch changes
pitch differences yes
uh from accent to accent
yeah um
so when we speak oh
then the V's the W's become V's
yes that's
so there's so many things that you need to like change
um to sound more German
okay I wanna
I wanna learn one phrase okay

(31:30):
let's say something um
hi I'm Lara and I'm here in the studio
okay okay
so hi
my name is Lara I'm here in the studio
so Lara first of all
you know I already yeah
know how to do it lar
ah yeah
um I'm here
here yeah
in so when the Germans go in

(31:51):
they don't go for the is and they go for in
in very similar to the French
yeah in this
uh this
you can either do a d or a Z
yeah in this
in this studio in this studio
hi my name is Lara
I'm here in this studio hi
my name is Lara I'm here in the studio
and yeah let's do it with a d
that sounds more like real German

(32:12):
in the studio in the studio
in the studio uh huh
try it again hi
my name is Lara I'm here
I'm here here
I'm here in this studio
and then try really going for that
this this studio
this this studio
mm hmm one more time
hi my name is Lara
I'm here in this studio good
not bad yeah

(32:35):
why am I so bad at this it's all good
it takes time I usually tell my students
cause everyone wants to learn an accent in like
30 minutes and I'm like
you can't do it you can't do it
I usually say four hours of work with me
like 3 to 4 hours
depending on like how much you practice
well yes
ah it's the same in singing hahaha

(32:55):
we are not magicians no
we can give you the tools
but then you have to go out and practice
it's interesting right
like the th sound I knew that um
the W sound becoming more like a V sound
I knew that um
but it's another thing to like actually like do it yeah
and then there's like a million things
it's not just those two it's a million
like the in it's yeah

(33:16):
in in and in
so it's like oh my god yeah
to really get it it's like whoo
it's hard
and that's why in like accent and dialect work
we break it down
there's these things called lexical sets
there are words that this brilliant man named John C
Wells figured out back in the early 1900s
he was like oh
in most accents of English

(33:37):
and he only looked at like the American continent
uh the British isles
uh islands and uh
Australian New Zealand
cause that's where native speakers of English are yeah
and he said oh
and all these we have words that sound the same
but might not be spelled the same
cause that's another thing about English is like
spelling

(33:57):
doesn't mean that it's gonna sound how it's spelled
it's so hard to read English
yes so for example
there's what we call the thought lexical word
which also represents words like awful
you would never think that a W is the same as O u right
thought thought awful

(34:19):
yeah
has the same aw sound in every single of the accents
now it might be like all in British
cause they say thought thought and awful
yeah ha
see I'm a Brit now
there you go
so that helps us as accents and dialect coach
um how to group these things together
and then I teach like this is how the vowel sound

(34:40):
and then like
if there's a difference in the consonants
for example in the German
I say like oh
the th because they don't have it in German yeah
they pronounce it as Z or D
yeah and then we as accent coach
we figure out when are we gonna use a Z
or when are we gonna use a d yeah
cause it could be for some times
sometimes they will use a Z in certain cases
sometimes they will use a d in Swiss
we sometimes use an F for example

(35:03):
I think not think that's very
or think French of you as well
yeah yeah
I think yeah
I think it's this yeah
yes I think it's this
that's so that's another thing like um
pitch so it changes a lot
and yeah in night times and speech work you
you get to work on like
how to move your mouth into like a position that is

(35:24):
is typical for this accent
so in French I would think a little bit more like
close my mouth and maybe like
purse my lips a little bit okay
because that changes how I speak
that changes and then you speak yeah
and then you get into a very comfortable yeah
uh position so you can stick to that
which is different from what they used to teach
like they used to be like

(35:44):
oh this is how the vowels sound
this is how the consonants sound just go okay
but Night Thompson is like
no no no
there's a whole like mouth movement
your jaw might be more tight
your lips might be more pursed
your tongue might be more lifted yeah
and we I teach that
to my students so they get into a comfortable position
and they're like oh
that's the like the base for this accent
and I can go a little bit up or down yeah

(36:06):
yeah yeah
wherever I need to go from there
do you mostly do European accents for English
ah
so I actually do uh most of the European continent um
most of the British and Irish accents yeah
I do North America including Canada yeah
I started veering into south and Central America now

(36:27):
cool and I've actually started veering into Africa now
as well oh wow
yeah I had a few clients who were like oh
I need it like a Nigerian accent and I was like
can I as a white person teach this
um and then I have to sit down with myself and be like
listen yes
uh we are just gathering information and presenting it
yeah so I started viewing into Africa um

