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My voice training
My natural pure and genuine voice
The essence of voice
Jane Jones, Dr.
YOUR VOICE AND SUCCESS
Many people of their success are obliged to their voices in great degree.
Your voice is important in the same way as your physical appearance, manner, the text of your speech. This is a tool which allows you to bring your message to the audience. Mutual understanding between you and your audience depends on your voice and your voice qualities. Voice can attract listeners to your side, it can convince them in something and gain their votes and confidence. You can move people or lull them to sleep, charm or alienate them. The human voice is a powerful tool.
Always remember that your listeners expect - and do deserve - to hear a pleasant voice.
VOICES AND TIMES
We live in an age of satellites and microwave communication, where voices are broadcast across the country and even around the world. Each man "could be catapulted" on the air, her/his voice would be heard by millions. Specialist participating in a teleconference transmitted via satellite, send a voice in perpetuity.
The unpleasant voice can be Achilles' heel of your image. It can undo all your merits. Imagine a powerful athlete with a thin voice or a successful financier with a sharp, nasal pronunciation. Remember how is annoying voice of salesman on a telephone or through the door when you are busy while, whining, he literally begging you to purchase something. Such people could have done better if they improved their voices.
In other words, your voice should help your career, but not spoil it.
Moreover, the knowledge that you have a good voice, will give you the confidence and will easily open any doors before you!
Why do sometimes we listen to some TV commentators with absolute confidence? Why do some of them remain our favourites for many years? Partly this is because of melodious, low, calm voice, without annoying notes. Just looking attractive television persons quickly leave the scene. And holders of beautiful, aristocratic voices remain. Of course, they are all distinguished journalists and correspondents. But to have the same report, commentary or live broadcast with rough, nasal voice, is not the right way to survive in the competition.
BUSINESS AND VOICE
Please look at the business world. Why are many companies being stinted no money of sending their employees to seminars or private courses of voice training? Because companies want their leaders, trade representatives, the staff responsible for external relations be good speakers. This requires proper pronunciation, very clear rhetoric, a good training of voice. Managers must find contacts with different people and be able to speak in different situations, ranging from business breakfasts to presentations and lectures. In addition, customers and buyers willing to listen - and they do listen - if the speaker has a pleasant voice. Such quality may be essential to achieve the financial and business success, as well as to maintain a certain image.
It does not matter what kind of voice you have got now. Through the distant course Your Natural Voice, you will be able to gain such voice which fairly deserve your professional skills and your bright personality. You can get rid of foreign or local disabilities of your voice, if you strictly follow easy guidelines given by the distant course Your Natural Voice. You can get rid of unpleasant sounds, if skillfully use your voice machine. From the distant course Your Natural Voice you can learn how to articulate clearly and correctly pronounce sounds. You can build resonant oscillations in your chest and learn to speak so that you will be heard in the last row of any audience without any strain on your side. Finally, you can learn how to become eloquent and skilled speaker. All this is in your power. The course Your Natural Voice gives you a chance to gain it!
Structure of voice
Realize that your voice is not simply "proceeds from openings on your face". Voice is something infinitely more. Correct using of voice involves the whole body from your head to the heels. The body is like a musical instrument producing your voice.
In order to master the full voice equipment you need air, which comes with your lungs. In a quiet conversation with a friend you only fill tops of your lungs - surface breathing is enough. But in order to get a nice chest voice, which will be dispersed over long distances, you should breathe through the diaphragm. It is very important for a voice because it pushes air through the throat and lips.
On this page, you will learn how much a proper breath can give you because it feeds oxygen to the brains, supports speech process, soothes you and gives you sense of confidence, which you pass on to your audience.
Evenly distribute your weight on your legs, take straight position and slightly take back your head. So you can completely control your voice machine. From the dear heels to the top all your body participates in a beautiful resonance for your voice. All of this unique instrument belongs only to you. Only you can take advantage of it!
Listen to recordings of your voice. Do you like it? Or did you exclaim: "Is it my voice?" Perhaps, deep down, you realize that you could speak better, but just do not know how. Perhaps you have already made it clear that you should somehow change your voice.
