News from F Parkes Associates - Voice and Speech experts

This website is also available at www.maxyourvoice.com The name is shorter and easier for people to remember.

Rikke Hansen

The last few months have been full as we continue to develop and research in order to provide our clients with the best possible training in voice and speech. We've celebrated with clients when they've achieved their goals. One of our clients, Rikke Hansen came to us when she was just starting her company, Career Concierge. Rikke is well qualified with a great deal of experience in HR and training. Like many bright people she had a lot to say and wanted to say it very quickly. Her voice did not reflect her intellect as it was not sustained. This gives the impression to a listener that you're not happy about what you're saying. Rikke wanted to make sure she could communicate vocally with clarity. Rikke was receptive to the voice and speech training as you will hear when you catch her on the phone, radio or television. Rikke helps people advance in their chosen careers or to find the best career for themselves when they are unhappy or made redundant. You can find out more on www.careerconcierge.co.uk .

Courses on CD

Our "Speak English Clearly" box set was made CD of the month at the prestigious Wimbledon Books. Our special thanks to the owner Rathan Sippy who has been in publishing all his working life. His vast knowledge is invaluable when you want a good read. They also have a range of classical music CDs - definitely a shop to visit if you're in the area. www.wimbledonbooksandmusic.co.uk

Our CD downloads and box sets have proved to be very popular. You can buy them online on our storepage or in selected bookshops such as The Talking Bookshop or Wimbledon Books. The Talking Bookshop has recently moved from Wigmore Street to Baker Street NW1. The owner Frances Goldberg tells me that the move was tough but they've now settled down and love the proximity of Regents Park. The Talking Bookshop has a huge range of audio books read by excellent readers. They will also guide you to books read in different accents: www.talkingbooks.co.uk

Training via the web

Our website training facilites are in development. We're in development on making a DVD which many of you have requested and we'll be able to bring you inter-active audio/visual training in the future. We are training more people over Skype - this is especially good if you have a webcam. Sometimes people can't come to our courses because of geographical reasons and sometimes they want the occasional training session following their speech and voice training course. We all train people on landlines in the UK. Helen Sewell will be giving "Speak English Clearly" courses and Media Presentation Courses in 2009. Please email courses@maxyourvoice.com if you're interested in either of these courses.

Julie's back!

Julie McLean, our Associate in Chester has had a good rest and is now back at work. Julie is an authority on voice care in Call Centres, a Speech Therapist working in hospitals and a voice coach with actors, lecturers and business people. Glad you're feeling better Julie




Ingrid Uhler

Ingrid Uhler is in Mexico with her husband the acclaimed figurative artist Ed Gray. She'll be back in the UK training with us again in April 2009. If you would like Skype training with Ingrid in the meantime, please contact her at ingrid@maxyourvoice.com


How to do Accents

As well as giving courses, we like to attend courses to keep up to date on our training and research methods. Richard Ryder and I went on a course given by Edda Sharpe and Jan Haydn Rowles called "How to do Accents". It was fun and great to be on the receiving end of a voice course given by 2 people who really know their stuff. We came away refreshed and buoyed up. It was good to know the see it, hear it, feel approach that we use, is also a technique favoured by them. This course was aimed at voice coaches who train actors, which we all do at F Parkes Associates, but the knowledge crosses over when training people in all jobs.


Frances in Shanghai

Frances went to Shanghai in September to train in Voice and Presentation. The course ran over 4 days and incorporated the "Speak English Clearly" programme. It was a great success with the participants who were involved in the steel industry or commodities. A special thanks to Cheng Hui who did arranged the course and worked on camera.  She will be taking the course back to Shanghai, India and Europe.