(36:50):
and then I also now
have Australian and New Zealand under my belt
okay cool
do you think you'll ever branch out into like
Asian countries maybe if if someone needs help
like I am now so trained and and uh
in in that night
Thompson speech work that I can basically
if someone is like hey
I need this done give me 3
4 days
I will break down the accent and I'll have it for you

(37:12):
wow yeah
that is so cool yeah
again for me it's so fun to hear how like
like I hear it I totally hear it
but it's such another thing to actually
then do it yourself yeah
right yeah
yeah
and it's amazing for me to see how you're just like
flip flopping
back and forth between all these different accents
I'm like how do you do this

(37:33):
but it's practice it's practice and understanding it
right exactly
putting the knowledge into practice is
is like so huge yeah
cause when I first did the Night
Thompson speech work technique
it was like oh my god
like what are what
what is this like
what is phonetics cause that was another thing
you need to learn how to do phonetics
you need to learn the IPA obviously

(37:53):
like you don't need to learn everything by heart
but the more I've been doing it
I'm like oh
that's this this symbol
oh that's that symbol
it's funny
cause when I was first doing it in 2021 or 2022
I think um
I was like I will never learn this alphabet
like ever and then now I'm like oh
even when people speak to me
I see the symbol in front of me and I'm like

(38:14):
oh my God that's an
that's a like a symbol that's the like wow
it's it's hilarious
but I love it so this is like very much for like acting
you know like if you're playing a role
you can really like
dive into like the pitch aspect of it
too but when we're singing melodies
it might be difficult to adjust the pitch

(38:35):
because you're singing specific notes
and you can't really change that
so how does first of all
do you have any experience like doing accent stuff
like in the song yeah
and how does it translate
like what what do you do
how is it different when you're singing songs
okay so
this actually recently came up with one of my clients
cause she's French

(38:56):
and she has a very thick French accent yeah
but whenever she sings she sounds pretty American yeah
so I was like
let's use that because the way we sing nowadays
and you hear it in in British singers as well
they usually sing in an American accent yes why
because the nasality of it
the lifting of the tongue in the back of the throat

(39:16):
sounds more forward it
it has a brighter sound also
the way that the vowels
move in English is a little more open
uh and
and and brings everything nicely into the mask yeah
which you don't have a British
cause then you have all in the back of the throat yeah
it's harder to sing that way yeah
yeah it's kind of it suppresses kind of the the
the larings um

(39:37):
so that's why we I sometimes say to my
my clients like if you're a singer
sing it cause it helps you uh
sound more American and that's helped her so much
and like also just her uh
being able to use her
her English every day now cause she
she got a job somewhere
where she has to use it every day it

(39:58):
it's helped a lot and I've
I've spent about 5 hours with her now
she's already transformed so much that I'm like
oh this is sounding great
this is sounding great
we just need to work on like three more things
and then you sound really American wow
um but yeah
in singing um
that American sound is so helpful
also for your students if they sing in an accent

(40:19):
which can happen you know um
it can help um
to sound more American yeah
um with pitch
with um
being in that mask being more forward
rather than sitting in the back of the throat
yeah and I've noticed it recently myself
cause I've been singing
I've been preparing for a concert
that I need to sing at

(40:40):
and I noticed how doing all that voice and speech
work is just like
freeing me up more and able to move my
my larynx more freely up and down
rather than being stuck and flipping into like
my head voice it's beautiful
yeah so it's helpful
oh for sure
I have no doubt yeah
haha so I'm like trying to figure out okay
like what like
if I have somebody
in front of me that has some sort of accent

(41:02):
and they wanna sound more American
I guess it's really
just gonna depend on what kind of accent they have
I guess like yes
how can I help them sound more American OK
in their song
cause we don't really do acting coaching we
we do yeah yeah yeah
of course song um
so the big part about American is that um
a lot of the

(41:22):
the back of the tongue kind of spreads out okay
that's where we get these R sounds
is the back of the tongue spreads to the
the molars yeah
and then also the lifting of the the top of the tongue
it kind of like lifts up for the R sound
but also
Americans have a tendency to have more open vowels
what does that mean the
the tongue gets to drop down a lot more for things like

(41:46):
ah eh
yeah eh uh
a all of those like have more openness
the tongue literally just like drops yeah
um and a lot of accents and and
and languages don't have that if I think of Italian
for example
a lot of it is closed or in the back of the throat
like e o