When you understand what basic elements involve in a voice, you will be able to develop your own techniques to improve it. Voice goes from inside of your body, not just from the vocal chords. Deep breath through diaphragm supports the entire process. Pushing air through the larynx vibrators, tissue and cavities, artikulators makes sounds and words.
In the end, you will learn the correct pronunciation and will not be thinking about how this is done. You will naturally use your voice in any conversation. This skill will be with you forever, it will bring pleasure to you, your friends and your listeners.
Voice Features
There is a list of some of the symptoms that shows that your speech is far from perfect, and you should deal with it:
- Some of your listeners often ask you to repeat what you just said.
- People notice you have idiosyncrasy for a public commemoration.
- You prnounce consonant "p" rigidly, painfully and artificially.
- Your throat is tired after seven minutes of conversation.
- You lose control over the voice at the end of a long sentence.
- You have to explain that you are a leader (or hold another high post), because judging by your speech this does not seem true.
- You have got solid appearance, but your voice sounds too young or thin.
- You do not like your own voice and never liked it.
Characteristics of good voices
There are some characteristics of a good voice.
Read this list, think about your voice and what of the qualities you would like to have.
Thus, the characteristics of good voice:
- Nice;
- Vibrating;
- Calm;
- Well modulated;
- Low;
- Trustee;
- Manageable;
- Warm;
- Moore;
- Caring;
- Strong;
- Powerful;
- Friendly;
- Painted with intonation;
- Expressive;
- Natural;
- Rich;
- Filled;
- Abundant;
- Friendly.
Specifications of bad voices
There are the most common definitions of bad or ill voice.
Read this list and think about your voice, focusing on the unpleasant properties of it which you would like to escape.
Well, bad voice:
- Nasal;
- Sharp or creaky;
- Hoarse;
- High;
- Lachrymose;
- With shortness of breath;
- Timid;
- Disconnected;
- Too loud;
- Too quiet;
- Colorless;
- Grandiose;
- Sarcastic;
- Hesitant;
- Monotonous;
- Tense;
- Weak;
- Boring.
QUALITY OF VOICE
Resonance.
Beautiful voices have to be resonant, vibrating. Resonance is a result of vibration of air in the cavity of the throat, that is, in nasopharynx, larynx and chest. To correct deep resonance it is needed appropriate deep breathing.
Imagine that your voice is a musical instrument, and the air in your chest is an element that provides the necessary resonance. If you correct breathe air, you give the voice bundles of optimum number that they should fluctuate.
A child with a high voice drives very little air movement. Baritone with the rib cage size of a keg drives heavy air movement. As has been said, for normal conversation it is enough breathing superficially. But if you make a great speech, or have a long presentation, you need to strengthen your voice with more air movement.
You can make your voice lower if you fill lungs to a depth of the diaphragm and release larynx to create more vibration and resonance.
If you are calm, you have no tension that could interfere with the correct rhetoric.
If you say "chuh-chuh, you should not feel the vibration in the nose, but the vibrations must be present in the chest and throat.
Now take a deep breath and give light air movement. Keep breath, and then say "Hooray! Hooray!" You should feel the impact of breast resonance.
These simple exercises will help you understand the source of your voice and resonance in your body.
There is another way to check for resonance in the chest. Push the ends of your fingers to your sternum and loudly say "mumm-mumm-mumm." In doing so, you should feel the vibration. Resonance is your voice strength and confidence. When you enter in a crowded room, your resonant voice will be heard well, despite the hum. In such a case talk more quietly but not louder! You immediately understand that people are listening what you are saying!
TYPE OF VOICE. NATURAL VOICE.
Quality of voice in much extent depends on the size of your chest cavity and your throat structures. Since amplifiers distort the upper ranges of the human voice, you should determine the lowest possible one for your voice type, when you will feel comfortable. This means that the source of voices should be located as low as possible, but be natural for you.
Think about types of voices, which singers have: soprano, the highest female voice, alt - the lowest, mezzo - average type. Tenor, the highest male voice, bass - low. Deep bass is extremely low natural range.
Your natural spoken voice is one of these types. Each has her/his upper, middle and lower register.
