Making your Voice Your Voice Your Asset

How the Voice Works

Statistics show that when you talk, you use about five syllables per second; and there are
about forty speech sounds. So, everytime you talk, your listener must catch these five-syllables-a-
second out of the air, must recognize which forty sounds are in them , must translate the syllables
into words, and finally must translate words into thoughts. The poor listener must do this without
faltering, and must continue to do so as long as you talk.

And while you talk, a lot of things can go wrong – and do. If you slur on speech sounds, or
muffle them, or project them weakly, the listener will miss some of them. If he misses the speech
sounds, of course he misses the thought. And if this happens over and over again because we fail to
carve words out of speech sounds. We give shape to words out of speech sounds through proper
breath control, as well as with our lips, tongue and jaw movements, bringing to each word an air of
distinct clarity.

There are four components that make the voice apparatus work:

a. breathing c. resonation
b. phonation d. articulation

When one or more of these components are not put to use properly, or used defectively, the
quality of speech suffers. A negative voice may sound raspy, squeaky, hoarse, weak or shrill. And, a
positive voice may sound melodious, warm, modulated and cultured. Can anyone improve voice
quality? Very emphatically I assure you that you can improve your voice quality. You can better your
voice by training and correcting your handicaps in breathing, phonation, resonation and articulation.

Breathing
Most individuals do not consciously link breathing with speaking. Some yoga instructors say
that when you breathe half, you live half. Assuming that none of us want to ‘live half’, let’s try to
understand the mechanics of proper breathing.
When relaxed, most of us breathe shallow breaths of air which fill only a fraction of our
lungs. You are perhaps inhaling shallow draughts of air. Notice how only the top of your chest rises
when you inhale. The air you breathe fills only the top portion of your lungs.
Athletes and sportspersons gulp down air in quick succession devouring oxygen at a voracious rate.
Have you noticed how their chest and shoulders rise as they inhale vigorously? When this happens,
the lower ribs and the muscles just below the ribs get pulled in. This activity actually pinches the
lungs and limits the supply of air entering the lungs.
And, there are professional singers, speakers, gymnasts, swimmers, and others who are
familiar with a breathing technique called ‘breathing from the diaphragm’. It means, you focus on
the muscle between the lungs and the lower part of your abdominal cavity. Breathing from the
diaphragm, enables one to store a much larger capacity of air in the lungs than mere chest
breathing.

Advantages of Breathing from the Diapragm

You stand to gain by breathing from the diaphragm for the following reasons:
1. When you breathe from the diaphragm, you reduce the pressure on your shoulder area.
That reduces neck tension and throat strain which causes weak and unpleasant voice
quality.
 2. By breathing from the abdomen you give yourself two air reservoirs storage tanks) –
your stomach and your chest - instead of one.
3. The shape of the thoracic cavity (the area within your rib cage) means that high-chest
breathing takes more energy. The diaphragm’s cone shape (it is broader at the base than
at the top) allows it to be raised and lowered easily to change volume.
4. 4. Problems of loudness, voice quality and the ability to vary rate of speech often can be
corrected shifting breathing from the chest to the diaphragm.

Exercise to Develop breathing- from-the diaphragm Technique

1. Hold your breath. Harden your abdominal muscle as if you expect someone to punch
you. Felt the tension built in the abdominal muscle. Now relax and feel the muscle go
slack. Repeat the exercise several times rapidly.
2. 2. Your next step is to combine breathing with the hardening and relaxing exercises.
When you inhale harden the muscles and push the abdomen outwards. When you
exhale, pull in sharply, as if you wanted to bring the front side of your abdomen as near
as possible to your backbone.
3. Pant, as you would after a long, fast run. The panting should be quick, the mouth fully
open. The shoulders should not rise but the movement of the wall of the abdomen
should be vigorous.
4. Sip the breath in slowly, packing it against the belt, and making the lungs as full as
possible. Then exhale it violently pulling the abdomen.

Exercises to Develop Breath-control

When speaking or reading, it is important to note that your breathing must be governed by
the meaning of the passage. You should never breathe in the middle of the phrase. You should
breathe at the end of a full sentence marked by a period, or at the end of an idea which is marked by
a colon or semi-colon. There may be a pause after short phrases, but ordinarily, there should be no
breathing. However, to gain control, it is useful to begin by breathing even after short phrases in
order to avoid breathing in the middle of the phrase. The following exercises will help you develop
control of breathing, deep inhalation, and controlled exhalation.
As you practice the exercises daily, the number of breaths taken in the course of a sentence
should be reduced until you can read or speak the whole sentence in one breath without straining
your face or throat muscles.

Exercises
1. Force the abdominal muscles outward. While the muscles are still tense, inhale as
deeply as possible, and then exhale.
2. 2. Inhale as quickly as possible through the nostrils. Push the ribs out as far as possible.
Hold ten counts, then exhale quickly’
3. Inhale slowly. Now hold your breath without straining: then exhale slowly watching the
second hand of the clock. Can you reach 15 seconds in one exhalation? As you keep
practicing this exercise, gradually increase the count, avoiding all tensions, particularly in
the throat and face muscles. You can test the evenness of your brath by holding a slip of
paper about two inches in front of your lips.
4. 4. Inhale slowly. As you exhale, Whistle as softly as you can. For how many seconds can
you continue to whistle steadily without taking another breath? Try to increase your
holding power. Or count steadily as you exhale.
5. Take a deep breath; as you exhale, blow the breath out through the lips in a ‘f’ sound.
Hold the sound as steady as possible – as long as you can. When you are able to clock
twenty seconds, change the sound to ‘s’ and repeat the exercise.