This year I would like to thank each and every one of you for your wonderful support as a recipient of my newsletter. I hope this year’s offerings have been useful, interesting and / or just fun to read.
I would also like to thank those of you who have taken the courageous step to have voice and / or accent coaching with me. I appreciate it’s a real act of drive and determination to discuss one’s voice and ask for help, but you are a part of a group of wonderful people keen to express yourself in a more full way. Your commitment and ownership of the task of learning new speech behaviours have been a real joy to me. Thank you for choosing me as your voice and accent coach.
To you I offer in this season of chilly days, this advice; ‘look after your voice’.
Keep your voice warm, well-hydrated and active. Remember your vocal exercises, running gently up and down the scales in a relaxed hum. Encourage your voice to pitch a little higher and a little lower than it habitually falls and use these new pitches to highlight key words in your sentences.
Warming up your voice is really important to help it deliver in the way you want it to.
Spend a few minutes every morning exercising your vocal folds with these three activities:
- Gentle undulating hums
- Yawning and stretching with lovely, free sounds as you do so and
- Remembering to lower and relax your shoulders
These vocal warm up exercises are all good ways of freeing your voice and helping to avoid muscular strain.
Last week I was working with a lovely group of post-graduate law students keen to develop vocal range and take on new speech patterns. This too, takes a good degree of commitment and trust to explore vocal variety. I wanted to share some of their feedback on what they learned about vocal variety:
“I learned about emphasising words through pitch variation.”
“It can help to hold attention and make you sound more interesting.”
“I have habits which I should try to break.”
During the workshop there were opportunities to use new techniques and discover their impact on peers. It was gratifying to notice how impactful some of the small changes were on the listeners. Noticing positive impact enables confidence to begin, at a modest level to start with, but nevertheless in a profound and rewarding way, that serves to support and nourish a sense of ability and accomplishment.
Voice coaching is not just about solitary learning, it’s about trying out new ways of speaking, using new muscles and getting supportive feedback from your voice coach. Change happens gradually. So, in advance of the cliched New Year’s resolutions happening in a few weeks, perhaps right now is the time to focus on those small changes. Make a New Year’s Resolution now, to free your voice and empower yourself to make a positive impact in your professional and personal life.
Thank you again for your time and commitment to voice training issues this year and I wish you a calm, happy and relaxing Christmas of good cheer.
For more information or a free chat please get in touch.