Voice and Speaking Skills For Dummies

Chapter 4

Discovering How to Breathe Well

In This Chapter

Beginning with your breathing

Finding your diaphragm

Getting into the flow

Linking your breath to sound and words

I want to give you some good news: you’re the owner of a fine wind instrument – for that’s what your voice is. Your vocal apparatus doesn’t look particularly like a wind instrument because the moving parts are hidden inside you, but your voice works much like a trumpet or a clarinet. The first step towards having a great voice is to know the basics of blowing your instrument, and that takes air in the form of breathing.

Making a Sound: How Your Voice Works

Your mouth and throat are complex and multi-purpose, involved in eating as well as in speaking, singing, shouting, crying or laughing. But the basic sound-making process is straightforward, and it all starts with air.

Demystifying your breath: It’s just hot air

The part of your voice that creates sound is really small. Your vocal folds (also called vocal cords) are a couple of bands of muscle stretched horizontally across the larynx in your neck. They’re tiny ...