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The first time I heard myself on an audio recording, I was stunned – disbelieving – embarrassed. Convinced that my Sony was a cheap machine, I never considered that the other voices I heard on the recording sounded exactly like those of my friends. How do you feel when you hear yourself on your voicemail or a video recording? It is certainly a sound you do not recognize because we hear our own voice by means of our inner ear. And that is a sound which is distorted, vibrating in the solid and liquid of the brain. Likewise, when you speak, your voice travels through sound waves away from your ears so that you are unable to hear it as everyone else does. The good news amongst the bad is that you have a better voice inside of you which sounds more mature. Powered by means of your chest cavity, your ‘real’ or ‘true’ voice is deeper in pitch, richer in quality and can be projected without shouting. This latter benefit is especially valuable because a shrill or piercing sound definitely has a negative effect on your listeners. (Just think of Fran Drescher, Sarah Palin or Hillary Clinton when they speak loudly.) Most people are unaware of their real voice because they rely on their other 4 resonators to produce voiced sound and it is a learned habit. We imitate our loved ones, our environment, and the community in which we were raised. While your other 4 resonators (voice box, throat, mouth and nasal cavities) are vital in the production of the voice, without the chest cavity, the 5th and largest of the resonators, that which results will be thinner in quality, higher in pitch, and possibly nasal. If you are like most people, the image you project is important to you. You certainly care about how you look, how you present yourself to others, and the content of what you say. The sound of your speaking voice, however, is part of that image. In fact, it is said that 37% of your image is attributed to the sound of your speaking voice. And, over the phone or in a webinar, where your visual is irrelevant, your voice obviously has the greatest impact on your listeners. If image matters to you, then you might consider voice training because the voice which your colleagues, your friends and your family recognizes is the sound you hear on the recording – not what you hear in your head. The Voice Lady Nancy Daniels offers private, corporate and group workshops in voice and presentation skills as well as Voicing It!, the only video training program on voice improvement. If you would like to see and hear a dramatic change, from childlike to mature, watch Trish's 'Before & After' video clip.
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voice training, the voice lady, voice projection, inner ear, vocal image, voice image, 37%, shrill voice, sound more mature, voice resonators,
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