Your voice
is something that defines you and is your
way of communicating everything inside of
you with the outside world. It is how the
world takes you seriously, and it is how you
get the inside you outside. It is the way
that you can create what you think about and
create your own reality. Therefore, it is
vital that you pay attention to and take care
of your voice. A voice is a precision instrument
that needs to be assessed regularly. If there
is a change in your voice for two consecutive
weeks or you experience excessive coughing,
see an otolaryn-gologist who specializes in
throats. When surgery won't solve the problem
and you have a weakness in the cords, or there
is a pathology, you need a speech
pathologist." Nobody should see a speech
pathologist unless they've had a good strobo-scopic
examination," warns Murry.
A video chip flexible stroboscope is a new
technology used to examine the vocal folds.
It takes pictures and slows down the motion
of the vocal folds for better viewing and
diagnosis. If the anatomy is healthy
and you need to learn how to use your voice
properly, see a speech therapist.
In order to prepare for your presentation,
you use your intellectual muscles. To maintain
your physical health,
you exercise your body's muscles. To prepare
to speak, you need to prepare your voice.
"The most important thing to know,"
cites Murry, "is that just like the legs
and arms of a football player, the vocal folds
are muscles that can get weak, injured and
tired."
One of the world's top specialists in training
professional
singers and founder of the Voice Workshop
and Somatic Voicework, Jeanette Lovetri, believes,
"The more vocal fitness, the more the
voice stands up to stress." The goal
of working with a voice trainer is to get
the instrument to have more efficient responses.
Just as runners have physical trainers, speakers
need voice coaches.
Murry recommends practicing the three Ps:
Posture, Placement and Pitch. Your posture
will affect the way you speak.. You should
stand with your hips over the legs, shoulders
down, jaw relaxed, tongue forward. Also, your
voice is coming out of the bell of your head
and not from a little tube in the throat.
Imagine the sound coming out of the end of
a French horn and not out of the tubes of
the horn. Experiment with different pitches
to see which one brings out the best "ring"
or resonance once you have the proper posture
and placement.
Once you know where your speaking voice is,
you can calibrate your voice with these five-minute
warm-up exercises:
Breathing down low in the chest Humming to
match to the best quality possible Lip trills
Tongue trills Syllable drills (puh tuh kuh/
buh duhguh) to warm up tongue/jaw motion For
training the speaking voice, Lovetri recommends
singing. "Professional singing is two
to five times more demanding than professional
speaking. It's a very effective tool to shorten
the amount of time it takes to develop the
voice. Be sure that the instructor is working
from a physiologic place and not just from
a musical place. These things will ensure
that you have a lovely voice.
