Kate's Voice

Years ago, I studied voice with Seth Riggs, a teacher who had a profound impact on my teaching.  He taught me that the voice is the same instrument whether you are singing or speaking.  Today, when I teach singing, I teach people to find their “speech level.”  When I work with speakers, I listen for dynamics, tone, and phrasing, just as I would if they were singing.: The same physiology with slightly different applications.

This is why I was fascinated to read about Brian Eno’s latest project.  The composer’s new album is poetry read and set to music. ” ‘We are all singing. We call it speech, but we’re singing to each other,” Eno said (sang?) from London .’I thought, as soon as you put spoken word onto music, you start to hear it like singing anyway. You start to develop musical value and musical weight, and you start to notice how this word falls on that beat, and so on.’ ”

About a year ago, this relationship between singing and speaking was discussed in an article in Scientific American.  There is evidence that humans learned to speak because of music, and that we love music because it reminds us of speech.  Or is it the other way around?  My own experience is that whichever it is,  music and speaking are connected.  Now, I ask you, my readers, how is your speaking voice like your singing voice and vice versa?  Have you ever thought of this?  If you have, I would love to hear from you.  If you haven’t, here are some ideas to start the exploration:

As a speaker, consider that your voice is a musical instrument.  As a musician, you can apply dynamics, tone, expression, phrasing, and pitch, volume, and many other aspects of sound production and expression to what you are doing.  If you play an instrument already, you are already trained to take this approach.  Try it.

As a singer, your speaking voice is a guide for your singing voice.  Try speaking phrases before singing them.  Notice how your production is similar and how it is different.  Strive to speak on pitch and to be aware of how you may be affecting the sound to create a pretty voice, or a pop voice, or a “legit” voice.  Style is closely related to registration.  Basic vocal production as a singer is akin to “Xtreme” speech.  If you want to know more about this, let me know.

To read more about Brian Eno’s project, Drum Between the Bells, please see this Los Angeles Times’ article .

And for more thoughts on this topic, please see The Eloquent Woman.  (Great minds think alike!)

I asked Denise Graveline, author of the fine blog, “The Eloquent Woman,” to tackle the topic of “finding your voice” as a woman speaker.  Her thoughtful consideration of the topic gives us an appreciation for women’s unique talents and fears related to presenting.  Her advice is this: to find your voice, you must start with who you are and use your feminine advantage.  Here’s how.

Writers are urged early on to start “finding your voice” – I know, I started out as a writer–but I’m not sure that speakers are.  That, for most of us, makes an out-loud voice seem like thin ice on which to wander.  Find your voice? In a room full of hundreds of people looking at you, expecting wisdom?

That ice can seem even thinner if you’re a woman, since women have been actively discouraged or outright forbidden to speak in public for so much of our history.  Writing, traditionally, was an easier way for women to give themselves voices.  You can always write undercover and under a pen name, as Jane Austen did, but it’s tough to speak publicly that way.  Add in women’s stronger preference for speaking one-on-one, rather than reporting to crowds (wouldn’t you if you were forbidden to speak in public?), and it’s a no-brainer.  So, even today, we talk ourselves out of it.

Another dimension to finding your voice as a speaker sets it apart from writing.  It’s not just your words out there. It’s you:  Your looks, your wardrobe, your gestures, your movements, your interactions with the audience.  You are physically putting yourself on the line. That voice you’re finding comes out of you and into the air, in front of people, and they react (or don’t), clap (or don’t), laugh (or don’t) in real time.  No book author gets that from readers when she’s writing.

By now you can tell that I’m thinking broadly about what your “voice ” is.  It’s you, but also how you express yourself, and in speaking that involves more than your vocal chords or your words.  We say people “give voice” to their thoughts when they speak.  So for you as a speaker, the exercise is about finding your voice—and then giving it to your ideas.  Here’s how you might try to do that:
•   Start with what you know. This will seem like a limited field of dreams, especially if you are young.  But the only way to find out how you tell a story is to tell stories, your stories:  the funny thing that happened at work, the coincidental meeting that led to a first date, how you got the idea to move to Houston.  This will lead you to…
•   Pay attention, observe and listen. What were the details of what happened today: Who wore the red shoes? Who was snarky because she felt insecure? What’s a secret you heard and why is it a secret?  Details like these not only help you create a mood, persuade or advance a story, but also will set your speaking apart from others’ efforts.
•     Use the vertical pronoun. I had a great boss and mentor who discouraged me from ever writing or speaking the word “I.”  Today, I say that if you are going to find your voice, the vertical pronoun—his term for “I”—is the most useful, powerful and appropriate pronoun for you to use.  No one can speak for you but you, so no one can deny you those statements.  Plus, I can better tell who you are if you have an opinion.
•    Don’t throw away women’s vocal advantages. Honed by all those one-on-one connections, women excel at using emotion and connecting with their audiences.  But too many women feel they need a sterner, masculine tone.  Keep in mind that the most successful speakers among U.S. presidents, all men of course, were those who adopted that more emotive, personal style:  Reagan, Clinton and Obama.  Take back your innate strengths as a speaker, which will lead you to…
•   Pay attention to the stories you find it too difficult to tell right now. At one of the greatest times of personal challenge in my life, I stopped keeping a journal—the situation was too awful to contemplate. Those big life-changers may be too much for you to tackle today. But later, I promise, if you can bring yourself to share them in a speech, you’ll have the most compelling content and a riveting voice.
•    Use three dimensions to make your voice sing. I get a much better sense of a speaker’s voice when she takes the time to think about her presentation in three dimensions, including how she dresses, moves through the audience, gestures, pauses, and listens actively to questioners without getting defensive.  Remember, I’m watching as well as listening.  Make those factors reinforce your voice.
•   Help give voice to others. One of the most effective speakers I’ve coached had a tough situation:  Facing important members of his organization, each with competing goals, in the first week of his presidency—before he’d have time to address anything substantively. We decided his speech would ask all the tough questions he could anticipate that they would ask—not with answers, but to acknowledge that he understood their concerns. It got a standing O and reminded me all audiences hope speakers will say what they’re thinking and hoping.

Denise Graveline is a writer and communicator whose Washington, DC-based consulting firm, Don’t Get Caught, helps organizations with strategic communications plans; coaching, training, workshops and facilitation; and editorial and creative services. A former journalist and communications director for several major nonprofits and a federal agency, she is the 2002 Washington Women in Public Relations “PR Woman of the Year” and a former member of the White House Council on Women.