Voice Improvement Series - Tip #10 - How Do I Know When To Stop Talking?

Voice Improvement Series - Tip # 9 - How Do I Say What I Am Thinking More Clearly?

Voice Improvement Series - Tip #7 - How Can I Project My Voice More Powerfully?

Voice Improvement Series - Tip #5 - My Voice Is Too High, How Can I Lower It?

The Voice Improvement Series - Tip #4 - How Can I Lower My Pitch So I Sound More Mature?

Voice Improvement Series - Tip #3 - How Can I Overcome Anxiety When Speaking In Front Of Strangers?

The Brain-Voice Connection(TM)

Understanding how the voice works is the brain-voice connection. This applies to both speaking and listening.

For example, the more you understand the role your brain plays in creating the sounds and effects you want to make, the more confident and consistent you will be about making them. Knowing your brain’s role in speaking equals a better speaker.

However, understanding how the brain listens is also crucial to speaking well. For example, the brain is always seeking patterns. When you speak, your voice is like a pattern to the listener’s brain. In order to keep the listener’s brain interested in you, it is necessary for you to vary your pattern. That way the brain of the listener will never know your pattern absolutely, and it will keep listening to you.

Other benefits include knowing how to breathe correctly, changing your pitch from too high or too low, learning to project your sound if you speak too softly, sounding confident when you speak, and even applying all this knowledge when you listen to a colleague speak. You can often benefit in negotiations if you understand why your fellow negotiator sounds the way she does. After all, she has the same equipment you do; it is pretty easy to deduce what is happening inside her head by reading her voice. Unless, of course, she has the technique to hide it from you!

These benefits equal better opportunities in work and life. The way I describe it to my clients is, everything you are as a person comes out in your voice. It is how you share your essence with the world. Let’s make sure you have a speaking technique that matches who you really are, so the world can really hear you and your unique qualities.

A voice expert walks into a bar and says…

Hello Everyone,

Welcome to my first blog! I am thrilled to connect with all of you, and I look forward to your comments. Please feel free to post any questions regarding your voice, communication skills and accent reduction here, and I will answer them in a future post. For more information about me, please visit www.brain-voice.com. I am located in Seattle, and work with clients via phone and in person.

So, a voice expert, eh? What in the world is that? Let me answer by telling you a story about a client.

A gentleman came to me with an unusual problem. He normally speaks in a baritone-range voice. Every once in a while, without warning, his voice came out high and squeaky - VERY squeaky! Think Alvin the Chipmunk! He could not control when it happened, or stop it while it was happening. Since he is planning to become a personal coach, he knew he needed to get it under control. He had consulted several doctors, but no one could tell him the problem.

I listened to him for about 20 minutes. I determined that he did not have any vocal cord damage. I could also tell that he was not suffering from vocal spasms, since those wouldn’t result in such a high pitch. I realized what the problem must be: too much weight on the vocal cords! Now, I know this sounds exciting to you all, so let me explain what I mean.

Think of your vocal cords as muscles. You add weight to them, not by lifting a barbell, but with volume. The more volume you produce as you speak, the more weight this feels like to your voice. While everyone has about 25 separate pitches in their vocal range, each pitch has an individual profile. This profile includes how much volume, or weight, that pitch can handle. You may have two pitches right next to each other, and one can get quite loud, but the other can only handle a whisper.

I realized that the reason my client’s voice was jumping from his baritone register to this high pitch was the amount of volume he was exerting. He was speaking louder than normal, sort of belting for speakers. Because this volume was beyond what his voice could handle normally, 23 of his pitches could not emerge. But the 24th pitch, this high, squeaky pitch, could handle the volume (he was a boy soprano, so that may have helped). When he wanted to move to a higher pitch for emphasis, the only pitch that could handle his exaggerated volume level was the high one!

I helped him by demonstrating a softer volume to use while speaking. As he practiced this, wouldn’t you know it, about 23 pitches emerged! They were there all along, waiting for a volume level that they could handle. After his first session with me, he didn’t squeak again. Now he uses lots of pitches when he talks, which makes him an entertaining speaker. I will discuss how you can be an entertaining speaker, too, in my next blog.

Till next time,

Anna Bernstein

anna@brain-voice.com