(42:07):
o that's all in the back
the only thing they have in the front is like
the ah sound yeah
and so what I think for you as a vocal coach
is getting people more into that ah
that that open that drops yep OK
that will help and just play around there uh
night Thompson speech work uh

(42:27):
specifically lets you play around and we do these like
funny exercises called like grunting
where you have to like
move your face around and like trying to figure out
and then you do that with your tongue and you go I
yeah and let people play around with that and see like
what can they discover that is
like
a new sound that is more American sounding to them

(42:48):
like those s those s
those um
ease that are a little more forward
you know yeah
we already do that but not necessarily for um
for dialects coaching but more for like
let's explore
different tones that your voice can create
hmm yeah
maybe you should like shift to like
what sound can you create

(43:10):
like not in terms of like pitch
but like what vowel sounds yes
can we play with yes
that you haven't discovered
and sometimes people who who have a
like a very thick European or
or other accent
they have never discovered the er vowel and play
letting them play around will have them discover

(43:30):
and let them do it slowly
like they can go I
yeah yeah
you know have them just like retracting
yeah tongue is going back
it's going up and then the lip
it's lifting it's spreading in the back yeah
so letting people play around with their tongue
is hugely helpful um in
in discovering yeah

(43:51):
accents and dialects oh
I love that I mean
we talk about tongue tension all the time in singing
like getting the tongue out of the way
yes and uh
you said in an American accent
the tongue is more dropped
everything is more open
and usually when I hear tongue tension in a student
it's like cramped up back here
yeah usually they like
retract the tongue

(44:12):
and it exactly kind of blocks everything
the tongue is a little more relaxed
but if you
it can be relaxed and lifted as well to kind of like
bring it forward bring it forward
bring it forward bring it
bring it forward that's like my
um
my my advice okay
bring the tongue forward and do like tongue exercises

(44:32):
there's um
from Linklater which I love to teach
um there's this really great tongue stretch
that's literally just you tuck the
the tip of your tongue underneath your bottom uh
teeth and then you stick it out
I remember doing that with Seth
it's so useful
I have this Italian client and she speaks Italian
but with like the French uh huh

(44:53):
cause some Italians do that instead of interesting
really I didn't know that
yes so her tongue is like bunched up in the back
and it's always like retracted and like up
so it's very stiff and so I've had her like
do all these like tongue exercises
like sticking it out going left
right like yeah yeah
like several times a day

(45:13):
um and she's loosened up so much
yeah she's sounding more American
she's able to like move her tongue freely
like wherever she wants it to
so very helpful
if you have students who have like a very
like sticky tongue is what I call it
yes yes
yes coach Emily on our team
um she calls it reverse tongue tension
like sticking the tongue out as much as possible

(45:36):
yes yeah
for sure okay
very cool so this is making me think like if
you know you have someone with
with like a speech impediment
I think is what it's called like
you know like a lisp or they can't like roll their R's
like if they wanna speak Spanish or whatever
like
is that something that you help people with as well
yes yes yes
yes I actually had a 6 year old Russian client

(45:58):
and at first I was like
do I that that's a very young age for me to the
to teach them how to do an accent
but it actually helped because she was very receptive
it was hard for me to
figure out ways to get her interested in
in the material cause yeah
with an adult you're like okay
these are the words like I can show you and like
I can tell you exactly what to do with your tongue
and we look in the mirror
but with her it was more of like repetition

(46:18):
repetition like
and make it like see
look at yourself yeah
exactly like
oh stick your tongue out
like put it in between your teeth yeah
do that sound you know
yeah um
so yes um
we can correct that um
obviously I'm not a speech therapist
those are people that have master's degrees like
but it is definitely in the same realm
so I have corrected people's speech from like lisps to

(46:42):
uh those people that are unable to do the
just like you said the th or the rs
now that is a hard one
because your tongue has to be very flexible yeah
and so americans in general your
y'all's tongue in the front is not very flexible
and y'all are always like
so it it takes for me a while to teach you
but it's again

(47:03):
it's a bunch of practice yeah
yeah
I can tell you exactly where your tongue needs to go
like it needs to be lifted right behind the
the top teeth on what's called the alveolar ridge
kind of like you're pronouncing a duh or a loo
and then you need to just
blow out the air and leave the rest of the tongue flat
yeah you see

(47:23):
I've been I've always been able to do that from
you know speaking Swiss German
my dad actually can't and his mom can't
cause there's certain like
regions in Switzerland where they have the
and not the rah yeah
and so my
my dad grew up in that region and his mom's from there
so he doesn't really say Lara
he said cause that's how you actually pronounce my name
Lara Lara