You can lower your voice while talking. How? Densely rest against your heels on the floor, straighten out your back, with your diaphramgm curving automatically, forcing voice emanate from a source lower than the nasal cavity.
Similarly, you can recall the feeling that arises when your chest is filled with air and your throat is disclosed, you can easily move up and down in your scope, while still keeping a pleasant resonance.
Pitch of Tone.
Pitch of tone describes the pitch of sounds made by you and depends on the frequency of vibration of your larynx. For high voice is typical a high frequency vibration, low voice - low frequency vibration.
In order for your voice to be not monotonous, it should include at least one octave. That means four notes above middle and four notes below it. Some eloquent speakers include two octaves, and sometimes even three-four octave (a necessary requirement for a skilled actor).
High voice is usually unpleasant for hearing. It is also difficult to be recorded without distortion. Low voice is pleasant for hearing. The lower you can put your voice, the more likely that it will not be distorted (however, you should not artificially alter your voice be scurrying low). If you experience stress, the size of your voice is rising. If you are in rage, your voice becomes sharp and shrewd. If you are tired, your voice is hoarse. If you are in sad, the range and pitch of your voice are falling.
Volume of Sound
Volume measured in decibels. It is directly related to the volume of air in your lungs. Carefully controlling the strength and energy, you regulate the volume of your voice.
Do you have to speak so that you can be heard in the last row? Or are you going to talk in a normal tone with a small group of businessmen? Maybe you will act at the cocktail party where everyone talks with each other simultaneously? Or in the church where one can Hear how fly flies?
Audibility of your speech depends on where you are and to whom you want to deliver your speech. Orotund, rich voice is heard in all corners of almost any room. You do not have to exert yourself to your voice spread premises. The base of voice must be your diaphragm.
Audibility of voice does not depend on the volume! It was not necessary to speak loudly, at high decibels. Audibility is the ability to use all the principles of good voice control, so that your natural voice is distributed evenly and is well heard.
Timbre
Timbre allows to identify different voices. You easily identify the voice of your child among many other voices.
You should not confuse timbre with pitch of voice, and other such characteristics. For example, you always distinguish voices of known singer or actor.
Your voice also have distinctive overtones, sounds that make it recognizable to your mom when you call her on the phone.
Expression
In order your speech become expressive, try to visually imagine what you say. Make a note in your living pronunciation, the sounds of your voice. Bring sense and color in your speech.
Take your eloquence to official statements. If you find it difficult to do so, try to record your talk privately with a spouse or good friend. Try to forget that the tape recorder is turned on. Later, when you stay alone, listen to the record and take note of those moments where you especially like the expressiveness of your speech.
Make exercises reading aloud dramatic plays, and learn to distinguish the right expression. Remember that any expression should be primarily natural. Avoid theatrical and superficial in your speech.
Tone
Tone of voice is described by its pitch, vibration and modulation. A good voice differs by light tone changes. Intonation is "highs" and "downs" of voice. Monotony is tiring for ear, as the continuous tone uses the same pitch. Some people do not distinguish the difference in the tone of voice. But by changing the tone, you can totally change the meaning of the words.
Nasal twang
Nasal twang is unpalatable to the hearing. It sounds very cutting, as resonant involves very small amount of air. When you produce nasal sounds, the throat and neck muscles are stretched. To eliminate twang you have to release throat, as if you want to make a deep blast "aaaaaaaaaaa". It is a proper distance between the base of tongue and palatine. If your larynx is disclosed, you feel vibration in the nose cavity.
LISTEN TO YOUR VOICE!
Become critic of your voice! Listen to your voice and think how it must continue to sound now and throughout your entire life, and not just when you speak to the people, but also at home.
Listen to the voices of others and take account of how happy or upset they sound. Listen to records of your favorite actors and broadcasters, trying to understand how they manage their voices. Watch how they breathe in order to create proper sounds of voice. Analyze modulation and emphatic accents.
Your voice has only one function - to facilitate communication. You should cut off any mannerism in order to have an opportunity to be proper heard and understood.
