You may well ask yourself, “What do these speakers do that I should do?” They do nothing extraordinary, nothing that the ordinary person cannot do with practice. A plan for voice improvement is not difficult to draw up, but improvement may be slow in showing itself. Persist in the practice every time you speak and you will develop a voice that will be clear, that will be easily adjusted to the place and the situation. Every time that you speak, think that consequent clarity of speech and tone are to be the marks at which you shoot, as well as the social control you want to exercise over your listeners.
What then are the aims and the means toward which you should direct your attention to develop a clear voice?
The voice mechanism should, as has been said, be properly used. That means that in speaking you should be in control of your whole body, for, while the actual production of sound is a function of a few organs, your speech is best when the entire body is attuned to speech activity.
There will be, and there should be, some muscular tensions in the body generally and in the organs involved in speech as well, but you should be able to control them and use them to further your ends. Let us look first at the breathing apparatus.
Breathing
Whenever you speak you must use a certain amount of force or volume of breath. In speaking before an audience make a conscious effort to accomplish this. You probably take a deeper breath than usual; but that deeper breath, for some reason, does not last you so long in public speaking as it would in everyday conversation. That is true because the air goes out more quickly and is used less economically than in ordinary speaking.
In the problem of sufficient vocal power, the basic factor is the control and use of the breath supply. As children we could yell and get results, but we cannot do that as adults when we speak publicly.
For a long time people have been under the impression, given falsely by some teachers, that there is but one proper way to breathe. Actually there are many schools of thought in this regard. Some say that the breathing process is primarily done with the diaphragm; others hold that breathing is fundamentally a chest process; still others hold that it is done with a particular part of the chest, the sternum; then others say that breathing is accomplished through all three processes. Most of us breathe with all three parts although one part may predominate in the procedure.
The all-important factor to keep in mind in breathing is hat there should be enough air in the lungs to make all the sounds the speaker needs and in sufficient volume. Too frequently a speaker “runs out of air” and the last of the sentence or paragraph is lost except to those near him. While he is in the process of preparing a speech every speaker should practice taking in enough air to meet the needs of the situation.
A simple method is this: take an easy, deep breath. Don’t let the shoulders rise as you do it. The breastbone should rise somewhat, but never in an exaggerated, “operatic” fashion. Fill the lungs with air and don’t be afraid to let the abdominal muscles relax and “bulge out” if necessary. Get a full, free, gradual muscular expansion, with little tenseness in the body. Make an effort to do all this smoothly and slowly. Never gasp or swallow the air as if this were to be your last breath before going under water for the third time.
Then try this with the well-known verse by James Russell Lowell, popular American poet, given just below; see how far you can read aloud on one good, long breath taken with the directions just given. Try to get through the first sentence of it, keeping up a good, clear tone until the very end of that sentence. Do the same with the remaining sentences. Then try to get through all ten lines on one breath, not hurrying or rushing through, but paying careful attention to the pauses for the different ideas.
And what is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days;
Then Heaven tries earth if it be in tune;
And over it softly her warm ear lays;
Whether we look or whether we listen,
We hear life murmur or see it glisten;
Every clod feels a stir of might,
An instinct within it that reaches and towers,
And, groping blindly above it for light,
Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers.
James Russell Lowell, THE VISION OF SIR LAUNFAL
Now try the same exercise with this famous prose passage:
With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan— to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nation.
Abraham Lincoln, SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS
Phonation
The term phonation is but another way of speaking of the production of vocal sounds. The mechanism concerned in this production is inside what you undoubtedly call the “Adam’s apple”; technically it is the larynx, which serves as a “voice box” through which the air from the lungs passes. In simple breathing, the air passes through it without making any sound. At other times you consciously, or unconsciously, make a sound. This means that there is within the larynx a kind of valve which can be either open or closed to the degree desired.
The larynx is composed of cartilage, muscle, and connective tissue which are situated at the top of the windpipe. It is a hard structure which, when you press your fingers against it, you find to be almost rigid. The cartilages form the framework for the sides of the larynx and therefore this covering remains stiff when the air pressure is lowered as you take a breath.
It is not, however, with the sides of the larynx with which one should be concerned, for it is the interior which produces the sound. The lining of the larynx is composed of folds of tissue which, at the will of the speaker, can be brought close together or kept apart. These are called by various names: the vocal folds, the vocal cords, or the voice lips. They are also used to keep foreign bodies from getting into the trachea or windpipe.
These folds within the larynx are not to be thought of II ordinary cords or as strings on a violin. They in no way Wimble a cord. They are, instead, lips of tissue. When air passes from the lungs between these bands it passes through an opening between them. As these folds are tailed, the air pressure and muscle tissue cause the lips |0 function as vibrators, and thus to produce sound.
While the vocal bands must be tensed to produce Sounds, they should not be strained or submitted to undue tension. The less strain put upon these vocal bands, the tension in speaking; then sounds are more easily produced, and the result is a better adjusted voice.
To illustrate what is meant by this, practice the following sounds. Repeat the sounds several times until you get 1 sensation of ease with the sound as it comes through. Notice the feeling of looseness as the sound comes through the larynx.
(As in too) 00, 00, 00, 00, 00, 00, 00, 00 (As in low) 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0
Now practice with the following sounds and feel how Constricted and tensed the inside of the throat becomes. (As in see) ее, ее, ее, ее, ее, ее, ее, ее, ее, ее (As in bit)
There must, of necessity, be some tension within the larynx when speaking, but in your entire practice try constantly to reduce it as much as possible by the relaxation that will come through keeping the chin lowered and pointed toward the body.