(47:44):
not like Laura or Lara it's Lara
uh but he says kind of like LA Lara
like it's not like a it's not like a Lara
yeah it's not that like extreme
but it's not like a Lara like with the Ra
yeah so I mean
it's not like an aggressive like Lara
yeah Lara
that's very Italian yes
exactly or Spanish

(48:05):
yeah but no
but yeah so I don't notice it
it's just my mom keeps telling me like
do you hear your dad doing that
I'm like oh
I'm just so used to him saying my name this way
that it doesn't hit my radar anymore
but yeah that's
that's really funny I love that
um do you think that anyone
no matter what language they grew up speaking

(48:26):
if they have the knowledge and they have the practice
like they're practicing
that they could learn any accent on this planet
yes
yes based on what you said
I believe that too yes
the brain is the brain is very flexible
uh and I mean
when you get to a certain age
it's harder I've recently had to teach uh
an 80 year old woman

(48:47):
how to do a Yat accent from New Orleans OK
it was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do
because at that age 1
your brain is less flexible
2 your tongue is already less flexible
especially if you've never had
much accent work in the past
yeah so it's harder to form all these new
um
new patterns in your brain

(49:08):
and the
the Yat accent is very similar to the New York accent
they have a very similar like there's a lot of overlap
so for me getting to like
be like hey
this is kind of like New York
cause she's from New York
it's like this is how you do it here
and it's very similar to the New York thing
except that we're just can you do a New York accent
uh yeah
um so explain it in a New York accent
so you gotta you gotta

(49:30):
the tongue does
pretty much the same thing in the Yat accent than
as in the the
the New York accent yeah
um there was a thing that was like the
ooh that we do in New York
yeah they
it was very similar to the Yat accent
they just go ooh rather than ooh
so it's a little less closed rather than open

(49:50):
yeah so interesting
yeah New York
New York New York
New York is also a non rhotic accent
uh meaning the R's are not pronounced
yeah
stot pawk ka
very similar to Boston which is more like a ka pawk
yeah um
there's also overlap between
cause that that's the influence from the
the Irish and the British

(50:11):
uh in both New York and Boston
so would you say
the Boston accent is more bright
than the New York accent then
like pack versus pack pack pack yes
pack pack
so pack is in the front pack pack
which means your tongue gets to go forward and down
more whereas in New York yeah
is all the way in the back of the throat
the the tongue uh

(50:32):
is actually going down in the back
suppressing kind of the larynx
and you're also closing your mouth more pork ugh OK
this is pack yeah
honestly I was always like yeah
New York and Boston it sounds the same
but now like no
actually it sounds totally different
they have some overlap it's for sure yeah
so like you know
the you don't say park
uh huh but it's more bright

(50:52):
uh huh and more dark yeah
but yeah oh interesting
oh that is so cool yeah wow
I'm fascinated
thank you so much for sharing all of this
but yeah so anyone can uh
can learn it really um
I'm teaching a how old is she
I think she's in her mid 50s
Italian woman and we've made so much progress
it is a little harder at a certain age

(51:12):
especially for singing yeah
especially if you've been stuck um
doing the same thing over and over and over
which is the what did
what did they say
if you're doing the same thing over and over and it
you're expecting different results
that's the Mark of insanity
yes
that's what I told her I was like listen
we gotta we just gotta change it up
so we've I found all these exercises for her

(51:33):
to loosen up her tongue that's that same woman
and it's it's changed immensely
she sounds just so much more American
it's clear to understand her um
rather than like having to think like
what did you just say it's just like
oh OK
this is still she still has a slight accent
which I'm trying to like
beat out of her as soon as I can
but as gently too yeah hahaha

(51:57):
no sometimes I gotta be
you know if people don't practice
I know oh
I can talk of course
and I'm like it's the same for singers
by the way
if you do lessons with us and you say you practiced
you better practice we know
we know if you practice or not
very much very much
especially I had a young student recently
uh he's 12 years old
and his manager
wants him to learn all these different accents cool

(52:18):
cause he's he booked a job on TV
I forgot what show but had to do his own accent
but the manager was like listen
you're a young black actor
like let's get you doing a deep southern accent
for all those like
movies in the south yeah
let's get you doing like a multicultural
uh British accent
which is very popular nowadays to get you started on
like British movies
yeah and let's get you doing an African accent