HOW TO CHANGE MY OWN VOICE
You are accustomed to your voice. Your voice is the result of many factors: your nationality or location, where you were born and grew up, those voice patterns to which you are accustomed since childhood and school, where you have been studying, voice of your friends and your teachers who have influenced you.
When you become an adult, your voice will continue to affect the people with whom you work, your spouse, the area where you live, and even some of your neighbors.
Very few people in normal circumstances need to change their speech habits. Lessons of oratorial are considered to be old-fashioned.
In order to make significant changes in your voice you should take some courage and commitment. Those people who take such a decision, are much admired. They are changing their habits got with mother milk. In the family, or among co-workers they may face misunderstanding or convictions.
But, and this is most important, at the end you will get great satisfaction from the fact that you perform the task and make a valuable acquisition, which will stay with you for your entire life.
If you want to learn how to speak beautifully, you need the support of your family, friends and colleagues. Remember that you raise speech culture to the point where is the rest of your skills.
Yes, it is always hard to give up the past. Change of speech requires time and patience: you will not be able to forget for a few days all you habits. The result can be seen only after a few months of hard work. It may be that at some time in your live, in your heart you suddenly understand that you need to improve your speech skills, but simply did not know how to achieve this. Managing our course is a good start. Much you can do yourself.
If you start listening to the voices that you like, and emulate them, you make the first step in the right direction. Choose a good voice that you hear on the radio and repeat it, copy pronunciation. Record such a voice, record your voice then and reproduce one after the other. Please note resonance, pitch, emphasis, the provision of words. Note hearing consonants and difficult pronunciation of foreign words.
Treat your voice critically, as if it was a voice of an alien.
Read aloud for 10 minutes a day. Read aloud your own presentations or lead articles from newspapers, read to your child at bedtime. Record some piece and repeat record daily until you get such sound when you be happy. Keep these records and reproduce them every week to monitor your progress.
Do not avoid any possibility of public speaking and interpret it as a rewarding opportunity to practise. In most cases, a good voice is not an accident but the result of extensive work and practice.
One voice or two?
As a professional in your field, you should only speak with one voice. You can not have two voices for informal talks and for public speaking. Regardless of the situation there should be one voice!
You can not change the pitch of breast voice also. Pitch should be one. If you change your voice, you should not go to the old voice, even for a moment.
If you have a good voice, please not dismiss it.
Stammer
Stammer should not be an insurmountable obstacle to a public figure. Now people with stammer have the right to be seen and heard. Stammer should not become an obstacle to private and public life.
EXERCISES WITH A TAPE RECORDER
Reading this article, you may have learned that the tape may not be just the best friend of yours but and the toughest critic. When you are working on improving of your voice, recorder honestly will show you all the inevitable distortions that make amplification devices. It will demonstrate progress, giving you an opportunity to compare what was in front of your way and in what position you are now.
It will give you a sense of pride, as it and you will see your efforts. It will give you a true indication of your achievements as a result of the tremendous work you done.
HOW TO TAKE CARE OF YOUR VOICE
Speech apparatus is very fragile and tender. This sensitive instrument must be cared for, and can be done so in different ways. Avoid excessive fatigue and tension, keeping your neck muscles relaxed. Good voice can only come from relaxed body. Tension of body results in voice gripping, increases tone of voice, violates resonance and impairs hearing.
Prolonged use of forced voting requires a long rest-silence.
If you feel that you lost your voice, make some relaxation exercises for the entire body. Deep sigh, take a short walk, be alone at least briefly.
Warm tea with lemon has a moderating effect on the throat. Many broadcasters continually sip room temperature water with a few sliced lemon to their throat and felt themselves comfortable. Singers are necessarily warm scarf to spare throat of temperature.
Avoid infections, and if necessary immediately go to a doctor. If the voice cords are tight, or you have polypi, they must be removed surgically through as quickly as possible, taking advantage of skilled medical care.
Professionals suffering from the inherent nose, often gargle a throat with warm salt water. In short, the care of the voice is a part of your existence as a public figure.
BREATHING
Breath is the most natural and necessary thing. In normal conversation you must have enough breathing surface that fills only the top lungs. But if you stand on the podium, you need a well-filled air and light control your breathing.
