Chapter 5Voice
God, that all-powerful Creator of nature and architecture of the world, has impressed man with no character so proper to distinguish him from other animals, as by the faculty of speech.1
— Quintilian
Does your voice shake under stress? Do you have difficulty being heard in meetings? Have you given up trying to interject because your voice is too small?
Well, blow all your troubles away, because all of these statements are misleading. Voices don't shake, people do; techniques exist that can help you be heard; and voices do not come in different sizes. Everyone (who doesn't have a vocal injury or experience speech difficulties) has a voice perfect to fulfil every vocal need.
Unfortunately, if you're like many people, you may not understand that you have the perfect instrument within your grasp. And believing your voice is below par can be shattering. Everybody is vulnerable to personal, social and physically imposed stresses, and over time these stresses initiate habitual, intricate brain patterns that can be reflected in our posture, breath and voice.
The Romans understood this mind-body-voice connection well. They got that voice is about freeing the body. They also knew that the voice reflects the stresses of a whole life and that vocal dynamics can be said to both echo and amplify psychodynamics. They took that challenge head on and found ways to minimise the impact of these stressors.
If you feel your voice is failing you, this can have a spiralling effect ...
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