Personal and environmental stress factors are noticable in the voice. A voice which carries even a slight unintended level of stress will convey it, to the discomfort of the audience. No matter how exciting the occasion or how relaxed the setting, the off-key sound of a speaker who is ridden with anxiety will cause an audience to wish for, well, someone else, and please, soon. To overcome the raspy, the high-pitched, the hesitant, or the anxiety-ridden squeak of the unprepared, the solution lies in the pre-event work which settles the nerves.
Speech coaches and therapists know that a good voice is paramount to delivering a good speech. So do aspiring singers and speakers. How else would you explain the numerous speech, stage, and singing coaches you can readily find in your city?
Many people display the tendency to speak with a grand smile. As compelling as a great smile is, it does not support the facials needed to provide soothing, strong, deliberate movement and sound. The formation actually causes an undue tension in the tongue, can tighten the throat, and can serve to elongate certain vowel sounds. Think Southern belle, like Scarlett Ohare’s wistful southern dialect, with each vowel sound happily strung to the point of becoming it’s own wooorrdd. The facial muscles and vocal tools are many, and each is needed to bring forth the 42 distinct sounds which comprise human speech across all languages. Pitch comes from that flap deep in the throat, the epiglottis. Like every part of the body, it is also subject to our stresses. But the outpouring of sound is shaped, molded, trimmed, clicked, timed, elongated, and varied by the controls mounted above it. Many sounds are delicately strung together in compound words. Here’s a simple example. Pronounce the word consonant. Now slowly pronounce every sound; k-ah-n-s-oh-n-ah-n-t. Try the word with emphasis on the n sounds to see how it resonates in the nasal chambers. Try it again with an emphasis on the k and t which are clicks of the tongue. Simple sounds, complex syllables. Many sounds get lost in an unintended hurry, especially the s, which isn’t ess, it’s a hissing sound like a tea kettle. S’s can become flat when they are spoken through a broad tight smile which doesn’t allow the tongue to fully form the s push. Those are just a couple of hints as to how to analyze your speech patterns. A little bit of study will help to move the speaking muscles into the right places.
Along with our words, we step forth with our issues of the moment: Did I get enough sleep and exercise to shake off that bad flight seat? Have I rested my voice prior to this long teaching session? Am I distressed over my broken computer? Are my shoulders tight? Stresses in many forms will accompany us to the lectern, and they will be heard in the voice. Learning a few calming exercises will assist, such as slow methodical deep breathing, well prior to taking the stage. Loosening up the body by just dangling the arms like a child, turning and flapping them around yourself, will release upper-body tension. Yawning is excellent for ridding the body of deep anxieties – and it warms up the facial and throat muscles to loosen them for good sound creation.
When we step up to the microphone, we take on the most intimidating job there is – clarity. When we realize that we are affecting what we say by the way we feel at the moment, we take the first step toward sounding better, because, if we feel bad, they’ll hear it.
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