Kate’sVoice

It’s been a crazy week as our household had to evacuate during the Southern California fires last weekend.  We were spared the worst of it and are just getting things back to normal.  I’ll be posting again in a day or so.  Thank you for all of your kind words and support.

The best way to use your voice this week is to vote.  Do it!

The American Lung Association says that professional singers have an average life expectancy that is 25 years greater that the rest of the population because of the way they breathe.  I have an image in my head of the world ending on a high note.

I am constantly grateful for the set of lungs I’ve developed over the years.  I was asthmatic as a child and have had little of that since developing my voice!  But as a singer, and maybe because of my asthmatic condition, it took me a while to get the technique of good breathing.  I finally sat down with several books, tapes and songs and tried everything I read until I got the results I wanted.  The results I wanted were

1.  Lots of air for long phrases

2.  Effortless appearance

3.  An improved sound through improved breathing.

I got all of the above and also better health and great abs!!  If you’d like to try what I learned, I have included an audio track of a lesson in breathing here  06-how-to-breathe.  Please download it and try it out!  Let me know how it goes.

Just a quick note today as football season gets in motion.  Bottom line:  Yelling just isn’t good for your voice.  I know you want to show support for your team,  but it really is possible to damage your voice with just one scream, or one too many for those with tougher vocal cords.  So, take it easy.  If you value the health of your voice, wave your arms, stomp your feet, whistle, jump up and down, but leave the screaming to others.  And if you do find that you have forgotten this sage advice and yelled anyway, here’s what to do to recover:

1. rest your voice as much as possible
2. raise your speaking voice to take some of the stress off of it while it heals
3. and drink lots of warm or room temperature liquids, instead of iced drinks.

Early in my career as a vocal coach, I came upon the work of Alfred Tomatis.  He is a French ear, nose and throat doctor particularly interested in the functions of the ear.  He discovered that the ear has a greater purpose than filtration and analysis of sound, or helping us stay on our feet through balancing.  Tomatis believes that the ear is a channel for sound as a function of charging the brain.  His research is fascinating and I highly encourage you to take a look at it.  You can read about him in Wikipedia here.

One of the really fun findings suggested by his research is that singing is not only enjoyable, but good for you because as you sing, you recharge your brain.  Do you or someone you know hum when thinking or upset?  I know people who hum all the time.  Apparently, that humming has a purpose.  It calms us down, comforts us, restores us.  How great is that?!

What is really fascinating to me is that the component of sound that is particularly healing is also the aspect of sound that makes a voice more powerful.  This component is the “overtone.”   In case you don’t know about overtones, they are inherent in all sound.  Sound is vibration and pitch is the subjective experience of the frequency or rate of that vibration. Each pitch is made up of tones called partials.  The lowest partial in each pitch is the one we hear the strongest, and that pitch is called the fundamental.  All the partials that are higher than the fundamental are called overtones.  These overtones are mathematically related to each other.

Here’s something fun to try:

• If you want to try to hear some overtones on a piano, here’s a fun exercise:  First, depress the c above middle c without actually sounding the note.  Keep it depressed and play middle c.  You will hear the c above middle c ring.  This is because it is in the overtone series for middle c.  However, if you do the same basic actions, but depress and hold down the b above middle c, you will not hear the tone ringing when you strike middle c.  This is because the b above middle c is NOT in the overtone series for middle c.

However, sound can be produced with different degrees or intensity of overtone activity.  In the voice this is determined by the size of the vocal apparatus, the shape of the mouth and throat and chest cavity, but also by where the sound is allowed to resonate. On my web site, I have some exercises for developing more overtones in your speaking voice.  We call this developing “mask resonance.”  The reason for developing more mask resonance is that we have discovered that more overtones in the voice create a more powerful voice and one that is healthier.  (I just love the fact that what is good for you is also good for your listener.)  To download the audio clips to create that healthy sound, please visit the member portion of my site. Yes, you have to sign up if you haven’t already, but I promise not to bug you with tons of mail, and from time to time, I will provide some advantages to being a member…like the free audio clips!

Happy humming!

It’s a new school year and many teachers are already beginning to feel the wear and tear on their voices.  According to research findings in both the UK and the US, teachers are in the profession at highest risk for developing voice problems.

The University of Iowa Reports:

1. Teachers are 5 times more likely than non-teachers to miss work due to vocal problems
2. More than 10% of teachers today say thy are currently experiencing voice problems
3. Teachers are 32 times more likely than people in other professions to develop voice problems

However, it has also been found that with the right information, 75% of teachers with vocal problems can initiate solutions on their own.  In addition, teachers whose early training included advice on care of their voice appear to have fewer problems than those who did not have that advice.  Consequently,  The University of Iowa built a virtual academy to help teachers overcome the vocal problems inherent in their profession.  If you are interested, I encourage you to visit the online Voice Academy.  It’s pretty cool!

In addition to checking out that site, if you are a teacher, here are some things you can do to avoid or abate the vocal problems that seem to plague your profession:

1. Treat your voice with care and concern.  Set up your room so that people can hear you without your yelling.
2. Let the students do some of the talking by having them make presentations often that aid in your teaching and their studies.
3. Use a sound system in class to amplify your voice.
4. Raise the pitch of your voice to speak in median range…not too high and not too low.
5. Always have a bottle or glass of water handy and drink it often.
6. If your voice is  tired, rest it.

When I did a Google search on Obama’s baritone, I got 19,600,000 results. Clearly, there is a lot of  interest in his voice as part of his success.  His prowess as a speaker is even accepted by the opposition. In fact, the latest research seems to indicate that, if the election results are determined by the two candidates’ oration skills, Obama will win, hands down.  This new study, published by the Vox Institute in Geneva, studied both candidates from the perspective of researchers on speech-communication and emotion-psychology.  The study revealed that even though Senator Obama seems to have a permanent look of anxiety on his face (and who wouldn’t if they were signing up for the job of President of the United States?!), McCain’s lack of emotion in both his face and his voice tell us that McCain is weaker than Obama. Add that to the general consensus that a rich, baritone voice is about the best one to have, and the study seems to suggest that we will be singing hail to Obama the chief!

In another study, researchers at Kent State  discovered in 2002 a component of speech that they said was a guaranteed predictor of success for presidential debates.  The study analyzed the voices of presidential candidates in debates since 1960.  They found an aspect of speech that they called a “hum,” in this case an ability to keep your voice steadfast.  You see, they found that people tend to alter their delivery style when they are unsure of themselves, or when they perceive the other speaker(s) as having more authority.  Those candidates in the debates who kept their voices steadfast always won the most votes.

So what does this mean to the voter?  Clearly, it confirms that the voice is a powerful tool and being a good communicator is important and that a great orator has the ability to sway us just with the sound of his or her voice.  Therefore,  before going to the polls, we have to be sure to look beyond a candidates’ voice and hear what they are actually saying.  What is their intention, besides winning?  Do their words, plans and promises align with their intention?  THEN we can evaluate whether or not both align with the sound of their voice and their delivery style, and with our own values and beliefs.

Now, I have a confession.  I may not pay attention to my own advice, as I am biased.  I think it would be wonderful to be represented on the world stage by someone with a beautiful voice again!!