(52:39):
yeah so
and we're doing the deep southern one and I was like
you haven't practiced hahaha and he was like no
I no I didn't yeah
yeah and I was like
I could tell like I need you to practice every day
cause that's how you learn yeah
it's muscle memory right
and if you've been doing it one way for so long
it's it's
so much easier to learn a new skill

(53:00):
than to change something yep
100% it's the same thing in singing so yeah
and and again like you don't practice for us no
you practice for yourself like you know
don't try and make us happy
like we're trying to help you
do the thing that you wanna do
so yeah coach Juliana on our team she uh
she said on one of the podcast episodes

(53:20):
where we were interviewing another singer um
and she said if you don't practice
you're doing yourself a disservice and a dishonor
because you're doing it for yourself
not for anybody else yeah
so you know
show up for yourself and and put in the work yeah
you're also wasting money I'm always saying like I yes
because now we need to do more sessions together yeah

(53:42):
and that's gonna cost more money so I'm always like
if you practice
we have to do less sessions and you know yeah
you can get there quicker yeah
and I know some people are really not
in it with their full heart
especially the younger students who are like I
I get to teach six year olds
12 year olds
14 year olds who kind of have to do it for their yeah
from their parents

(54:03):
but I tried to like make it as
as fun as possible for those people
but if your if your heart is not in it
it's gonna be harder to practice
it's gonna be harder to to be uh
honest to yourself yeah
and but sometimes like man
like this is just being an adult
like yes
very much it not everything is always fun

(54:23):
no and feels your heart and it's your true passion
like sometimes you gotta pick up a new skill
to do the thing that you really wanna do
like guess what
I didn't wanna learn how to build a website
but I had to yes
so that I can have this business
like exactly I didn't want to learn video editing
but guess what I had to
and now it's a skill that's serving me

(54:45):
and that I use every day or almost every day right
so sometimes
you gotta do the things you don't really wanna do
to do the things that you wanna do yeah
especially in acting with accents
yes it just makes sense
and you're lucky that you have someone able to help you
yeah so that's when you have a coach
use them ask questions
how do I do this what do I need to do

(55:07):
like what do I need to change
you know be curious
um that's helpful for us
and we're very proud if you ask questions and yeah
we see that you practice or at least you're trying
even if it's not working I can be like
oh that sounded a little more different
you know like yeah
let's let's dig into that like um
yeah it's
it's a huge thing practice
practice practice yes

(55:28):
yes yes
and then it's our job as coaches
kind of like work ourselves out of a job
yeah
and we can work ourselves out of a job a lot faster
when you practice yes exactly
I mean it's
it's less good for our pockets
but I'm always so happy when I get to teach someone
so fast cause that's kind of a like yep
did my job exactly
and I can show off and it can be like
and then you're proud too

(55:48):
yes like of yourself and the students and it's like
yeah what I'm doing actually freaking works hahaha
yeah and then you get to find a new client
yes exactly
do it all over again hahaha
or then they come back for another accent
because every accent is different
I've had so many people coming back with new accents
I had this amazing student from Chicago
oh me
and she booked what did she book

(56:08):
she booked something that she needed to do
a Geordie accent from Geordie from OK
from Newcastle and
and we worked on it oh
it was Billy Elliot that's what it was
and we worked on it for so long and she like nailed it
nice and she was so good that she got cast again
in a different show
that she had to do a British accent
like a standard British
so we did that and it was called the Audience

(56:29):
and then she kept booking all these things and I
she kept coming back and I'm so proud of her um
oh me she's like
I think she's gonna go far if she keeps going wow yeah
that's amazing yeah
so how do you if
if people wanted to work with you
and get some coaching some accent coaching from you
yeah how do you go about it
like is it just like one session
and you do like session to session
or is it like a package like how does it work

(56:51):
I usually do like an initial session
we can do an assessment
especially if it's a if it's a accent correction
if you like already have a sense of like
I know a little bit how to do it
we'll do it like an accent assessment
and then we can do a package
I do packages of five
like half hour sessions or hour sessions okay
I recommend to do the hour sessions
cause in a half hour I can't do as much

(57:15):
I can't do as much
unless you've already had experience in the accent
and you're like
I just need to refresh then those half hour sessions
great like let's
let's knock out four of those okay
um so yeah
we can do a 5 package um
also do single sessions
those are a little more expensive yeah
um because you can drop out whenever you want um
but yeah

