Kate’sVoice

I love the title of the book by Dr. Morton Cooper called, “Change Your Voice, Change Your Life.” I also think it’s a great book for people who want to understand their voice better.   The concept inspired me to expand my understanding of the voice beyond singing and eventually to write my book, “Can You Hear Me Now?” My book is designed to take you through the transformation of a healthier, more effective voice, as well as a better understanding of the image you present to others.  This month, we are going to go through the process of vocal transformation together, daily. So grab your copy, or buy one here, and join in.  It’s pretty simple and requires just a few minutes every  day, though we will take the weekends off .  I’ll meet you here on Monday, January 5 to begin.

Till then, Happy New Year and may 2009 be the best ever!

Today, many people got up at the crack of dawn to keep up with the pace of the holidays.  Though I love to get up early, I have never understood the thrill of standing in line at WalMart to buy the latest toys or to save a few bucks.  In fact, I don’t recall a holiday season where I have ever really saved anything.  Have you?  Isn’t that when you spend everything?!

But this posting is not about keeping up with the pace of the holidays; it’s about being aware of the pace of your speaking, which is the second aspect of speech I want to discuss in this series.

Pace is the speed of your speech.  A fast-paced sound indicates confidence and aggression as well as energy.  Pick up your pace when you want to assert yourself.  Slow down when you want to be sure that you are understood, but make sure that you don’t sound lethargic.  Conversely, there is such a thing as speaking too quickly. A great speaker varies the pace of their presentation.

Suggestion:

To become more aware of the pace of your speaking, or any other important aspect of your voice so you can improve, record your self.  Most people don’t like the sound of their voice on a recording, but you can get over that if you listen often enough. Try it, and let me know what you discover.

I sincerely hope you holiday shoppers have found some great bargains and that you can relax and enjoy the rest of the season!  And please let the rest of us know if it was worth it!

OK.  This can be a lot of fun.  Have you ever been around an acotr or a singer who uses tongue twisters when they warm up?  Well, I have.  In fact, I’ve done that myself.  It’s true that one can seem a bit odd when practicing in this way, but there is actually good reason to do it.  It helps create more clarity.

Clarity is one of five aspects of voice that I am going to discuss over the next couple of weeks.  The other four are pace, pitch, cadence and volume.  The reason to become aware of them is because, as I’ve said before, your voice gives wordless clues about who you are and if you want to have more vocal impact, you need to be aware of what your voice is saying about you beyond your spoken message.

So we’ll start with clarity:  Clarity of sound is created by the effective use of articulation mechanisms, mainly your lips and tongue.  If your speech is not clear, neither is your message.  Use tongue twisters to achieve greater clarity.  Here are some to try:

• Unique New York
• Three free throws
• Brad’s big black bath brush broke
• The myth of Miss Muffet

Maybe you know of some others that you would recommend.  If so, please write a comment to let us know.

Dressing up in a costume on Halloween is great fun!  Sometimes, a costume requires a vocal disguise as well.  There are three basic ways that most people try to disguise their voice.  They lower their voice or raise the pitch of their voice, or try an accent.

I recommend another method which is far more effective.  For this technique, you have to change your mind.  Here’s what I recommend:

1. Know your intention..what you want to sound like, a particular attitude you want to convey, or an emotion. Study your character and imagine what it feels like to be them.

2. Align that with your content, which is what you want to say.  Perhaps your character has some signature phrases that he/she uses.  Learn them.  You actually don’t need to say much.  You can give an impression of your character with only a word or two.

4.  Speak, keeping these two things in mind. It’s even better when you can hear your character speak in your mind as you speak out loud. This approach is an oversimplification of the Stanislavsky method of acting.

Finally, make sure that you keep your vocal health in mind when you disguise your voice.  Never speak too low or too high.  Rest your voice if you feel it getting tired.  And remember that too much candy just isn’t good for you!

For some great ideas on Halloween costumes that may also give you some fodder for vocal disguses, please click here.

My father was a man of few words; my mother was a woman of many.  They had been married for nearly 50 years at the ti me of my father’s death.  The miracle of their marriage was that they were in love to that day.  When asked the secret of their successful relationship, both would answer, “Great communication.”  I became acutely aware of the problems that poor communication can create in a relationship when I went through a divorce.  The experience created an urgency in me to discover the priciples of effective conversation and coflict resolution.  I was probably trying to find a solution that would mean I would never have to go through that kind of pain again.  Of course, life isn’t like that.  There is no fix that fixes it all.  But understanding how we communicate and making it more conscious at least makes it possible to meet life with some tools that can help.

To this end, I highly recommend the work of Dennis Rivers, and his book on Co-operative Communication Skills. He gives it away free as a download and it is a great resource for anyone who works in teams, supervises others, has children, is in a relationship or argues a lot…lol  It is great!!  We’ll talk about his ideas from time to time.