When you breathe correctly, you keep the balance and the body, and calm. You automatically configure your voice machine to use the diaphragm. This muscle wall to create a good impact.
Remember that this provides breathing oxygen in the blood, which nourishes the brain and body.
Remember that the human body is not accumulating oxygen, it should receive it consistently. To give good light, high lift in the chest.
Take a slightly upwards-inhale so that your stomach will be filled. Then fill the chest under the ribs, then to the armpit. Continue to inhale air, yet feel that they will be filled to the most clavicles. Complete all levels of resonance, including throat and nose. You must have the feeling that you are filled with the air from the abdominal muscle to the throat.
Before you utter the first word, make a deep breath. If you feel that the lack of breath, make a stop at the end of proposals for the next breath.
Clothing from the throat and waist should be convenient and free. Then you can easily and without breathing.
As has been said before, you should receive oxygen continuously. It is necessary to maintain fitness throughout your presentations and for continuous feeding your brain.
Audible breath
In today's sensitive microphones slight pause for breath can be heard. Speakers often are unaware of this until they hear the record. Standing between breaths proposals distract students.
Audible breath surface, which affects only the top of the lungs and mouth. If you breathe the lower divisions of the lungs and throat, the breathing is not noticeably. So, in order to be heard breathing, deepen my breath, move it down in the stomach. Use of a tape recorder, and you get a good result.
Do not clenched my teeth!
You do not articulate well, if you compressed teeth. In order to make clear sounds, there should be a gap between the upper and lower teeth. Articulation requires space. If teeth are too compressed, the disclosure of details to resonate almost impossible. Permanent teeth habit to keep tight leads to unclear articulation.
If you look at the announced during the singing, the notice that you can "see", and not just hear the words.
There are several ways to create space between the teeth. Try to make your jaw "hang down", and you will notice how easy and natural words are uttered. Some doolls with wine corks between teeth. Do not worry because, as disclosed sees your mouth-clearance should be small, only that you could understand.
Articulation and pronunciation
Correct clear articulation is a claim against a public figure. Your pronunciation of the letters of the alphabet must be well accepted by students.
Wrong numbers is not necessarily the result of the local accent. Maybe you just lazy lips, that is, you do not care about the clarity of its articulation in everyday life. Perhaps you swallow some letters or sounds.
Finally, you can simply wrong to say some words, just because most people around you also tell them wrong. There are many words.
If you have problems with pronunciation and articulation (which provides the correct pronunciation), it is very possible, it would be difficult for you to understand, and students spend too much energy to listen to me. If I swallow sounds, the audience will unconsciously fill the gaps.
In normal conversation my friends easily understand me. But if I have to overcome the noise in a room give a slight cough, equipment noise, distortion microphones, the peasants should be my perfect!
In addition, if I speak too fast, I cutting of vowels and consonants sounds. Ear captures the listener is not what I try to make, and the meaning of it is lost. Slow-it is easy to clearly articulate, make all the sounds and syllables.
Avoid affected articulation. Too correct pronunciation is annoying, because the sounds are deeds, cold and boring.
Do not risk using unfamiliar words - you can not pronounce them correctly. Let dictionary will be my best friend. If you are challenging long words, use the dictionary as a book and identify my own habit with me often.
Read and write to the tape recorder sounds that need improvement. Buy a good book, in which adequate attention is given to the pronunciation. Continue to read aloud, become a speaking person. Listening train, learn to evaluate my pronunciation, and in time I will be happy to know that I utter the words correctly and make them totally clear!
THE ESSENCE OF VOICE
At the final part of the article, we have come to a final and the most interesting and expecting question - what is the essence of voice?
Please rememeber - the most effective exercise of voice training is... silence!
Yes, keep silence for as many time as you are able to and then speak with no hurry, listening carefully to every word you pronounce. When being in silence, listen deep to youself, too. It is very useful and effective. Remember - silence is the essence of voice!
Why, you may ask?! Please, keep silence... And listen to your voice. Listen to Nature.
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(c) School of the Natural Voice by Vladimir Bagrunov, 2007-2010
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