(57:35):
I always say 4 to five hours of intense accent training
and you will get there especially with practice
with practice
how far apart are these sessions usually spaced
usually a week wow
a week
are you telling me I can sound like a Brit in fucking
a month from now absolutely
absolutely if you take
I practice yes hahaha
that is the key that is literally the key to everything

(57:58):
if you put in the time and you practice every day
cause I I give you so many exercises and I'm like
practice these I
I give you MP threes of of
of me saying those words in that accent
yeah and I will give you videos to
to listen to every day so you get in that mindset
you get in the right practice
I give you exercises how to change your mouth
so if you do that every day

(58:19):
you will get it in like a month wow
I've
I've had to coach people in like two and a half weeks
wow wow
wow wow wow
that is crazy
and singing usually takes a lot longer than that yeah
cause we're
we're building all these different muscles and yeah
yeah yeah
oh that is fascinating
once I have a little bit more time

(58:41):
we will get a session going
I will I will 100% reach out to you yeah
be like oh my god
yeah we have to like for me
it wouldn't be like something I would do for my job
but more for like I'm just curious
like I just want to do this cause it's fun absolutely
oh my goodness that's amazing
yeah
and so people can reach out to me through my website
yes it's a Will Van Moss dot com
very simple perfect
I will put it the link in the description

(59:04):
um or reach to me on Instagram
will then moss very easy
I will also put that as a link in there
to make it easy for everybody to find you
so cool anything else you wanna get off your chest
keep practicing guys
that's literally the key to success
both for singing accents

(59:24):
acting anything in life
like literally oh my God yeah
the more time you put into it
the better you're gonna get
yeah for sure
for sure so I do have a very last question for you
a question that I
if I remember like to ask all of our guests
cause this podcast is called from singer to artist
yeah and you're not just a dialect coach
you're also an artist and a singer yourself

(59:46):
an actor all of that
yeah so
what to you
is the difference between a singer and an artist
is there a difference absolutely okay cool
so tell me to me
a singer is someone who is
interested in the art of singing
but isn't necessarily a master of it
an artist is someone who

(01:00:08):
dedicates their time and their practice to it
hmm so that's a huge difference um
for example I'm very interested in singing
but I don't practice enough to call myself like
an artist in the term of singing okay um
but I know many people who are artists and they
they sing
uh and they sing all the time they

(01:00:30):
they make it their practice
that to me is like the Mark of an artist
is that practice that we've been speaking about
it's like someone who is like
I wanna do this let's do it
let's practice let's do this every day
let's put my heart and passion into it
wow I love that
so it doesn't really matter like what material you do
like if it's you're writing or you're singing a cover

(01:00:51):
or you're doing a musical
like if you're just really pouring your heart into it
that's what makes an artist and put yourself into it
that's such a huge thing this goes for singing
this goes for acting this goes for accent work
I'm always like yeah
I'm not trying to make you sound like someone
unless we're doing like uh a
a copy of like someone if you're need to
need to sound like

(01:01:12):
let's say you're doing a movie that is Freddie Mercury
for example and we had um
the actor had to sound like Freddie Mercury
that's like completely different
but if we're doing an accent
I want you to sound like you yeah
in this accent and that's the same thing for acting
you wanna be yourself in this character
you're literally crawling in this character
and you're like puppeteering it yeah
but yourself yeah

(01:01:33):
and I think it's the same for singing
like you
you have all these songs that have so much heart
and so much emotions into them
put yourself into that yeah
I love that thank you so much will
for sharing you know
all of your knowledge I mean
not all of your knowledge
you know a lot more than what you shared today
but some of your knowledge
a small percentage of your knowledge on accents
and it was so good to see you again after like

(01:01:56):
oh my God 10 years
almost 10 years yeah
I mean 10 years is when we started
10 and a half years is when we started
and it was a year and a half program
it was like nine years ago we started
so nine years ago exactly nine years ago
oh my god it's so good to see you
don't be a stranger please
and um again
if you wanna work with will on your accent stuff
the link is in the description

(01:02:17):
to his Instagram and to his website
so you can go and um
book a session and see what do you
what do you need what do you
you know what do you want to do for your acting
for your singing any of the above
yeah thank you so much
of course will
my pleasure um
and I'll see you again yeah
see each other hopefully soon
OK
because I wanna come more to New York and do some more

(01:02:38):
exercise not exercise
but do more podcast episodes
so every time I'm here
we need to get like coffee or something
let's do it Yay
thank you so much thank you everybody for tuning in
and we'll catch you in the next episode
alright bye bye